Club glossary
What Is Slope Rating® in Golf?
The USGA's measure of how much harder a set of tees plays for a bogey golfer than for a scratch golfer, on a scale of 55 to 155 with 113 as standard difficulty.
Slope Rating® is the USGA's measure of how much more difficult a set of tees plays for a bogey golfer than for a scratch golfer. It ranges from 55 to 155, and a Slope Rating® of 113 represents standard relative difficulty. The higher the Slope Rating®, the more the course punishes higher-handicap players relative to low-handicap players, and the more strokes those players receive.
How it is set
Slope Rating® is determined by the authorized golf association under the USGA's course rating system, at the same visit that sets the Course Rating™. The rating team produces two numbers for each set of tees:
- the Course Rating™ — the expected score of a scratch player, and
- the Bogey Rating™ — the expected score of a bogey player (roughly a Handicap Index® of 20 for men and 24 for women).
The Slope Rating® comes from the gap between them: the difference is multiplied by 5.381 for men's ratings and 4.240 for women's. A course where bogey players struggle much more than scratch players — forced carries, heavy rough, fast greens — has a wider gap and a higher Slope Rating®. The USGA explains both on its Course Rating™ and Slope Rating® page.
Example
From the blue tees, a course has a Course Rating™ of 72.3 and a Bogey Rating™ of 96.8. The difference is 24.5; multiplied by 5.381, that gives a Slope Rating® of 132.
How it is used
Slope Rating® appears in two formulas:
- Course Handicap™ — Handicap Index® × (Slope Rating® ÷ 113) + (Course Rating™ − par). On a 132-slope tee, a player with a 20.0 Handicap Index® receives about 23 strokes before the par adjustment; on a 113-slope tee, 20.
- Score Differential — each posted score is scaled by 113 ÷ Slope Rating®, so a round on a hard course and a round on an easy course count fairly toward the Handicap Index®.
Common misunderstanding
Slope Rating® is not a measure of how hard a course is for everyone. A course can have a high Course Rating™ (hard for scratch players) and a modest Slope Rating® (not much harder for bogey players), or the reverse. Course Rating™ measures difficulty; Slope Rating® measures how that difficulty grows with handicap.
Related terms
In Bubs: each set of tees stores its Slope Rating®, Course Rating™ and par, and every Course Handicap™ and posted score uses them. See handicaps.