Unfortunately, the difficulty rating you see on the course page in-game is based on raw aggregate score without taking into account the ability of the players who have played the course. Most good courses get played by the people who play often and tend to be better at the game. They post low scores and the course gets an "Easiest" rating.
Take my El Toro Golf Club course, for example. Upon release, it was mainly played by folks who play several rounds per week and was given an "Easiest" rating. Because the course was a finalist in a design contest, HB featured it in an amateur handicap tournament. The course got lots of plays by people who don't play so religiously. El Toro features firm greens which are challenging to handle for newer players, so, as you would expect, the amateur handicap players struggled, and the course has a "Hard" difficulty rating now.
In regards to the ability to see the green settings, the main course page was designed at a time when the green speed and firmness were a single setting. Now, what you see represents the green speed only, and green firmness is a mystery until you step onto the course. HB has already identified this as something to fix in TGC2 (right, Laura?)
