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OT: US Open Golf...

Posted By: Henrik Bukkjaer
Date: Friday, 17 June 2011, at 9:21 p.m.

In Response To: OT: US Open Golf... (Bob Koca)

Bob, you're correct... In theory!

The par printed on the tee-side sign and the scorecard, doesn't affect the ball, and thus shouldn't affect the score.

Furthermore, par is something that the club can determine freely, it's not something you're forced to set according to specific rules. There do exist some guidelines that clubs normally follows, but they don't have to. At Augusta they have a very very long par 4 (I think it's the 10th) which is at least 20-30 yards past the normal recommendation for par 5, but the hole plays downhill at about 25-30 yards, giving the players additional distance on their shots.

But the par for a hole strongly correlates with the actual scores that the players achieve. Thus par is an indication to the player how the rest of the field will attack the hole. So you have a long par 4 or a short par 5, ,what's the difference? There's a good chance that the entire field will play the par 4 as that, all of them going for the green in 2, playing it the aggressive way. Had it been a par 5, you'd know that the average would be a bit higher and some players would back up and play more safe (not going for the eagle, but playing the safe par and occasional birdie).

Now again you could argue that it still doesn't matter to the individual player ,how the rest of the field plays the hole, he should still aim for the lowest avg. score possible on the hole regardless of it's par. True. But then again not the whole story. Had it been matchplay or play after the cut it would have been more true because you're playing your opponent more or less heads up and the leaders have the leaderboard to look at for target scores (I know a few players elect not to check scores, but most of them do check). But here's the thing - on day one and two, players are out in 2 sets and they are not paired according to score, so they do have to consider their score vs. the field, which will roughly be their score vs. par.

Now, I think both of you (Bob and Stick) are correct. I'm sure there are players in the field who are affected and some who are not. I don't think it's much though.

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