World Handicap System - Slope Rating

What is Slope Rating?

Slope Rating is the number which indicates the relative playing difficulty of a course for Bogey Golfers, compared to Scratch Golfers.

It is the difficulty comparison between a Bogey Golfer and a Scratch Golfer from the same set of tees.

In simple terms it is the combination of the Course Rating and the Bogey Rating, which allows us to calculate the Slope Rating of a set of tees.

The use of Slope allows a player’s Handicap Index to be portable from course to course and country to country. It also enables acceptable scores from any rated golf course in the world to be submitted for a player’s handicap purposes.

The Slope Rating is a key component in calculating the number of strokes each player receives to play a particular golf course. Each set of tees will have a Slope Rating value between 55 and 155.

The higher the Slope Rating, the more additional strokes a Bogey Golfer will need to be able to play it. The lower the Slope Rating, the less strokes a Bogey Golfer will require.

Slope rating explained