What’s Your Personal Par?

In golf, par is used as a measure of performance for players, but one that many never attain regularly. On the contrary, Personal Par is a measure of performance that varies from one player to another, and is based on his or her current abilities. For example, when I was actively competing in tournaments, after practice rounds I would set my personal par for the golf course to have a par 5 actually read as a par 4 or vice versa, setting a goal and expectation for my competitive round later that week. But today, longer par 4s are quickly re-written as par 5s and my personal par is a higher, but still an attainable goal for the day. Personal Par is a tool that can be applied to any process or performance task. Once an individual determines ‘where they are now,’ they can work to challenge themselves to improve on their personal performance measures. Finding Your Personal Par is part of the Par level curriculum of The First Tee. Participants receiving this lesson have successfully completed the PLAYer level curriculum, are a minimum of 9 years old and have spent two to three years actively engaged in programs. In golf and at The First Tee, players are encouraged to play with their Personal Par in mind, not giving too much attention to what Par for the course is or to what others in their group are doing. A great tip for determining your Personal Par in golf is this: The next three times you play the same golf course, from the same tees, save your scorecards and come up with a realistic par for each hole based on the scores you achieved over those three rounds. Then, next time you play, use your new scorecard to try and achieve, or better, your Personal Par. Remember, this is your current personal par, after a handful of new rounds I would encourage you to re-calculate an updated Personal Par for future play! How do we translate Personal Par to home and school with our youth? For example, we ask participants to think of an activity they do – and would like to improve on – such as chores, homework assignments, brushing their teeth or arriving at class on time. Then we ask them to estimate how many times they currently do the activity in a week and write that number down as their personal par. Participants are encouraged to try and improve on their personal par over the next few weeks of programming and we check back with them as a group to see where their progress stands. So, as you are thinking through your New Year’s Resolutions, I would encourage you to use Personal Par in your process. If your resolution involves wellness and physical activity, then I would encourage you to use categories such as how many times you engage in physical activity, eat nutritious meals or snacks, get at least seven hours of sleep, and how many glasses of water you drink. Attach an estimate of how many times you currently do this activity as your Personal Par and then simply try to improve! Personal Par is a great self-management technique you can utilize to acquire and develop confidence on and off the golf course! Don’t forget to continue to evaluate and make adjustments to your Personal Par throughout the year!