Understanding courses: hole set, layout & tee set
The three building blocks of a course – explained simply and created in the right order.
The three building blocks of a course
So that NicerGolfJournal can represent courses with all their variants – several round configurations, different tees, different ratings – a course is split into three building blocks. It sounds like a lot at first, but it makes sense once you know the job of each part:
1. Hole set
A group of holes with par and stroke index, for example the "Front 9" or "Back 9". The hole set describes the holes themselves.
2. Layout
A playable round that defines which hole sets are played in which order – for instance an 18-hole round made of two nines.
3. Tee set
A tee of a layout (e.g. yellow, red) with its own ratings. Course rating, slope and par per category are attached here.
Hole set – describing the holes
A hole set is a named group of holes, usually 9 or 18. For each hole you record:
- Par – the standard number of strokes for the hole (3, 4 or 5)
- Stroke index – the difficulty ranking of the holes (1 = hardest). It determines on which holes you receive handicap strokes.
Courses with three nines are created as several hole sets (e.g. "A", "B", "C") and combined into layouts later.
Layout – assembling a playable round
A layout defines a concrete round. You select the hole sets to be played and set their order. The app ensures a layout covers exactly 9 or 18 holes.
Examples:
- 18 holes = hole set "Front 9" + "Back 9"
- 9 holes = "Front 9" only
- B–A = hole set "B" first, then "A" (for courses with changing starting order)
Only active layouts are available when recording a round. Each layout contains its own tee sets.
Playing just 9 holes on an 18-hole course?
Since version 1.4 you no longer need a separate nine-hole layout for that. Set the course up as one 18-hole layout and simply pick front 9 or back 9 when creating the round. Separate nine-hole layouts are only worthwhile when the course has true dedicated nines with their own official ratings.
Tee set & ratings – the tees
A tee set is a tee of a layout, e.g. "Yellow", "White" or "Red", optionally with a colour. For each tee set you store one or more ratings – one per category (men / women):
- Course rating – the rating of the course difficulty (e.g. 71.4)
- Slope rating – the relative difficulty (e.g. 128)
- Total par – the total par for this tee
The app needs these values to determine your course handicap, your score differential and your calculated handicap index (see the chapter Analysis: overview, statistics & handicap).
For tees on 18-hole layouts you can additionally record the official front 9 and back 9 values (course rating and slope) since version 1.4. With them, nine-hole rounds on this tee become fully handicap-relevant. Without them the app approximates the net result from half the 18-hole course rating and clearly marks it with ≈. This approximation works for casual play, but it never feeds the score differential or your handicap history.
Different par per tee
Some courses have a different par on a hole depending on the tee. NicerGolfJournal supports this: a tee set can set a deviating par per hole, which then takes precedence over the hole set par.
The right order when creating
Always build a course from the inside out:
- Create the course (name, club, country)
- Add hole sets (par and stroke index per hole)
- Assemble a layout from the hole sets
- Add tee sets to the layout
- Enter ratings per tee set and category
Note: A layout can only be created once at least one hole set exists. While there are no hole sets, the app points this out.
The app guides you along the way: if a course is not yet playable, the course detail shows the next step and jumps straight to the right area at the tap of a button. You can change a layout's name and active state any time later via Edit layout; the composition of hole sets stays fixed.
If you'd rather skip this work, import ready-made course data from this website – see the chapter Getting & exchanging course data.