By Kelly Neely and Gretchen Yoder, OGA Handicapping & Course Rating
Click Here for Handicap Hub Archives    

What the WHS Doesn’t Do – Part II

When we started at the OGA back in the Dark Ages (okay, it was probably more like Medieval times), the cryptic Course Rating System wasn’t really talked about with any sort of certainty in normal golfing circles. Like a Renaissance princess wearing an ornamental veil, the Course Rating system was shrouded in mystery.

Perhaps at the tavern after your round over a tankard of ale you’d hear things like “My course is WAY harder, but the Slope is higher here.” Animated arguments with shields raised ensued. But more often, just as it is today, a confused plea was heard throughout the land, “Can one of you knaves tell me what the Course Rating System is all about?”

Well, we can (usually with charts and graphs and pretty pictures), but to expound on last month’s article, it’s sometimes more enlightening to know what something isn’t and what it doesn’t do. As it is with handicapping, so it goes with its friend and constant companion, Course Rating.
 

The WHS doesn’t...

• consider the individual golfer
  
  In other words, “it ain’t about you.” No, we’re not being snarky. Well, maybe just a little because it seems to come naturally. What we mean is that the system is built to work for every golfer and every golf course. Same rules, same formulas, same rating standards. Though it’s a tough thing to do, understanding will go a long way if you mentally take yourself out of the picture and take your game with you, because the Course Rating System is really looking at four definitive, though faceless, folks.
  
  Scratch Male and Female – Handicap Index of zero
  Bogey Male and Female – Handicap Index of approximately 20.0 for Men and 24.0 for Women
  
  The Course Rating process examines closely how these four players – and only these four players – are impacted by the effective playing length of the course and its ten obstacle factors.
   
• ... rely on Slope as the only indicator of difficulty
  
  This is a Public Service Announcement (you’re welcome): Please don’t waste valuable time getting into spirited debates with your buddies comparing Slope Rating from course to course. Because this is golf and the World Handicap System, it’s way more complicated than that.
  World Handicap System:

  • Click here for more WHS articles and video explanations.
  In order to travel down the sometimes slippery slope (see what I did there?) of comparisons, we must examine no fewer than six (yes, six) things – Course Rating, Slope Rating, Yardage, Par and Two Golfers.
  
  Example of Courses with the Same Slope Rating:
  Course A – 73.3 / 130
  Course B – 68.1 / 130
  1149 yards difference between the two – Course A is 6946, Course B is 5797
  Par is 72 for both
  Player A – Handicap Index 10.0, Course A Course Handicap is 13, Course B Course Handicap is 8
  Player B – Handicap Index is 25.0, Course A Course Handicap is 30, Course B Course Handicap is 25
  
  In comparing the courses, Course B gives the players exactly 5 strokes less than Course A to compensate for the disparity in yardage between the two. As you can see, just because both courses have the same Slope Rating (and Par), they are completely different. We’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating: there’s no way to isolate the components of the Course Rating System as they are wholly relational.
   
• ... look at your course any differently than any other course
  
  We know your course is special. We know that you have a love / hate relationship with scenic Hole X – you know, the one with the downhill shot to an uphill green that’s the size of a postage stamp and is surrounded by bunkers, trees and water. We know every course is unique. That’s one of the things that is so cool about golf and makes it different than every other sport. We are not recreating and competing on a regulation-sized field of play. We are not talking about a football field, a baseball diamond, a basketball court or even a dart board (perfect time to mention that we don’t throw darts to determine your course rating). All of those are the same, yet every golf course is one-of-a-kind and without equal.
  
  But, in evaluating them for Course Rating, Bogey Rating and Slope Rating, we use a specified set of standards. Several years ago, while the details of the World Handicap System were being hashed out by the six handicap authorities around the world, the one thing they all agreed upon was the USGA Course Rating System. Not only had it already proven itself to be mathematically and scientifically sound over several decades, it’s what makes a handicap portable from course to course.
  
  The OGA’s Course Rating Team is a group of retired folks who have been trained in complex rating procedures and go through continuing education in the form of “calibration” with all other Association’s Course Rating Teams. This assures that the ratings in Oregon and Southwest Washington are rated to the same specifications as courses in Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and yes – even Scotland.
   
• ... allow members of a club to rate their own course
  
  Imagine Simon Cowell judging his own son’s audition on American Idol. Hardly appropriate and a complete conflict of interest (though you can easily hear him delivering a blunt “It’s a NO for me”, even to his own offspring). Same with Course Rating. While it can be helpful to employ the insights of a narrator – an individual familiar with the course such as a member, Golf Pro, Club Champion, Superintendent – during the Course Rating process, they would not have the training and expertise to perform a valid rating on their own. Which segues nicely to another thing the WHS doesn’t do.
   
• ... allow a course rater to rate courses based on their own game
  
  When Gretchen rates Forest Hills Golf Course, she does so as a male that day, in order that her bias of Hole 16 will not affect the outcome of the course rating. Approaching the process as a male, she evaluates different yardages and landing zones than she would as a female, which takes her own personal history of errant shots, bad feelings and lost balls on that hole out of consideration.
  
  Though the raters frequently play golf after rating, this practice is used to enhance the knowledge gained in the four hours prior, in order to calculate a more fair course rating. So don’t feel badly that “it ain’t about you” – it also ain’t about the raters.
   
• ... care what the weather is on the day of the rating
  
  True story: the first time the team had to rate Salishan Golf Resort, it rained 2 inches. All. Day. Long. While rating in head-to-toe raingear that had soaked through by the 3rd hole, they had to envision the course with routine roll, and no puddles on the green. As crazy and contrary as it sounds, they had to pretend it was a dry day even with rivers running down the fairway. Remaining uppermost on their minds were normal, midseason conditions.
  
  What does that mean, exactly? The real definition is “Midseason includes all of the months of a year when a golf course is regularly maintained and scores are being submitted for handicap purposes.” Or, as overheard at a Calibration Seminar, “Think high noon on July 1st.” (this is why we cannot rate your course in January).
  
  Just like your handicap indicates the goal of better rounds, the course rating assumes better weather. We’re also considering historical wind conditions in that location (i.e., beach or gorge courses) and everyday rough heights. And even if we rate after aeration, we consider the typical green speed without the bumps. In addition, we aren’t considering conditions boosted for your US Open Day or if the pins are tucked in evil places.

Questions? Contact Kelly or Gretchen in the OGA Handicapping & Course Rating Department at (503) 981-4653 x226 or Click Here to Email Your Question