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Course / Slope rating - help me understand it

TheDoctor

TheDoctor

One of the UK Hackers
Joined
Nov 2, 2012
Messages
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Location
Northeast, UK
Handicap
5.3 (WHS)
With the imminent introduction of the WHS here in the UK, courses have been rated and they are available on the National Course Rating Database, so out of curiosity I looked at my home course to see what it says

White tees

Par - 72
Course Rating - 72.0
Bogey Rating - 96.9
Slope Rating - 134

Yellow tees

Par - 71 (not sure how this is different as the card says 72 at the club?)
Course Rating - 70.3
Bogey Rating - 94.4
Slope Rating - 130

If the yardage is needed to give more of an idea, that will need to wait until I get home to update this post with those figures as well - it is roughly 6,500 - 6,600 from the whites and probably around 6,200 - 6,300 from the yellows if I remember right

Now I know that the course is tougher from the white tees, but in terms of the rating figures, I have no clue how it would compare to other courses in terms of difficulty?
Does the slope rating of 130 and 134 mean it is a tough or easy course relatively speaking?
 
Slope of 130 or higher is fairly difficult, IMO.

This site has a wealth of information on ratings/slope:

PopeOfSlope.com

www.popeofslope.com
 
The course rating is the score that a scratch golfer should expect to shoot. It is based on the effective length of the course, and based on a scratch golfer having the ability to drive the ball 250 yards and reach a 470 yard hole in 2. Similarly, the bogey rating is the score a golfer who has a course handicap of 20 would expect to shoot. The bogey golfer is defined as having a 200 yard tee shot and reaches a 370 yard hole in two.

The slope rating is calculated using the bogey rating and the course rating. The standard slope is 113. Higher slopes means a more difficult course for higher handicap golfers. The closer your handicap is to scratch, the less the slope and course difficulty should affect you.
 
captaincaution said:
The course rating is the score that a scratch golfer should expect to shoot. It is based on the effective length of the course, and based on a scratch golfer having the ability to drive the ball 250 yards and reach a 470 yard hole in 2. Similarly, the bogey rating is the score a golfer who has a course handicap of 20 would expect to shoot. The bogey golfer is defined as having a 200 yard tee shot and reaches a 370 yard hole in two.

The slope rating is calculated using the bogey rating and the course rating. The standard slope is 113. Higher slopes means a more difficult course for higher handicap golfers. The closer your handicap is to scratch, the less the slope and course difficulty should affect you.
Click to expand...
In terms of the bolded above, I used a playing handicap calculator to work out what adjustments would be made to my handicap, and for my home course, my playing handicap came out as

Actual handicap - 9.2

Yellow tees - 9
White tees - 11

So the harder slope rating for the white tees gave me an extra 2 shots according to the calculator - for some reason, I don't think the red tees were showing when I last looked, but it would be interesting to see what the adjustment would be if I was to play from those...? I am guesing maybe as low as 7 thinking about where the red tees are in relation to the white and yellow
 
TheDoctor said:
In terms of the bolded above, I used a playing handicap calculator to work out what adjustments would be made to my handicap, and for my home course, my playing handicap came out as

Actual handicap - 9.2

Yellow tees - 9
White tees - 11

So the harder slope rating for the white tees gave me an extra 2 shots according to the calculator - for some reason, I don't think the red tees were showing when I last looked, but it would be interesting to see what the adjustment would be if I was to play from those...? I am guesing maybe as low as 7 thinking about where the red tees are in relation to the white and yellow
Click to expand...
So in your case, the new wrinkle (for stateside golfers) of the WHS kicks in. The difference in slope is not affecting your course handicap, but the difference in rating does. With the new system, your playing handicap is based on slope, course rating, and par. It seems the calculation was based on par 72 for the yellow tees as well.

The formula is handicap Index x slope/113 + (rating-par)

White: 9.2x134/113+(72.0-72) = 10.9 rounded to 11

Yellow: 9.2x130/113+(70.3-72) = 8.8 rounded to 9
 
What @captaincaution said. The slope difference of 4 points is not the determining factor here. Rating and par does all the heavy lifting, but somehow slope still always gets too much of the credit in people's minds.
 
OldandStiff said:
What @captaincaution said. The slope difference of 4 points is not the determining factor here. Rating and par does all the heavy lifting, but somehow slope still always gets too much of the credit in people's minds.
Click to expand...
Under the old system, slope was all that mattered for your course handicap. And then you would just add it to the rating for your "target score". The new system taking rating and par into account make it easier for equitable play from different sets of tees, where in the past you would have to make adjustments on the backend for different tees. And now the course handicap you get in the end is applied to the par number, instead of the rating, which I like because par is easy to understand while course rating is not.
 
captaincaution said:
Under the old system, slope was all that mattered for your course handicap. And then you would just add it to the rating for your "target score". The new system taking rating and par into account make it easier for equitable play from different sets of tees, where in the past you would have to make adjustments on the backend for different tees. And now the course handicap you get in the end is applied to the par number, instead of the rating, which I like because par is easy to understand while course rating is not.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have a weird perception about this compared to peers because I didn't play for a long time. So I don't have all those years to undo, mentally, on some of it. When my buddies start talking (obsessing) about the slope, to my current and rational thinking, they just seem kind of crazy. Like arguing over if your laces are tied correctly before worrying about if the shoes are even on the right feet kind of thing. To me at least. It also doesn't seem to matter much to my game, so when it starts I'm usually walking away to do something more productive pretty quickly. Lol
 
I gave up on trying to figure this stuff out.
 
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