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guides · Updated 2026-10-11

Par, Birdie, Bogey: Disc Golf Scoring Terms

Disc golf borrowed golf’s vocabulary wholesale, which is great news if you grew up watching the Masters and mildly confusing if you didn’t. Somebody on your card says “that’s a deuce for birdie,” the coverage graphic shows a player at “-9,” and a league printout says you shot “+3.” It’s all the same idea: count your throws, then compare them to par.

This page is the plain-English glossary, plus the part most beginners never hear: who decides what par is, and why the number on the tee sign isn’t always the number that counts.

Related: How Disc Golf Works · Scorekeeping Apps vs Paper · Reading a Disc Golf Course Map · How PDGA Ratings Work · Out of Bounds and Mandos.

First, what a score is

Under PDGA 808 Scoring, your score on a hole is the total number of throws, including penalty throws. Your round score is the sum of your hole scores plus any extra penalty throws. That’s the raw number, the one that goes on the card.

Every word below is just a way of describing that raw number relative to par.

What par means (officially)

The PDGA’s Par Guidelines define it this way:

Par is the score that an expert disc golfer would be expected to make on a given hole with errorless play under ordinary weather conditions.

Two phrases in there do a lot of work:

The scoring terms

Term Relative to par On a par 3 Notes
Ace Hole-in-one 1 The disc ends up in the target off the tee. On a par 3, an ace is also two under.
Albatross 3 under — The PDGA calls this “next to impossible.” It basically only shows up on par 4s and 5s.
Eagle 2 under 1 (an ace) On a par 4, it’s a 2. On a par 5, it’s a 3.
Birdie 1 under 2 You’ll hear “deuce” a lot, because most holes are par 3s.
Par Even 3 A clean hole for an expert at that level.
Bogey 1 over 4 One mistake or one tough break.
Double bogey 2 over 5 Often an OB or a missed putt followed by a miss coming back.
Triple bogey 3 over 6 After this, most people just say the number.

The Par Guidelines put albatross at three under and eagle at two under. They also say that more than one eagle on a hole should make a TD suspicious, and that an albatross “should be next to impossible.”

Penalty throws count. If you go out of bounds and finish with four throws plus one penalty, you scored a 5. That’s a double bogey on a par 3, even if it only felt like four throws. (See Out of Bounds and Mandos.)

Reading “E,” “-4,” and “+2”

Leaderboards, league sheets, and broadcast graphics usually show your running total relative to par, not your raw score:

A quick example on an imaginary par-27, nine-hole layout: you shoot birdie, par, par, bogey, birdie, par, par, double bogey, birdie. That’s -1, 0, 0, +1, -1, 0, 0, +2, -1, so you finish at E, a raw 27. The PDGA’s own reason for caring about par sits right in the guidelines: “each birdie helps as much as each bogey hurts.”

Why the tee sign and the tournament can disagree

Here’s the part that trips people up at their first event.

On a normal course day, the par on the tee sign or the course map is whatever the designer or the course set it to be. The PDGA’s Course Design Elements say par should be set for each tee and basket combination based on the skill level that layout was built for. It also recommends labeling it, such as “Blue Par” or “Red Par,” or “Expert/Pro Par” vs “Standard/Amateur Par,” so players know which standard was used.

At a PDGA-sanctioned event, par belongs to the Tournament Director:

So a hole marked par 4 on the sign may play as a par 3 for an advanced or pro division on event day, or the other way around. Use the TD’s pars on the event scorecard, app, or caddie book. Don’t use your memory of the sign. (See Tournament Caddie Book Basics.)

How par gets set (the short version)

The Par Guidelines list several acceptable methods. A TD or designer picks one and then sanity-checks the result:

The guidelines also name what not to do. Don’t set par from the whole field’s average if the field isn’t all experts. And it’s “never acceptable” to inflate pars to manufacture flashy under-par scores or fake eagles, or to make a course look harder or easier than it is.

We aren’t reprinting the length charts here. For the actual numbers by skill level, go to the PDGA Par Guidelines directly. And for any specific course’s par, check that course’s own sign, map, or official page.

“Par plus four”: the score you don’t want

Par isn’t only for bragging. It’s also how the rulebook prices a hole you didn’t play. Under PDGA 811 Misplay:

811 also states, in plain words, that par is determined by the Tournament Director. That’s why the Skill Level Guidelines say TDs must assign par to every hole: so the late-arrival penalty can actually be applied. One more reason to be on time for the two-minute signal.

Scores vs ratings: not the same yardstick

Being “under par” and having a high PDGA rating are related but different. Ratings compare your score to a course layout’s Scratch Scoring Average, not to the posted par (PDGA ratings FAQ). So a -2 on one course and a -2 on another don’t necessarily rate the same. The details are in How PDGA Ratings Work.

Card-side lingo you’ll also hear

What this page won’t invent

Next: Scorekeeping Apps vs Paper · Reading PDGA Event Pages · How PDGA Ratings Work · League Night: What to Expect

Sources

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