Understanding the USGA Slope/Handicap System

By Jack Moorehouse

When the United States Golf Association (USGA) introduced the Slope system of handicapping to its members, it looked like it would be an uphill battle for recognition. Not every state accepted it right away. California refused to adopt it until 1990. Today, more than 20 years later, it’s universally accepted. Below is mini “golf lesson” on what it is and how it works.

The Slope system adjusts a player’s handicap to the course he’s playing, eliminating what the USGA calls the “portability problem.” With the Slope system, every player has an Index. No matter where the player plays he can consult a conversion table to learn how many handicap strokes he gets that day. Ideally, the Slope system levels the playing field for the player.

Brief History of Slope System

The first USGA Handicap System was introduced in 1912, so golfers of varying levels of skill could compete fairly. Over the years, the system was refined. Then along came Dean Knuth, who developed the Slope system in 1975 as part of a post graduate degree.

After attending the University of Wisconsin on a baseball scholarship and an unsuccessful tryout with the Minnesota Twins baseball team, Knuth accepted an appointment to the United States Navel Academy. After graduating in 1970 with a degree in mathematics, he embarked on a Navy career. 

As part of his training, he was sent to the Navy Postgraduate School, where one of his assignments was to find a problem, gather data, and make statistical conclusions. By then golf had become the sport of choice for Knuth, and he called the Northern California Golf Association as part of his project. The person who answered the phone told Knuth that the way golf courses are rated needed work.

Course Rating Criteria

Just like that, Knuth had his problem. All that was left was to figure out a way to solve it.

He said that his project’s premise was that all golf courses of similar length are not created equal. From there he developed a new method for rating golf courses. This new method earned him his master’s degree. The USGA liked his system so much they adopted it. 

A critical part of the Slope system is rating the courses using special criteria Knuth developed for his master’s project. The system rates each hole based on width of fairway, thickness of rough, topography, water hazards, out-of-bounds, trees, bunkers, the greens (size, slope, contour, and speed) and psychological considerations.

To standardize the procedure, the USGA taught people how to rate courses.

Knuth, who had quit the Navy to become director of handicapping for the USGA, and other officials conducted scores of rating seminars at which more than 5,000 people were taught how to rate courses. These people fanned out throughout the states and began rating courses one by one. Now nearly every course you play is rated.

How the Slope System Works

After you’ve turned in enough scores to establish a handicap, you are issued a USGA Handicap Slope (A) that appears on your handicap card. The number is expressed in decimals, like 4.9, which is your index. You don’t play with this number. Instead, you use it to determine your handicap on a particular course operating under the Slope system.

Also included on your handicap card is your home-course handicap (B). It is figured for you automatically, thus making it necessary to consult the slope chart at your home course. Your home-course handicap is not necessarily the one you play with when you visit another course. When you play at another course using the USGA Slope system, you consult a chart, which computes the handicap you’ll use.

If, for example, your handicap was 4.9 at your home course, XYZ Country Club, in Providence, RI, and you are playing at the ABC Country Club, in Los Angeles, CA, you would consult that course’s slope rating chart to get your handicap for that day. Depending on what the chart reads that 4.9 might convert to a 5 or a 4. That’s the handicap you would use.

Six states in the United States implemented the system in 1984. Soon, it caught on. One by one the states adopted it for their golf courses. Today, it is required for all golf courses in the United States and many around the world. Oh, yeah, in case you’re wondering, Knuth gave the rights to the Slope system to the USGA. He said it was a good thing for golf. Go figure.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.