How is the par and toughness decided for a hole in a Golf course?

Question

How is this decided considering that no two golf courses are alike?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Answer 1

par IS NOT decided by yardage alone, please dont answer if you are guessing.  Ive played 280 yd par 3's, and 500+ yard par 4s.  Its part of it, but by no means all of it.

Answer 2

Look here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Answer 3

1. how hard is it to reach in one? 2. if extremely difficult to reach in one, how difficult to reach in two? (trees,bunkers,etc 3. green surface (flat,slanted,hilly,etc these are the key points

Answer 4

The par of a hole on a golf course is usually determined strictly from yardage. The par 3 has a maximum of approximately 265 yards. Par 4s are from 266  to 465. Par 5 goes from 466 to about 615 yards. The slope of the golf course is based upon difficulty which takes into consideration length as well as hazards and their placement, bunkering, levelness of the land( sidehill lies),  size of the greens, width of fairways,  toughness of rough etc. Two courses may have the same par with slopes miles apart due to features which make it more difficult to play.

Answer 5

it is all decided on the golf course and the usga.

it has absolutely nothing to do with the length of the hole. i have played 240 yard par 3's to 600 yard par 5's to 470 yard par 4's. clearly, yardage does not decide the par of the hole.

Answer 6

All pars are based off of scratch player standards men's and women's. A male scratch golfer, for rating purposes, can hit tee shots an average of 250 yards and can reach a 470-yard hole in two shots at sea level. A female scratch golfer, for rating purposes, can hit tee shots an average of 210 yards and can reach a 400-yard hole in two shots at sea level. So a hole 285 from white tee to green would be a short par 4: He hits a 250 yard drive, 45 yard approach, two putts. A par five is based on the same standard.  Ladies tee to green 485 yards Par 5:  She hits a tee shot 210 yards (190 and 20 yards of roll) and 190 yards in the fairway (170 with 20 yards of roll) an approach 85 yards and two putts. What this is called is the USGA course rating. The USGA decides what holes' pars are. They take into consideration the scratch player and elevation of the course and rate it. This is normally how they arrive at par. Then they take the difficulty of each hole and add these numbers together to get the Slope of the course this number is how they determine the difficulty for average golfers. This is how you compare two courses that have the same rating. A course with a slope of 129 will play harder than a course with a slope of 113(being average). The two of these numers when factored into an equation with your score over an entire 18 hole round are used to calculate your handicap. Hope that this answers your question.

Answer 7

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!

(posted 3 months ago)