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

Several times in the last two weeks, I’ve been asked “Why are USGA Course and Slope Ratings different for men and women, even from the same set of tees? The yardage is the same!”

I just assumed most golfers knew the answer, but you know what they say about people who assume!

The fact is that Men’s and Women’s course and slope ratings are always going to differ, even from the same tees and yardages mainly due to the (sad but true) fact that women just don’t hit the ball as far.  We rate courses and tees per gender because Men and Women have different landing areas for each shot on each hole and therefore encounter different obstacles too!

Crucial to understanding the USGA Course Rating process is first knowing the assumptions we start with when rating a course.  Every course rating team in the country evaluates every course with these same assumptions so that the resulting objective evaluation is uniform regardless of who rates the course or where it is rated.

Assumption 1 – The Scratch Male Golfer
This person has a Course Handicap of zero, can hit his tee shots 250 yards, and can reach a 470-yd hole in two shots.

Assumption 2 – The Scratch Female Golfer
This person has a Course Handicap of zero, can hit her tee shots 210 yards, and can reach a 400-yd hole in two shots.

Starting with these assumptions, we can evaluate all the obstacles for the scratch golfer and after crunching numbers, can determine the Course Rating.  But to calculate the Slope Rating we have to add two additional assumptions.

Assumption 3 – The Bogey Male Golfer
This person has a Course Handicap of about 20, can hit his tee shot 200 yards, and can reach a 370-yard hole in two shots.

Assumption 4 – The Bogey Female Golfer
This person has a Course Handicap of about 24, can hit her tee shot 150 yards, and can reach a 280-yard hole in two shots.

Now, with these additional assumptions and their accompanied measurements, we have the information to determine the difference in difficulty between scratch and bogey golfers.  It is that difference that results in a Slope Rating (that can be a subject for another long-winded blog).

That’s just looking at yardage – the primary factor in generating ratings.  Yardage is a challenge for all golfers, and even more so for women.

But there’s more! Remember, my mentioning obstacles?  In the next blog, I’ll show you the ten additional areas we consider. Are you beginning to see how much data needs to be collected?

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: