Why are Course and Slope Ratings Different for Men & Women? PART II

So we’re still on the question, Why are USGA Course and Slope Ratings different for men and women, even from the same set of tees? The yardage is the same!”

In the last blog entry we reviewed just one factor – yardage and the assumptions we start with regarding how far a male or female golfers hit a ball.  But there’s a lot more when it comes to calculating a course’s ratings.

So you can begin to see how much data needs to be collected, think about looking at each set of tees for both scratch and bogey golfers of each gender.  Now let’s just start with one type – the female bogey golfer who we assume hits her tee shot 150 yards.

The OGA’s Course Rating Team stops in the middle of the fairway at 150 and looks closely to see if any of the ten obstacle factors that need to be evaluated come into play.

Then, without thinking of their own shot making, they proceed down the fairway up to another 130 yards (remember we assume the bogey female golfer can reach a 280—yard hole in two shots), and if necessary continue until they reach the green for further assessments.

At each landing area on every hole, each of ten obstacle factors are evaluated on a scale of 0 through 10 for the effect they may have for both the scratch and bogey golfer – and again, for both genders.  Nine of these obstacles are ones you might typically expect, with another one thrown in that might surprise you.  Here they are:

Topography – elevation change, difficulty of stance in fairway landing areas
Fairway – effective width of landing area, which can be reduced by a dogleg, trees, or fairway tilt
Green Target – size, firmness, shape and slope of a green in relation to the length of the approach shot
Recoverability & Rough – existence of rough and other penalizing factors in the proximity of the landing area and around the green
Bunkers – existence of bunkers in the proximity of the landing areas and around the green
Out of Bounds/Extreme Rough – existence of OB in the proximity of the landing areas and around the green, or the existence of extreme unmown rough that is similar in effect to OB
Water Hazards – existence of water hazards, particularly in the proximity of the landing areas and around the green
Trees – the location, size, height, and density of trees along with the probability of recovering from them!
Green Surface – contour and normal speed of the putting surface

AND…..(drum roll please!)

Psychological – yes, that’s right….we even consider how the presence of a combination of difficult obstacles may affect a player mentally!

Can you imagine all the worksheets that we produce in gathering all of this data!

Remember, yardage plays a huge part in the result of the rating. It’s a challenge for all golfers, and even more so for women. But more than just the physical length, we look at factors on each hole that have an effect on that yardage.  It’s not how the crow flies, but how factors such as roll, elevation, dogleg/forced layup, prevailing wind and altitude change the effective playing length that we must consider.

When all is said and done, and the numbers are crunched and studied by our Manager of Course Rating, Gretchen Yoder, the resulting published women’s course and slope rating and the men’s course and slope rating will not be the same, as you can now well imagine.

Till next time!

Kelly

Share Your Comment

Name:
Email:
Location:
URL:

Comment:

Remember my personal information
Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image below: