If shooting a "birdie" or better is considered "scoring" in golf, then every hole should be birdieable at a reasonable percentage by the majority of players who are legitimate contenders within any division (within 30-40 rating points of the top-rated player competing). "Reasonable" design should produce birdies in the 10%-50% range. Less than 10% likely only favors the longest arms and will also mean there may be no birdies when the wind/weather is tougher. Greater than 50% birdies on average and the hole is perhaps too easy for that player skill level.
If the hole designer specifically designs or sets par so birdies are not possible on a hole, they are basically saying, "Sorry, you cannot score on this hole." That's as bad as a bowling alley having little bumps they can remotely pop-up on each alley to slightly reroute the ball when it appears a bowler is approaching a 300 game. Note that players with ratings over 1030 have to average 4 under SSA par just to maintain their rating meaning they need the potential to shoot at least some rounds 8-10 under par to offset the rounds in the other direction.
Point being, designers need to provide the potential for 18 birdies but still make it rare to actually throw 18 birdies. If a course is designed well for a skill level, players and spectators should not be surprised with rounds more than 10 under when the par is set properly. Based on tour stats, it also means the courses for FPO need to be set about 70% of the MPO length so their birdie percentage is as high as MPO. FPO playing the same layout as MPO and just adjusting pars higher does not provide the same playing experience, i.e., fewer ace chances, fewer par 3s and more par 5s. Currently, the FPO courses on tour are still set too long with birdie averages about 10-15 percentage points lower than MPO in the same event.
Scoring lower than the other guy is "scoring". Ricky didn't lift the bear because he hit a target score for that course. He lifted it because he got the lowest score
compared to all the other players.
A player can score by avoiding the bogey the other guy got just as effectively as getting the birdie the other guy didn't. A player can't score by getting a birdie if everyone else also got a birdie.
Besides, it would be more exciting if the scores relative to par were not just always just ratcheting downward.
The bowling alley bumps analogy is invalid. Nothing about making a hole easier or harder is random like that. A better analogy would be making the lane twice as long - for everybody.
As for FPO vs. MPO, the 70% is correct, but you are assuming MPO holes are at the correct level of difficulty. MPO holes are actually a little too easy. Ideal for FPO would be about 77% as long as the current MPO holes, and the MPO holes should be about 10% longer than they are now.
I agree that merely setting pars correctly for FPO is not good enough.
I think it would be within the realm of designer's choice to design a hole that does not offer much chance of a birdie. As Houck says, sometimes you gotta break the "rules" of good design.
However, par on that hole should still follow the guidelines. It would NOT be OK to reduce par below the guidelines to eliminate birdies. Just as it would NOT be OK to raise par above the guidelines to create birdies. Fiddling with the par on one hole negatively affects the credibility and usefulness of par on all holes.
In theory, a course could have all the pars set at guidelines and still offer scores of 10 under. However, to date, almost all of those have been achieved by having two or three holes with pars that are too high. We shouldn't be real comfortable with many scores of 10 under.
There is no such thing as "SSA Par". You conflated the two different terms to try to make a point.
Even par can be rated anywhere from 990 to 1030, depending on the amount of punishment the course dishes out. So, on a course with a lot of punishment, a 1030-rated player could maintain their rating by shooting even par. And on a course with little or no punishment, they would need to get 6 under to maintain their rating. In other words, to maintain their rating they need to shoot their rating, no matter the par. Duh! Whether the course offers no birdies or many.
