Course rating outdated?

[Jari Rasinkangas]

According to the USGA course rating system a scratch golfer is defined as a male golfer who hits his drive 250 yards and can reach a 470-yard hole in two (and, of course, plays to scratch).

A bogey golfer is defined as a male golfer with a handicap index of 17.5 to 22.4, who hits his drives 200 yards and can reach a 370-yard hole in two.

With modern ball these yardages are totally wrong.  IMO the current course rating system is totally outdated.

What should be done?

Jari

[Tom Huckaby]

Jari:

The USGA has been considering that for a long time, and in fact those distances have now changed and been upped a bit.  I don't have the exact figures as my rating manual is at home, but it's a little closer to what most consider as reality.

In any case, remember that ratings are relative... it really doesn't matter what these distances are THAT MUCH because they're the same for everybody... That is, the course is going to come out with a rating and slope that one and all use, and all these distances mean are they are part of the methodology used to arrive at that figure.

The one big consequence of changing them is that if you do so too drastically, you also change what recommended distances are for PAR on each hole.  If that gets done, that's a sea-change for golf that really must be considered very carefully... Think of the consequences if all of a sudden 500 is the upper limit for par 4, lower for par three... you're gonna have a lot of par 68-69 golf courses, and a lot of others not too happy about having to reprint their scorecards... not to mention the policy implications, basically begging courses to rebuild themselves longer...

Methinks we should be happy with the distances as they are, in the overall.  And yes, they have been increased a bit.

TH

[Doug Siebert]

Tom,

Is that right?  Have they changed the idea of a 250 yard drive and 220 yard second shot for the scratch player?  I agree with Jari that its out of date, but I always assumed the USGA couldn't really change that unless they re-rated every course in the country simultaneously.  If they raised those numbers, a course rated under the new system would have a course rating several strokes lower, so handicapping just wouldn't work with some courses rated under the new system and some under the old, unless there was some kind of an adjustment factor for courses rated under the old system.  Unless they can look at the raw data you raters generate and create new ratings without needing to send guys to every course in the nation?

I suppose the vanity cappers would be pissed, a 2 might become a 5, a 20 become a 24.  The sandbaggers would be happy for just a second, then they'd realize that everyone else would get a higher handicap also

[Jari Rasinkangas]

Let's say that we have such a boring course where all bunkers are at 250 from tees.  20 years ago the bunkers made the course difficult for the scratch player.  Now he drives around 300 yards so none of the bunkers affect his play anymore.  This makes a really big difference when comparing the official rating and the real world.

The rating is mostly based on those spots with outdated lengths where the distances of bunkers, lakes etc. are calculated from the middle of the fairway.

In Finland all courses are rated with the old lengths and I haven't seen any news about getting them updated.  Of course it would be a huge job to do that but now the handicaps are not based on the reality.  And that was the whole case why this course rating system was created.  It was based on the real world data in the 80's.  

Another thing is that the difference between a scratch golfer and a bogey golfer is totally different than it used to be 20 years ago.  Bogey players don't hit much longer but the scratch players really do.  The slope system is based on comparing scratch and bogey players but they play very different game nowadays.

I've seen this to happen at my home course.  When comparing players who already played in the 80's, the bogey golfers have about the same handicap as they used to have.  But most of the single digit handicap players have got their numbers down by 2 - 4 strokes.  That is a big difference.

Jari

[William King]

According to the USGA course rating system a scratch golfer is defined as a male golfer who hits his drive 250 yards and can reach a 470-yard hole in two (and, of course, plays to scratch).

A bogey golfer is defined as a male golfer with a handicap index of 17.5 to 22.4, who hits his drives 200 yards and can reach a 370-yard hole in two.

With modern ball these yardages are totally wrong.  IMO the current course rating system is totally outdated.

What should be done?

Jari,

Do you think, or more importantly, does the USGA really think that yardages off the tee, outside the pro ranks, have that much to do with score or the rating of the course?
I play at a fairly difficult course that has a rating over par if ever so slightly: par 71, blues 71.2, blacks 73.5 form the tips. The only time I see par equaled or beaten on this course is by folks with a sub 2 index whereas the 5s, 10s 15s and 20s that hit it far, but not under as much control, don't seem to do as well. Do you think that these yardages may perhaps be some sort of minimum perhaps?

[Jari Rasinkangas]

The length is the most decisive factor when course rating is defined.  E.g. if a hole is made 20 yards longer you have to add a lot of bunkers or other hazards to the same hole to get the same affect to the rating of the hole.  I found out this when I was assisting a rating group on our home course.

When USGA made course rating and slope system they studied a huge amount of real world statistics and they found out that the length makes a hole much harder than hazards.

The yardages are not minimum lengths they are average lengths.

Jari

[Tom_Doak]

Jari:  It's not outdated exactly, they have just kept their definition of what a scratch player is, intact, despite the changes in equipment.

Yes there are plenty of players who can drive more than 250 yards now.  By the USGA's standards, this just means they ought to be plus-handicaps, if the rest of their game was equal to the task -- and there are way more plus-handicap players than there used to be.  Tour pros are +6 or maybe even higher than that.  

You are right that to be a +2 now takes less skill than it used to take, because the equipment has made it easier to drive longer and reach par-5's in two and so forth.  But those guys are a +2 instead of scratch today because they have taken advantage of the longer equipment, and they score lower than they used to.

Length is a critical factor and the USGA course ratings reflect that.  However it doesn't mean that everyone who can drive the ball 300 yards can break par.  

[JohnV]

Tom H,
The yardages are still the same this year.

Tom D,
The USGA did make a small change in the definition of a scratch golfer.  It used to be defined a player who played to the standard  of the players who qualified for the US Amateur, but they have realized that those players are + handicaps today and so they removed that part of the definition.

[Tom Huckaby]

JV - thanks for the correction.  Someone had told me the distances changed a little this year... it's great by me they remain the same - talking about relearning requirements!

Our seminar on the course rating changes is March 21.  Until then I ought not to speculate.