Skip to content
Zomma Golf
Menu

The toughest course in the Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT combined area is Sugarbush Golf Course, at slope 139 — ahead of Vermont National Country Club at slope 136 and Burlington Country Club at slope 134.

All 20 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.

26
courses
1
state
6
rankings

Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, VT is a combined statistical area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.

Toughest test

— all 20 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees

The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.

Hardest from the tips

— all 15 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees

The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.

Longest

— all 25 courses with a published scorecard

The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.

Widest tee spread

— all 23 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
# Course Widest tee spread
1 West North at Cedar Knoll Country Club 3,489 yds between tees
2 Vermont National Country Club 3,010 yds between tees
3 Country Club of Vermont 1,986 yds between tees
4 Burlington Country Club 1,672 yds between tees
5 Kwiniaska Golf Club 1,602 yds between tees
6 West South at Cedar Knoll Country Club 1,579 yds between tees
7 Alburg Country Club 1,477 yds between tees
8 Sugarbush Golf Course 1,428 yds between tees
9 West North at Cedar Knoll Country Club 1,404 yds between tees
10 South North at Cedar Knoll Country Club 1,347 yds between tees
11 Champlain Country Club 1,323 yds between tees
12 West South at Cedar Knoll Country Club 1,293 yds between tees
13 Essex Country Club 1,195 yds between tees
14 Country Club of Barre 1,189 yds between tees
15 Enosburg Falls Country Club 1,097 yds between tees
16 Rocky Ridge Golf Club 1,052 yds between tees
17 The Links at Lang Farm 1,031 yds between tees
18 Richford Country Club 577 yds between tees
19 Northfield Country Club 480 yds between tees
20 Arrowhead Golf Course 421 yds between tees
21 Bakersfield Country Club 360 yds between tees
22 Blush Hill Country Club 274 yds between tees
23 Montpelier Elks Country Club 154 yds between tees

Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.

Oldest

— all 21 courses with an opening year

The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.

Highest above sea level

— the top 25 of 26 courses with a coordinate we could sample

Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.