NYSGA Course Rating & Measuring Programs
The New York State Golf Association has developed two new Services offered to NYSGA Member and Non-Member Clubs in conjunction with the NYSGA/GHIN Handicapping Program. These are:
The NYSGA COURSE RATING PROGRAM
In New York State, we are fortunate to have a number of District and Regional Golf Associations authorized to do Course Rating. However, there are many areas around the state that these Associations don't cover. The New York State Golf Association has made the commitment to rate any course in an area not covered by an authorized Local or District Association. To do this, the NYSGA is training and maintaining a network of volunteer Raters to make up Ratings Teams to accomplish these ratings all over the state.
If your golf course has never been properly rated, if many changes have been made to your course since it was last rated or if it has been 10 years since it was last rated, please contact us via e-mail or call our toll free number 888-NYSGA23. We will either contact the authorized Local or District Association in your area or make arrangements to get your course rated ourselves.
There is a charge for this service to cover our considerable expenses. If your club participates in the NYSGA/GHIN Handicap Network we will rate your course at no charge.
If you would just like to know more about the NYSGA Course Rating Program, please don't hesitate to contact us via e-mail or call our toll free number 888-NYSGA23.
An Unofficial Layman's Description of The USGA Course Rating System
The fundamental premise of the USGA Handicap System is for every golfer to play to the best of his or her ability on every occasion and to post every eligible score so as to establish a Handicap Index that can be converted to a Handicap used to enable players of different abilities to compete on a fair and equitable basis.
Since golf courses can vary widely in difficulty there must be a way of equating scores played at these courses. The United State Golf Association introduced the USGA Course Rating System in an attempt to quantify the playing difficulty of different golf courses.
When first established, this rating system identified the difficulty of a course as it would be played by the scratch golfer. This is called a Course Rating and is a number rounded to one decimal place (example 70.1). Since the scratch golfer usually hits the ball straight, obstacles such as trees, water, sand, etc. are of little influence leaving effective playing length of the course as the major difficulty factor.
It eventually became evident that it was necessary to also identify the difficulty of a course for the bogey golfer since courses of similar effective playing length could vary widely in the number and severity of obstacles present. In 1987, the USGA introduced the Slope System as a means of evaluating both length and obstacles as the difference in difficulty between the scratch and bogey golfer. The Slope Rating of a golf course is a whole number between 55 and 155 indicating the relative difficulty of a course for the bogey golfer compared to the scratch golfer. In simple terms, the higher the Slope Rating, the more strokes the golfer with a higher handicap needs from the golfer with lower handicap.
To accomplish maintaining current ratings for the thousands of golf courses in this country, the USGA has trained local and regional Golf Associations in the USGA Course Rating System and supplied them with materials to make the resulting ratings accurate and consistent. With the tremendous increase in inter-club play this consistency and accuracy has become more and more important.
The NYSGA COURSE MEASURING PROGRAM
It is essential that the Tee-to-Green length of any golf course be accurate. This length is desperately important for Course Rating purposes and is checked during the rating process for accuracy. If the length of a golf course is different from what is given or what is shown on the scorecard, the discrepancies will be reported to the management of the course.
It is also very important that this length be maintained for daily play (see section 15-2 of the USGA Handicap System).
Recently, the concept of exact approach yardages has become popular with players. Thus, it has become necessary for courses to install markers at particular distances or measure existing landmarks to the center of each green to facilitate getting these exact yardages.
The New York State Golf Association has the equipment and capability to accurately measure these distances and has developed a program which is being offered to NYSGA Member and Non-Member courses. Primarily there are two levels to this program, measuring just 100, 150 & 200 Yard Markers and measuring these Markers plus all Sprinkler Heads.
As with Course Rating there is a charge for this service. However, if your club participates in the NYSGA/GHIN Handicap Network there is a substantial reduction in this cost.
If you would just like to know more about the NYSGA Course Measuring Program, please don't hesitate to contact us via e-mail or call our toll free number 888-NYSGA23.