Even Par - the only noble score in golf

SEATTLE, Washington - When I'm watching professional golf on television, and a player's score is shown as he's walking off the 18th green, the world only seems quite right if the player has shot even par.

If a player is a few strokes over par, then it seems the player did not have his A-game. If he's a few shots under, then you begin to think that perhaps the course was playing too easy.

But even par: a battle to a dead standstill between one of the very best players in the world and an incredibly challenging golf course. There's a certain elegance to the scene, a kind of nobility.