Rating our courses is no handicap

In amateur golf there is nothing more fiercely debated than someone’s handicap.

If you are playing a round of golf with a stranger, the opening question of “what do you play off?” before the first tee shot is hit always makes an appearance. If the golfer says a 16 and smashes his first drive almost 300m down the middle of the fairway there are always eyebrows raised.

When he follows up that drive with a couple of birdies after some neat approaches, then there’s even more doubt in the mind of his playing partners – unless it is a team competition – then naturally you welcome those four pointers, albeit with plenty of scepticism.

I have a friend who always breaks the ice before a competition by saying: “Don’t worry about the prizes, boys. If I wanted a toaster, I would have bought a toaster.”

He’s so right, because you see the usual suspects walking off with the prizes week in and week out, and when you hear the ridiculously high winning scores, it’s natural to think there is something dodgy going on.

Which is why the news that South Africa are close to completing their USGA course rating project should be celebrated in the 19th hole at courses countrywide.

It has been a lengthy process, which started in June 2016, and has covered the country far and wide as they rated 438 golf courses. They only have three more to go – Somerset West, Noordsberg Country Club in KwaZulu-Natal and Alexander Bay in the Northern Cape – and should be finished by the end of the month.

According to Golf RSA’s Eric Lefson in the Handicaps Africa Network monthly newsletter, rating one course can take some time, “it just depends on the number of tee options at the club”.

So what does this have to do with a golfer’s handicap? The Course Rating is a measure of how difficult a tee or course is for a scratch golfer relative to par. The Slope Rating is a measure of the relative difficulty of a set of tees for a higher handicapped golfer when compared to the scratch golfer. The SA Golf Association will still decide when to introduce the new ratings.

It’s confusing stuff for us who can’t even remember what we made on the last par-three, but is essential in addressing the fact that not all courses are made equal, and remind some course architects that they are not designing courses for a professional golfer, but rather the weekend player.

Now, if only all golfers could put in their real scores each time they play...