Golf courses are not created equal and the golf courses we play can have a significant impact on our handicap… and our stats!
I’ve long argued that there is more to course difficulty than simply course rating and slope and now we can measure it with TANGENT. In your Round Report, you’ll see a new section called Course Difficulty that breaks down the course you just played relative to other courses YOU HAVE PLAYED. This isn’t some generic course difficulty. You can quickly see how it compares to your other data in TANGENT. At a glance, you’ll know if you should expect to play better or worse than normal at this course and what part of your game might be impacted.
The current categories we measure are:
Course Rating: This is the rating for the tees you select from the USGA. They have their own proprietary way of rating courses (that I don’t always agree with). You can think of Course Rating as the ‘plays like’ par. So for the course above, this par 72 plays like a par 75.2.
Slope Rating: This is a rating by the USGA to indicate how the difficulty of the course scales from a scratch handicap to a 15 handicap. The higher the number, the more difficult the course is for a 15 handicap relative to a scratch.
Course Length: Longer courses are harder. This depends on the tees you select, but the slider shows if this course is longer or shorter than other courses you’ve played.
Size of Greens: Smaller greens are harder to hit. This compares the size of the greens of this course to other courses you’ve played. If your approach play struggles… it might just be that the target was smaller.
Size of Fairways: Smaller fairways are harder to hit. For this we normalize the size of the fairway relative to the length of the hole, but if the fairways are smaller, your tee shots will need to be more accurate to achieve the same strokes gained.
Number of Hazards: This is the number of potential hazards (including water, bunkers, and OB) versus the number of holes. More hazards, means more potential trouble.
Red bars indicate a TOUGHER course than you are used to.
Yellow bars indicate an average course for you.
Green bars indicate an easier course for you.
You can change how many courses are used for the comparison by using the filters at the bottom.
How can you use this data?
Course difficulty is a qualifier… As you digest your Round Report and your performance, Course Difficulty gives you a filter with which to digest the data.
For example, let’s say you had the best Strokes Gained Driving day of your life at Sheep Ranch. You hit every fairway! First of all… thats great! But the fairways are probably significantly larger than what you’re used to… That might explain the outlier day and you shouldn’t quit working on that driving accuracy.
Similarly, you could not hit a single green at Pebble Beach. You were so excited to play the course and you just played terrible… Well, Pebble has some of the smallest greens around. They are hard to hit for the best players, so quit beating yourself up and enjoy the fact that you got to play a bucket list course.
