Understanding Golf Course Ratings

How often have you looked at your scorecard and seen the numbers for the course and slope rating, only to have absolutely no clue as to what they mean? Well, you're not alone. Most golfers don't understand what a course rating of 74.6 really means, or a slope rating of 114. So, let's take a look at the true meaning behind the numbers and how it can affect your golf game.

Golf Course Rating
Here in the U.S., and really around the world, the USGA has designed a system to officially rate every individual golf course. The course rating for any golf course will usually be between 67 - 77. The lower the rating, the easier the course. The rating is calculated by scratch golfers playing the course and averaging the scores.

The USGA assigns a course rating for every set of tees on that course, so you may see up to four different sets of numbers for your home course. So, if your golf course has a course rating of 75.3 on the set of tees you play, it means that this is the average score that scratch golfers would post. A rating of 75.3 means this is a pretty difficult golf course by the way.

Also, the USGA requires separate ratings for both men and women. So, on the forward tees you may see a men's rating of 68.2, but a women's rating of 71.5.

USGA Slope Rating
The USGA assigns every golf course a separate slope rating in addition to a course rating. Aslope rating is used to describe the level of difficulty for a "bogey golfer" compared to the course rating. Slope ratings are between a minimum of 55 and a maximum of 155. The golf course with an average degree of difficulty will usually have a slope rating of 113. It's important to note that the slope rating has nothing to do with the number of strokes played like the course rating does.

Like its counterpart, the course rating, the USGA slope rating is given to each set of tees on a particular course.

So, why is it called a USGA slope rating? That's a great question. What is funny about it, is the fact that slope has nothing to do with it.

The USGA slope rating system was added to the already existing course ratings in the early 1980's. Slope rating was added to account for the growing difference in scores between players of different abilities. Think about this for a moment; you have 2 players, player 1 and player 2. Player 1 is a 5 handicap golfer and player 2 is a 20 handicap golfer. On the average golf course with a USGA slope rating of 113, they will both usually shoot scores close to their handicaps. Makes sense, but what about when they play on a more difficult golf course?

It only makes sense that as you play a more difficult golf course, player 2's score will increase a lot faster than player 1's. So, on a golf course with a USGA slope rating of 140, players 2 may need an another 15 strokes, while player 1 may only need 5.

Ok, now picture how this looks on a graph. The lines on the graph would rise with both players as they play more difficult courses, but the graph rises much steeper with player 2.

The "slope" of player 2's graph is much steeper than player 1's and that is how the term "slope" came into being. The new USGA slope rating was based on a bogey golfers relative steeper graph line compared to a lower handicap golfer.