WHS 1: Course & Slope Rating

WHS 1: Course & Slope Rating

Course Rating represents the difficulty of a golf course for a scratch golfer (0 Handicap Index), calculated to the nearest 0.1.

Slope Rating represents the relative difficulty of a course for a bogey golfer (20 to 24 Handicap Index) compared to a scratch golfer.

A course with long carries, narrow fairways, lots of hazards and thick rough will have a high slope rating because these features are more of a challenge to bogey golfers.

Slope Ratings range from 55 up to 155 (55 being an easy course and 155 being very difficult, such as TPC Sawgrass).

Gloucester’s Course and Slope Ratings are:

Click to see a short video about Course Ratings and Slope Ratings

There are also ratings for the front 9 and back 9 as shown above.

You can look up the ratings for other courses anywhere in the World on the USGA couse rating & slope database.

A golfer’s handicap for a specific course is determined by multiplying their Handicap Index by the the Slope Rating and dividing by 113, as described on the Course and Playing Handicaps page.

How our Slope Ratings were calculated

MEN
A male scratch golfer is defined as someone who hits the ball about 250 yards with a driver and 230 yards with a fairway wood. The England Golf course assessors calculated that a male scratch golfer should average 69.4 strokes from the white tees at Gloucester. This is the Course Rating.

A male bogey golfer is defined as a typical 20 handicapper who hits the ball about 200 yards with a driver and 170 yards with a fairway wood. The assessors calculated that the average score for a male bogey golfer would be 91.5 strokes. This is the Bogey Rating.

Subtracting the Course Rating from the Bogey Rating and multiplying by a Constant of 5.381 gives the Slope Rating of 119.

WOMEN
A female scratch golfer is defined as someone who hits the ball about 210 yards with a driver and 170 yards with a fairway wood. The England Golf course assessors calculated that a female scratch golfer should average 70.9 strokes from the red tees at Gloucester.

A female bogey golfer is defined as a typical 24 handicapper who hits the ball about 150 yards with a driver and 130 yards with a fairway wood. The assessors calculated that the average score for a female bogey golfer would be 99.5 strokes.

Subtracting the Course rating from the bogey rating and multiplying by a Constant of 4.240 gives the Slope Rating of 121.