- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
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- 4,525
It's not just the "No Par 2s" where people feel they must be able to birdie. We had a couple of holes at Stoney Hill with par set where it was the most common score for better players, very doable, but very hard, almost impossible, to birdie. Tough pars, where saving par is the name of the game, and screwing up is a bogey or worse. A number of people howled about this and, because personally I don't care that much about "par" under any definition, we relented and changed them.
The issue with these holes is not the Par setting per se, but rather what they are rewarding/accomplishing. A course should provide a challenge and resultant scoring separation to the top players.....to determine who the BEST players are. These holes only serve to separate and determine who the WORST players are.
I do not believe Par-2 holes should ever be used in a serious tournament (and I am not a fan of impossible birdie Par-3's for the same reason). But, when they are.....they should be correctly designated as such. .....and, due to the evolution of our sport (and skill level demographics), there are plenty of Par-2's in use that top players encounter in the vast majority of the tournaments they play.