29th March 2025
Course Ratings and Scoring Index Update
From time to time course ratings are amended mostly at the request of Club’s seeking to ensure that their Club’s ratings accurately reflect the playability / difficulty of their course.
Gardiners Run ratings were last reviewed and modified in 2021 and the Golf Committee agree that it would be appropriate to review ratings at regular intervals. In 2024 the Club requested Golf Australia to review our ratings, which they do via a comprehensive model.
Late last month GA provided their recommendations for Gardiners Run.
The Golf Committee reviewed the recommendations, which were closely aligned to the feedback we have received over the past couple of years, and agreed to implement them for both Men’s and Ladies courses effective 1st April 2025:
GA added that “by reducing the scratch and slope ratings what we should start to see is players GA Handicaps increase which will also make them more competitive when playing away. It should also make it a bit harder for visitors to play to their handicap at Gardiners Run.”
In the following chart, the impact of these changes, at several handicap levels, is summarised:
Scoring Index
To complete a review of our key metrics, the Golf Committee also reviewed the Stroke Play Index, which was also last reviewed in 2021.
The impact of the enhancements to the 6th hole to the scoring index was regularly raised with our committees.
This review assessed the scoring data from 22,000 rounds from Men’s competitions on the Blue and White Courses and 2700 rounds by Ladies on the White and Gold Courses.
The Men’s index only required some minor changes with changes to holes 1, 4 and 6. The data showed that hole number 6 was now marginally more difficult than hole number 1.
The Ladies index also elevated hole number 6 to rating #1. The data also guided some changes to several holes, while maintaining a good balance between the front and back nine holes. The Revised Indexes are shown in the updated scorecard below:
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
