Ran,
Great list, I agree, Thomas would probably wonder if you had a fetish for difficulty. My "Dream 18" in The Captain was a par-69, 6132 yarder.
Hole's I'd substitute on your list to give it a bit less of an edge might be the original alternate route second at Bel-Air instead of the second at LACC, the drive and pitch ninth at Bel-Air over Riviera's ninth, and maybe the fourteenth at LACC North over Bel-Air's. Why Harbottle added a fairway bunker there during the "restoration" I'll never quite understand. The hole did not need it.
In the interview we cited some of Thomas's favorites, which came from a May 1930 interview in The Country Club Magazine with his pal and golf admirer, Scotty Chisholm (the Scot who announces players at 18 in "Follow the Sun"). Though Thomas was reluctant to pat himself on the back, he had some interesting points. Here are a few excerpts about the par-3s from the piece by Scotty Chisholm:
"I wondered what he [Captain Thomas] considered his best par 3 hole, his best par 4 and his best par 5, so without any hesitation I fired at him, 'What in your own candid opinion, is the finest one-shot hole you ever built in California. What particular short hole has worked to your liking?'
"It so happened I had four Thomas par 3 holes in mind when I stated that I thought the 3rd at the Ojai Country Club was as fine a natural layout as any I could think of and that the 3rd at La Cumbre, Santa Barbara, the 4th at Riviera near Santa Monica and the 11th at the North Course at the Los Angeles Country Club were all excellent holes.
"Thomas answered me in the wise: 'They are entirely different. The Ojai hole is absolutely a natural one. Even the green was left untouched - I mean the formation of it. All that was done to it was to place a bunker or two short of the green to pinch it in a bit. I think it is a rarely fine speciman of nature at her best and only a perfectly directed tee shot can make the green - and hold it. It is seldom that a golf architect happens across such a grand piece of terrain and the moement I set eyes on it I concluded it would be left just as I had found it.
"Continuing he said, 'The 4th at Riviera is an entirely different proposition. Everything about it is artificial for the reason that the entire contour had to be changed, much soil was brought in and a great deal of grading done to mould the green to its finished levels. It is a longer and sterner test than the 3rd at Ojai and was designed for an entirely different type of shot from the tee. When the pin is placed at the right hand side of the putting surface the correct way to play is with a slightly hooked shot onto a sloping hill at the right. Of course when the pin is to the left the best route is directly for the green over the series of hungry looking traps that guard it.
"'The other short holes you mentioned, the 3rd at La Cumbre and the 11th at Los Angeles Country Club, were also different problems because the former is strickly a natural one while the latter was entirely made by man. The La Cumbre hole is perhaps the finest I have ever made in California because it possesses all the virtues which a short hole ought to have, viz: great natural beauty, a fine carry, boldness, exacting direction and the priceless contour of land near the green which nurses a perfectly executed drive to where due reward awaits the fearless player. It also had the advantage of several tees and may be played as a short two shotter resembling when so used the famous Cape hole."
This brings up a point that I've noticed about Thomas's three greatest long par-3's: They all would make sensational short par-4's if stretched just a few yards, which Thomas obviously had in mind with 11 at LACC and 3 at La Cumbre, as he stated in both cases. As short-4's The bunker placement and options would be fascinating and fun for all.
Perhaps instead of looking to the great short par-4's for inspiration, architects should look at some of the better long par-3's!
Geoff