What does par mean in golf?

Par is the standard number of strokes an expert golfer is expected to take on a hole, assuming two putts once on the green. It is set primarily by length: par 3 holes are short enough to reach the green in one shot, par 4s in two, par 5s in three, with two putts added in each case. A standard 18-hole course usually totals par 72, typically built from four par 3s, ten par 4s, and four par 5s, though layouts vary and par 70 and 71 courses are common.

Scoring vocabulary is all relative to par. One stroke under par on a hole is a birdie, two under an eagle, three under an albatross or double eagle, which is rarer than a hole in one on most holes. One over is a bogey, two over a double bogey, and so on. Total score is usually expressed as a number relative to par for the round or tournament, so five under means five strokes better than the course's cumulative par. The bird terminology traces to American slang around 1900, where bird meant something excellent, and the escalating scale of increasingly rare birds followed. Par also underpins the handicap system, which adjusts scores so players of different ability can compete meaningfully, the mechanism that makes golf unusually accommodating to mixed-skill groups.