Why Use Golf Course Rankings

As any avid golfer can tell you, the game is first about perfecting your strategy and secondly about getting a grip on different courses ; and is the reason why information about golf course rankings is so significant.

Going golfing is not a walk in the park, and courses are not simply Nine or Eighteen holes with various sand and water traps. Because the purpose of the game is to make every one of the holes with the fewest strokes possible each course is designed with a method intended to challenge each player. The amount of holes is mostly the sole consideration that individual courses will have in common with each other. Using rankings that are compiled to compare the different courses can give the player a suggestion of the issue that a particular course may pose.

The ranking is figured by estimating the average number of strokes that it takes for a scratch golfer to finish each hole. A scratch golfer is one who shoots even par or better each successive play ; generally an individual who has a nil handicap. The cause of golf course rankings is to assist players in deciding is a specific course is acceptable for their golf ability.

There are some flaws in the ranking system, however. As courses became increasingly challenging, scores by bogey golfers increased at a higher rate than the scores manufactured by scratch players. It was to address this issue that the Bogey Rating was formulated ; a strategy of evaluating a course according to the capabilities of a less than scratch golfer. This was critical since the game of golf, unlike lots of other sports, uses a handicap system to level the field between golfers of varying capabilities. Slope is a means of adjusting a player’s handicap to a particular course. The ranking numbers of slope ratings proved to be helpful in figuring handicaps in amateur play by determining how many handicap strokes may be given to those that required them. The more challenging a course might be, the higher the slope.

Common numbers for course ratings range between 67 and 75, while slope ratings change between 55 and 155. It is comprehensible that bogey golfers would like to pit their abilities against those of a scratch golfer, so that the information offered by golf course rankings gives them the goal for which they must shoot. While many may never achieve the ambition of being a scratch golfer, playing on courses that challenge their capabilities can give them the possibility of perfecting their techniques.