Chris,
It would be better if there was no such thing as par.
The 12th West is a good example - a hole where the heath does ask for a decision for most - and into the wind in the winter its a fantastic decision to have to make for me - and the majority of members are making it even when it's downwind in the summer.
Ogilvy, in contast, is never making it.
At 434 meters (I think) it is a par four by any definition and I don't care what the members choose to call it but don't alter it to make it 'harder' in order to justify calling it a 5.
One suggestion I heard the other day was some members think the West Course is too easy - which had connotations of altering it somehow to make it harder.
As great as that course is, surely the easiest way to make it harder is to call it a par 70 to satisfy the 'too easy' argument and avoid unnecessary alteration to a great course.
If you leave the par at 72 and then try to make the course 'harder' you have to change it.
How about you move the 2nd green back 50 yards? - surely it can't be too hard to recreate that green !!!!!!!!!
I'm not sure Tom Doak would want to try that even with Alister MacKenzie,Alex Russell and Mick Morcom all on hand to assist.
The solution is to educate members not to alter terrific holes simply to make them harder and justify a number of 5.
40 years ago there were many par fives in Melbourne that changed to fours - 10 and 15 at Metro, 13 at Yarra, 5 Riversdale, 1 and 17 Kingston Heath - and they remain good holes because rather than altering the hole the members faced the reality of what those holes had become - par fours.
Do you think the 10th at Huntingdale would be a better hole with the fairway bunker filled in and called a par four?
40 years later and with all the technological advance isn't it time clubs went through the same realization and called a new group of holes - e.g 2 and 12 at RM, 18 Yarra,13 Commonwealth,18 Woodlands,10 East RM (perhaps the best 2nd shot in Melbourne) what they have become in order to avoid unnecessary alteration to fantastic holes just to make them harder.
The best hole at my old club, Eastern, was the 12th from what is now the women's tee.
It was a 440 yard par 4 and the 11th was a 465 yard par five.
The VGA made the club change the 11th to a 4 in the mid-70s and in order to retain a par 72 the 12th tee was taken back and it became one of the poorest holes on the course - blind downhill tee shot, 2nd played off a steep downslope and the green altered to make it more difficult.