Gold Close Range Par
Gold Close Range Par for Disc Golf
Par is calculated by the number of reasonable throws intended by the course designer for a first-class player to reach "close range" then take 2 throws to hole out.
[FONT="][1][/FONT] For men a "first class player" is a 1000 rated, Gold level player.
The average drive length for a 1000 PR player is used as the main guideline for calculating par. This drive length is a length that 2/3s of 1000 PR players can throw with an average drive.
Keep in mind that "effective length" is used instead of "actual length". "Effective length" takes into account the effect of elevation changes and forced lay ups.
[FONT="][2][/FONT] Forced lay-ups cause a shot to be shorter than the maximum distance; they can be caused by water carries, fairway bends such as L or S shapes, and severe doglegs. A forced lay-up is counted as one shot toward the basket. From that shot's landing zone the course designer will determine how many more shots, if any, are needed to reach close range, then add 2 to complete the hole.
Fairway throws, used on multi-throw holes, are 80% of the length of tee shots. The Fairway throw length is based on the reasoning that you lose approximately 20% of your driving distance when throwing from the fairway.
Close Range is the distance from which first-class players can get "up and down" in two throws approximately 90% of the time. It is much longer than the 10 meters used to define a disc golf putt. This is analogous to reaching the front edge of the green in traditional golf. Since disc golf holes usually take less than 2 putts to complete adding this close range component helps score averages to be closer to par.
Note that par is based on a "reasonable throw" along an intended flight path to a landing zone. One way to visualize this is to think of the flight path as a tube, with the shape of the intended flight path, extending from the tee to the landing zone. Everything inside of the tube is the intended flight path. Since foliage, obstacles, or OB are outside of the tube they have no direct effect on the disc. If a player hits a tree or goes OB, no matter how high the percentage of times it might happen, then it was not a throw that went in the intended flight path. If the fairways seem too narrow or the flight path unreasonable or there is too high a risk of going OB then these are design issues, not par issues.
Many holes are not designed for the best shots to be made at full power, though. A course designer can use narrow fairways, dense foliage, and nearby OB so that the smarter throw will be a shorter shot using a more accurate disc. In these cases the designer will determine reasonable throws that are intended to reach a landing zone that is shorter than that of the full power length. On these holes par is the number of shots to reach each landing zone until one gets to close range then add 2 to hole out.
[FONT="][1][/FONT] There should also be a different standard developed for women because of physiological differences.
[FONT="][2][/FONT] Elevation changes are accounted for by every 1 ft. of elevation change equal to 3 ft. of length. Uphill shots increase the effective length and downhill shots decrease it. Ex.- A 10 ft uphill elevation change adds 30 ft onto the effective length.
