You are correct Bullseye - I could care less about beating 'par' at a course and I've already beat "par" at the tac so it isn't an attempt to 'dumb it down' as the argument is often made. What is lost in this whole discussion is that par is assigned on an individual hole level! Likewise, 'par' has no effect on ratings, for reasons that should be obvious to folks who care to look into it (ratings compare players to players more than players to course).
There seems to be a kind of magical thinking that creating a realistic par set by individual holes would make courses somehow easier - if anyone could explain this to me, I'd be happy to listen and try to understand exactly how this miracle occurs
Perhaps discs fly further when par is higher or maybe more trees sprout up when par is lowered?
If we want the Tac at its toughest, why not call it par 52 or 50 - then it will become much harder.
On the upside, it (par) doesn't matter for much (only 1 small PDGA rule) so the dream will live on for some!
BTW - If anyone is interested in some good discussion on course design and a lot about how it is much more than putting in tees and baskets, check out this page:
http://www.houckdesign.com/course_design_articles.html
Paging Chuck Kennedy or John Houck...