I was watching my son play golf this weekend and was reminded that there are so many different ways to make par on a golf course. My son teed off on a par 5 with his ball headed left into the sage and red sandstone dirt. His ball was found in a bush so he took a penalty stroke and drop for an unplayable lie. His next shot was to the middle of the fairway 50-60 yards from the green. He landed his following shot fifteen feet from the hole and rolled his putt in for par.

On the same hole, another in his foursome, hit his tee ball straight down the middle of the fairway. His second shot was just short of the green, he chipped it five feet away from the hole. His putt rolled just over the edge of the hole and did not fall so he tapped it in for a par.

The two routes to par were so different but the result was the same. The competitors were all giving their best efforts and some of those efforts played out the way they desired and some of them were decidedly not what they had hoped for. Over the course of the round, I watched a ball hit into a canyon gully bounce and land on the green, while another shot glanced off a bush in front of the player and ended up on a high sandstone ledge. A long putt was made for double bogey and some short putts rolled right past the hole.