Every course on CaddyCompass carries one of three difficulty ratings: beginner-friendly, intermediate or championship. The rating is derived from the course's own published data, not from opinion, and the method is simple enough to state in full.
Where a course publishes a slope rating (the official measure, from 55 to 155, of how much harder a course plays for a bogey golfer than for a scratch golfer, where 113 is neutral) we use it directly:
We read the slope from the course's representative tee (the white tees where available, otherwise the most complete tee set), so the rating reflects how the course is most commonly played.
Some courses don't publish a slope. For those we score three observable facts: par (72 or more counts strongly), total yardage (6,400+ counts, 6,800+ counts strongly) and whether the layout is a links course, which typically adds wind and firm ground to the test. High combined scores land in championship, mid-range in intermediate, and short, low-par sheltered layouts in beginner-friendly.
Difficulty is not quality. Some of the best value rounds in the UK are gentle nine-holers, and some championship tests are best saved for a special occasion. The rating also can't see day-to-day conditions: wind, pin positions and rough height move any course a band in either direction. Treat it as an honest starting point, and the per-hole scorecard on every course page as the detail.
Browse the results: beginner-friendly, intermediate and championship courses.