Kent Golf Limited
Course Rating Update
Date published: 30 Nov 2022
2022 has been a very challenging year for course rating. On a very sad note, we lost John Young at the end of 2021 and he is sorely missed by us all. He was a great stalwart of the county rating team, taking the lead in most of the course ratings for the eastern half of the county. Fortunately, we now have Alan Austin who has stepped up to the plate and has become an excellent member of the team and taken on the role of lead course rater.
Over the year we have managed to visit 11 clubs to undertake full course ratings and a few more to convert provisional ratings to full ratings for gender neutral and forward tee sets. It has not been easy this year, with the long hot dry spell in the summer months, as many courses lost their fairway edge definitions, so making the course rating measurements more challenging. Also, the very hot sunny days did not make life easy for our team of volunteers when having to walk the courses. Hopefully in 2023 the weather will be a bit kinder for course rating.
In writing this note, I would like to mention to all clubs the need to engage with us/county office if you are considering; course changes, new forward tees or introducing gender neutral tees. We are always here to help and assist you in these matters. In particular, over the wet winter months many clubs have difficulty in maintaining their measured course length and so want to move to forward teeing areas or mats. If the club wants to continue to play competitions or members want to return qualifying cards in general play, then there is a requirement to have a course rating for these forward tees. In the short term, we can issue provisional ratings, but the club will need to decide if these forward tee areas are to become a permanent fixture, and if so, they will need a supporting yardage measurement certificate to support a full course rating in line with their other tees. Once this is available, we will need to schedule in a visit to undertake the rating.
The work of the course rating teams is as you know voluntary. May I take this opportunity to thank all of the volunteers who give their time freely to assist in the ratings of the courses across the county. Without them, this valuable work would not go ahead in the way that it does.
Finally, thanking all clubs for their ongoing support in helping us maintain all the full course ratings in our county. We will be in touch with clubs again in spring 2023 for the next round of course ratings for the 10 year updates.
Mark Ward
Lead Course Assessor
Kent Golf
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