What par means

Par assumes two putts on every hole, plus however many shots it should take an expert to reach the green. A par 3 is reachable in one. A par 4 takes two. A par 5 takes three. Par is set mostly by length, with some allowance for how the hole plays, and the guidelines are roughly these for men: a par 3 up to about 260 yards, a par 4 from about 240 to 490, and a par 5 from about 450 to 710. The ranges overlap on purpose. A short uphill par 5 and a long downhill par 4 can be the same length.

Add the eighteen holes up and you get the course par, almost always 70, 71 or 72. Par can be different from different tees on the same hole, and women's par is often set from a shorter yardage scale.

The words, from best to worst

Score on the hole	Name	How often you'll see it
4 under par	Condor	A handful in recorded history. A hole-in-one on a par 5.
3 under par	Albatross (or double eagle in the US)	Rarer than a hole-in-one. Two on a par 5.
2 under par	Eagle	A good player gets a few a year, usually on par 5s
1 under par	Birdie	The target on every hole for good players
Even	Par	What the hole is designed for
1 over par	Bogey	A bogey on every hole is 90 on a par 72
2 over par	Double bogey	Every hole: 108
3 over par	Triple bogey	The score that wrecks a round
4 over and beyond	Quadruple bogey, then just the number	An 8 is sometimes called a snowman

A hole-in-one, or ace, is a 1 on any hole. On a par 3 it's also an eagle. On a par 4 it's an albatross, and that has happened a few times.

Where the words came from

Birdie is American slang from around 1900, when "bird" meant something excellent. The story usually places it at a club in New Jersey, where a player hit a shot he called "a bird of a shot" and the group started calling one under par a birdie. Eagle and albatross followed as bigger birds for bigger scores.

Bogey is older and British, from a music hall song about the Bogey Man in the 1890s. Clubs started talking about playing against "Colonel Bogey," an imaginary opponent who always played the ideal score. For a while bogey meant what par means now. When par became the standard for experts, bogey slid to one over.

Stroke play and match play

Stroke play is what you see on nearly every scorecard and leaderboard. You count every stroke on every hole and the lowest total wins. One terrible hole counts fully, which is why a 10 hurts so much.

Match play is one player against another, hole by hole. Win the hole with the lower score and you go one up. Tie it and the match stays where it was, which is called halving the hole. The match ends when someone is up by more holes than there are left to play. A score of "3 and 2" means a player was three holes ahead with two to play. "All square" is tied. "Dormie" means you're up by exactly the number of holes remaining, so you can't lose in regulation.

Match play is more forgiving of a blow-up. A 10 loses you one hole, the same as a 5 would have. It's also where most of the rules differences live, like conceding putts, which isn't a thing in stroke play.

Stableford

A points system that rewards good holes and stops bad ones from mattering. Standard points per hole:

Score	Points
Double bogey or worse	0
Bogey	1
Par	2
Birdie	3
Eagle	4
Albatross	5

Highest points wins, and 36 points is the equivalent of playing to your handicap. Once you can't score a point on a hole you pick up, which is why Stableford rounds are quick and why British and Australian clubs use it for most of their weekly competitions.

Gross and net

Your gross score is what you actually shot. Your net score is the gross minus your handicap strokes. A 15 handicap who shoots 88 has a net 73. In a net competition, that beats a 5 handicap who shoots 80 for a net 75. The strokes are given out hole by hole according to the stroke index printed on the card, with the 1 being the hardest hole. How the handicap itself is worked out is in what a golf handicap is and how to get one.

What counts as a good score

Depends who's asking. The average man with an official handicap in the US sits around 14, which is high 80s on a normal course, and the average woman around 29. Roughly half of golfers who keep a handicap break 100 regularly, a quarter or so break 90, and perhaps one in ten breaks 80. If you've never done it, there's a plan in how to break 100.

Scratch, meaning a zero handicap, shoots about par on a normal day. The lowest score in a professional round is a 58.

Reading a scorecard

Each row is a hole. The columns give the yardage from each set of tees, the par, the stroke index (sometimes labeled handicap), and spaces for the scores. "Out" is the total for the front nine and "In" for the back, from the days when courses went out from the clubhouse and came back. In a competition you're the marker for someone else's card and they're yours. Add it up at the end, check it, and both of you sign. A signed score lower than what you shot on any hole is a disqualification, so check.

Questions

What's a snowman?

An 8 on a hole, because of the shape. Nobody says it kindly.

What does E mean on a leaderboard?

Even par for the round or the tournament. Red numbers are under par and black or green are over, on most broadcasts.

What's a scramble?

A team format. Everyone hits, the team picks the best ball, everyone hits from there, and so on. It's what most charity tournaments play because beginners can join in and the pace is fast. A Texas scramble adds a rule that each player's drive must be used a certain number of times.

Is par different for women?

Often, for the same hole. Par is set from the yardage, and women's par uses a shorter scale, so a 420-yard hole might be a par 4 from the men's tees and a par 5 from the forward tees. The scorecard shows both.

Why doesn't my score tell me what went wrong?

Because a 7 looks the same whether it was a lost ball, three chips or a four-putt. For that you need either stats or video. Video from behind you, down the line, shows the start and the curve of each shot. What those two things mean is in club face to path: what makes the ball draw or fade.