How is "par" determind on a golf course hole?

Question

Is it based on yardage? The strokes it takes the average golfer to complete? Just curious..

Answer 1

It is based on the yardage of each hole, the PGA has a set of yardage standards that must exist for each hole.

Answer 2

It is usually based on yardage. Shorter holes will take less strokes to complete in general, so they are par 3 and usually range from between 100-200 yards. Par 4 are normally around 250-450 yards and par 5 holes tend to be between 450 and 550 yards. Of course, these yardages sometimes increase for professional tournaments. The layout of a hole will not usually dictate the par of a hole, unless it is on the border of a par 4 or par 5. Hope this helps

Answer 3

The "PAR" value is quite arbitrary really. It depends on the course designer and the golf club (course & ground) committee as to what PAR value most appropriate to assign to any particular hole. The yardage merely indicates the distance from tee to green. There are only Par 3's, Par 4's and Par 5's on any golf course.

The longer the yardage the more difficult the hole will be, and to decide the degree of difficulty (based on yardage & other incumberances or hazards like no. of bunkers, water hazards, trees, punitive rough, out-of-bounds layout, dogleg severity, etc) for any hole a certain 'stroke' index' or SI (1-18) is then assigned to the partcular hole; the lower the SI No. assigned the more difficult the hole is to play.

A Par 3 is deemed to signify the max. no. strokes a 'scratch' or professional golfer would take from tee into the hole. Similarly for a Par 4 and 5. On top of that the whole golf course is also given a 'course rating' as well as a 'slope rating'. The higher the course rating and the slope rating the more difficult the course is (especially for handicapers).

The total individual Pars for 18 holes will then make up for the golf course PAR value (between 65 being the lowest to 74 as being the highest).

Answer 4

Par of a hole is the function of yardage. Today's par 3 is up to 265 yards on some courses on the pro tour.  For member's courses , very few exceed 250 yards. Par 4's range from 270 to 450 yards while par 5' s  run from 465 up to 580 yards.

Answer 5

Each hole has a par assigned to it, for example short holes are usually par 3.  The more difficult the hole the higher the par value.  The highest being par 5.  If you add all the par vales for each whole up you will come up the with score that represents par for the course.  Most course are around 72 or so for par

Answer 6

Here is a previous answer by Yahoo member "Ohio_Golfer34":

Course rating and slope rating are calculated for a course on the basis of a visit to the course by a USGA rating team.

The rating team will spend time with the course's staff going over the course and will spend a lot of time on the course taking measurements of various things. The USGA recommends that the rating team play the course either before or after the rating visit, too.

Based on the information gleaned during the visit(s), the course rating and course slope will be calculated, certified by the appropriate overseeing golf associations and given to the club, which then posts the ratings on its scorecard and elsewhere.

Course rating used to be based almost solely on length. The longer the course, the higher the rating. But obstacles, in addition to distance, are now part of the consideration.

The rating team will go over the course with an eye to how both scratch golfers and bogey golfers will play it.

A scratch golfer, in this use, is defined by the USGA as a male golfer who hits his drive 250 yards and can reach a 470-yard hole in two; or a female golfer who hits her drives 210 yards and can reach a 400-yard hole in two (and, of course, plays to scratch).

A bogey golfer, in this use, is defined by the USGA as a male golfer with a handicap index of 17.5 to 22.4, who hits his drives 200 yards and can reach a 370-yard hole in two; and a female golfer with a handicap index of 21.5 to 26.4, who hits her drives 150 yards and can reach a 280-yard hole in two.

So, for example, on a 400-yard hole, the team will go 200 yards down the fairway to analyze the landing area for a bogey golfer; and 250 yards down the fairway to analyze the landing area for a scratch golfer.

What obstacles were encountered along the way? What is the state of the fairway at each spot for each golfer? What angle is left to the green? What obstacles still away? How far is the approach shot for each? What is the height and reach of trees? And so on.

Taking into account length and obstacles, and experience gleaned from playing the course, the rating team will evaluate the overall difficulty of the course under normal playing conditions and issue the course rating for scratch golfers.

But they will also issue a "bogey rating," something many golfers don't know exists for each golf course. The bogey rating is similar to course rating, it's just an evaluation of how many strokes a bogey golfer will take to play the course rather than an evaluation of strokes needed for scratch golfers.

And the bogey rating has in important role: it is used in the calculation that produces the slope rating.

Slope, remember, is a number representing the relative difficulty of a course for bogey golfers compared to scratch golfers. The calculation that determines slope is this: bogey course rating minus USGA course rating x 5.381 for men or 4.24 for women.

The "effective playing length" and "obstacle stroke value" are the determining factors in course rating and bogey rating.

Effective playing length is exactly that - not the actual yardage on a hole or a shot, but how it actually plays. Is there a downslope that will add yards? An upslope? Is the course at altitude, which will produce more length? What's the height of the fairway grass, which will affect roll? Are there forced lay-ups?

Obstacle stroke value is a numerical rating of the difficulty presented by obstacles on the course. The course is rated in 10 categories: topography; easy or difficulty of hitting the fairway; propability of hitting the green from the fairway landing area; difficulty of bunkers and probability of hitting into them; probability of hitting out of bounds; how much water will come into play; how trees affect play; speed and contouring of the greens; and the psychological effect of all these things.

The rating team will look at all these things for both scratch golfers and bogey golfers, and from every set of tees. And then follow the USGA's four formulas (male scratch golfer, female scratch golfer, male bogey golfer, female bogey golfer), some adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, and produce its numbers.

And you thought rating a course was easy!

Answer 7

Distance and difficulty. Like usually a hole under 200 yrds. long is a par three. Par 4's are a bit longer 3 to 450 yrds. and sometimes they have a dog leg (a turn) in them. Par 5's are any distance above a par 4.