What is Par supposed to mean and what level player should be able to shoot it?
I dont think making birdies on more than half the hole is how golf is meant to be played!
I guess it boils down to whether or not someone thinks par is a bad score.
On a course where a pro can go -12, a par would be a bad score and I just don’t think thats how golf and scoring for the sport is meant to be.
It supposed to be really good to par most of the holes and bird a few in golf and try and bogey as few as possible.
I know I felt good at Ozark when I made good pars on some of the par 4’s and 5’s.
heck I felt good when I made a good bogey
Most people i know who play ball golf are 10-18 handicap.
This means they shoot 80-90 and I never hear any of them complain the course they played is to too hard.
In fact they like to play the hardest courses they can find and enjoy the challenge.
Unless you are a pro you shouldn’t expect to shoot under par, in golf or disc golf, but thats my opinion.
An advance am Rated 940, which is about a 12 or so handicap at Ozark may think the course is too hard because they cant shoot under when they typically can on most par 54 courses.
In my opinion a scratch disc golfer should be rated 1000 ( meaning they average par on tournament level courses). A 940 rated golfers shouldn’t be shooting under pay in fact they should rarely shoot under par.
At par 72 each stroke is only worth 4-5 points so a 10 would be a 1040 – 1050 and a 10 over would be 950-960.
somehow in disc golf 955 is considered pro, I don’t understand why this wouldn’t be 1000, with each stroke worth 5 rating points. if your a 995 your a 1 handicap If your a 10 handicap you would be a 950??
One thing that confuses me is if the par is 54,( like most courses) and a player can shoot 12 under each stroke would be worth 12 points. shooting a -12 might only be a 1040 rated round and a player that shoots par would get a rating of 888.
A few under par is something only a REALLY good ball golfer can shoot, but in disc golf a player that has only been playing a few months could possibly shoot under par even on a course set up for pros.
Why is a ball golfer happy t o break into the 70’s ( >8 over) after 10 years of playing but a disc golfer expects to shoot under par after only a few months???
roman says
I think part of it is the expectations people grew up with. We grew up playing easy par 3 courses with a lot of deuce or die holes. I enjoy courses that kick my ass, and I know a lot of other people do as well. Some of my favorite courses I have yet to shoot par on.
The issue now is finding land large enough (and suitable enough) to create such courses. Courses where a 1000 rated player would usually shoot par are few and far between. I wish there were more of them. Currently such courses are only developed on public land with a very enthusiastic park district that is open to disc golf that is also willing to fund the course development. The rest is private property.
As for your confusion on why a 955 rated player would be considered pro – it’s simply because the sport isn’t big enough yet. There is a large amateur player base and very very few people talented enough to consistently shoot 1000 rated rounds. As a result there are a lot of local “pros” that very rarely shoot 1000 rated rounds. If the sport ever becomes mainstream the only way to get people to watch live coverage of the sport is to show them something they don’t see on an every day basis – and that is people consistently shooting 1000+ rated rounds. That is when you will have a real pro division filled with 1000 rated players, and majority of the MA1 and lower end pro players would become amateur players. What happens to the MA2/MA3/MA4 divisions? They will probably continue playing tournaments, but they won’t be on nearly the same level as the bigger national events geared towards pros.
There may be enough 1000+ rated players out there currently to create a true Pro division that tours and plays big events, but there simply isn’t enough money in the sport right now to make that profitable enough for the players to be willing to leave their day jobs and go tour.
Josh Henson says
Dave
As a scratch “ball” golfer and a avid disc golfer the issue for me with par in disc golf, and why so many birdies are made is the size of the “hole.” Nikko may go weeks/months without missing a 20ft open putt in disc golf, and even the top pros in the world of ball golf are at best 10-20% from that range.
As an Am disc golfer I can make 3-4 birdies a round in disc golf. Thats about avg for me in ball golf, and eight birds in one round is the MOST I have ever made!
Par for both disc and ball golf is based on how many shots it should take to get to the green plus two putts. The basket vs. hole makes it hard to use the same theory for par with so many long putts consistantly made in disc golf.
Would Nikko be able to shoot 61 at Ozark with all skill shot baskets? Should skill shot baskets be used for par 3’s? Or, are the top players so much better than the avg player that they should have pro only tees?
p.s. I don’t want any part of Ozark with all skill shot baskets! It would be fun, but torture.