Columnist Peter Benton: Slope system is now standard

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2001 | 1:56 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

It appears that many golfers are still unfamiliar with the slope system which we now use as our handicapping formula.

Prior to this system becoming the policy of the USGA back in 1987, handicaps were full of inequities, favoring the low handicap player and invariably penalizing the higher handicapped person, particularly if playing a more difficult course.

For instance, in the "old days" if a nine-handicapper and a 20-handicapper traveled to the coast and played an incredibly difficult layout, it would be the person with the higher handicap who would be more penalized.

Conversely, if our mythical nine-handicapper played against a member of the course being visited who carried the same handicap, the visitor would not stand a chance of winning.

Why, you ask? Well, back in the old days, handicaps were naturally based on the score a player submitted at his home course, and if you had a nine, you carried that handicap to whatever course you played. However, your home course may have been relatively easy, and you could justifiably have been, say, a 13, at the more demanding layouts you were visiting -- hence the inequity.

Realizing this inequity, the slope is now the system that is utilized all around the world, in conjunction, of course, with an established handicap.

So what we now have is a course rating on which your handicap is established, and a player's "slope handicap," which is a number that represents the player's ability on an average layout (slope rating of 113).

Because there are few courses exactly the same, the golfer rarely plays off his slope handicap. Instead, he uses it to determine exactly how many strokes he receives or loses on any course.

This is achieved by consulting a chart which is posted at every course.

Scenario: Our player has established a nine-handicap on his home course with a slope rating of 113 (the average). He travels to a course with a slope of 140 and now he is going to play off 12 because of the difficulty of this particular course.

Just how does a golfer establish and maintain a handicap? Simple, really. All that's required is that the player logs his score at the completion of the round, along with the course rating and the slope rating at whatever course is played.