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Course slope ratings help golfers get  an accurate read on any golf course

Calculations help make handicaps more portable

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By Bucky Albers, Contributing Writer Updated 12:34 PM Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Those who play golf have had to contend with slopes on the greens and fairways for as long as the sport has been in existence.

Only recently, however, have they been confronted with a different kind of slope that has become an important part of the game.

The scorecards on most golf courses now carry two numbers for each set of tees — the course rating and the slope.

The scratch rating is a number indicating the difficulty of the course to an expert (scratch) golfer, i.e. one capable of shooting par regularly. That number is close to the assigned par for the course, which usually is in the neighborhood of 72. The higher the number, the more difficult the course. The course rating is simply the score expected of a scratch golfer.

Course ratings have been used for a long time, but it was only in the late 1980s that the United States Golf Association decided to produce a number that would be better suited for traveling golfers.

Thus the slope was born. The slope, a term used in algebra, is a measure of how much more difficult a course is for the bogey golfer than for the par golfer.

The introduction of a course’s specific slope rating to the handicap calculation has made a player’s handicap more portable. In other words, it will be more valid as the player competes on a course other than the one where his handicap was primarily established.

The use of slopes is why we no longer express one’s golfing ability in terms of his or her handicap. Instead we refer to their handicap index.

How is the slope used to calculate one’s handicap for a round of golf?

Let’s say golfer Jerry has a 14.3 handicap index and is playing from the white tees on the Eagle course at Kittyhawk Golf Center where the slope is 125. He multiplies his index (14.3) times the slope (125) and gets 1,787.5. Then he divides that number by 113, the number chosen because it represents a course of standard difficulty. The result is 15.8, which is rounded off to 16. That is the number of strokes to which he is entitled.

Now if Jerry plays from the white tees on the somewhat easier Hawk course at Kittyhawk, he multiplies his index (14.3) times a different slope (121) and gets 1,730.3. When he divides that number by the standard of 113, he gets 15.3, which is rounded off to 15. So Jerry gets one more stroke of handicap when he plays the Eagle than he gets when playing the Hawk.

Taking it a step further, if Jerry plays on a much more difficult course such as NCR South, he needs even more strokes to be competitive. The slope will do that for him. He multiplies his index (14.3) times the slope for NCR’s green (shortest) tees, which is 131. The result is 1,873.3. He divides that by 113 and gets 16.57, which is rounded off to 17 strokes. If he played NCR from its back tees, he would get 18 strokes.

When golfers play in local tournaments they don’t have to bother with these numbers because the handicaps often are calculated for them. And while many players don’t pay much attention to slope ratings when they are golfing, the slope is automatically included when USGA-GHIN handicaps are figured.

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