Why Have Par?

[golfthyme]

Why don’t par for the course and your handicap match up!

why have par in the first place?

if your consistently  hitting par then you have no handicap!

if your consistently hitting 1 over par then your handicap should be 1! And so on!

I know it’s logical and the USGA cannot have anything logical connected with the game of golf!

[Sandy Divot]

The course rating and par are usually different. I believe your handicap is based on the course rating, and not the course par. Also, the course rating changes depending on the tees you play. I'm a 4 from the blues, but if I move to the blacks, I'm probably a 6, and if I move up to the golds, I'm a 2.

[woodzie264]

40 minutes ago, golfthyme said:

Why don’t par for the course and your handicap match up!

why have par in the first place?

if your consistently  hitting par then you have no handicap!

if your consistently hitting 1 over par then your handicap should be 1! And so on!

I know it’s logical and the USGA cannot have anything logical connected with the game of golf!

Yes, there is a reasoning behind it. Your HCP is not an indicator of your average, but of your potential. 

[David in FL]

2 hours ago, golfthyme said:

Why don’t par for the course and your handicap match up!

why have par in the first place?

if your consistently  hitting par then you have no handicap!

if your consistently hitting 1 over par then your handicap should be 1! And so on!

I know it’s logical and the USGA cannot have anything logical connected with the game of golf!

If you’re genuinely interested, you can do a little research and learn the answers to your questions by simply reading a bit...

https://www.usga.org/handicapping.html

[Shindig]

If it helps, think of course rating as allowing for fractional par.  A 270-yard hole and a 435 yard hole may both appear on the scorecard as a par-4, but I would bet that in most circumstances, my average score on the former is lower than on the latter.  

Par is also useful to track where the professionals are during a round when they've played an unequal number of holes. 

[Sandy Divot]

Willie Nelson makes up his own par depending on his score on the hole.

[dagolfer18]

12 minutes ago, Sandy Divot said:

Willie Nelson makes up his own par depending on his score on the hole.

My 5-year-old brother does that too. Often changes his par throughout the course of the hole.

[Rulesman]

The Course Rating tells you the difficulty of the course for the average scratch player.

Par for a hole only tells you that the length of a particular hole is between x yards and y yards. Par for the course is simply the sum of the hole pars. It does not tell you how well you played.

Course Par for 18 short par 4s is the same as 18 long par 4s

[saevel25]

7 hours ago, golfthyme said:

if your consistently  hitting par then you have no handicap!

Incorrect, you handicap is zero which is a handicap. It allows you to have matches against other handicaps. 

7 hours ago, golfthyme said:

if your consistently hitting 1 over par then your handicap should be 1! And so on!

What about courses with different difficulty? 1 over par on a 7200 yard course is way different than a 6200 course.

7 hours ago, golfthyme said:

I know it’s logical and the USGA cannot have anything logical connected with the game of golf!

Actually, the handicap system is very logical.

by this statement it just seems you have an issue with the USGA in general.