You are Seth Raynor's grandson

[Tom_Doak]

And you are trying to choose the four greatest par-3 holes in the world to replicate for all of the golf courses you are going to design in the next twenty years.  Which four holes do you pick?

Note:  Please try to choose holes which can be adapted to most sites, and are non-dependent on big elevation changes or the proximity of oceans.  You can choose the 16th at Cypress Point if you want to use ponds to re-create the strategy of it, but not unless you like the sixth on the Stadium course at PGA West because that's what you'll get.

[Tom_Doak]

I know many will choose the Redan and the Eden and some will choose the Short or Biarritz, so just for fun, please limit yourself to only ONE of grandpa's favorites.

[Bob_Huntley]

The tenth at MPCC Dunes.

From the tips, but 170 yards. Downhill. Bunker left front. Fall off to the right into a stream. Fall off left to a flat area where a lofted shot might get you close to the pin. Fall off to the back into heavy ice-plant. From the tee an incredible expanse of ocean sweeping across Monterey Bay out to Hawaii. No Redan, no Biarritz.

The best par three in existence.

Bob
 

[peter_p]

Gleneagles- King #5 Het Girdle.  Medium iron to a parapet green surrounded by bunkers

[A_Clay_Man]

Is it the 13th at Shore Acres? 187 yds. with the water left and the greens surface practically invisible, on a flat site?

[Jason Topp]

10th at Winged Foot West
12th ANC
17th Interlachen
Postage Stamp

[Tommy_Naccarato]

The original Sandy Parlour #4 @ Deal.

Tom, to me it looks like a pretty cool hole. Lots of twists and turns.

Also, I would like to see someone actually build a REAL Eden. Not one of these deep things like that upstart C.B. MacDonald built....

[John Kirk]

I am Seth Raynor's grandson.  I don't design golf courses.  Instead, I live off the healthy inheritance I received from my successful forefathers, galavanting around the country, playing golf and indulging myself to the fullest.  It's the American way.

I am not that well traveled, Tom.  Here are three relatively flat par 3s I find interesting:  

Short:  Kingsley #2 is a smart design, with the narrow front tongue of green flanked by deep bunkering.  The green is shaped like an upside down pear.

Medium:  Pasatiempo #5 is great.  So is PT #3, but that one is way uphill.  Make us carry the ball all the way to the green with a mid-iron, at least once.

Long:  Bandon Trails #12.  Last time I played it they had purposely stopped watering the fairway, so the ball rolled forever.  From 230 yards, I hit a low running 3-iron that rolled about 100 yards, banking off the mound on the right, and rolling 60 feet past the pin.  Too much club!

[Gerry B]

Adam  - 14 at shoreacres is the downhill  redan hole-the 13th is  a blind par 4 that plays extremely uphill and the 2nd shot is an uphill carry to the green.

Here are a few quirky candidates from courses on this side of the pond -all non raynor holes of course and I omitted 16 at Cypress as it is too obvious a choice

9 at Myopia Hunt Club - Leeds version of the postage stamp and perhaps  a better hole -imho - in fact the 3 one shotters at MHC might be the best trio of par 3's that I have seen on one course.

4 at Scarboro in Toronto -#7 at SFGC (the duel)gets the accolades -this 206 yd downhill one shotter with trouble left and right might be Tillinghast's best imho- Arnold Palmer said it was one his favorite holes in the world.

5 at Pine Valley / 10 at Bel Air -a tie - long uphill par 3's with forced carries - love them both

my 4th par 3 would be a toss up between using existing par 3's with great settings and strategic inland  par 3's - have included a few worthy candidates

a) par 3's with great settings - 16 at Port Royal in Bermuda / 12 at Manele Bay / the blind par 3 at The Sheep Ranch that shares the same green as the "Alps Hole" along the ocean- all world setting

b) strategic inland holes -10 at Winged foot / 4 at San Francisco Club / 4 at Riviera / 17 at Oakland Hills / 3 at Merion / 10 at Pacific Dunes / 10 at Friars Head

final note: Raynor's grandson should be proud of his grandfather's legacy of contributing / collaboratiing on some great par 3's -ie 5 and 11 at Fishers Island / 9 at Yale / 8 and 12 at Shoreacres / 7 and 10 at Chicago Golf Club / 11 at The Creek Club to name a few.

[Paul_Turner]

5th at Royal Worlington and Newmarket.

[Mark_F]

Can't go past the Sand belt.

9th Commonwealth or 17th Woodlands for a great short one

16th Royal Melbourne East for a great medium one

11th Yarra Yarra for a great medium long

and one UK stunner, 4th at Royal Porthcawl for a long one.

[Mike_Clayton]

Mark

The 16th West at Royal Melbourne is a great model.
200 meters,small green diagonal bunkers to carry on the left,bail out right,long draw is the perfect shot.
It's the best long 3 on the sandbelt - and by definition one of the best in the world.

[Smokey_Pot_Bunker]

The Redan
The Postage Stamp
# 4 at Riviera
# 12 at Augusta

[ForkaB]

Short-10 Dornoch (or 11 Applebrook, if no wind).  Difficult up and down if miss.  Interestingly contoured green.  Must hit a short iron cleanly to the right place.
Medium-6 Brora.  Change of angle from routing.  Huge false front.  Wild green.  Lots of mid-irons options to get the ball close to the pin.
Long-17th at Pebble Beach (back tees).  Connected narrow and fat target (easy and hard pin positions).  Flat to limit visual clues.  Must hit a loing iron/wood solidly and boldly.  Bail-out option
Modern-18 TOC.  Driveable if you hit it off the screws.  Some sort of center hazard (e.g. Valley of Sin) to make you hit it straight.  Really a "par" 4, but you feel bad if you walk off with a 4.

[tonyt]

From Melbourne's sandbelt, and more adaptable than some more dramatic holes elsewhere:

RMW #16
Yarra Yarra #11
The former Yarra Yarra #4
Kingston Heath #15

I'd love to have seen the old 8th at Woodlands.

I'm told by too many who's views I respect that Barnbougle #7 may become my short option when I've seen it in the flesh.

Augusta #12? Although it would look out of place with my others.

I'd love to see a great biarritz in the flesh, in its heyday.

[cary lichtenstein]

flat site, Friar.s 10

[A_Clay_Man]

Thanx Gerry B. I never would've remembered that as a redan, all I do remember was how transfixed I was on the leftside, over the water hazard.

Shivas, Please describe the Jans second? Was there a bunker right and short left? Also, I always felt a specialness to the last par 3 at Waveland. The small peanut green well bunkered over the lagoon. Complete with Blackbirds that would dive- bomb your head for walking through their turf.

[Kyle Harris]

The Dell at Lahinch
A 260 yard version of St. Andrews 18th
4th at Lulu
Drop shot Short hole

Would also like to see a version of Tillie's "Reef" hole in the flesh as a par 3.

[David_Elvins]

From Melbourne's sandbelt, and more adaptable than some more dramatic holes elsewhere:

RMW #16
Yarra Yarra #11
The former Yarra Yarra #4
Kingston Heath #15

I'd love to have seen the old 8th at Woodlands.

I'm told by too many who's views I respect that Barnbougle #7 may become my short option when I've seen it in the flesh.

Augusta #12? Although it would look out of place with my others.

I'd love to see a great biarritz in the flesh, in its heyday.

Tony,
 I never saw the original 4th at Yarra Yarra, any chace of a description of the hole and how it played.

[JNC Lyon]

Any par three with water in front with a steeeeep back to front slope, see 10th at Tryall.

Volcano Hole (6th CCB, 14th Ocean Course).

Short three with a run up opportunity.

Original 7th at Hoylake, risk/reward on a long par three.

[Scott Witter]

The 18th at The Old Course!

[Tom_Doak]

It's amazing to me how many adaptations of the Redan are listed here, and that some people haven't even recognized the hole they selected was someone's idea of a Redan.

The 14th at The Ocean Course is a Pete Dye redan, without a grassy bank instead of a bunker at the left front.  The 14th at Shoreacres is a Raynor redan, with a weird slope at the right of the green.  The fourth at Riviera was George Thomas' idea of a redan at 230 yards (so Carmen has two Redans in his list).

I always figured the fifth at Pasatiempo for some kind of adaptation of the Eden, too.

I'm surprised at how many people back some version of the 18th at The Old Course.  To me it was much better as a par four, when you had to decide to pitch or run through the Valley of Sin.  If everyone gets there and putts, it's just a relatively open hole; I'd want more going on than that for an ideal hole.  (There is a par 3 at Old Sandwich that plays a bit like the hole you are all describing, except it's across a pretty deep valley.)

I love Mr. Lyon's choice of the original Dowie at Hoylake, a flat open hole with OB smack up against the collar of the green on the left.  It took real guts to hit that shot anywhere near the hole ... and if you really bailed out right, you were scared to hit the second up to the hole too.  

I suppose it would be better with a little stream next to the green instead of the OB, but that would take a lot of the flatness away from the hole, and the flatness was actually part of its appeal.

[Jerry Kluger]

Tom: #14 at the OC is one of my very favorite holes where the flag stands atop that hill with the ocean as its background and the winds blowing across but I never saw it as a redan.

[Tom_Doak]

Jerry:  I've only been there twice and it's been a long time, but I sure thought that hole looked like a Redan ... isn't the green long and angled off to the back left, with some right to left tilt?  The angle of the tee you play could change things considerably.

[Geoffrey_Walsh]

#9 at Myopia
#5 at Fishers Island
#8 at Cobb's Creek
#17 at Bethpage Black