Course Rating vs Slope Rating

A quick guide

I am actively working on lowering my handicap. Obviously, the best way to do that is to shoot lower scores, but not all low scores are equal. I shot a 79 yesterday, which was 7 over par. Due to my course slope and course rating, the differential netted out to be a 3.2. My course, from the tips, has a 75.0 course rating and a 140 slope rating. From my usual tees it is a 73.3 and 138. Does this mean I should play from the tips more often, if my only goal is to lower my handicap? We need to understand what each number means, and how it impacts our game to draw any conclusions.

Course Rating: This one is simple. It is simply the score a scratch golfer “should” shoot on the course from the tees. A scratch handicap is expected to be 3 over from the tips at Hunting Creek, and 1.3 strokes over from the white tees. This does the lion’s share of the work in determining a differential, especially at lower handicaps. My 79 is 4 strokes over the course handicap. So where did the remaining .8 strokes go?

Slope Rating: Now we get complicated and into some voodoo math. To quote the USGA, “Slope Rating measures the relative difficulty of a golf course for players who are not scratch players compared to those who are scratch players.” Let’s stop for a second.

Imagine 2 golf holes, both the same yardage. One is flat, with a big green and no trouble. One is uphill, with fairway bunkers and a green guarded by water and lots of slope. The second one will raise the course rating, because the average score will be higher, but it will also raise the slope rating, because the worse you are at golf, the more those hazards are going to punish you. Slope rating is an attempt to capture the additional challenges a “bogey” golfer will face vs a scratch golfer. 

As an aside, this is not to say any of this is “correct”. I’d love for the USGA and world handicapping organizations to pool their data and create a more comprehensive system. They have the data to see how different courses handicaps travel, so they could easily fine tune their rating system. Still, it’s important to understand how it all works.

So slope rating is the difference in difficulty, and thus the higher the score the more impact it has on your handicap differential. The formula is as follows: Handicap differential = (Adjusted Gross Score-rating of the course) X 113 / Course slope ratings. 

It should be noted here, a 0 differential basically negates the slope rating. So a 75 on a course rated as a 75 is a net 0 regardless of the slope rating. Not the most applicable tidbit, but it’s worth noting. So how does my differential change based on the tees I play from, and which should I choose?

Substack doesn’t support tables. This is a pasted image.

Looking at the difference between differentials, course rating does the majority of the work. With 9 points of difference between the green tees and the black tees, the course rating is worth about .05 strokes in terms of differential. The course rating makes up a majority of the difference in the differentials. 

As for which tees I should play from, I might need to consider playing from the black tees more often. When I am playing well, and likely to record a score towards my handicap, the extra distance from the back tees does not bother me. I do not believe my 79 would have lower playing one tee box up. Had a shot a 77, it would have been a 2.99 differential. 

My biggest lesson yesterday was that I should play different tees more frequently. They force me to reevaluate my strategy and keep me from getting complacent with my shot selection. I have found that playing from more forward tees forces me to perform around the greens to achieve my desired results, so that is always a fun way to challenge myself. 

Hopefully this helps others understand how course rating and course slope affect their differential on the golf course.