Slope Rating - History of Slope Rating

History of Slope Rating

In 1977, then Lt. Commander Dean Knuth, a graduate student at the Naval Postgraduate 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. When he was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, he developed a method for Bogey Rating. Together, the Bogey Rating and the Course Rating produces the Slope Rating of a golf course. Knuth served as the USGA's Senior Director of Handicapping for 16 years, beginning in 1981.

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. Since January 1, 1990, every golf association in the United States that rates golf courses, uses the USGA Course Rating System. As of 1994, foreign golf associations licensed to use the system were: Scotland, Canada, Ireland, Wales, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Bermuda, the Republic of China, Costa Rica, France, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Australia is the latest country to adopt the Slope System of course rating. It has continued to grow in use worldwide. The possibility of a common worldwide use of the USGA Course Rating and Slope Rating system is being discussed as interest grows in 2011.