This article is about the scoring system "Par", that is commonly used in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n club golf as an alternative to Stableford

Stableford

Stableford is a scoring system used in the sport of golf. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, as in stroke play, it involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole...

 and normal stroke play

Stroke play

Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf. It involves counting the total number of strokes taken on each hole during a given round, or series of rounds...

. The Par (score)

Par (score)

The word "par" is a term in the game of golf used to denote the pre-determined number of strokes that a scratch golfer should require to complete a hole, a round , or a tournament...

 page provides a general definition of par on a golf hole.

Par is a scoring system used mostly in amateur and club golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

. It involves scoring (+, 0, -) based on results at each hole. The objective is to have an end score with more pluses than minuses. The result on each hole is always based on your handicap-adjusted score.

For ease of explanation, assume a player's handicap gives him/her one stroke per hole (i.e., 9 hole handicap of 9). This player, playing to his/her handicap on a given day, will average a bogey on each hole. Playing 'to' one's handicap is expected and so there is no reward or punishment due when a bogey 5 is recorded on a par 4. Thus, a 0 (zero) is recorded. A double-bogey 6 (one over what's expected from a player on a 9 handicap, would incur a penalty of a minus '-'. A 4 (a genuine, unadjusted par) is one better than a '9-handicapper' would be expected to score and would earn a plus '+'. However, for this golfer, 6s and above still incur just one minus '-'. Likewise, 4s and below earn just one plus '+'. At the end of the round, plusses and minuses are reconciled (a minus cancels out a plus). If a player finishes with two plusses, s/he is 'two up' or 'plus 2' (+2). The opposite applies if s/he finishes with two minuses - 'two down'; 'minus 2'; '-2'.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The advantage of Par is that if a player achieves very poor results on a a particular hole, s/he may still be able to recover, since a bad result on one hole only counts as one (1) minus, regardless of how many strokes over par the player shot on that hole.
Par is also a short-term resolution to slow-play, because once a player cannot play to their adjusted par (i.e., has taken enough strokes to record a '-1' before holing their ball), they can pick up their ball. This is because their result on the hole is already decided. Picking up can be an individual decision or a playing group may discuss doing so if the speed of play is an issue.
Par can also restrict scores of the field to within a smaller range. Over 9 holes, the maximum score possible is +9 and the minimum is -9; a range of 18 points. Usually, the differences between players' scores is within a few points.

The Par format's main disadvantage is that there is no reward for a handicap-adjusted eagle (or even better).