World Handicap System Knowledge Refresher Part 1

Last week we briefly mentioned slope and course rating and this week we will discuss it in more depth and how it affects performance against handicaps.

What is Slope?

This is merely a measure of how hard a course plays for a handicap golfer as opposed to a scratch golfer. Some people assume that a higher slope rating means that a course is harder however that is not necessarily the case, and in fact a course can have a high slope rating but a low course rating. This means that a golfer can score better on what is a high slope course. A playing handicap can be easily checked on the clubs slope chart by any member just by knowing their handicap index for example:

On the whites at Denton a handicap index 12.8 will get 15 shots. The actual slope off the whites is 130 So for players who want to calculate their playing handicap then the following formula can be used: Handicap index (12.8) / 113(base ref) x 130(slope) = 14.72 rounded up = 15.

However, as stated last week, members will not have to do any calculations for mixed gender competitions as playing handicaps will be printed on the competition labels or they can merely refer to the slope chart outside the pro shop.