A Modest Collection of Long & Uphiill Golden Age Par 3 Tenth Holes

[Ronald Montesano]

Park Club (Williamsville, NY...Colt/Allison) and Orchard Park CC (Orchard Park, NY...Travis) begin their inward nines with long, uphill par three tenth holes.  They are challenging holes with appropriate bunkering, resulting in what GCA folk like to call half-shot holes.  In reading Ran's Eastward Ho! piece, I notice that this incredible club also boasts one of these babies!  What other courses out there in the grand world of golf also have long and uphill, par 3.5 tenth holes?

[David_Elvins]

Rolling Green

[Wayne Wiggins, Jr.]

Bel-Air

[Jed Peters]

Not uphill, but number 10 at Minneapolis Golf Club (Park/Ross) surely has to be one of those?

[Joe Bausch]

Rolling Green

If you've been in my group while playing this hole, you would swear it is a par 4.   

[mike_malone]

Joe,

   Some of us only needed one at #10 Rolling Green

[Ronald Montesano]

Interesting update on the 10th at Minneapolis...their website says it plays downhill...is it still brutish, like the others?  If so, we'll allow its repatriation.  Any other flat or downhill, long par three 10th holes?

[Phil McDade]

Lawsonia -- slightly uphill, 239 yards from the tips, to a massive green tipped back to front.

[Ronald Montesano]

Wow...two more and we have a front nine of these holes.  It seems to me the ultimate way of keeping a golfer honest at the turn.  Imagine these scenarios...

...Alright, pal...you're on fire on the front nine.  Let's start your back nine off with a bitch of a hole and see what you're made of!

or

...Hey, fatty!  Away from the buffet...you're on the tee, which happens to be 225 downhill yards away from the green!!  Or Uphill...whatever!!  You're gonna need your best to make it!

[TEPaul]

Chester Valley (Philadephia) has one.

I'd say the primary reason for Rolling Green's and Chester Valley's is pretty much a routing consideration or necessity.

[Ronald Montesano]

In what sense, Tom?  Are they less than desirable holes?

[TEPaul]

"In what sense, Tom?  Are they less than desirable holes?"


Ronald:

Not at all. I just mean where the architect started them from---perhaps had to start them from, they both pretty much needed to be long par 3s. I'm basically talking about the topography of where they both are. Chester Valley's actually isn't that near the clubhouse but Rolling Green's is.

[Bill Rocco]

Ronald,

I saw your post from awhile back, have you ever played the 10th hole at Eastward Ho! Country Club It is 207 yards from the black tees, uphill, there is a small marsh, missing it the right you go into tall fine fescue on top of a large mound, miss it left you go into the road....great hole.

[Patrick Hodgdon]

Interesting update on the 10th at Minneapolis...their website says it plays downhill...is it still brutish, like the others?  If so, we'll allow its repatriation.  Any other flat or downhill, long par three 10th holes?

It may not be uphill but it plays 200+ easy and definitely qualifies as a 3.5.

[Ronald Montesano]

Bill,
I have not played Eastward Ho! 's 10th but, after seeing Ran's pics and reading his profile, I decided that I one day would (that's the most polite and public way I can express the ebullience I felt.)  I love northeastern golf and consider myself fortunate to have visited all the New England states on multiple occasions.  I'd like to hit the maritime provinces, too, but am waiting for Cabot Links to open.

Patrick,
We'll accept your testimony and add it to the list.  I had forgotten this thread and am glad to see it come back to page one.  What about outside the USA?

It seems that this type of hole allows one to get away from a lower set clubhouse to higher ground for the inward nine.  It also would satisfy a designer who sought to include an uphill par three on the card.  I wonder what other motivation there might have been for this type of golf hole at this juncture in the round.

[Michael Dugger]

Winged Foot

[George Freeman]

I've been trying to think of one, but to no avail.  Then I realized why:  aren't most clubhouses positioned on the high part of the property?

[Greg Tallman]

If I am not mistaken Doak's new course here in Baja features a mid-length uphill par 3. I should be able to speak more knowledgably of Bahia de los Sueños on a couple of weeks after playing it for the first time.

[JNC Lyon]

Swinley Forest!  One of the five great par threes on this great layout.  The bunker 50 yards short of the green dominates the tee shot.  Yet there is 50 yards of open fairway beyond the bunker that opens up to a running approach.  The rumpled ground at the beginning of the putting surface is very cool.  Sorry, I just had to post something on Swinley after my round today.

10 at the Park Club is a great one for sure.  I think it is one of the best on the course.

Par three 10th holes are, in general, a very fun way to start off the second nine.  One crisp shot with a long iron can give the player confidence and turn a new leaf for the rest of the round.

[Ronald Montesano]

In case no one noticed, these par threes are so uphill that there are two "i"s in the title of the thread...Lyon, where are you this semester?

[JNC Lyon]

London-town.  The golf is unreal.  I'll be back for State Days don't worry.

[Joel Zuckerman]

Not long, but slightly uphill and with trouble abounding, is the 10th at Prairie Dunes

[Kevin Pallier]

Not overtly long but Royal West Norfolk is another

[Ray Cross]

St. Davids GC on Philly's Main Line has a medium length (around 175 yds) uphill par 3 for their 10th....with a much longer DOWNHILL par 3 for their 9th.