Slope rating is the measurement of how challenging a golf course is in proportion to the handicap of golfers. Ultimately, the rating will tell you how much more difficult a course is for high-handicap golfers. So the more challenging a course is for those with high handicaps, the higher the slope rating will be.
Slope rating is different than a course rating. A course rating refers to the difficulty of the course, while the slope rating is about the difficulty of the course with regard to player handicap. It’s a slight difference that many golfers get confused about.
This is the simple explanation of slope rating — in truth, there is a complicated mathematical formula that goes into actually figuring out the slope rating of a course, which we’ll get to later. But first, we’ll look at the actual purpose of a slope rating.
What Is the Purpose of Slope Rating?
To put it simply, the slope rating tells you how much harder a course will be for a bogey golfer compared to a scratch golfer.
But why was it invented? Why create this wild, complicated formula for such a simple game?
Slope rating was an answer to a common problem that was plaguing many golfers — on certain courses, higher-handicapped players’ scores would rise proportionally higher than their lower handicapped’ counterparts. Whether it was the design, hazards or other obstacles, these higher handicaps were still struggling to be competitive even with their handicaps. So what was the issue?
The issue was that there were certain variances on the course that couldn’t be controlled with a handicap. For instance, many holes will have a set number of shots that you will be expected to reach the green in regulation.
But on many of these holes, the bogey golfer will be hitting a fairway wood or long iron, while the scratch golfer will have a wedge in hand. This makes the bogey golfer liable to the many hazards up near the green — bunkers, water and heavy rough — while the scratch golfer has a much shorter, simpler shot to get up and down.
This makes holes much more challenging for bogey golfers, making their scores soar — “sloping” upwards on a graph, while the scratch golfer stays relatively flat.
The slope rating was invented to keep those two slopes closer together. Instead of watching the bogey golfer tumble downwards into triple-bogey oblivion, the slope rating will bump that score down and allow the round to become more competitive.
The rating takes into account a lot of these variances between bogey and scratch golfers, and that gap between the two is your slope rating.
How Do You Calculate Slope Rating?
In simple terms, slope rating is calculated by subtracting the course rating from the bogey rating of the course and multiplying it by a constant. While this sounds easy enough, the factors that actually go into that equation are wildly complex.
Just like course ratings, the slope rating will need to be continually revised and reviewed. For new courses, the slope rating will vary widely within the first five years or more. According to USGA rules, golf courses will need to be re-rated at least once every 10 years.
Factors That Affect Slope Rating
There’s a lot that goes into calculating slope rating. The USGA takes multiple factors into account for slope rating, including:
- Effective Playing Length
- Topography
- Fairway
- Green Target
- Recoverability and Rough
- Bunkers
- Crossing Obstacles
- Lateral Obstacles
- Trees
- Green Surface
- Psychology
As you can see, it’s a comprehensive list that reveals just how complicated golf can be. When your see “psychology” written on the list, you know that you’ve entered into a sport that’s going to be challenging.
But all of these characteristics are meant to help the golfer be the most competitive on the course as they can be.
What Is An Average Slope Rating?
A golf course with a slope rating of 113 is considered standard difficulty.
What Is an Easy Slope Rating?
Since 113 is the average slope rating, anything under that 113 rating will be considered easier than most courses. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a walk in the park. It just means that bogey golfers might have an easier time during their rounds.
What Is a Difficult Slope Rating?
Courses with a slope rating over 113 are generally regarded as more difficult. The higher the slope rating, the more challenging the course will be for bogey golfers compared to scratch golfers.
How Important Is Slope Rating?
If you’re a beginner golfer, the slope rating will likely be irrelevant to you. You have enough to worry about on the golf course – checking out those tiny numbers on the scorecard is just going to add more stress to your game.
But for more novice and advanced golfers, that slope rating can come in handy. Your handicap can be a good help, but if you’re playing against a scratch golfer, you might find that you’re continually falling out of the competition.
Applying a slope rating will help you level the playing field and make things more interesting on the course. It’s also interesting to look at how some courses are affected by those small variances.
Slope rating just goes to show that there are truly many different factors at play — even if you don’t immediately see them.