My thoughts on some of the key issues involved with par guidelines will be posted here.
Q: Should there be different par standards for different course levels (Gold, Blue, White, Red, Green)? Or should there just be 3 par standards-- for Men, Women, and Juniors-- for all course levels?
Each course layout should have par standards for the level of that layout.
-Level par seeks to help players enjoy disc golf more by giving them a scoring goal that is reasonable to attain.
-There are Green level courses for Juniors and new players. These courses are designed so that the holes are short enough for the best Green level players (825 rating) to be able to shoot par. As they improve, then they will move up to higher level courses. Players will progressively move up in playing courses that match their skill level: Green to Red to White to Blue to Gold.
-The most compelling argument for separate par standards for each level is that the lengths of par 4s and 5s need to be based on the abilities of players at the appropriate level, not based on Gold level. This can best be illustrated by looking at a Green level hole. Using the standards of Close Range Par, on a Green level course a 490 ft hole (“effective length”) is a par 5, but the same hole on a Gold level course is only a par 3. While a Gold level (1025 rated) player may expect to score a 3 on a 490 ft hole like this, a Green level player will almost never get a 3, so holes like this would not be fair to call a par 3 for a Green level player. With errorless play a Green level will usually expect score a 5 because this is reasonable Green Par. The barest minimum requirement for fairness in relation to par is that a par should be a reasonable expectation for the best players of a certain skill level.
A corollary: For players of a Player level different from that of the course level the Level par does not have very much relevance. e.g.- A Gold level player on a Red course should expect to score many 2s on par 3 holes and 3s on par 4s, etc. Conversely, when a Red player plays a Blue level course they should expect to take many 4s on par 3s, etc. They would do better to compare their score to the Score Average for their Player level (if that is available). This situation is analogous to a traditional golfer who is a scratch player from the blue tees playing the forward red tees; she would score many 3s on the red par 4s. She will often score much lower than the posted Red par, so the red par has very little relevance as an indicator of how he can expect to score.