While regional associations do their best to rate every tee, lower handicap female golfers who decide to play from the white or blue tees may
find themselves without a proper rating or slope. Can they still enter the score, or are they out of luck?
The USGA has a specific procedure when playing from an unrated set of tees (this applies to men as well - for example if course construction caused a
significant difference in yardage distances). First, locate the nearest set of tees that are appropriately rated. Next, sum up the difference in yardage
between the rated of tees and unrated set of tees. Then look up the yardage in the table below (make sure you use the table for the appropriate gender)
apply the difference to the rated set of tees.
Note that if the yardage difference is positive (the unrated set of tees is longer than the rated set of tees), you should add the numbers in the table to
the rated slope and rating. If the yardage difference is negative, you should subtract the numbers in the table.
Playing from the White Tees
For example, Susan often enjoys playing from the white tees and it poses more of a challenge for her long game. On this day in particular, she played
the Four Seasons Course, but unfortunately the white tees do not rating or slope for women. As a result, she looks for the nearest set of tees rated for women
- in this case the red tees which have rating 71.6 and slope of 126. She compares the difference in white tees (5931 yards) and
red tees (5307) yards, and looks up 624 yards in the above table. Because she played a longer set of tees, she adds 3.5 to the rating and 7 to the slope,
and uses a rating of 75.1 and slope of 133 when she enters her score.
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