Terms
What does par mean in golf?
Par is the number of strokes a scratch golfer is expected to take on a hole or a full round, set hole by hole mainly by yardage, and used as the baseline every other score is measured against.
Each hole carries its own par, set by the course before you ever play it, based mainly on length — short holes are par 3, mid-length ones par 4, and the longest par 5, with the course's overall par simply the sum of all eighteen. It represents the strokes a scratch golfer would need on a good day: reach the green in the "regulation" number of shots for that par, then two putts. Everything else in the scoring vocabulary hangs off that baseline — a bogey is one over it, a birdie one under, and so on in both directions. Par doesn't move with the weather or the wind on the day; it's fixed to the course. It's also the number every golfer secretly measures their whole round against, whatever the handicap on the card. Put that round on the wall with our golf gift ideas.
Written by Craig Fearn, The Golf Gift Co.
From the journal