DiscGolfNutt
Newbie
Does it really matter if each hole has it's own par? What if par is 54 and the first 17 holes are par 1? Then the Last hole is par 37??? Isnt it the same? Besides the driving order, what's good about it?
-
Discover new ways to elevate your game with the updated DGCourseReview app!
It's entirely free and enhanced with features shaped by user feedback to ensure your best experience on the course. (App Store or Google Play)
Par...
- Thread starter DiscGolfNutt
- Start date
trifocal
Eagle Member
Tough question, DGN. You could try looking into this discussion for your answer.
https://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126143
https://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126143
lines
Double Eagle Member
It was 8 threads down.
Book report due Monday.....
…..that thread mentions, many times, the benefits of par, and particularly of an accurate par.
It's true that wins & losses are based on total score, not par. But nobody every claimed otherwise.
It's true that wins & losses are based on total score, not par. But nobody every claimed otherwise.
Oddly enough, that's one thing that isn't good about it.
Par has no connection with driving order.
PMantle
* Ace Member *
Penalties added to par. Tradition. Strategy when first playing the hole, etc.
Funny that golf also determines winners with the lowest score, but finds a use for par.
trifocal
Eagle Member
I usually play solo, so I win pretty often.
There's a difference between actual use and tradition. I would be happy if someone could explain an actual use for par but so far any explanation I have heard makes no logical sense. I am not suggesting doing away with par. I just can't see arguing about something that basically is a baseline for people who never played that hole before to shoot for.
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2009
- Messages
- 6,840
Some parts of the country use circles and squares around their scores to indicate birdies and bogeys. It would be tedious to draw two squares around 17 scores. There wouldn't be room for about 34 circles around that last score.
Most of the uses for par, particularly well-set par, are beneficial, but not important. Of course, it doesn't determine the winner, so you can do without it. Some of the benefits are mainly for spectators, watching or following online or checking mid-round results.
Some of them, certainly not all:
(1) Par gives us the ability to punish missed holes fairly. The penalty for missing a hole is Par+4, so that one player missing a 200' open hole gets a different penalty than one missing a 1000' twisting wooded hole, and neither gains an advantage. As long as we're unwilling to DQ players for missing holes---which we don't---this is the most equitable solution. It depends on par being set reasonably accurately.
(2) Par gives us a measure of portability between courses. If I tell you I shot 62 yesterday, what does that mean? Good? Bad? But if I tell you I shot 5 under par, it gives you an idea; better if par were more consistently and accurately set, but still, a better idea than the raw score.
(3) If a spectator is told that Ricky got a 4 on hole 14, what does that mean? Good? Bad? Neutral? But if he knows that hole 14 was a par 4, then he knows that Ricky neither gained ground, nor lost ground, on the field.
(4) If a spectator sees that Paul's score is 52 after hole 13, is that good or bad? If Eagle is, at the same time, at 63 after hole 16, which is in a better position? It depends on whether holes 14-16 are all par 3s, or par 5s.
(5) If we're in a large event, with two pools playing different courses on the first day, and we both scored 55, who's leading? Well, if the course I played was par 57, and the course you played was par 64, you are. If you don't have par, you don't know.
(6) If you're playing a hole for the first time, par gives you some idea of what to expect.
(7) Par and it's relatives, birdie and bogey, are common language to golf, and the public in general. If we didn't have words for shots that are good, average, or bad, we'd inevitably invent them. It's useful to use generally-understood words.
---none of which are necessary to determine a winner, which is fine because no one's ever claimed that. All of which have some degree of usefulness, to at least some people if not everyone; more so if par is set well. None of which have anything to do with anyone's ego.
I'm sure there are more; those come to mind without giving it much thought at all.
…..(8) If well-set, it gives an idea of the difficulty of a course. I'm sometimes asked what the par is on our course, which gives people who haven't been here some idea of what to expect. We have two layouts, par 62 and 59, and par will tell you which is the easier one. When I read of a course being par 70, that definitely tells me something.
onenearby
Newbie
Par is a measure of individual scores against the course.
Tournaments are more likely to be held at challenging courses with holes that are harder to score par.
brutalbrutus
* Ace Member *
I would agree in a vacuum but almost everyone I know refers to their o/u score compared to all par3s(even at idlewild or Mt Airy local events where course par is most definitely not 54). Except when at big tourneys like BG Ams, then I just get confused about whether they are talking about par54 or actual course par...
trifocal
Eagle Member
Are you sure about that? You might take a look at this discussion, it's been going on for awhile.https://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126143
I understand there's a quiz on Par scheduled for Monday.
Welcome to DGCR. :thmbup:
I would agree in a vacuum but almost everyone I know refers to their o/u score compared to all par3s(even at idlewild or Mt Airy local events where course par is most definitely not 54). Except when at big tourneys like BG Ams, then I just get confused about whether they are talking about par54 or actual course par...
It's at least a potential benefit or use of par.
I either give mine in relation to 3 (because I frequently play courses that are par 54-56, so that's easy), or total score (on higher par courses). But I see a lot of beginners talking about their score compared to (course) par, and I've shown a number of experienced players around Stoney Hill who kept their scores relative to course par, not 3.
The uses of par aren't for everyone. Many have zero interest in the spectator value, for instance.
But some do.
A person can have no use for par, himself. If he states that, therefore, par has no use at all, other than to inflate egos.....well, that strikes me as a bit, uh, egotistical.
John Rock
Double Eagle Member
After reading about how the word "par" came to be used for golf, I learned it was borrowed from the stock market. A journalist was asking about scores needed to win the Open and decided that was "par", used in stock trading as a normal or average value of a stock. And this happened in 1870, a long time after people had been playing the game. So it seems the origin is more for non-players than for the game itself.
Similar threads
