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Reader question: Please explain “par for the course” in this sentence: Recovery will falter, but that’s par for the course. My comments: It means the economy will not be bouncing right back like a basketball bounces right back from the floor, but that’s to be expected. In other words, difficult economic recoveries are nothing unusual. And, so, don’t be surprised. To be “par for the course” is to be normal, ordinary, average, hence the different connotations. This phrase is an invention from the game of golf, par being the average score – the average number of strokes (hits) it normally takes a golfer of average capability to complete a hole. A hole? Well, let’s begin from beginning. The game of golf is a game in which people use a stick called club to hit a ball over a piece of land called a golf course, course as in, say, river course, implying that golf courses are narrow and long, winding like a river – the standard golf course stretches no less than five kilometers, as a matter of fact. The long and short of it is, the aim of the game is to drive the ball eventually into each and every one of 18 holes dug out of the ground. In score keeping, they nominate a par score for each and every hole. If the first hole is, say, par five, and you hit exactly five stokes to complete the hole, you’ve scored a par five. If you drive the ball into the hole with four strokes, then you’ve scored one under, or one under par at four; on the other hand, if it takes you six strokes, you are one over, or one over par at six. | 
