Illogical course ratings

[jrm1493]

Played a new course on the coast this afternoon (Moody Gardens in Galveston); it was a lot of fun and was a great course, but it was really hard and has a very low course rating compared to what I'm used to.

There are 5 sets of tees and we played the middle ~6000 yd ones since we hadn't played the course before. My dad (solid 7-8 hdcp) and myself (14ish) both shot 90. We were clearly not playing our best but I really don't feel like I played all that bad. The wind was probably gusting 30+ mph but we are used to that playing down here on the Texas coast. The course was just plain difficult, rock hard fairways & greens, high wind, left and right side of every hole was lateral hazard/salt marsh, and plenty of strategically placed bunkers. Also lots of holes had greens that did not slope back to front and were shaved all the way to the waste areas so downwind you had to hit the ball 10-15 yards short of the green to hold them. The fairways were wide but other than that and the short distance I don't see how it was rated so low (67.3/119 from the tees we chose). If the two of us, not playing terrible shot 90s how can it be so low? In retrospect it wouldn't have been any farther for us from longer tees because when we were in the right place for our approaches we were hitting short irons or wedges.... next time I guess.

I shot a 48/42, and I think part of the reason I played so bad on the front 9 was that I was not used to the speed of the greens (much faster than the overseeded bermuda I've been playing on), but still.... obviously this round won't be counting for either of our handicaps but I think the USGA made some mistakes on this rating... kinda frustrating. Of course I do take advantage of a course around here which I feel is at least 5-8 strokes easier than the one I played today and is rated at a 71/122 from a similar distance, so I guess it all evens out... just seems random how they assign this stuff.

[plugged]

rock hard fairways & greens

Sounds like poor course maintenance and short yardage is the issue.

I have played crap courses with 110-120 ratings that were more difficult than any 135 course simply because you could barely hit off the fairways and the greens were either rolling a 2 or were almost dead grass.

[goblue107501]

First off, anytime you play a new course it is going to be a little harder that it should be. The more you play a course, the easier it seems since you know the spots to hit and places to miss. And anytime you play in high wind, whether you are used to it or not, it is going to make a course seem tougher, especially at a new course.

Second, and I don't know what really goes into course slope and ratings, is the length. I don't know how much that is weighted, but ~6000 yards is not very long at all. I am guessing it had some par 5's less than 500 yards, probably no par 4's over 400 yards, and I would say that the par 3's were all under 200, most of them under 150. Under ideal conditions (no wind, rain, etc.) that should be a pretty easy course to navigate, theoretically speaking of course.

All that being said, I wasn't there and didn't play the course so I don't really know how hard it was. These are just my assumptions as to why the slope/rating would be lower than what you think. My guess is that if you played it again, under better conditions, you would score better. Play it a third time and you might see that it rated about right.

[leezer99]

I completely agree with your assessment. The rating system is wacky to say the least. You are more than welcome to come and play my course which is a 68/120. We love it when newbies come and play their new ProV's because we find them all over the course after you lose them. You'd be lucky to not lose at least three balls your first time out. I've played with scratch golfers that barely broke 90 their first few rounds out on our course.

[jrm1493]

My guess is that if you played it again, under better conditions, you would score better. Play it a third time and you might see that it rated about right.

I think you are probably right. Several times we were weren't sure where to hit our shots and we had to guess... on one par 5 my dad hit a beautiful little 5-wood with a draw to the green, bounced in front ran all the way through and off the back (we had a tail wind). next time I'm sure he'd lay up so he could hit a wedge in there for his 3rd to hold the green.

not to mention the greens which were some kind of (saltwater tolerant I guess) grass we had never seen before - they looked like astroturf but were real grass... and fast!

[jrm1493]

Sounds like poor course maintenance and short yardage is the issue.

The condition was great, especially for December and considering the course was under 6 feet of the gulf of Mexico 15 months ago (Hurricane Ike)... It was just set up hard. I agree on the short yardage, we should have played other tees because it was probably "too short" for us, we both teed off with 3 iron on about half the par 4/5s because of hazards that we didn't want to reach.