Ratings and the Ideal Course

[Doofenshmirtz]

The first tournament was just played at a course that I designed over the winter. Tee pad placements are cemented yet (PI). In thinking about some of the scoring on some of the holes, in particular with the gold tees, I started wondering about how the ratings would pan out for an "ideal" course.

So here goes a question for the statistically minded: IF every hole on a course, from the gold tees, played at exactly 25/50/25 percent for -1/even/+1, would a score of par result in a 1,000 rated round from those tees for players with an average 1000 rating? Would such a spread result in a 900 rating for the white tees if achieved by players with an average rating of 900?

Is more information necessary to determine this? If so, what is it?

 

[Steve West]

The first tournament was just played at a course that I designed over the winter. Tee pad placements are cemented yet (PI). In thinking about some of the scoring on some of the holes, in particular with the gold tees, I started wondering about how the ratings would pan out for an "ideal" course.

So here goes a question for the statistically minded: IF every hole on a course, from the gold tees, played at exactly 25/50/25 percent for -1/even/+1, would a score of par result in a 1,000 rated round from those tees for players with an average 1000 rating? Would such a spread result in a 900 rating for the white tees if achieved by players with an average rating of 900?

Is more information necessary to determine this? If so, what is it?

That scoring distribution averages out to par on each hole, and SSA is supposed to be the average score for a 1000-rated player, so an even-par round should be rated 1000.

Or nearly, usually about 1002. It wouldn't be exact because there are a bunch of adjustments in the ratings formula. The scores from any players who weren't part of the group that averaged 1000 and also played the Gold tees would also have a subtle effect that could go either way.

This would be true for any distributions that average par; 0/100/0, or 50/0/50, or whatever.

Those adjustments would likely cause it to be farther from 900 for the white tees, but it should be close.