Grid: 10 minutes; Meta: 5 more
Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “The Drive to Succeed” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for something golfers occasionally experience during a round. There were three long theme entries, each containing two PARs:
WSJ Contest – 04.18.2025
- (PAR)ALLEL(PAR)KING: [Good skill for city drivers]
- (PAR)TAND(PAR)CEL: [An essential component]
- S(PAR)RING(PAR)TNER: [Ring figure]
I figured there would be something under the PARs. The letters one under formed gibberish, but the letters two under PAR spell our contest solution RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS.
Fun puzzle! I initially thought that a birdie was one under par, but then I belatedly spotted EAGLES, clued as Current NFL champions whose name has a specific meaning in another sport. An eagle is two under par. That locked in the answer. Beautiful construction. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
We also saw 22 across, (RARA) AVIS, which literally translates to RARE BIRD. Great puzzle!
This was a very clever and fun puzzle. Now, if Matt had been able to do three under par (and only needed nine letters) he could have dazzled us with the extremely rare ALBATROSS—one better than an eagle, a rara avis to be sure. However, I suspect most golfers never have one in their lives, so the hint would have needed to be revised.
Excellent meta, deviously designed. The fills also have less crosswordese than usual, that’s another plus.
I blew it. “Double par” turns out to be a thing in golf, though I found wildly different definitions for it — “two strokes over par,” “four strokes over par,” “double the actual par for the hole.” Whatever. I’m not interested in golf.
I did look at the letters directly under each PAR, but as Conrad said, they’re gibberish. I don’t know why I didn’t think to look at the next row down — probably because I had already decided that the answer was “double par.”
The real answer is much better than what I came up with.
Likewise. I know nothing about golf. Double Par seemed too easy but Matt sometimes gives us a tap-in.
Thanks, Simon. I’m glad I’m not the only one who came up with that answer.
I saw the “eagles” and thought 2-under par might be two of the letters under “par.” That didn’t pan out and then I realized it meant two letters down from “par.”
I figured out the clues but could not see rare bird encounters even after writing them down.
I saw the six “Par’s” and submitted “Par 6”, something golfers occasionally encounter. They’re rare but do exist on some courses.
Same here! I was vacillating between Par 2 and Par 6, and it seemed like Par 6 was more legit outside the realm of mini golf. I guess I should have noticed between those two being too simple that I needed to work further.
Hopefully we are done with golf metas for the year after these last few weeks. Bring on the basketball metas!
Where are the art history metas?
That would be delightful!
Maybe even split the difference with an Art But Make It Sports https://www.artbutmakeitsports.com/
I agree–I think it is an acceptable answer, and certainly attainable by many professional golfers
Fun one Matt!!! You are the Masters Champion of Crossword Puzzle Designers!!
I saw the three pairs of Pars that were broken up by letters in-between, so I submitted “Break Par” as my answer. (Hey Matt Gaffney or Mike Shenk, give me a mug anyway, even though I “shanked” the correct solution!)
I found RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS. But thought that merely pointed to another Rare Bird: the Albatross (my answer). Not knowing much about golf, I didn’t realize that there was an even rarer bird: the Condor. (Shrug.) Guess I’m in the rough.
Glad to sink this one.,.I’m a Philly-area, disk golf, bird watcher myself, so arriving at the avian themed solution was particularly enjoyable! Go Birds!
Oddly enough, the 8/11/2017 puzzle had the same solution path. Two under PAR. The answer to that meta was ARNOLD PALMER. Even more odd, I skated the Cup that week! Hope for similar karma – but no.