Each named hole in the course clues a word beginning with PAR.
Hole 1: Absolved | PARDONED |
Hole 2: Pilcrow | PARAGRAPH |
Hole 3: Story | PARABLE |
Hole 4: Transfixed | PARALYZED |
Hole 5: Cheese | PARMESAN |
Hole 6: Suspicious | PARANOID |
Hole 7: Spouse | PARTNER |
Hole 8: Dolly | PARTON |
Hole 9: Mosaic | PARQUET |
Hole 10: Frenchman | PARISIAN |
Hole 11: Reword | PARAPHRASE |
Hole 12: Viewpoint | PARADIGM |
Hole 13: Incompletely | PARTIALLY |
Hole 14: Game | PARCHEESI |
Hole 15: Budgerigar | PARAKEET |
Hole 16: Package | PARCEL |
Hole 17: Eden | PARADISE |
Hole 18: Garnish | PARSLEY |
Thus, the "par" for Hole 1 is the set of letters in DONED, and so forth. For each hole, there is one scorecard answer that is either an anagram+1 (bogey) or an anagram-1 (birdie) of that hole's par. For instance, BELAY is a bogey for Hole 3, which has a PAR of ABLE, whereas DELAY is a birdie for Hole 4, which as a PAR of ALYZED.
Stop Bartok? Yes (bogey) | BELAY (BELA + Y) | PARABLE |
Game of wits that is a bay-dwelling sea serpent (bogey) | CHESSIE (CHESS + IE) | PARCHEESI |
Ivy League university? Back down first, don't rush (birdie) | DELAY (D + the reverse of YALE) | PARALYZED |
Mr. Gray's mode (bogey) | DORIAN (double definition) | PARANOID |
Source of courier, perhaps (bogey) | FONT (double definition) | PARTON |
Chart depicting Raphael's innards (birdie) | GRAPH (depictinG RAPHael's) | PARAGRAPH |
Middleman evenly spelling out concept (birdie) | IDEA (even letters of mIdDlEmAn) | PARADISE |
Fabric from site with no western border (bogey) | LACE (PLACE - P) | PARCEL |
Sages captured by imagination (birdie) | MAGI (iMAGInation) | PARADIGM |
Neruda's first words of praise for vertex (birdie) | NODE (N + ODE) | PARDONED |
Growin' dried fruit (bogey) | RAISIN (double definition) | PARISIAN |
Sailors notice outspoken soldiers (bogey) | SEAMEN (SEE phonetically + MEN) | PARMESAN |
Angel playing harps around end of Rapture (birdie) | SERAPH (anagram of HARPS with an E inside) | PARAPHRASE |
In the end, obviously clever (birdie) | SLY (obviouSLY) | PARSLEY |
Score penned by sentimental lyricist (birdie) | TALLY (sentimenTAL LYricist) | PARTIALLY |
Take splintered wood (birdie) | TEAK (anagram of TAKE) | PARAKEET |
Male singer's meaning (bogey) | TENOR (double definition) | PARTNER |
Force to remove right hat (bogey) | TOQUE (TORQUE - R) | PARQUET |
When the holes and answers are paired up, each hole is associated with one added/removed letter. Write these letters, in hole order, over the blanks at the bottom of the puzzle to spell out "DAY ZERO FOR A DISEASE (4)", a cryptic clue for MONO (MON + O), which is the answer.