The Par 6 has been around sometime and I was fortunate to have the oppurtunity to design and construct one on at the Limpachtal Golf Course in Switzerland, which is now in it’s 5th season.
The “archives” on golfclubatlas will reveal at least 2 threads where the Par 6 was discussed.
Historically the original Hole 1 at Prestwick where Young Tom Morris got an “unbelievable” 3 is considered as the equivalent of a Par 6 (read their web site). Of course they didn’t have Par in those days so in the historical sense a Par 6 is as meaningless as a Par 4 or 5, ie who needs Par.
My Par 6 was 666m long, the Devil’s Number, that’s approximatly 728 yards long.
The Par 6 evolved during the routing design and was not intentionally designed from the outset. While jiggling around the holes for one of my variants to fit the topography and site features I was left with an over long Par 5 and an extra Par 3. The client wanted a Par 72 so with with a Par 6 the score card could be satisfied and the other holes, which all fitted well into the site, respected. I liked the look and feel of the Par 6 hole and felt confident enough to recommend it to the client.
The philosophy behind the hole was too make it a birdie oppurtunity but with a high risk 3rd shot. A good tee shot, which must clear a ditch at 240 yards, and a good second shot are necessary to put the golfer in a position for a go at the green, which is defended by a long intimidating stretch of water to the front and left hand side of the green. For a closer look see
http://www.golf-limpachtal.ch/de/platz_18lochplatz.php#The hole met with a lot of scepticsm when the drawing of the lay out was introduced to the swiss golfers. However since the course has opened for play it has turned out to be very popular and is a highlight of the round.
The course is used regularly by the Swiss PGA for their annual Match Play Championships and is a qualifying event for the Swiss Open, a European Tour event. It’s probably the only hole on the course where the Golf Pros have to play 3 full shots to the green as 2 of the Par 5’s are reachable and the other if not reachable in 2 only requires a short pitch to the green.