Played with a friend here in San Antonio a few weeks ago at a muni. We played from the tips and it was sloped at 131. Our handicap is about the same but he smoked me by 13 shots!! I played Tour 18 with him this past weekend in Houston which is his "home" course and the slope rating was actually less yet he still beat me by 8 shots! Tour 18 was brutal and since it took 5 hours+ I assume it was difficult for everyone. I know my friend is not a sandbagger.

Question is are some handicaps more equal than others? I want to play in the Golf Channel tour this year which is flighted but simply based on handicap as the USGA sets forth may not be leveling the playing field. Am I missing something?

I don't know what to tell ya...

Two rounds...and one at his home course isn't the best indicator.

In the perfect world "slope/rating" is used to keep the handicap equal no matter where one plays.

HOWEVER occasionally there are glitches in the system.

But most of the time I find it's usually player dependant.

E.g. If you play on a WIDE open course all the time and your index is calculated there....moving to a very tight and narrow course (if it's around the same slope/rating) you generally ARE NOT going to score as well.

Or a player that is use to hitting to super large greens then moves to a course with postage stamp greens again is going to score higher.
Or a player that plays a course where the front of the greens are all open (allowing for running up the ball) is going to have a more difficult time on a course that requires them to fly everything into the green.
Or a player that plays a flat course with no elevation change, and flat lies in the fairway, is going to have more difficulty with a course with large elevation changes, and awkward lies in the fairway.

To add, it also depends on how much of your/your buddy's handicap is based only on your respective home courses....
I find the guys that travel and play mulitple courses have a more "true" index compared to the guys that play the same course over and over (usually have a handicap a stroke or so lower than what it really should be).

As well, don't forget about which tees one plays from. I know the calculation "shouldn't" matter but it does.
Say you are a legit scratch player from 6100 yards (play those tees because you can't hit it very long) then move back to 7200 yards....with the slope/rating you "might" only get 1 stroke extra for playing the tips...but I can almost guarentee that scratch guy from 6100 yards IS NOT going to come close to his index at 7200 yards.

Vice-versa, the guy who plays from 7200 and is a legit scratch....will generally light up a 6100 yard course!

Food for thought.

So when he smoked you by 13 shots, how much under and how much over your handicaps were you?

Slope and rating is a rating designed for the "average" player. They have definitions of what constitutes a scratch player and what constitutes a bogey golfer, both of which are used to determine slope and rating. I can't recall the exact definitions, but a scratch player is one who average something like 250 off the tee, bogey golfer averages 220.

So that said, there are a LOT of different type of scratch players, and probably even more types of bogey golfers. I have a buddy whose handicap is about 5 more than mine, but put us on course carved through the trees and I kick his butt because he sprays it all over the place. Put us on a wide open course, and we're much closer with our handicap. With the two different courses you still could have similar slope and rating depending on other hazards, but you end up with two different results.

BTW, be prepared for sandbagging if you enter any amateur tournaments. Unfortunately, until the tournament directors really get serious about eliminating it, it will always be there.