Best Uphill Par 3s

[Bill Gayne]

11 at Shinnecock.

[mark chalfant]

Ari

The 14th at Brookside (Ross)  in Canton Ohio is 140 yards uphill to a small sloping green. several
sand traps patrol  the green. The 160 yard 18th at Rogell  in Detroit  is also quite nice.  Im sorry I dont have photos of these holes

[Mark Pearce]

The 13th at Crail is a great example. It's severely uphill and requires a decent carry to get up the bank.  It plays into the prevailing wind, so its can easily be a driver of the tee for even a mid-length hitter.  Many members play to the bottom of the embankment and hit a short iron in.  As Bryan points out, even when you're up there the green has plenty of movement.  It's then followe by another par 3, down the same hill you just came up, with a wonderful two tiered green (actually a higher tier and a steeply banked front) with a wide, deep fronting bunker.  Making 4 at 13 feels like a par (sometimes a good one, too!), making 4 at 14 feels like a bad bogey but I've probably gone 3, 4 more often than 4,3.  

[Anthony Fowler]

The 11th at Essex (MA) is very special and is more severely uphill than most that have been mentioned.

[Matt OBrien]

How about the #11 at Hidden Creek ...
This is from the course profile in the Courses By Country.
There is also a pic in the write up.

How sever is the up hill elevation ?

The 11th calls for a crisp pitch up the hill to a skyline green, which at 4,400
square feet is the smallest on the course.

11th hole, 120 yards; In the classic Donald Ross give and take mode that make his courses such a delight to play,  Coore & Crenshaw constantly mix up the demands of the holes at Hidden Creek. The reachable three shot 3rd is followed by a long and difficult one shotter, the 470 yard two shot 16th is followed by another reachable par five and here the tiny 11th is sandwiched between the mighty 10th and 12th holes.

Karl picked the perfect hole for you Ari. This is a great use of the land and is a tremendous hole. Small green that is very severe and is the defense for it only being 130 yds.

[Matt_Ward]

Make no mistake about it -- the 3rd at Wolf Creek (NV) is most certainly ...

UPHILL ...

One other hole which is well done publicly that fits the description called for ...

Kelly Blake Moran's 14th hole at Morgan Hill (Pennsy) -- well done indeed !

If you want a slightly uphill hole you can also go with the 7th and 13th holes at WF/W.

[Bob_Huntley]

Ari,

I am not saying it's the best uphill par 3, but there are few that are more uphill  than the first hole at the Traigh Golf Course in Scotland. Captain's Caper is a 130 yard shot to a green that is seventy feet above the tee. They have a good web site.

Bob

Here it is -- this is the 1st green at Traigh; the tee is to the left of the little white clubhouse pictured down below:

http://www.traighgolf.co.uk/images/zg_h400.jpg

You can get a sense of the uphill nature of the 1st at Traigh by looking at this photo, which is the finishing 9th hole that runs roughly parallel to the 1st:

http://www.traighgolf.co.uk/images/c_400.jpg

Traigh is a great little course -- essentially designed along one long sand dune/ridge that runs parallel to the coast. The 1st hole, as Bob mentions, takes you up to the sand dune, and you play alongside it, around it, over it, and then back down over the course of the remaining 8 holes.

Phil,

The anticipation of  pulling into the small parking lot across the hole from the cottage clubhouse and playing this course is immense. With a fair breeze and a bit of sunshine this nine-holer is just pure joy. It's a pity that it is such a long haul from the beaten track but the beauty of the place has to be seen.

Bob

[Brad Tufts]

#3 at Beverly Golf & Tennis in Mass. is probably the most severe uphill par 3 I've ever seen.

About 150 yards dead uphill, maybe up 60 feet?  The green is broad and subtly undulating, and there is a bunker to the right and a chipping area in back.  The flagstick is also probably 15-18 ft. tall so it can be seen from the tee!

Wayne Stiles, roughly 1930.

[Paul Nash]

16th hole at Worplesdon. The 4th is another shorter good example. This course has some great par 3s - the 13th is simply brilliant but it is downhill!
http://www.worplesdongc.co.uk/sixteenth.php

[Dave Givnish]

16th at Whitemarsh Valley - only about 150 yards, but is almost 2 clubs uphill

16 is right next to 12 there, and the hill down the left from 12 green and then down 16 was one of the best toboggan hills in the area

 

[Brian_Ewen]

The "severest" par 3 I have ever played is the 3rd at Craigie Hill .


I disagree with the pros tip of one extra club , as I thought it was at least two , and it was that steep I was really scratching my head on what to hit .

The hole is pretty poor , and is only there to get you from one part of the course to the other .

Tee Shot


Halfway up , I stopped for a breather 


The view from top overlooking Perth was worth the hike 


Said this before on here , but those of you that go on about quirk , really need to visit Craigie Hill while its still there .

[Brian_Ewen]

Ari , are you talking as steep as this ?

[Mark Pearce]

A couple more spring to mind.  The 16th at Crail Balcomie (again), the Spion Kop hole is steeply uphill, with another bank to get over, this time covered in gorse.  The 13th at Muirfield is also quite uphill and is a great hole.

I think of the 11th at Alwoodley as uphill but wonder whether it qualifies as severely uphill.  Isn't there a par 3 early in the round (possibly the 2nd?) at Gullane 2 which plays 240 yards steeply uphill?

[Michael Powers]

The 11th at Essex County Club is my favorite uphill 3.  See Ran's review for several good pics.

[BCrosby]

All good holes. Most have greens at the top of ridge lines. Which is fine. But why not reduce the severity of the up-slope on your hole by banking the green into the ridge line?

Mike Young banked his 17th into a hill at Long Shadow very cleverly. The short 4th at Peachtree, though not dramatically uphill, is a short hole (140y) whose green was cut into the body of a ridge. There are a couple of other benefits to that approach, including using the banking behind the green for a range of different features.

That might be a formula worth exploring in your situation.

I take it that you asked your question because you have misgivings about uphill par 3's. I do too. Good ones are very hard to get right. There aren't a lot of them.

Bob

P.S. Thinking out loud, I wonder how many course routings were messed up by architects who felt compelled to route around a possible uphill par 3?   



 

[Bryan Izatt]

Mark,

The one you're thinking of at Gullane #2 is the 3rd hole and is listed at 237 yards - but, it's a par 4.  It's the steepest continuous grade I've seen.  On a one-off play it was a fun hole.  On the tee you're left wondering whether you can get a driver up that high, that fast, but you don't want to take less club and potentially get it higher, but not make it to the top at all.  Sure looked like it would come all the way down if you came up short.

A short uphill par 4 could be another option for Ari, although he hasn't really described in any detail what his land looks like.

[Jim Tang]

What about the 11th at Ballyneal?  From the back tee the hole is only slightly uphill.  However, from the other boxes I remember that hole being pretty much uphill, with a bunker and severe falloff on the right and death left of the green.

The 2nd at Bandon is also fairly uphill.

[Andrew Mitchell]

Mark,

The one you're thinking of at Gullane #2 is the 3rd hole and is listed at 237 yards - but, it's a par 4.  It's the steepest continuous grade I've seen.  On a one-off play it was a fun hole.  On the tee you're left wondering whether you can get a driver up that high, that fast, but you don't want to take less club and potentially get it higher, but not make it to the top at all.  Sure looked like it would come all the way down if you came up short.

A short uphill par 4 could be another option for Ari, although he hasn't really described in any detail what his land looks like.

Bryan

My recollection of the 3rd at Gullane 2 was as a par 3 and I was surprised that it is listed as a 4.  However it is a number of years since I last played Gullane 2 so I wonder if it has been reclassified as a par 4 sometime in the last few years?

Another steeply uphill par 3 is the 11th at Keighley GC but I've been unable to find any pictures of it.  Essentially it is 125 yards sharply uphill to a blind green, with OOB right of the green and the Leeds & Liverpool canal hard behind it!

[Ari Techner]

Ari , are you talking as steep as this ?

Brian,

Not quite that steep but that is closer to what I am looking at than most of what has been suggested.  I think the yardage and uphill grade we have can yield a spectacular hole. 

[Ari Techner]

All good holes. Most have greens at the top of ridge lines. Which is fine. But why not reduce the severity of the up-slope on your hole by banking the green into the ridge line?

Mike Young banked his 17th into a hill at Long Shadow very cleverly. The short 4th at Peachtree, though not dramatically uphill, is a short hole (140y) whose green was cut into the body of a ridge. There are a couple of other benefits to that approach, including using the banking behind the green for a range of different features.

That might be a formula worth exploring in your situation.

I take it that you asked your question because you have misgivings about uphill par 3's. I do too. Good ones are very hard to get right. There aren't a lot of them.

Bob

P.S. Thinking out loud, I wonder how many course routings were messed up by architects who felt compelled to route around a possible uphill par 3?   



 

Bob,

That is currently my plan, to bank the green into the hillside.  I think that is my best bet and there is a perfect slightly flatter spot for a green with a great old growth Fir tree behind it.  We will have to build up the front of the green complex a good amount but not quite as much as we would have to in some other spots.   

So lets modify the question.  What are the best uphill par 3s with the greens banked into a ridge or hill? 

[Sean_A]

I am working on a renovation/restoration at a course close to where I live.  It is looking like we are going to have to build a new hole to connect the routing to an old hole we want to restore.  The land is pretty severely uphill but there are a few flatter areas that we can use for a greensite.  It will be following a very tough slightly downhill 180y par 3 so I was thinking of making the new hole somewhere between 130 and 160y at most.  This would also be the best yardage to connect the routing seamlessly.  Over the next weeks and months I am going to spend alot of time walking the area to pick the best greensite and area for the hole.  For now I am looking for some inspiration.  What are the best uphill Par 3s you have played.  Pictures are always great if you have them.  It seems to me that this is one of the hardest holes to design I cannot think of very many great ones myself.  Most uphill par 3s are only slightly uphill but this one is going to be more severe.  One of my favorites was the old 15th hole at Salishan in on the Oregon coast that they plowed over when they redid the course a few years back.  It was really a pity as I really thought that was a great hole and the one they replaced it with was nothing special. 

Ari

It seems to me that the key pieces of info are:

-the land is severely uphill
-130-160 seems to be the best yardage given the land
-a tough par 3 precedes this hole

To be a bit different I would suggest a gentle uphiller and would seriously consider creating a bowl green to make it user friendly and completely different to the previous hole.  The hole can gather, but still require the right shot(s).  Its a great opportunity to create a skyliner and if the green is kept near the crest of the hill, then there is space in the rear for a recovery. 

One of my favourite uphill shots has always been the second to Pennard's 6th.  It is obviously a par 4, but it is easy to focus on the appoach. 


This pic shows the concept of a raised bowl green. 


Ciao

[BCrosby]

Ari -

Others will perhaps have better examples of greens banked into ridges. I've noted the short 4th at P'tree. The old Ross 18 at Oak Hill (West?) has a number of greens that fit the description. Around the backs of those greens Ross seemed to have cut little hollows and swales to carry water around and off the greens. Those same features also add to the variety of recovery shots from off the greens. (BTW, the less heralded 18 at Oak Hill is a wonderful course. Still lots of Ross there and a delight to play.)

Sean's suggestion of a raised bowl is a good idea too. In clay soils, however, bowls of any kind create obvious drainage issues. Mike Young's raised bowl at the 17th at Long Shadow was done in clay soil and seems to work well, however.

Bob 

[Bryan Izatt]

Ari,

Here are a few greens benched into hills.  Strangely they're all on par 4's rather than 3's, but conceptually they could be par 3 greens.  On your site what is the grade of the hill?  How much rise are you looking at?  Have you considered going up the hill on a bit of a diagonal rather than straight up?

The first one below shows the green benching from a distance; the second picture is of the same green from the right side of the fairway from about 125 yards.  There's around 30 feet of elevation.  The other two pics are benched greens.

[Matt OBrien]

I dont have any pics of this hole but maybe someone on here does. The 5th hole at Chester Valley GC in Malvern Pa is a good up hill par 3 that is cut into the hill.

[Sean_A]

While I like the idea of a gathering/friendly green after a tough par 3, if its a bench like green you are after than one of the very best and unsung examples is Pennard's 11th.  Its straight forward, to the point, brutally honest, but a bogey 4 is easy to earn.




Ciao