Course Rating History - The Early Years

The first course rating system was developed by the Ladies Golf Union (LGU) under the leadership of Miss Issette Pearson in about 1900. Robert Browning in "A History of Golf" says of the LGU, "Their biggest achievement was the gradual establishment of a national system of handicapping. No doubt it was uphill work at the start (1893) but within eight or ten years the LGU had done what the men had signally failed to do - had established a system of handicapping that was reasonably reliable from club to club.

The first USGA Course Rating System was established in 1911. It was proposed by Leighton Calkins who also proposed the first USGA Handicap Committee. Calkins was an officer of the Metropolitan Golf Association and served on the USGA Executive Committee in 1907 and 1908. Calkins' proposal was that par ratings be based on the play of the U.S. Amateur champion, Jerome Travers. Rating courses according to the "expected" score of the national amateur champion became accepted, and course rating was born in America. Calkins was angered, however, by the USGA's decision to allow clubs to determine their own ratings, calling such a system a "farce" and "useless." Calkins later won his point, and official USGA Course Ratings were issued for the USGA by regional golf associations as they are today.

By 1914, the USGA rating concept began to dominate articles in British golf magazines. By 1925, a Golf Unions' Joint Advisory Committee of the British Isles was formed to assign Standard Scratch Scores to golf courses in Great Britain and Ireland. Today, their men's authority is called the Council of National Golf Unions (CONGU).

In the 1920's, the Massachusetts Golf Association suggested refinements in the course rating methods, and William Langford of Chicago developed a fractional par concept which further refined course ratings. In the 1930's, Thomas G. McMahon, who was president of the Chicago District Golf Association in 1942 and 1943 and President of the Southern California Golf Association in the early 1960's, refined Langford's technique and introduced "differentials" between scores and course ratings.

History of Course Rating           
1947 - 1970                
1971 - 1980                  
1981 - Present   

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