DEAN IN THE SPOTLIGHT FOR US VETERANS’ DAY 

ROYAL Dornoch member Dean Knuth transformed the golfing world. 

Having decided the existing USGA Handicap System wasn’t up to scratch, he came up with an innovative concept which paved the way to the Course and Slope Rating System which is now in place worldwide. 

During a visit to Argentina, a newspaper headline described the inventor as “Pope of the Slope” – and it stuck. 

Dean served as a senior director with the USGA for 16 years and is a long-standing contributing editor to “Golf Digest.” 

He said: “While I am happy that my Course Rating and Slope Rating systems are now in use worldwide, I think that the World Handicap System has flaws which need to be rectified.” 

But it was his previous life in the US Navy which prompted the Golf Channel to pay a visit to his hillside home near San Diego to record a video to mark America’s November 11 “Veterans’ Day.” 

A youthful Dean, who had grown up in Wisconsin, served on a destroyer during the Vietnam War after graduating from The US Naval Academy. 

Later, having secured a Masters in Mathematics and Systems Engineering, he invented a means of tracking Soviet submarines at the height of the Cold War. 

Dean, a three times president of the San Diego Country Club and a member of The R&A for nearly 30 years is a regular visitor to Scotland with his wife Suzanne and they have bought a home in their beloved Dornoch. 

“We have been married for 25 years and for 24 of those we have been coming to Dornoch,” said Dean, who is also a member at Golspie. 

“I have served on both the USA Course Evaluation Panel and as a World Panelist, so I have been fortunate to see many golf courses, including more than 200 in Scotland. 

“We have a good friend who is a member at Cypress Point, which is our favourite in the USA. But our favourite golf course in the world outside the USA is Royal Dornoch.” 

Check out the Golf Channel Veterans’ Day interview with Dean below.