Curtis Skeels  › Oshtemo Township Park   July 28, 2015 at 6:50pm

So now that I'm looking back on some of hte rounds at Amateur World's last week, it appears the PDGA has Longs with Par 4s (hole# 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, & 14).

However, the scorecard and other sites list it the same as shorts at ALL Par 3s...who makes the decision to change that on the scorecard? Curious what the PDGA used to determine those as Par 4s vs 3s.

Dan Chando   July 28, 2015 at 11:01am

it's generally based on the Par guidelines the PDGA has in place for designing a course. You can check out the details here (http://www.pdga.com/course-development) then click on "Par Guidelines Based on Skill Level, Hole Length and Foliage Density"

Lawrence Leonardi   July 28, 2015 at 12:37pm

Curtis, it is the tournament director's discretion to assess par for an event. The guide listed above is for designing a course with a particular skill level of player in mind.

Jacob Hunter   July 28, 2015 at 1:33pm

Dang I've been throwing a better score this whole time!

Curtis Skeels   July 28, 2015 at 2:24pm

@Larry & Dan - makes sense regarding the guide. So really, the Par is set by the Course designer(s) but with any Tournament it's up to the TD's discretion to make changes...and if they do it should be following the guidelines the PDGA has listed there.

Curtis Skeels   July 28, 2015 at 2:24pm

@Jacob - exactly!! ;-)

Lawrence Leonardi   July 31, 2015 at 11:43am

@curtis. If you look at the guide it has different ratings/colors. If the course is designed for blue it would reflect blue par. However if the tournament has gold level players it wouldn't be appropriate to have blue par for gold players and such if there is only novice players playing par ... more

Curtis Skeels   August 3, 2015 at 5:59pm

Interesting...thanks @Larry!