What is a golf courses slope?
The quick answer is that it’s a single number indicating the difficulty of a golf course to a “bogey golfer”. The figure is used when calculating handicaps. The Course Slope value is a two- or three-digit integer, always between 55 and 155, with 113 being the average or “standard” value. Slope values increase with difficulty. But there is a catch that we’ll discuss shortly. There will be one Course Slope for each Course Rating. The blue men’s tees might have a Course Slope of 123. The white men’s tees: 119 and the ladies’ red tees perhaps a 114. These figures are almost always printed on the score card in the United States. Course Slope is a creation of The United States Golf Association and has been licensed to the Royal Canadian Golf Association. Courses outside of the United States and Canada (and their protectorates) will probably not have a Slope rating.
