Golf Digest follows the raters behind Course Rating and Slope

Golf Digest’s Christopher Powers follows a Metropolitan Golf Association rating team in a new video that explains how the numbers on a scorecard are built. Volunteers inspect carries, landing areas, hazards and greens, considering how each feature affects both a scratch golfer and a bogey golfer.

That comparison explains Slope Rating. It describes how much more difficult a set of tees is for a bogey player relative to a scratch player. Course Rating describes the difficulty for the scratch player under normal conditions. The two numbers answer different questions about the same course.

What the raters inspect

In the October 16 clip, Powers shows the group dividing its work across the front and back nines and different tee sets. The raters evaluate forced carries and elevation from the tee, then move to the expected landing area to measure fairway width and nearby obstacles. Around the green, they consider the target and the difficulty of the putting surface.

The useful detail is that an obstacle’s presence is only part of the assessment. Its position relative to where players are expected to hit matters. A carry can present a much larger problem for a shorter hitter, and a narrow target can punish players differently depending on their usual distance and accuracy.

Read the pair together

The USGA’s National Course Rating Database defines a scratch golfer as someone with a Handicap Index of 0.0. Its reference bogey players have indexes of approximately 20.0 for men and 24.0 for women. These are the reference players used in evaluating the relative challenge, rather than a prediction of what every individual will shoot.

The database gives Slope Rating a range of 55 to 155. The R&A’s Rules of Handicapping identify 113 as standard relative difficulty and require Course Rating, Slope Rating and par to be available for each set of tees.

That tee-specific detail matters when comparing scorecards. Moving to another set of tees changes the course being evaluated, including the carries and landing areas. Use the ratings for the tees you plan to play.

From a scorecard to your strokes

The World Handicap System calculation uses both ratings: Handicap Index multiplied by Slope Rating divided by 113, plus Course Rating minus par. Golf Monthly’s explanation sets out that equation and the distinction between the two ratings.

On hypothetical par-72 tees with a Course Rating of 72.0 and a Slope of 130, a player with a 10.0 Index would have a Course Handicap of about 11.5 before rounding.

Use the course’s current table or an approved handicap calculator for the actual round, then apply any allowance for the format. Powers’ walk-through makes the reason for the calculation easier to see: different golfers can face very different problems from the same tee.