Crosshair Golf Blog

Should I look at the USGA course rating and Slope rating?  Yes.  This little bit of information could be the difference between a good and fun round and a frustrating miserable afternoon.

What is the course and slope rating.  The short answer is that the U.S.G.A. course and slope rating is the number of strokes it will take a golfer to finish the round.  The course rating is the number for a scratch golfer and the slope is the number for a bogey golfer.  A bogey golfer is considered someone with a handicap between 17.5 to 22.4 and hits his drives 200 yards, and a female golfer with a handicap of 21.5 to 26.4 who hits her drives 150 yards.  There are other factors that go into the rating and slope and we will discuss this in a future post, for now these are just the basics.

So, why is this important to a golfer?  It is important because it tells us what our “expected” score for 9 or 18 holes will be from the different tee’s.  The rating also plays a part in figuring our handicap. For example, if 2 golfers consistantly score 92′s at their respective courses, but 1 golfers slope is 91 and the others is 102, the golfer who plays at the course with a slope of 91 will have a higher handicap than the one with the slope of 102.