USGA Course Rating System

Inquiring players want to know: What is it, and what does it mean?

By Amanda Krane

When conducting a course rating, the Greater Cincinnati Golf Association (GCGA) rating teams often encounter inquisitive players wondering more about the USGA Course Rating System™.  It’s difficult to define the system in the few seconds the golfers have before they move on to their next shot. The thought of a hitting a Tiger-esque approach shot is much more interesting to them than a detailed explanation of the rating procedure. As a result, it was decided that it’s probably more effective to write an article about the USGA Course Rating System than attempt to supply the information randomly to less-than- captivated foursomes we meet during a rating.

While the USGA Course Rating System is a complex set of rules and computations, it boils down to three numbers given for each set of tees: the course, bogey, and slope ratings. Most people know that the course rating is a gauge of difficulty for a scratch golfer. Similarly the bogey rating is a gauge of difficulty for a bogey golfer. But how does a rating team determine those numbers?

First, yardage is an essential component. For all golfers, regardless of ability, yardage is the most significant factor to overcome. Rating teams begin by measuring the precise length of each hole. Then the GCGA raters take into account several effective playing length factors: How far does the ball roll? Are there any changes in elevation? Are there any forced lay-ups or doglegs? Each of these would affect a course’s playing length and require an adjustment to the measured length.

Rating teams also pay close attention to course characteristics, called obstacle factors that can make each hole more or less difficult. There are 10 factors that are considered crucial to course evaluation: topography, fairway, green target, rough and recoverability, bunkers, out of bounds and extreme rough, water hazards, trees, green surface and psychology.  Each of these obstacle factors is rated on a scale of 0 to 10 depending on their relation to how a scratch and bogey golfer would play the hole.

When the evaluation is complete, the numbers for each factor are totaled, applied to several formulas and converted to strokes. Those stokes are added to or subtracted from the yardage rating to produce course and bogey ratings. Using the software provided by the USGA, this process is much simpler than it sounds.

Now to determine the slope rating. Slope indicates the measurement of the relative difficulty for the bogey golfer compared to the course rating. The slope rating is computed from the difference between the bogey rating and the course rating. Put simply, the greater the difference between the course and bogey ratings, the higher the slope. The lowest slope rating is 55 and the highest is 155. The slope rating is what allows players to take their USGA Handicap Index® to any course and find their appropriate course handicap.

Editor’s Note: Information, articles and resources supplied by www.usga.org