The relativity of par

[Mark Pearce]

Well, it's obvious this crew is sold on a par number they dream to achieve. Drop it 3 to 5 shots and even in your dreams that can't be achieved. Ah well, let's add 500 more yards to courses to make 72 a realistic par. It makes me think these hickory blokes are spot on by opting all together.

Your refusal to actually read what the other side of the debate are saying doesn't really take us much further forward.  If you want ANGC to be, say, a par 67, tell us what the pars of the individual holes will be under your system.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Scratch golfers are the experts, or maybe slightly better than scratch. Top 1%?

Pros on the PGA Tour are better than expert.

The OP is completely off for reasons stated by many of you already. Par is not what the best player shoots when winning the event. That’s ridiculous.

[David Ober]

Forget PGA Tour Pros being the only "Elite" players out there. These are the scores of the 121st SCGA (Southern California Golf Association) Amateur, being contested right now. Two 61's and a 62 today. Course is no pushover, it's par 70, 6800ish yards, 73.1/131. The greens are soft this time of year because of the heat, but ... WOW ....


https://scga-121stscgaamateurchampionship.golfgenius.com/pages/2333173

[Jason Topp]

One thought I have had is for a 6,000 yard course (Maybe the exact length is shorter) with one set of tees.  Par for those playing from the “tips” might be 66.  Par for the 18 handicap might be 72 and par from the forward tees 78. Might make for a more social and quicker game.  It would be interesting to see if such a course could present an interesting variety of challenges for all.   


As for par on pro events, the only real purpose is to determine who is leading midway through the round.  Average score rounded to the nearest integer might be an improvement but not much of one.  A series of birdie opportunities or tough holes creates a unique set of pressures that adds to the drama. 

[David Ober]

Here's a great illustration of the relativeness of par, even when it comes to pros! For those of you who don't know him, Jeff Hart is a legend to anyone who has ever played professional golf in California. He's probably won more mini-tour events than anyone in history in addition to playing on the PGA Tour, Web.com Tour, and Champions Tour (had his full card in 2011, with a career best of T-3).


At Harding Park, he said "par" for him was 77 or 78...



https://golf.com/instruction/jeff-hart-pga-championship-tpc-harding-park/

[Peter Flory]

That is really incredible playing by him to get it under 80 with that much left on each hole. He basically can't miss a fairway with that distance handicap.