If the question is raised because one is surprised about a tour player shooting a low number with very few fairways hit in regulation, then one must realize the talent on the tour today. Tour players are just that, tour players. They do this for a living. The winner shoots a number. What it is to par is irrelevant.
Now, if this is a concern, then one must take a page from the US Open. Narrow the landing areas, one “swath” of a 2” intermediate rough, a 6” rough and greens that are as hard as the landing strip at Kennedy. Now, you can defend par! Like it or not, the physical and mental conditioning of a tour player today is leap years ahead of the past. Just as the commercial says, “these guys are good.”
The last factor of the equation brings us back to the USGA. They have been asleep at the wheel. Technology has gone too far making most of our great, classic courses obsolete not to mention many of the modern courses. Oh how it sickens me to see a classic course destroyed in preparation for a major competition. For example, Ross did not want 19 yard landing zones!
With this said, we are where we are. This cannot be changed. After all, the score is just a number. Maybe the time has come to go back to the old system and eliminate Par from the language of golf and just play hole by hole! It never seemed to bother Bobby.