What’s Your Lowest Round of Golf?

[dennyjones]

11 hours ago, NM Golf said:

Comparing your score against the course rating would be the best way to assess your score. Par is just a number, the course rating gauges the overall difficulty of a course. That's why GHIN and the new World Golf handicap system use your score compared to the course rating to determine your handicap.

Ive shot 65 three times and all three came from different course ratings. Two of them came from the same course but different sets of tees where one came from a different course. Two of the course ratings were slightly under 70, but one was from tees rated at 72.2. That's technically the best round I've ever shot because it had a difference of 7.2.

This... I've shot less than 80 a few times but my differentials were 7.5, 11.3, 8.9, 8.4, and 12.8.   Course rating has to play the major part in determining your best round.  

[Seenya]

1 under on the West Course at New Orleans City Park. Par 72, 7200+ from the tips. 

[pganapathy]

12 hours ago, klineka said:

No because that course is going to be very short, like 2,500 yards. Regardless of what "par" is, the point is to cover that 2,500 yards in as few strokes as possible. If the course was 2,500 yards and they were all listed as par 4s and you birdied half of them, would you brag that you shot 9 under par? I'd hope not.

You contradict yourself here. First you state that par is used for judging how difficult the course is, then you describe two examples of holes that are 100+ yards shorter/longer than one another. Surely the 500 yard hole will play easier than the 600 yard hole and the 80 yard hole will play easier than the 200 yard hole, yet they have the same par. If par is such a good indicator of how hard a hole is, shouldn't par be different on a 500yd hole compared to a 600yd hole? 

Exactly, which makes par irrelevant, and is the exact situation I described earlier...

Shooting the 75 on the 6,000 yd course means you shot 3 strokes over par and took 75 strokes to cover 6,000 yards. Shooting a 74 on the 6,500 yd course means you shot 4 strokes over par (which is worse than shooting 3 over par according to you) yet you covered 6,500 yards in only 74 strokes.

Total score on the same exact course from the same tee box is all that matters. It's silly to compare a 58 on a 3,000 yard course to a 58 on a 7,200 yard course. 

That's not comparing apples to apples though. That's comparing a score from a 3,000 yard course to a score on a 6,000-7,000+ yard course. 

If every single course suddenly removed what par was from every hole, the point of the game of golf would not change. The point would still be to get the ball in the each hole in as few strokes as possible.

I can give you a 500 yard hole that is uphill and has multiple water bodies or a 600 yard hole that is open and downhill.  The 500 yard hole would probably be more difficult to play.  Length is a factor, but not necessarily the determining factor in par, or in how difficult a hole is.  There is a reason holes on a course are given a stroke index of 1 to 18 in terms of how difficult they are.

Like I said, comparing against par is the only true judge of how well you played.  If not, why do we need par scores and also why do we need a slope rating for a course.  Why can't we just remove those and let people play them as is.

Another thing, length doesn't determine how difficult a course is.  I have played shorter courses that are extremely difficult.  They demand accuracy, have multiple hazards and require you to be able to stop a ball on a green.  A par 3, 150 yard with an island green can be a lot harder hole than a open 300 yard par 4.

7 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

Shot a 69 on a par 72 course from the tips, way back in the day when I could actually play this game! 

That's a point, but I'd have no idea what my net would be, since I had no idea what my handicap was at the time. But, I don't figure it would be much different, since I shot right around par all the time! This was 40+ years ago.

I guess the other option would be how many over or under par for the course itself, a gross score (i.e without handicap being taken into consideration, but relative to par for the course).

But yeah, shooting 3 under the course is always good, even if it is an easy course (not saying yours was ☺️)

[ChetlovesMer]

11 hours ago, dennyjones said:

This... I've shot less than 80 a few times but my differentials were 7.5, 11.3, 8.9, 8.4, and 12.8.   Course rating has to play the major part in determining your best round.  

I didn't even consider any of this. The OP just asked for lowest round. Best round and lowest round don't have to be the same thing.  

[dennyjones]

14 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I didn't even consider any of this. The OP just asked for lowest round. Best round and lowest round don't have to be the same thing.  

I agree they don't have to be the same...in that thought pattern, I shot a 33 at the local putt putt.

[ChetlovesMer]

9 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

I agree they don't have to be the same...in that thought pattern, I shot a 33 at the local putt putt.

If putt putt was allowed I'd have a whole bunch more holes-in-one. 

[saevel25]

69 for 18 at Firestone West

31 for 9 holes, but it was only from 2500 yards. 

ive shot -2 a few times for 9 holes on more typical yardages. 

[jsgolfer]

67 twice, but it was back in the 90's.

Bangor Municipal Golf Course (Bangor ME) 37-30-67 - The 6 under for 9 was my best 9 ever (2 eagles, 2 birdies and 5 pars) and I also double bogeyed 1.

Goodwin Park Golf Course (Hartford CT) - 34-33-67

 

[dagolfer18]

59 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I didn't even consider any of this. The OP just asked for lowest round. Best round and lowest round don't have to be the same thing.  

Very true. In my case, my lowest and best rounds are the same thing. From the white tees, my home course is par 72, 6063 yards, and has a course/slope rating of 69.5/123. There, I normally shoot around 92. However, I played a course at the beach over the summer. The white tees were around 6350, par 72, and a course/slope rating of 70.4/128. I shot an 89 and struck the ball really well. Then again, two summers ago, I shot 85 from the gold tees at another course (5355 yards, par 71, course/slope 65.1/115). If you shoot 85 at your local muni, then go play No. 2 and shoot the same score, the 85 at Pinehurst is gonna be better because that’s a much harder course than what you’re used to. Even though the 85 from the golds is my lowest, I would say the 89 is my best because it was on a totally unfamiliar course, outside my comfort yardage (5900-6200). Hope this all made sense.

Edited December 20, 2019 by dagolfer18

[klineka]

5 hours ago, pganapathy said:

Like I said, comparing against par is the only true judge of how well you played. 

No it's not. If player A shoots a +3 (75) on a 6000 yard course and player B shoots a +4 (74) on a 7200 yard course by your logic player A had a better round because his score compared to par was better.

5 hours ago, pganapathy said:

If not, why do we need par scores

WE DONT!!! That's literally the exact point I have been trying to make this entire time. 

I'll ask a very simple question, why do you think we need par scores to play golf? 

Can the outcome of the game/tournament be determined without par scores? Yes.

Would the primary objective of the game change without par scores? No.

6 hours ago, pganapathy said:

and also why do we need a slope rating for a course. 

A slope rating is part of the system used to determine how difficult a golf course is, so that allows golfers to compare their scores from different golf courses. The golf course doesn't "need" a slope rating to be a golf course, but without it golfers can't calculate their handicaps. 

 

I'll ask it again very clearly, why do you think we need par scores to play golf? If you went to a course and they didnt have par scores on the scorecard or tee boxes, would you still be able to play golf?

 

[pganapathy]

4 hours ago, klineka said:

No it's not. If player A shoots a +3 (75) on a 6000 yard course and player B shoots a +4 (74) on a 7200 yard course by your logic player A had a better round because his score compared to par was better.

OF COURSE.  THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT OF A PAR SCORE.  LIKE I SAID WOULD YOU BE HAPPIER WITH A 75 ON A PAR 54 OR PAR 72 COURSE.  OTHERWISE YOU ARE COMPARING APPLES AND ORANGES.  PAR LETS YOU COMPARE APPLES AND APPLES

WE DONT!!! That's literally the exact point I have been trying to make this entire time. 

I'll ask a very simple question, why do you think we need par scores to play golf? 

TO COMPARE APPLES AND APPLES, NOT APPLES AND ORANGES

Can the outcome of the game/tournament be determined without par scores? Yes.

ONLY WHERE EVERYBODY IS PLAYING THE SAME COURSE.  IN OUR CASE, WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO COMPARE DIFFERENT COURSES AND TREAT THEM THE SAME

Would the primary objective of the game change without par scores? No.

A slope rating is part of the system used to determine how difficult a golf course is, so that allows golfers to compare their scores from different golf courses. The golf course doesn't "need" a slope rating to be a golf course, but without it golfers can't calculate their handicaps. 

 

I'll ask it again very clearly, why do you think we need par scores to play golf? If you went to a course and they didnt have par scores on the scorecard or tee boxes, would you still be able to play golf?

PLAY YES, BUT ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND HOW WELL YOU DID IS ANOTHER THING.

Sorry, responses are highlighted in the mail

Edited December 20, 2019 by pganapathy
typo

[iacas]

62 at Whispering Woods. 31-31.

[jamo]

I shot a 66 earlier this year at Meadow Brook in Rhode Island. 73.3 course rating from the blues, par 72. 

I might have played better when I shot a 68 at Highfields Golf and CC in Massachusetts (71.7 course rating from the golds, par 72) a few years ago. I got lucky with a few shots at Meadow Brook but felt like I left a few out there at Highfields. 

[mvmac]

63 last year at Bernardo Heights CC. 

 

[shanksalot]

69 on a par 70 and 70 on a par 72. 

[HJJ003]

+12 in regards to Par, though the course was less than Par 70 it was an awesome day. Best on a typical par 70-72 golf course is 85 a couple of times. 

[sjduffers]

71 on a par 70 (6250 yards, 5 par 3s, 3 par 5s), rated 69.

[The Recreational Golfer]

74. Two over par after four, and even par the rest of the way--two bogeys, two birdies.