How Often Do Short Par Four's Beat You Up?

[Mark_F]

I played a Sandbelt gem, Woodlands, last Friday, a course with 5 great short par fours, one of which, the 4th, is neatly profiled by Graeme Grant in Paul Daley's marvellous (shameless plug number one) Favourite Holes by Design book.

However, another one which really grabbed me Friday night was the 13th, all of 290-odd metres, a slight left-to-right dogleg with bunkers protecting the right side of a typically small and firm Woodlands green.

I hit a pretty good drive by my standards, 250 metres or so - but unfortunately on the wrong side, and it took me SIX more to get down, without hitting a bad shot.  Some may believe this casts aspersions on my short game, but I think Im pretty handy in that department, as it is where I spend most of my practice time, so it wasn't that.  

The margin for error was so small, my pitch over a bunker only had to go another couple inches and I would have been putting for birdie.  Instead I was blasting out of a baked sand bunker to a narrow aspect of green for three, and then chipping up a bank 20 yards away on the other side for four...

How about the low handicappers here?

Do you pull off a birdie or par more often than not on the short par fours?  Or do they eat your lunch too?

In the briefly aborted Australian Open at Victoria in 2002, what was interesting, apart from trying to watch people from the AGU trying to worm their way out of the blame, was that the shortest 4 on the course, the 297 metre 15th, played right on its par, whereas the 550 metre 9th was less than 4.5, if memory serves.

Interesting, if nothing else.  One can see why Tom Doak awards 'bonus' points on his scale for the short four.

[Chris Kane]

Mark, would it be fair to say that short fours can only beat you up if the greens are firm?  

[Doug Siebert]

Depends on how much risk there is off the tee.  My personal strategy is that if I feel like I can hit driver without too much risk of putting myself into double bogey country with one swing, and I can at least make a greenside bunker with a good poke I'll swing my driver -- this doesn't apply if these are serious pot bunkers or really wild rough spots around the green.  Otherwise I'll go with a 1i or sometimes even less to make damn sure I put myself into a playable situation.

So ignoring the factors that aren't controlled by the hole (i.e., I hit a terrible bunker shot and three jack, or chunk my flip wedge after a perfect 1i, or whatever) its all about how successfully the hole manages to look innocent when it really isn't, or makes you think a certain area is position A for a safe shot but gives you all sorts of problems you didn't forsee.  I'm a sucker for a short 4 that looks easy but has all sorts of hidden problems, at least the first few times.  I tend to play pretty aggressively, but after the first few 5s and 6s I'll usually learn!

If a particular short par 4 eats your lunch all the time even when you are totally familar with it, either you need a new strategy on the hole, it has you psyched out, or its one of the top examples of the breed.

[Tyler Kearns]

Mark,

The 12th hole at my home course, Glendale G & CC is short by today's standard at 372 yards, and is the hardest two-shotter on the course for this 2-handicapper. A tree stands in the right-centre of the fairway 100 yards from the green, thus one must first decide to play past, or lay-up well short of this mature old specimen. Situated in the Canadian prairies, the wind blows hard, and often. Thus, the real difficulty of the hole lies in finding the very deep, and very narrow green (50 yards X 12 yards), which is elevated and protected by 4 deep bunkers (6-8 ft.). The narrow target makes accuracy the real challenge, with a slight push or pull finding the bunkers on either side of the green. Escaping these hazards is best achieved by playing away from the hole and down the length of the green because they are deep, thus making it hard to impart enough spin to keep the ball from running across the putting surface and into the opposite bunker. The design of the green complex leaves a small margin for error, and when the wind howls....no margin exists.

Therefore, to answer your question, often. I think short par fours lull players into a false sense of security because they are evaluating the difficulty of the hole based on length alone. This type of hole can play very difficult if designed properly, and when they yield high scores, the effect is especially troublesome because it pyschologically scars many players for a least the next few holes.

TK

[Tom_Doak]

I don't make big numbers on short fours very often at all.  Par fives are my bugaboo.

For me, though, the fascination with short fours is that good players sometimes get upset if they don't make their "easy" birdie ... and that can be worth a lot if it falls in the right spot during a match.

[Jason McNamara]

I played a Sandbelt gem, Woodlands, last Friday, a course with 5 great short par fours, one of which, the 4th, is neatly profiled by Graeme Grant in Paul Daley's marvellous (shameless plug number one) Favourite Holes by Design book.

However, another one which really grabbed me Friday night was the 13th, all of 290-odd metres, a slight left-to-right dogleg with bunkers protecting the right side of a typically small and firm Woodlands green.

I hit a pretty good drive by my standards, 250 metres or so - but unfortunately on the wrong side, and it took me SIX more to get down, without hitting a bad shot.  Some may believe this casts aspersions on my short game, but I think Im pretty handy in that department, as it is where I spend most of my practice time, so it wasn't that.  

Mark,

Have you played this hole a few times?  If so, have you always hit driver?

I suppose if I really liked my flip wedges I'd go your route, but for my game that sounds like a 3 iron off the tee.

Jason

[Chris Kane]

Jason, the 13th at Woodlands is frustrating because the green is so narrow (and firm) that you need a lot of confidence in your wedges to contemplate laying up.  That said, if you're driving the ball more than 240m, you're dead unless you're on the perfect line.

[Jason McNamara]

Jason, the 13th at Woodlands is frustrating because the green is so narrow (and firm) that you need a lot of confidence in your wedges to contemplate laying up.  That said, if you're driving the ball more than 240m, you're dead unless you're on the perfect line.

Chris, thanks for the addtl info.  The hole sounds a bit like the 4th at Redstone, where the Shell Houston Open is held.  From the middle tees it's probably 6 iron / wedge (285 yds?), but it's still just a nasty hole.

Jason

[Matthew Delahunty]

Here's a pic from the left of the 13th fairway

[Mark_F]

Chris Kane,

"would it be fair to say short par fours only beat you up if the greens are firm?"

Only at commonwealth...

You could make that statement about any hole, I feel. I was clearly in the wrong position off the tee, but even so, my vaunted short game didn't do much to save me.

Jason,

I hadn't played it for a while, but I hit driver EVERYWHERE.  Why play,otherwise?

If I'd have been straight, I would have been my favourite distance with a sand wedge, or even a pitch and run.  But Woodlands' greens are quite small, and usually very firm, so you need to be pretty precise around the green.  If you aren't there's a lot of interesting chipping to be had.

I suppose what I am asking is, if we do make that sort of mistake on a short four - i.e. on the wrong side of the fairway - how often do you do the sensible play and just chip or pitch to the front of the green, instead of succumbing to temptation?

[Brent Hutto]

I suppose what I am asking is, if we do make that sort of mistake on a short four - i.e. on the wrong side of the fairway - how often do you do the sensible play and just chip or pitch to the front of the green, instead of succumbing to temptation?

Ah, one of the joys of being a bogey golfer is being able to answer that question "almost every single time". A well designed short two-shotter is the great equalizer because if I hit a poor tee shot that pitch/layup to the front edge of the green is usually with a wedge and I have  high probability of executing and leaving an easy chip-and-putt for par.

Most of the lower-handicap guys I play with will hit a bad tee shot and then go for the hole from virtually any angle because it's just a wedge and they're still thinking "it's a birdie hole".