Par 3 courses/Handicap

[g-funk13]

I played an 18 hole par 3 course today- Tower Tee in St. Louis. Its a nice little course with lots of variation in hole length, elevation, green size, and green slope. I noticed on the scorecard they give a rating of 65.5 and slope of 105. It is a true par 3 course: 54 total par.

I don't understand handicap, the rating system, or slope beyond entering numbers into my Scorecard Software and believing what it tells me. Can I enter this course, and its rating/slope into my Scorecard and accept my scores as applied to Handicap? I haven't done this before. How does a par 3 course affect one's handicap?

[sacm3bill]

Certainly, a par 3 course is treated as any other course. It will have a rating and slope that reflects its difficulty, so your scores will be accurately converted to an appropriate index.

However, the rating you quote doesn't seem right. The rating is a measure of what a scratch golfer should shoot on the course, so it's usually within a few strokes of the par. That rating is saying a scratch golfer should shoot 11 over. Either that course has a lot of 400 yard par 3's, or either the par or rating is incorrect.

Edit: Just looked up the course - both their web site and Golflink do indeed list the rating at 65, but it must be from the back tees which make 4 of the holes into par 4s for a total par of 58. Still quite a discrepancy between par and rating... very strange.

[Shindig]

I played an 18 hole par 3 course today- Tower Tee in St. Louis. Its a nice little course with lots of variation in hole length, elevation, green size, and green slope. I noticed on the scorecard they give a rating of 65.5 and slope of 105. It is a true par 3 course: 54 total par.

If it has a course rating and a slope rating, you can enter your score for handicap purposes.

The course rating is just what a scratch would be expected to shoot, and the slope is an indicator of how much tougher it gets as your handicap increases. Meanwhile, your par-3 course sounds really tough from the rating (a scratch golfer is expected to turn in a score around +11?), but it doesn't get significantly tougher as your handicap increases.

[g-funk13]

Yeah, you guys are right. There is no way that 65.5 makes sense on this course for a par 54. I am adjusting that in my scorecard software stats.

Thanks for the help

[sacm3bill]

Yeah, but what would you adjust it to, I wonder? Maybe someone at the course has an updated/corrected rating...