These Arizona golf courses are on par with the toughest layouts in the country

Source: Phoenix Business Journal | Dale Brown

There are plenty of golf courses in the greater Phoenix area, but not too many of those reach into the upper echelons of difficulty as measured by the U.S. Golf Association's Slope rating.

The Slope rating measures the challenge of a course to the non-scratch golfer, men who have a handicap of about 20, and women who have a handicap of about 24, compared to scratch golfers, those fairway phenoms who have no handicap at all.

Slope ratings range from 55 to 155, and are computed from the difference between the Course rating (for scratch golfers) and the Bogey rating (golfers with the handicaps mentioned above).

One course in the area, the Renegade gold flags layout at Desert Mountain, has a men's Slope rating of 150. Four courses are tied for second at 149. Three golf courses with Slope ratings of 142 tied for 23rd on the top 25 list in the current issue of the Phoenix Business Journal. Among the courses coming in at 142 was the TPC Stadium course in Scottsdale, home of the annual WM Phoenix Open.

How does the challenge stack up at other well-known golf courses? Well, two California courses, the Riviera Country Club in the Los Angeles area and Pebble Beach Golf Links near Monterey, are both fixtures on the PGA Tour and both have men's Slope ratings of 144.

How about the Slope rating for what is probably the nation's most famous golf course, Augusta National? Many folks have guessed, but the privately held course has never been rated by the USGA.

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