Brenda Kurtz after a very humbling round at Springbank Links was reminded some golf courses are easier to play than others. She offer to do up a piece for the News Feed.
Here are some straightforward explanations about golf course difficulty and what a handicap is. I had my daughter read them and she golfs occasionally so I hope they are informative but brief.
Golf Course Ratings
Have you noticed that some golf courses are fairly forgiving, whereas others are soul-crushing? If you want to find out before you get to the #1 tee box, here’s how.
Every golf course is given a rating by a team of experts who measure distances, consider hazards and evaluate the greens on every hole. The result is a “Rating” and a “Slope”. Each tee box will have a slope and rating for men and women golfers.
When choosing where to play, look online for the course scorecard to check the Slope for the various tee boxes. Check out this website to check out golf course details. The average Slope rating for a course is 113. Heather Glen’s forward red tees have a Slope of 118, making it great choice for newer golfers, while Wintergreen’s Red Tees at 129 is quite a bit more difficult. But sometimes it’s just fine to play a round at Kananaskis (67.9/124) to just enjoy the view.
What is a Handicap Index?
If you have ever wondered what a Handicap Index is? It’s a standardized measure of how well you can play. It’s NOT based on your expected or average score. In fact, most golfers will only shoot their handicap a quarter of the time.
The easiest way to calculate your Handicap Index is using an app like the Golf Canada app. All you do is enter scores hole by hole.
Once you have the Handicap Index, use the app to get a Course Handicap for any course – it will be higher or lower than your Index depending on the course difficulty. After your round, you can subtract the Course Handicap from your score to get your “Net” score.
The app calculates the index using your score and the slope and rating for the tee box you used for the last 20 games.
The “Differential”: for each game is:
- Your Score Minus Rating
- Multiply by 113
- Divide by Slope
- The average of the best 8 Differentials is your Handicap Index
There are some additional adjustments hole by hole to make sure that a few bad holes don’t skew your handicap index and some other rules.
Curious about the numbers on the scorecard with the title “Ladies Handicap”?. This is the order of the holes from most difficult to easiest from 1-18. You could use it for match play, or to just explain why you got a snowman on a tough hole.