Doug ....that's the little secret about par that these numbers don't tell you, mainly because par didn't exist at the time.
Surely it took two big hits for the better player to reach the 1st green and carry the burn....but the less accomplished player could always play it as a three shotter, and most probably did....and had nothing to compare it to, except that he had one more stroke than the big bloke who could hit it over in two.
...and I'll bet you one golden guinea that almost everyone played it as a three shotter in the featherball era.
Par, since it has existed, has always been [and should be], a floater.....one of those hard to fix entities [and I'm sure everyone here knows at least one 'floater'], a hard to peg, always on the move sort of thing that resists efforts to fix it very long, or to anything.
Would I trust Par with my daughter?....Maybe, but I would keep at least one eye out and tell her not to expect Par to be here for the long haul.
By employing Historic Design Forensic methodologies, I think it is easy to see that, of late, we have become more than a bit enamored with Par....and instead of trying to keep propping him up, we really ought to think about taking him down a notch or two.
...but don't worry, it initially will hurt us more than him. In fact I doubt he will even notice....because after all, he is a floater......