Paging Chuck Kennedy

[DMajor]

The Seattle area had the pleasure of having Dave Feldberg play the CSI this weekend. During his victory speech he said that courses that have all pars at three when there are realistically six holes that are par fours (Seatac) keep player ratings lower then they should be. Why is this the case?

[Chuck Kennedy]

I think you'll have to ask Dave that one. That wouldn't be the case purely from a math standpoint. Maybe he's implying that it has to do with a course not attracting higher rated players to play them unless they have higher pars? The implication being that players will play better with better players? If it's psychology, I would think higher pars marked on the same holes might lower ratings because a 4 doesn't seem like a bogey whereas marked as 3s, players are going to be under more pressure to not "bogey" those tough par 3s.

[DMajor]

I wanted to double check if there was a mathematical reason for it that I had never heard of. So I thought I better ask the authority on ratings calculations. I will try to track him down to see if he can elaborate on his comments.

Thanks

[Sean Phillips]

Dave was saying that if the par was changed to 60, then the rating points per stroke would change from 10 to ~7-8.

I'm pretty sure he's mistaken, the way I understand it is the SSA determines the points per stroke.

Am I correct?

[Chuck Kennedy]

The actual SSA determines the rating points per throw, not the artificially set par.

[Flash]

Like was stated before, Par only matters when someone misses their starting hole! But I guess if a bunch of people missed their starting holes and the real par was greater than 3 it could swing the SSA higher.

[DMajor]

So I saw Mr. Feldberg at the Downriver Open this weekend and asked him if he could further explain his theory about the Seatac Ratings. He said the par affected the spread of ratings points per throw and that the spread would be smaller per throw if the par was higher.

From what I understand about ratings (and what has been said above), par has nothing to do with the SSA that determines the spread of the ratings points per throw.

Did the ratings formula used to include par as a factor in determining the spread of ratings points per throw?

He mentioned that maybe what he was talking about had been fixed.

[Chuck Kennedy]

No change. Par has always been independent of ratings and has no bearing on them other than a psych factor for players

[Tim]

Originally Posted by DMajor

He mentioned that maybe what he was talking about had been fixed.

There's a good chance there's another explanation....

[kel]

There are those that build rockets . . . and others that just launch them.