I finished last year at a public track that played just over 7100 yards from the tips and my handicap was 1.9 at the end of last year. I decided to join a country club this year for many reasons. Anyhow, the course is only 6700 yards from tips but is rated at 73.0. This is minimal roll on many holes and many times you need to hit a 3 wood off tee because of all the water hazards. If you miss any shot you will be penalized..its great for your game but so hard to score here. All the members laugh when visitors come here and no-one can shoot their handicap..its easy 4 strokes different. I was looking at current scores at club and I would be a 6 here. I play a few other tracks so once I get the 20 rounds in this year it will go up from current position. Anyhow, I feel the slope is off and needs to be higher. This is great for other tournaments and handicapped events but not when you trying to get scratch or better. Just yesterday, I played a course back home with a 73.5 slope and didn't play great at all and shot a 74. It would have easily been 80 at my club. The greens are a 13 with thick 3-4" rough with minimal roll in many fairways...How often do they or should they check slope on a course??

You sure you're not confusing course rating with slope? your quoted numbers make sense for a course rating but not for a slope rating as the standard slope rating is 113. A course rating of 73 would be indicative of a course with higher than standard slope (>113 slope rating). a 73 course rating would indicate that a scratch golfer would golf 1 stroke over par (on a par 72 course).

Not sure what confusing the slope rating vs course rating has to do with the OP's question, as both are indicative of how hard/easy a course, one for scratch golfer, another for bogey golfers.

The real question for the OP is, What is your Handicap Index?

I'm sure you know that your actual handicap, based off of your Index, will vary from course to course, because of the exact reasons you stated in your post.
Just making sure as in both your post and your signature you state just "Handicap" and from the sounds of it you think you should be getting few more shots at your new golf club.

Otherwise i have no clue how often courses update their slope rating. I would say not very often, unless there have been major changes.

how do you know the rating/slope wasn't off at your old club?

I had the same experience a couple years ago when I switched from a wide-open muni to a semi-private course with lots of trouble. My index went up several strokes and took a year to get it back down. I'm a much better player for the experience.

I kinda think the muni's course rating/slope was a little inflated.

What I posted was my handicap index via GAM's website (I just called it my handicap)not my handicap.

It has everything to do with understanding the question-it is possible to have a very low Slope Rating (Slope Ratings range from 55-155 and are based on a constant factor multiplied times the difference between the Bogey Rating and the Course Rating)-the OP refered to the slope rating (including a reference to a Slope Rating of 73.5-which would be indicative of a very easy course-but would be the Course Rating for a very difficult course-which would have a commensurately higher Slope Rating-closer to 155 than 113) more than once in his post-which is what I was responding to.

FYI-per USGA rules courses must be re-rated every 10 years (unless new then every 3 years for the first 10 years) and must be re-rated if significant changes have been made.

Oh, well i just thought it was fairly obvious that it was referring to the rating, not the slope. I personally have not seen any courses below 100, the reason for my assumption.

And those same members shoot +4 on unfamiliar courses. Course management can easily be 4 strokes.

The whole course handicap rating system is fatally flawed, imho, look no further than last week's TPC Sawgrass. Scoring on Thursday was much easier than scoring with Sunday's conditions. Same course, same rating, very different scores.

I also thought it would be fairly obvious but my experiences as handicap chairman lead me to believe that the USGA handicap system and its various inter-related ratings and indices are, quite possibly, the second most misunderstood rules/regs/procedures in golf. Second only to how to play a ball lost in a lateral or water hazard!!