DATE: Wednesday, July 2, 1997               TAG: 9707010490

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   47 lines

FORE: YOUR WEEKLY LOCAL GOLF REPORT HE GRADES THE COURSES

It takes most golfers mere seconds to rate a course. It's easy. It's tough.

Not Tom Smith.

The 78-years-young Smith heads the five-man committee that rates courses in this region for the Virginia State Golf Association. His territory stretches from Croaker to Virginia Beach, plus the eastern shore.

``The VSGA requires a course to be rated every 10 years, or sooner if changes are made,'' said Smith, who coached golf at Cox High School for 14 years and has been affiliated with the VSGA since 1979. ``A new course will be rated when it opens, then again three years later.''

Smith and crew rate about 25 courses a year. They don't just walk out and start taking notes. Initially, they attended instructional workshops. Now, they keep current through course-rating manuals published by the U.S. Golf Assocation.

Using a scale of 1-to-10, with 10 the most difficult, and 4 considered average, Smith grades every hole for: topography, quality of fairway, fairway width, recoverability and rough, out of bounds/extreme rough, water hazard, trees, bunkers, the green as a target, the green's surface, the psych effect a hole could have (is there a 200-yard carry over water or a ravine?) and approach-shot length.

Those numbers are run through a formula provided by the USGA and become the basis for a course's slope and rating.

``The whole purpose is to make the handicap system equitable,'' Smith explains. ``When you go from Cypress Point to Elizabeth Manor, you can plug into the system and adjust your handicap so you and your buddy can play a fair match.''

What's Virginia's highest rated and sloped course? It's one Smith rates, Royal New Kent, the recent creation of the Myrtle beach-based Legends Group. It beat The Gold Course at Golden Horseshoe with a championship rating of 76.5 and a slope of 147.

``I was really astounded by Royal New Kent,'' Smith said. ``I couldn't believe anyone could build a golf course so beautiful - and so demanding. You'd get to the tee and you had to hit your best shot to keep it in play.''

The Gold Course is under renovation. Smith will re-rate it once work is done. Could be the start of an interesting competition. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Area courses

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