Nevil's trip to the US Whilst most of the world is getting ready for the new World Handicap System to come into effect on Wednesday 1st January, we have until Sunday 1st November to get to grips with the new system. One of the advantages of this new system is that golfers will be able to play a foreign course and can tell at a glance which would be their best tee to play from based on the courses bogey rating. This is a calculation of the average score a 20 handicap man or 24 handicap woman would score. Each course also has a slope rating which is an indication of how difficult a course plays for the bogey golfer compared to the scratch golfer, the average score is 125 worldwide. I was in California last week playing a tournament on some really tough courses including the PGA West Stadium course which is regarded as the 4th toughest in the country, here’s a comparison of the slope ratings and some near home, all off the back tees: - 120 - Ingestre Park
- 121 - Trentham Park
- 124 - South Staffs
- 128 - Brocton Hall
- 139 - Beau Desert
- 135 - La Quinta Mountain.
- 138 - Indian Wells Celebrity.
- 139 - Silver Rock.
- 140 - Indian Wells Players.
- 143 - PGA West Nicklaus.
- 144 - Palm Desert Classic Club.
- 148 - PGA West Stadium.
I’m happy to say I shot under par at the two toughest California courses last week and came second best pro at the Classic Club and as a team we scored the best on the toughest courses as well! We’ll be helping you to get to grips with the new system throughout the year, in the meantime if you’re interested there’s lots of information on USGA.com. Golf is played quite differently in America, particularly in the areas I’ve played which are tourist venues or private Country Clubs like Arizona, California and Florida. They play very few competitions, have a lot more mixed golf, usually drink beer on the way round and very often have music playing in the cart. In fact, in the main they are astonished to think that we have 150 people playing a competition round and don’t have a drink on the way round. They also play off whichever tee suits their length, use many different kinds of balls as they lose a lot and find a lot and often play gimmies and mulligans. |