Reference - Course Rating
Course rating, like golf, has its origin
in the British Isles. The first measure of course difficulty was par.
The word par is derived from stocks; i.e., "a stock may be above or
below its normal or par figure." British golf writer A.H. Doleman in
1870 asked Davie Strath and Jamie Anderson, two professionals, what
score would be required to win The Belt at the then 12-hole course at
Prestwick. Their response was that perfect play should produce a score
of 49. Mr. Doleman called this par for Prestwick and when Young Tom
Morris scored two strokes over par for three rounds (36 holes) to win
The Belt, the term stuck.
Another measure for scoring difficulty
of a golf course was "bogey" which was the expected score of the
fictitious Colonel Bogey. About 1890, Mr. Hugh Rotherham of the Coventry
Golf Club proposed the concept of a blind opponent in match play. He was
called Colonel Bogey by Dr. Thomas Browne of Great Yarmouth. Colonel
Bogey was a low handicap golfer who usually made 4 on long par-3 holes
and 5 on long par-4 holes but otherwise played nearly flawless golf.
Bogey scores ranged from 76 to 80 on most courses.
The first course rating system was
developed by the Ladies Golf Union (LGU) under the leadership of Miss
Issette Pearson in about 1900. Robert Browning in "A History of Golf'
says of the LGU, "Their biggest achievement was the gradual
establishment of a national system of handicapping ... No doubt it was
uphill work at the start (1893) but within eight or ten years the LGU
had done what the men had signally failed to do -- had established a
system of handicapping that was reasonably reliable from club to club."
The first USGA Course Rating System was
established in 191 1. It was proposed by Leighton Calkins who also
proposed the first USGA Handicap Committee. Calkins was an officer of
the Metropolitan Golf Association and served on the USGA Executive
Committee in 1907 and 1908. Calkins' proposal was that par ratings be
based on the play of U.S. Amateur champion, Jerome Travers. Rating
courses according to the "expected" score of the national amateur
champion became accepted, and course rating was born in America. Calkins
was angered, however, by the USGA's decision to allow clubs to determine
their own ratings, calling such a system a "farce" and "useless."
Calkins later won his point, and official USGA Course Ratings were
issued for the USGA by regional golf associations as they are today.
By 1914, the USGA rating concept began
to dominate articles in British golf magazines. By 1925, a Golf Unions'
Joint Advisory Committee of the British Isles was formed to assign
Standard Scratch Scores to golf courses in Great Britain and Ireland.
Today, their men's authority is called the Council of National Golf
Unions (CONGU).
In the 1920's, the Massachusetts Golf
Association suggested refinements in course rating methods, and William
Langford of Chicago developed a fractional par concept which further
refined course ratings. In the 1930's, Thomas G. McMahon, who was
President of the Chicago District Golf Association in 1942 and 1943 and
President of the Southern California Golf Association in the early
1960's, refined Langford's technique and introduced "differentials"
between scores and course ratings.
The USGA Handicap Committee adopted the
Massachusetts Golf Association's recommendations for course ratings for
men in 1947. This method called for rating on a hole-by-hole basis where
each hole was rated in tenths of a stroke. The Handicap Manual contained
descriptions of golf holes that typified holes of a specific rating. The
hole ratings were totaled and rounded off to the nearest whole number;
i.e., "The rating of the entire course is the total of the separate hole
ratings, with the final figure being the nearest whole number, such as
69 or 72, and never in fractions, such as 69.4 or 71.8."
During this same period, the Chicago
District Golf Association endorsed the "fractional par rating method."
The Chicago rating method depended on (1) yardage, (2) course
difficulty, and (3) experience. "Course difficulty" was based on a
course's overall character rather than the sum of a hole-by-hole
evaluation. "Experience" meant the observation of the play of expert
golfers and comparison of their performance with the existing rating.
Both course rating procedures were
eventually approved by the USGA. Both remained in effect until April
1960 when a new single approach was introduced. It involved a
"preliminary yardage rating" for each hole which was "modified, if
necessary, in the light of significant course conditions, called Rating
Factors." The Chicago District Golf Association continued to use the
fractional par method.
In 1963, the USGA introduced another
course rating system. It was essentially the procedure developed by the
Massachusetts Golf Association modified by principles of the fractional
par rating method used by the Chicago District Golf Association with one
official yardage rating chart calculated by the USGA.
Another significant change was announced
January 1, 1967. Effective that date, course ratings were expressed in
decimals and not rounded off to the nearest whole number.
In 197 1, William Wehnes of the Southern
California Golf Association developed the first "obstacle rating"
procedure using plus and minus adjustments by nines, for a number of
course obstacles. For a time, this technique was used by both the
Northern and Southern California Golf Associations.
In 1977, Lt. Commander Dean Knuth of the
Naval Post-Graduate School proposed an improved course rating system
that involved numerical rating of ten characteristics for each hole.
These ratings along with the weighted factors for each characteristic
provided an adjustment to the distance rating for the course. The method
used some elements of decision theory and was intended to be a
systematic, quantitative approach to course rating. It was the basis for
the present USGA Course Rating System. Knuth eventually became the
USGA's Senior Director of Handicapping.
In May 1978, Dr. Richard Stroud, a
consulting member of the Handicap Procedure Committee, wrote a letter to
Gordon Ewen, Chairman of the Committee, proposing the concepts of the
Slope System. In discussing a 1971 proposal by Dr. Clyne Soley and
Trygve Bogevold for a slope-like approach to handicapping, Stroud wrote,
"It should be emphasized that the proposed scheme for selecting
course-difficulty parameters is based on length alone. There is a
significant chance some more sophisticated methods will prove necessary;
i.e., the Knuth method for refining course ratings and a similar
procedure for predicting slope." This proved to be the case, and course
rating became a two-number procedure in 1981.
In 1979, the USGA formed the Handicap
Research Team (HRT). Charter members of the Team were Trygve Bogevold,
Dean Knuth, Dr. Lou Riccio, Dr. Fran Scheid, Lynn Smith, Dr. Clyne Soley,
Dr. Richard Stroud, and Frank Thomas. The HRT researched and refined
many aspects of the handicap procedure including course rating. The
concepts of expert and bogey ratings emerged. The present USGA Course
Rating System, which includes Bogey Rating and Slope Rating, was
developed and tested by Knuth.
In 1982, the Colorado Golf Association
rated all of its courses using the new procedure, under the leadership
of HRT member Dr. Byron Williamson. In 1983, Colorado tested the Slope
System with positive results. Five other states joined Colorado in the
test during 1984, and others followed in subsequent years.
In 1987, the USGA Course Rating
Subcommittee was formed with Joe Luyckx, of the Golf Association of
Michigan, as chairman. It included members of the men's and women's
Handicap Procedure Committees. The primary functions of the subcommittee
are to refine the USGA Course Rating System Manual and Guide and to
render decisions on course rating problem situations (similar to
decisions on the Rules of Golf, rendered by the USGA Rules of Golf
Committee). Warren Simmons, from the Colorado Golf Association,
succeeded Luyckx as chairman in 1992.
Since 1989, the USGA has organized and
conducted a national course rating calibration seminar at each USGA
annual meeting for course raters from all over the U.S., and from
foreign countries licensed to use the System.
Since January 1, 1990, every golf
association in the United States that rates golf courses, except one,
uses the USGA Course Rating System. As of 1994, foreign golf
associations licensed to use the System are: Scotland, Canada, Ireland,
Wales, Sweden, Denmark, Bermuda, the Republic of China, Costa Rica,
France, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the
Netherlands, and the Philippines. The possibility of a common world-wide
course rating system using the USGA System is being investigated.
From:
http://www.worldgolf.com/wglibrary/reference/rating.html
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