Bob:
You say:
"Par only matters when ... well, when it matters. That is to say, in a tournament. It matters profoundly when you are competing against a field because par tells you important things about how the field perceives a hole. Which tells you how they are likely to play a hole. Which gives diffrerent weightings to your shot options."
It might be more accurate regarding a hole's par in stroke play to say, "It matters because you THINK it matters", and in that sense you're definitlely not alone.
You say; 'it tells you important things about how the field perceves a hole', but it may be more accurate to say, you THINK it tells you important things about how a field perceives a hole.
And then you say all that gives you different weightings to your shot options.
But Bob--what happened to the idea that any golfer play any hole in stroke play golf in the FEWEST shots possible, of course always considering the risks of his shot options while attempting to do that?
I've played a ton of stroke play tournament golf in my life and I would say any of us might THINK we know what others may be thinking and even deciding to try and do on any particular hole, even as it relates to par, but how much does that really help us to KNOW what they're going to do or what they did?
Not much at all really, unless any of us might have the unusual opportunity to analyze carefully a hole by hole scoreboard of an entire field before going onto the course to compete against that field.
We can all see today on the Tour that a hole's par is not of all that much importance or consequence to intelligent course managers as they generally think about stroke play tournament golf in WHOLE round scores, not necessarily individual hole scores as that relates to par. That's why they talk about things like "patience" and "you can't win a tournament on Thursday but you sure can lose it."
I'm not exactly sure why you're referencing the "tweener" par holes like ANGC's #13 or #15 but do you really think an intelligent course and tournament managing touring pro at the Masters actually cares if the scorecard calls either of those holes a par 4 (instead of the par 5s they are called) as to how he plays those holes?
Or looked at in a different way!
Suppose the Masters actually removed all hole pars, or total course par from their card or the tournament altogether and let the players compete for the tournament only considering their total scores at the completion of the tournament.
Do you think then that any player would care what any other player was thinking or doing or how "par" mattered to him in how to play any hole, or even the entire tournament for that matter?
I'd doubt it--and so it shows that par is an arbitrary relative measure, basically utilized for other reasons in golf and that although we THINK it matters in stroke play golf, it really doesn't!
I will admit I do think in some ways it's sort of a useful relative measure to some golfers sometimes but ultimately it really doesn't matter and shouldn't in stroke play golf.
The history of how par first came into the game, and the eventual purpose it was used for is a most interesting one, though, and maybe a thread should be started about that. A good thread like that might point out even better what par is and isn't.