What do these Diff. say about my game?

[kfowler]

I played one of the hardest courses I've ever played in my life yesterday. Faulkwood Shores in Michigan. The rating is 72.8 and slope 137. I played erratic and shot a 92. Ends up the differential for my handicap for this round was a 15.8.

I find that interesting since my two lowest differentials this year have been from the two toughest courses I've played. The one mentioned above and a 91 I shot on 71.8/136 (Diff: 16.0).

Differential wise, it seems I do better on tougher courses compared to easier courses where I generally shoot in the mid to high 80's.

If I were to guess, I think this can be attributed to my issues with my short game. I generally don't have an issue with distance. My average drives are 240-260. Putting and chipping, on the other hand, is where I really struggle.

Does this make sense?

[uttexas]

Any difference on putts per round. I tend to putt a lot better on difficult courses that do a good job maintaining their greens.

[kfowler]

That may be a part of it. I tend to really struggle on municipal greens where they have "Mickey Mouse" pin placement. You know where the course is fairly seasy so they want to make it more difficult by placing every pin on top of a false edge or ridge.

The nicer courses tend to have larger greens with less gimicky pin placements.

[PhilsRHman]

I was just thinking about this myself. Since joining a club where the slope is 134 or 137 depending which tees I play, my handicap has plunged. Started 2009 at 12.1, creeped up to 13.2 in late June. The suddenly I not only started playing better (several rounds in the lows 80s and a 77), but they were all on a slope about 8-10 points higher than I'd been playing. The latest update and I've dropped to 8.3. Playing a ton of golf in August helped me replace a bunch of low 90s with low 80s, which led to the quick drop.

So, are there skeptics out there about the system? I know it measures potential, but I'm not sold that I would be shooting 3-4 shots better on a 122 slope course, although I hope to find out this weekend when I've got a 3-day golf trip planned. Really hoping to close out the season with a couple more rounds in the 70s because I want to play in some state tournaments early next year with a handicap requirement of 7.

What do you guys think of the slope/rating system? Does it overemphasize a good round on a tough course? Or even overemphasize a so-so round on a tough course? Is there an actual numerical value for how many strokes difference between an 80 on a 120 vs. an 80 on a 137?

[Jay-Bird]

I played one of the hardest courses I've ever played in my life yesterday. Faulkwood Shores in Michigan. The rating is 72.8 and slope 137. I played erratic and shot a 92. Ends up the differential for my handicap for this round was a 15.8.

Makes perfect sense. As a 16.4 handicap you shouldn't really concern yourself with your scores vs the course rating. There is a little-known (and usually omitted from scorecards) figure besides the USGA® Course Rating and the Slope Rating®, called the

Bogey Rating . quote from USGA link :

Bogey Rating: The one number every golfer worse than a scratch should check before deciding which tees to play. This rating is the evaluation of the playing difficulty of a course for the bogey golfer. It is based on yardage, effective playing length and other obstacles to the extent that affect the scoring ability of the bogey golfer. To figure out this number, other than from looking at this database, the bogey golfer should take the Slope Rating®, divide it by the set factor (5.381 for men, and 4.24 for women) and add that to the Course Rating. The result is a target score for the bogey golfer, and is a truer yardstick of the challenge that lies ahead for the particular set of tees. Example: 96.3- which predicts the bogey golfer's average of his ten best (out of twenty) scores would be approximately 96.3 from this particular set of tees.

At Faulkwood Shores, from the tees you played, the bogey rating is 98.3. You shot 92 - 3 strokes better than a 'bogey golfer' - thus, your differential is going to be about 3 strokes lower than the bogey golfer's differential.

[enis750]

That may be a part of it. I tend to really struggle on municipal greens where they have "Mickey Mouse" pin placement. You know where the course is fairly seasy so they want to make it more difficult by placing every pin on top of a false edge or ridge.

this is a pet peeve of mine we have this course here, that plays to a 69.4 (nine hole course) only like 6300 yds, but last week will be my last time ever golfing there its cheap, $20 for nine and usually in decent shape i went out last week and they had pins in literally IMPOSSIBLE locations like in the middle of a tier on a downslope, tucked in a hole on the back of the green there was not one pin that was more than 18 inches from the fringe it was ridiculous...never came accross this IN MY LIFE it was impossible to make a putt i shot a 43 on nine and walked in and asked for a refund for the 2nd nine they said i could have a raincheck, but i refused and told them i will never golf there again

[Grndslmhttr3]

this is a pet peeve of mine

I played a pretty nice muni last year with great greens. Only problem was, on quite a few holes the pin placements were just as you described. If you don't hole your putt, it comes back to you. Really hard to enjoy yourself when you have to hole-out a lot of 10+ foot putts. Can't chip close either.

[pinhigh27]

this is a pet peeve of mine

Hm, Isn't there a rule about pins having to be 5 feet from the fringe or something like that? A pro in florida told me about that, anyone?

[MI Rob]

I play Faulkwood Shores usually twice a week or so. I understand what you mean by tough haha.
My putting always seems to be off at that course for some reason.
Practice your short game and I am sure your scores will drop.

[Jay-Bird]

Hm, Isn't there a rule about pins having to be 5 feet from the fringe or something like that? A pro in florida told me about that, anyone?

No rule about pin placement.

Read this thread about pin placement.

[kpaulhus]

You know this got me thinking and I was looking at TPC Sawgrass, Stadium...talk about a hard course lmao. From the tips its rating is a 76.8 with a 155 slope. that would be a lonnnngg day for me ha ha.

[kfowler]

Since this thread popped back up, I thought I'd give an update. I truly believe now that my better scores on harder courses is based on the fact that I generally keep the ball in play. I'm fairly accurate with my driver. On easier courses, driving accuracy doesn't seem to be as much a premium, hence the higher handicap scores.

I have a buddy who I play with that hits the ball a ton but is very erratic. I can never beat him on courses that have adjoining fairways. If we play a course that really punishes you for being wild, I typically beat him by several strokes.

[PhilsRHman]

Since this thread popped back up, I thought I'd give an update. I truly believe now that my better scores on harder courses is based on the fact that I generally keep the ball in play. I'm fairly accurate with my driver. On easier courses, driving accuracy doesn't seem to be as much a premium, hence the higher handicap scores.

Funny to hear your explanation. It makes perfect sense. On the other hand, I think the reason I play better on tighter driving courses is that I tend to pay more attention off the tee and play with more strategy -- hitting 5W, 3I, or will focus more on exactly where I have to hit my driver. When I know that I can spray it 50 yards left or right, I end up playing bombs away and simply trying to overpower the course.