If somehow way back in the early days match play or medal/match play was dominant and remained so, to the exclusion of stroke play? Here's is what I've been thinking about, as hair-brained as it probably seems.
Was the creation of par, bogey, etc done in part to make keeping score for stroke play simpler? It seems that numbers closer to zero are easier for human brains to remember than adding a hole score onto the aggregate score and remembering that number (it somehow reminds me of what the scientist Sorenson did about 100 years ago where the pH scale was created to give a measurement of the acidity of a solution in a range roughly between 0 and 14, instead of very large and very small numbers).
So if all people cared about was how they were doing vs their opponent, would we have courses today with hole types less common? For example:
1. How 'bout a hole that is analogous to a short game practice area. The teeing area could be moved around to rotate say from a 40 yard flop shot from an area of high grass, to a sand bunker requiring a short sand shot, another place in the bunker requiring a longer shot, to a bump and run from just off the green, etc, etc. I guess this would be the equivalent of a par 2 really.
2. If you wanted to have an 800 yard hole, why not? Par really doesn't matter!
3. And would architects be/been more willing to put in say unusual combos of hole lengths as they aren't worried about what is par for the course and overall length as well?
I've put on my asbestos suit. Flame away!
