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**duceswild** · 07-29-2012, 08:04 PM

As stated several times before, par is useful to understand the relative position of players at different points during a tournament. How would I know who is leading if Tiger is at 144 and Ernie is at 138 with Tiger two holes ahead?

Par is useful in quota point games and stableford games and an easy way for me to know my score without adding the total each hole,

What annoys me is changing par on a hole from 5 to four "to make the hole harder". The hole is the hole, a 4 is a 4, its even or one under. It also bugs me to hear that a par 4 is the "hardest hole on the course"; this is unlikely; the hardest hole is the one on which the highest average score is posted.

Don't do away with par; it has valid uses.

I agree with this completely. In tournament golf, we need par in order to understand the relative position of dozens of players at any given time. Par is not going away for tournament golf. I have read that The Masters was the first tournament to post the players' current scores relative to par, and it quickly caught on as a way to keep track of things. Maybe The Masters was just the first major tournament to do so.

Anyway, I also agree that you do not make a hole harder or easier just by changing value of par. The first hole at Olympic in the US Open was a prime example. The last time the US Open was there, it played as a par 5, and was considered the "easiest" hole on the course because the average score was 4.6, or 0.4 under par. This year, the same exact hole was declared a par 4, and players actually shot a little lower by averaging around 4.5 on that hole....making it one of the "hardest" holes on the course, even though the players scored lower on it this year than last time.

The real problem is that the pros pay too much attention to par. In tournament golf, par should be for the viewers to be able to keep track. The pros shouldn't pay any attention to it at all. Just shoot as low as you can on every hole and move on.

I always think of Billy Casper in the 1959 US Open at Winged Foot. The Par 3 third hole was long and tough, and Casper thought that trying to reach the green made bogey come into play. He laid up, all four rounds, just short of the green, and got up and down for par all four rounds.

07-29-2012, 08:04 PM	#22
duceswild Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 464 Senior Member	As stated several times before, par is useful to understand the relative position of players at different points during a tournament. How would I know who is leading if Tiger is at 144 and Ernie is at 138 with Tiger two holes ahead? Par is useful in quota point games and stableford games and an easy way for me to know my score without adding the total each hole, What annoys me is changing par on a hole from 5 to four "to make the hole harder". The hole is the hole, a 4 is a 4, its even or one under. It also bugs me to hear that a par 4 is the "hardest hole on the course"; this is unlikely; the hardest hole is the one on which the highest average score is posted. Don't do away with par; it has valid uses. I agree with this completely. In tournament golf, we need par in order to understand the relative position of dozens of players at any given time. Par is not going away for tournament golf. I have read that The Masters was the first tournament to post the players' current scores relative to par, and it quickly caught on as a way to keep track of things. Maybe The Masters was just the first major tournament to do so. Anyway, I also agree that you do not make a hole harder or easier just by changing value of par. The first hole at Olympic in the US Open was a prime example. The last time the US Open was there, it played as a par 5, and was considered the "easiest" hole on the course because the average score was 4.6, or 0.4 under par. This year, the same exact hole was declared a par 4, and players actually shot a little lower by averaging around 4.5 on that hole....making it one of the "hardest" holes on the course, even though the players scored lower on it this year than last time. The real problem is that the pros pay too much attention to par. In tournament golf, par should be for the viewers to be able to keep track. The pros shouldn't pay any attention to it at all. Just shoot as low as you can on every hole and move on. I always think of Billy Casper in the 1959 US Open at Winged Foot. The Par 3 third hole was long and tough, and Casper thought that trying to reach the green made bogey come into play. He laid up, all four rounds, just short of the green, and got up and down for par all four rounds.
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