Why is it when you stand on the tee looking at a par 5 under 500 yds you are thinking birdie. Par at worst. But if a par 4 is over 400 yds, par is great but bogie is acceptable.

Anyone else think about that.

Yep. That crazy brain.

Just always think towards your personal PAR. I bet that 420 yard PAR4 is not SI18 and that 480 yard PAR5 is not SI1.

I'm not familiar with that terminology.

Yep. Me and my son play tiger woods pga tour on the playstation 3 and I expect to birdie every par 5 but I`m happy with par on the long par 4s.

merlin3driver wrote:

I'm not familiar with that terminology.

The terminology is closely tied with stableford scoring in the EGA handicapsystem, but the same principles apply when playing matchplay with handicap. SI is the stroke-index for a given hole, 1 for the hardest and 18 for the most difficult. Let's assume your handicap difference (compared to your opponent) is 5, that would mean your personal PAR on holes with stroke index 1 to 5 would be PAR+1.

Now in Stableford scoring your personal PAR is the number of strokes you would receive against a scratchplayer. Thus if your handicap would be 21, you would get 2 strokes on holes with SI1 to SI3 and 1 stroke on the other holes.

You will notice that a 450 yard PAR4 most probably will be rated in the low stroke indices and a 470 yard PAR5 will be amongst the highest stroke indices. Thus play a long PAR4 as if it's a PAR5 (or even PAR6 if your handicap > 18).

Thanks for the explanation. My only exposure to Stableford scoring was years ago at Puerto Vallarta Golf Club when I got paired up with a nice couple vacationing from England.

Willy Nelson had his own golf course on his ranch in Austin,Tx. When asked how long a particular hole was he said it was 500 yard and played as a par 12. He said he tried to birdie it every day.
Seriously, when I hit a poor tee shot on a par 4 I visualize it as a short par five and try to birdie it.

I ask that same question when i play with guys. Generally i don't think bogey is a good score on the tee anywhere.
I did call a stranger out on this very same thought. He said the one par 5 was a birdie hole (at 480 yards no less) and the very next par 4 at 450yds bogey is a good score. There were no hazards that would warrant that and the shots weren't tough it was just due to the length. He didn't have an answer either. i think "par" gets in people's heads. like they have an extra shot to do something so they'd take a chance they normally wouldnt? i don't know.

Ya know, we've tested this once. If you play a long PAR4 as PAR5 you've got a better chance to score a 4 than if you try to play it as a PAR4. The idea to play it long more often seems to end in disaster than if you play it easy and hit the approach to within 1-putt territory. YMMV ofcourse

I'm happy with a par on any hole.

The thing about a long par 4 is that a great majority of weekend golfers (me included) can't get on in 2 without a perfect drive and perfect 2nd. So, we try to swing the driver too hard, and end up in trouble.

The best advice I have for par on a long par 4 is to play it short. Tee off with a club that insures you're going to be in the fairway (fairway wood, hybrid, anything you know you will hit straight). If you're in a good spot from there and feeling confident, give it a go, just like you would on a par 5. If not, find a safe layup distance.

I guess I'm pretty much saying what everyone else is. It sounded different in my head before I started typing, though.

I think that in most cases, par is the inevitable score on the short par 5. But those short par 5's are also the holes that are birdied the most, so people call them birdie holes even though they might get par or bogie much more often.

On the long par 4's, a birdie is almost impossible for most golfers, so par is the best that they can hope for.

In the long run, if you were to compare my scores on 450 yard par 4's to my scores on 480 yard par 5's, you'd probably find a similar amount of 4's, 5's, 6's, and so on. It's really only the perception that's different.

I love this post CEEBEE. I'm not particularly long at all off the tee, and only average about 220, I'd say. Once the par 4's hit the 420 plus mark, my realistic chance of even reaching is low. Add in wind and wet course conditions and I'm screwed.

I played in a tournament at the end of last year from the blue tees, typically would play the whites on this course, and it was playing wet and long. I was frustrated the whole day as the driver wasn't really working, and almost every par 4 felt out of my reach. I pushed to hard, got into trouble, and it affected the rest of my game. If I attacked those holes like short par 5's, I think I would have fared much better.

I am without a doubt going to put this into practice this year. I know my distance limitations as they stand today, and will play within my ability and to my strengths.

David Toms won a major laying up!