Most of this information was borrowed from a thread on the ITS games forum — thanks to SkipperRipper, Dannyboy, bigdog423452, Thor, and the other guys on the forum for the information!

Your player rating is actually your number on the ELO rating system, a system used to rate players in two-player games like chess. It doesn’t come into play unless you’re playing in a handicap tournament, but you can compare it to other players to see where you rate — the higher, the better. If you beat players in a contest whose rating is higher than yours, your rating goes up, and vice versa. DNFs really knock your rating down, from what I understand. Most of the top players rate over 3000, with the best even topping 3300.

You earn a handicap after playing 36 holes. There is a formula for figuring that too, but it’s usually about 3.5 to 4 strokes higher than your average. So, if you average about -15, your handicap will be +19. Your handicap is always updated based on your last 25 games played.

The following statistics are tracked for each player during a live round of Golden Tee, and the leaderboard will show what player had the best/most of something on that specific machine.

Longest Drive
Longest Putt
Most Birdies
Most Eagles or Better
Driving Accuracy
Greens in Regulation

Great Shot Points
Great Shot Points are awarded for just that. If you’re 80 yards or more out and land a shot within 5 feet of the hole, you get a certain number of GSPs. You also get a big amount of GSPs by holing out from anywhere outside 25 yards. Great Shot Points are one of the statistics kept by the game for each player to have played a specific course on that specific machine. If you accumulate the most GSPs for a particular course, you’ll see your name on the leader board!

Golden Tee Points
Golden Tee Points are also accumulated for each player on each course as you’re playing a live event. The breakdown of GTPs is as follows:

Triple Eagle – 2500
Double Eagle – 1500
Hole in One – 1000
Eagle – 250
Birdie – 100
Sand Save – 75
Par – 50
Green Hit – 50
Great Shot Points – 1 point for every 100 Great Shot Points
Driving Distance – 1 point for every 10 yards for drives (in the fairway only)
Putting Distance – 1 point for every foot for made putts