Okay, so the other day I was playing golf with my buddy, and he kept going on about the “slope” and “rating” of the course. Honestly, I just nodded along like I knew what he was talking about, but I was totally lost. So, I decided to finally figure this stuff out.
First, I grabbed my phone and did a quick search. I found some stuff, but it was all kinda confusing. Lots of numbers and charts, and it didn’t really click.
Digging Deeper
I decided to watch some videos. That’s when things started to make a little more sense. Basically, I learned that:
- Course Rating: This is like, how hard the course is for a really good golfer, a “scratch” golfer (which I am definitely NOT). It’s a number that shows how many strokes they’d probably take on that course.
- Slope Rating: This one is for the rest of us, the “bogey” golfers. It shows how much harder the course gets for us regular folks compared to those scratch golfers. The higher the number, the tougher the course is for us.
Putting it into practice
I went to this website I used to play, and typed the golf courses’ name into a search box. Immediately I saw the data on the screen. It showed me those numbers for some local courses. I finally understood!
I compared a couple of courses I’ve played. One felt way harder, and sure enough, it had a much higher slope rating. It all made sense now! Now i have a sense of achievement!
So, now I can at least pretend to know what I’m talking about when my buddy starts talking about slope and rating. More importantly, I can use this info to maybe pick courses that are a little more my speed. No more getting totally destroyed on the super-hard courses… hopefully!
