Richard Fellner on slope, indexing: “Without actual data, we are only guessing”

If hole indexes and slope ratings at your club aren’t based on competition data, they really should be.

The latest opinion piece from Inside Golf editor Richard Fellner suggests more should be done to use data when assigning hole indexes and course slope ratings.

While not the first time Fellner has spoken about this topic, it is surprising that more isn’t done to assign hole indexes for every course in Australia based on the competition data scores.

Luckily, we already have that data at our fingertips. Golf Australia has all the data for every round played by every player, every day from (nearly) every tee at every course. With a few keystrokes and number crunches from GolfLink, we can see, with 100 percent certainty, how a hole/course fares when played by any level of golfer.  

It is thus a very simple prospect to determine, precisely, the indexing of each hole for golfers in each skill level, and the correct slope of an entire course versus any other course in the country, when played by any level of golfer.

It’s been six years since the introduction of the new handicap system in Australia. It makes a lot of sense to get a more accurate, data-driven measurements of slope ratings and hole indexes for each course based on the millions of rounds that have been played in that time.

Read the full opinion piece over at Inside Golf.