Break Par/Breaking Par in Golf Lingo
First, let's understand what "par" means. Each hole on a golf course has a par rating, a numerical value that represents the number of strokes an expert golfer playing well is expected to need to play that hole or course. Individual holes are usually rated par-3, par-4 or par-5. When you add up the pars of all 18 holes, you get the par for the golf course, most commonly par-70, par-71 or par-72.
The terms break par, breaking par and broke par are most often applied to the full course, or to a collection of holes such as the front nine or back nine: "She broke par on the front nine." In that case, if the front-nine par was, say, 36, then the golfer played it in 35 strokes or fewer. We know that because breaking par means scoring lower than par. A golfer who scores 69 on a par-72 course has broken par, and so has one who scores 3 on a par-4 hole.
A news report on a tournament might indicate whether scoring for the day was good or bad by including something along the lines of, "Half the field broke par in the first round."
But the terms can also be applied to individual holes. This example is from Jerome Travers' 1926 book The Fifth Estate: 30 Years of Golf (affiliate links in post, commissions earned), in which he is writing about Francis Ouimet's attempt to tie Harry Vardon and Ted Ray late in the final round of the 1913 U.S. Open to force a playoff: "To accomplish it he had to break par on at least one of the four remaining holes." (In other words, Ouimet needed a birdie.)
We often see the terms used in an aspirational sense: "My goal is to break 80 by the end of the year," or "I'm working toward breaking 90." In these uses, the variations of "break" refer to getting under a set, specific score (whether par or not) — breaking through to achieve a given goal.
This use of "break" is very common in the world of golf instruction. The title of this Golf Digest-curated 2004 instructional book is a good example: Breaking 100, 90, 80: Taking Your Game to the Next Level with the Best Teachers in Golf. But there are many more golf instructional books dedicated just to breaking 100, breaking 90, or breaking 80, and thousands of articles and videos that address those goals.
Golfers have been using "break par" (and its variations) since the term "par" itself acquired its modern meaning in the early 1900s. The New York Times, typically slow about adopting new words and phrases, published one of its earliest uses of the term in 1921, referring to a golfer "who broke par by three strokes."
Some of the many other ways to say "break par" include beat par, better par, best par, play under par, and play less than par.
More definitions for beginners:
