Your Course's Course/Slope Rating

[iacas]

My course is finishing up the process of renovating several (about half) of our tees. They're doing this mainly to flatten the tees, lower them, or move them slightly left or right.

Our greenkeeper has posted to his blog a few times. In order, see here , here , here , here , and here .

They've also added some length to some holes (more than 10 yards to only two holes, I believe). We're currently a 70.5/134 (blue tees) course, which I think is a tad high. It's high because our members take their handicaps and go elsewhere and get creamed by other people who aren't sandbagging.

Most of our difficulty comes around the greens, and as such, members have developed short games and know enough about the greens to play well here. When they get to courses with length and a 134 rating, they get creamed.

If our rating goes up, Lake View may be one of the easiest courses in the world with a 138 (approx.) slope rating! I think the course rating could go up a little, but the slope should not. Perhaps 71.0/133 would be fair.

Do you think your home course's rating/slope are correct? What are they? If you could change them to be more fair, what would you change it to be?

FWIW, this is from the blue tees at my course, not the black. My course isn't long, again, but our greens are small and some are quite severely (yet subtly!!) sloped. Our fairways are also very, very skinny.

[Rafcin]

My home course(see signature link) has slope of 131 and rating 71.8 from the back tees. It seems a bit high for a 6425 yds course, doesn't ? I think it's appropriate, course is very unforgiving, carved out of the side of the mountain with at least 8 blind shots (not only off the tee ) some landing areas are limited to about 20yds width... The problem is, that if you hit the ball straight - you can go really low. Even with my sh..ty swing I managed to post 3 under par rounds on it. What really sucks though is the fact, that there are 3, maybe 4 holes that you can record a triple before you noticed, and 3 or 4 holes where a birdie is likely even for a 20 hcp player. This makes the "net" scoring on the course a bit messed up, since people score something like 3-4-9-8-8-3-4-8-3-2-4-8-3-4-4-3-4-4 for a 86... and win their matchplay w/o effort getting 14 strokes. I think slope system doesn't apply well if holes are that much different on the difficulty scale...

[neudi]

136 73.1

[TinCup]

What do the two numbers represent? What are the range of course scores?

[iacas]

136 73.1

There was a lot more to the question than just that...

Do you think your home course's rating/slope are correct? What are they? If you could change them to be more fair, what would you change it to be?

[satch_ip]

http://www.rivercrossinggolfclub.com

from the Gold (one step down from the tips) 70.9/126.

But this begs a question. Is the forgiveness of a course represented in the course/slope rating? At RC if you are not in the fairway you are looking at double bogey because of the woods and hills of the Hill Country. At Laughlin AFB, there is almost no spot where one can't reach the green no matter how bad of a tee shot.

If a course was short and flat but the fairways were 10 yards wide with rocks and water for rough, would that be refelcted in the numbers somehow?

[iacas]

But this begs a question. Is the forgiveness of a course represented in the course/slope rating?

That question is

answered here . You'll see what "slope" measures in that article. Look for the "weighting factors" further down the page.

[satch_ip]

Thanks for the answer. To think that I always thougth "slope" meant how hilly the course was.

[TinCup]

I was the same, I thought it dealt with the slope of the greens and course...haha

Those two articles about how to get your handicap and what slope means taught me so much about the difference between two courses who have the same par. Thanks again to The Sand Trap.

[HSGolfer0105]

#2 at SkyView an birdie hole? Maybe with a stiff tailwind and a hot day. I've only played the front nine there, and it definitely runs the full gamut from super easy holes to some wicked ones. Playing it when it was in the low 50's and foggy/drizzly didn't help, but it was still fun.

My home course is a 68/123. But that doesn't factor in that our fairways are trimmed like the rough at most courses, our greens don't hold even the spinniest approach shots and that there are no lateral hazards so a slightly errant shot means 3 off the tee.

[thehillgolfer]

my course, a muncipal course, which is nine holes, is 64.4/109 from the blue tees. Its only 5462 yards and its really easy. But it gets really windy and the greens are tiny. On a wet day i can see where itd be possible to shoot low like that, but when its dry the greens dont hold anything. Personally, i think its easier to shoot par on a course that has a rating of 72 than to shoot something like 6 under on an easy course.

[HSGolfer0105]

Well, spending the summer at Stanford means that I'll get to play the same course where Tiger cut his teeth for only $20 a round. That one seems a bit tougher than my current home course:

Cardinal Tees - Rating 73.0, Slope 140
Black Tees - Rating 70.5, Slope 133

[pgonza2723]

Length: 6594 Par: 72 Slope: 132 Rating: 71.9

[cdriver]

My course (Paradise Valley, Fayetteville, AR has a slope rating of 70.1/125. It is a par 71 course and I think the 125 may be a bit low. It is narrow, tree-lined and full of doglegs that require accurate drives in both direction and distance to avoid going short or long of the dogleg. When I moved from my old club to this one, my handicap went up 2 strokes before I figured out how to play this course. I moved because I thought Paradise would make me improve my game and it is working, but it is frustrating.

[iacas]

Most of our difficulty comes around the greens, and as such, members have developed short games and know enough about the greens to play well here. When they get to courses with length and a 134 rating, they get creamed.

Incidentally, the final course rating and slope changed to 71.2 (up nearly a full stroke) and 136 (up two points) from my tees. So, basically, I'm now a full handicap stroke lower than I used to be, and I consider the course easier now than it was before.

If anyone wants a falsely low handicap, join my course.

[Rafcin]

#2 at SkyView an birdie hole? Maybe with a stiff tailwind and a hot day.

figured I respond better late than never

My "3-4.." to start the scoring was for a net scores of a mid-level handicapper. But honestly - with decent drive u're about 260 away (granted, way uphill...), solid 4i gets you inside 100 - now wedge and here is the birdie... not as hard as it looks. Skyview is definitely a course you have to play couple times to "see" the right way to play it.

[jeffgladchun]

Gold 75.9 / 135
Blue 74.3 / 133
White 73.1 / 132

[iacas]

Gold 75.9 / 135

Missing the point (and several of the questions asked):

Do you think your home course's rating/slope are correct? What are they? If you could change them to be more fair, what would you change it to be?