Course Ratings & Handicaps
Course Rating
The purpose of the Course Rating System is to measure and rate the relative difficulty of golf courses across Canada so that a player’s Handicap Factor is accurate and transportable from golf course to golf course. The Course Rating System takes into account factors that affect the playing difficulty of a golf course including yardage, effective playing length and number of obstacle factors such as topography, elevation, bunkering, etc. British Columbia Golf, which administers course ratings, slope and handicaps, endeavors to rate courses a minimum of once every 10 years and will review course ratings whenever physical change of alteration requires this service.
For information on particular courses, please search below.
Handicaps
The purpose of the RCGA Handicap System is to make the game of golf more enjoyable for golfers by providing a means of measuring one’s performance and progress and to enable golfers of differing abilities to compete on an equitable basis.
Through this system, each golfer establishes an “RCGA Handicap Factor” which is a numerical measurement of a player’s potential (not actual) scoring ability on a course of standard difficulty. The Handicap Factor is calculated using the best 10 of the player’s last 20 rounds and updated with each new round played. The Handicap Factor travels with the golfer from course to course and is adjusted up or down depending on the length and difficulty of the course played, resulting in a “Course Handicap”. The Course Handicap is the number of strokes a golfer receives from a specific set of tees at the course played and represents the number of strokes he would require to play equitably against a “scratch” golfer (a golfer with a Handicap Factor of “0.0′). The more difficult the golf course, the more strokes the golfer receives and vice versa.