Golf handicapping: slope vs. course ratings

Factual Questions
1

I’ve been playing golf for years now, and one thing has simply eluded me: how can it be that the difficulty ratings given to courses can be so different between the slope rating and the course rating?

For example, one of the Washington, DC public courses is pretty damn easy. Wide open fairways, no water, no big hazards, average length. Its course rating is 68.00 and its slope is 109.

There’s another club course down I-95 aways that is pretty challenging. There’s a good bit a water, a bit short, but very narrow fairways and lots of hazards. Its course rating is 64.9, and slope is 122.

Being a more or less average golfer, I can clearly see by the slope rating of the courses that course B is much more difficult than course A, and my gut tells me that. However, how can course B have a course rating 4 strokes less than the most wide-open course I’ve ever played? Comparing these course ratings, I would be led to believe that course A is more difficult for the scratch golfer than B (because of the course rating), but course A is easier for the average golfer than B (because of the slope). I would expect that slope and course ratings would more or less go up and down in proportion to each other.

What on earth am I not understanding here?

2

As I understand it, course rating uses length as a major factor and it also evaluates a course based on how a scratch golfer would play it. Slope refers to the difficulty of the course to all players of all skill levels.

e.g., a course in Florida that is short but with a lot of water hazards might be a piece of cake to a scratch golfer who doesn’t get shaky hitting a shot 150 yards over water like a 20 handicapper does, would have a very low rating but a high slope.

Are you referring to East Potomac (Hains Point)? I love that place - urban golf. Back when I played there there would be funk bands playing in the park and prostitutes servicing their clients in cars parked along the course, and big money changing hands in the clubhouse. Loved that place.

3

Yes, here is a good explanation. Roughly, the rating is what a scratch golfer would shoot, and the slope refers to how much higher poorer golfers would score. Slope refers to the slope of the line on a graph joining a scratch golfer’s score and a bogey golfer’s score.