Par is a good score for a recreational golfer. There are two shots you must play well to make pars: your tee shot and your approach putt.

To put par into play, you have to get the ball in the fairway. Use the longest club you feel confident doing that with. For most of us, it ain’t the driver.

When you hit a green, you are likely to be a good distance away from the pin. From there you have to be able to set up the par putt. More three-putt greens come from leaving an approach putt too far away from the hole than from missing three-footers.

More likely you will miss the green, so your greenside chip stands in for the approach putt. Did you ever hear that your worst putt is better than your best chip? That just means you’re a lousy chipper. This is an easy stroke to get good at if you put in the practice.

Clearly, there is a lot more to getting pars than just these two strokes. But these are the two strokes that do the most to put you into a position to make a par. If they are weak points, you are leaving a lot of pars on the course.

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