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Par Is Your Partner

By Brent Kelley, About.com

Definition: "Par Is Your Partner" is a rule or stipulation put into place in a tournament that limits a player's or team's maximum score on each hole to a net par. It's a pace-of-play measure to keep tournament rounds from reaching excessive lengths.

When "Par Is Your Partner" is in place, you pick up your ball and move on when you can no longer beat a score of net par on the hole you're playing (net par is the maximum score, so that's what you write on the scorecard if you pick up).

Par Is Your Partner can be used in conjuction with just about any format but is especially popular in scrambles. A tournament using Par Is Your Partner can be scored at stroke play using handicaps, or sometimes a point system is employed.

When the point system is used, Par Is Your Partner works this way: a net birdie is worth 1 point, a net eagle 2 points, a net double eagle 3 points. Since net par is the maximum score, pars are worth 0 points. In this case, total points rather than strokes is what determines the winner.

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