Golf Question
 

I played the best game of my life (but not the lowest score) on a course with a slope of 118. Shot a 92 with several three putts and three quadruple bogeys. I also had both a 15 foot chip and a 40 foot putt for eagles. I missed both, but just being in the position was new to me. I took birdies, gratefully. Now that I'm pounding my woods (reached a 491 yard par 5 in two!), I'm wondering what the significance of the slope and rating are. ripdog's golf tip of the day: loosen up your grip and the ball goes 50 yards further. Anyway, thanks for any help on the Slope/Rating question.

Re: Golf Question
 

Slope and rating indicate how difficult a course is for handicap purposes. I don't know how the rating is done exactly, but length, hazards, etc... are factored in. Slope and rating allow the USGA or state organizations to run your scores through a bunch of equations and give you a handicap index. Your index then can be compared to a courses' rating and slope to see how many shots you get on a particular course. The higher the slope and rating, the harder the course. Check out the USGA website for more details. Sometimes there are articles about it too. There's a lot of math lurking in the process that I don't know enough about to explain. For handicap purposes you also have to adjust scores for what's called "equitable stroke control". This means you may not be allowed to have a bunch of quads on your card for handicap purposes. It depends on your handicap though. I think I am limited to claiming 7 strokes on a hole for handicap purposes. Next time you are at a course, read the posters and stuff they might have near the handicap computer terminal.

Nice playing BTW.

Re: Golf Question
 

Slope and ratings do reflect the difficulty of the course, but for different kinds of players. As I remember it, slope is kind of more geared for players with high handicaps and should be more relavant for you than the course rating. I'm not sure what the scale actually means, but a course with a 140 slope is pretty damned tough. I think that 120 is pretty average, but not too sure.

The rating of a course is easier to quantify, however. It's simply how a pefect even-par golfer would play that course. A par 72 with a rating of 72.0 is the average golf course. A 71 should have a rating of 71.0, etc. A tough course will have a rating 2 or more strokes over it's par rating from the tips; some are even worse than this (or better, IMO).

The connection between the slope and rating is somewhat true, but there are factors that can make the slope increase more than the rating; that is a good golfer will be affected less than a bad golfer. Usually this is length. If a course has a lot of 410 yd par 4's, then a casual golfer will have trouble getting home in 2, but a low handicapper might think the holes are not too tough if they don't have any trouble and the green is simple. Thus, a course like this may play a bloated slope vs rating, as is the case with some newer courses that are long, but wide open.