The Handicap Committee has completed the course data review for 2021. The data will be posted shortly.
Our goal in Metro Seniors is to organize golf tournaments that are fun and as fair as possible. This includes:
- A wide variety of courses
- 2 or more selected tees for all players
- Uniform, standardized handicap calculations for all players
- 4 flights organized by small ranges of player handicaps
Handicap Committee and Annual Reviews
The Handicap Committee is tasked with overview of the handicap system as key to fairness. Each year we make sure that the data used in handicap calculations is the best available. Why? Because things change. We add or drop courses. Courses may change their layout or tee locations that affect playing difficulty. The United States Golf Association (USGA) requires all listed courses to be re-rated at least once per 10 years or if a major course revision is implemented.
Last year we changed our handicap calculations to better conform to the new World Handicap methods. This required reviewing all courses and adding hole handicaps, yardages and pars for all courses, by selected tees and gender. CLICK HERE for a great example of how handicaps are calculated for Metro Seniors.
This year we added a special 3rd tee for men wishing to play from the most forward tees (usually Red). We also dropped a couple of courses and added one.
Technically the Course Rating and Slope (by tee and gender) are the critical course data. For 2021 with 25 courses, male and female, and 2 or 3 selected tees we have almost 125 different ratings and slopes to review. Fortunately only about 10% change each year.
What Exactly Are Rating and Slope?
CLICK HERE for a good review of Rating and Slope.
USGA as a service develops course ratings by tee and gender for enrolled clubs based on very technical measurements and calculations. These ratings are not cheap. Many courses will officially rate “most” of their tees. Red tees for men frequently will NOT have a rating. CLICK HERE for a description of how USGA rates courses.
CLICK HERE for a searchable listing of all USGA Rated Courses
Where Do Rating And Slope Come From?
USGA ratings are our primary data source for Metro Seniors. It is standardized and most courses have “invested” in them.
Course Scorecards are secondary source but less reliable than USGA. Most courses will include Ratings and Slope on their scorecards. “Most” of these will match with their USGA listings. However, we have seen examples where the ratings do not match with USGA. Why? Many reasons – the course changed, tees changed significantly, course was USGA re-rated but scorecards were “old”. Some course scorecards had obvious errors.
How do we get a rating and slope on “un-rated” tees? We use a USGA procedure based on course yardage from the nearest rated tee (by gender). USGA has developed this procedure from their huge data set. So the “estimate” is pretty good. More important, it is standardized and uniformly applied and fair for all. CLICK HERE for more.
Handicap Committee reviews all this data to make sure the “best available” information is compiled. It is then loaded into the handicap calculation system before the start of the season. We also publish these in OurGolfStats in the course schedule and on this website.
We may also look at scores for Metro Seniors to see if a specific tee has unusually low or high scores. This could lead to a change in the ratings we use but only after close inspection.
How Are Rating and Slope Used?
Your Handicap Guide is used to calculate your Course Handicap by selected tee for each scheduled outing based on the Rating, Slope and Par. Each week your new scores are added in and a new Handicap Guide is calculated along with new Course Handicaps.
