Golf World's "Dream Par 3s" Article

[Scott Warren]

Okay, of the GB&I courses I have seen:

1 West Cornwall
2 Woking
3 Trevose
4 Swinley Forest
5 Co. Louth
6 West Sussex
7 Rye
8 Prince's (Dunes)
9 Haven't played one - Silloth goes in next month!
10 New Zealand
11 The Old Course
12 Druids Glen
13 Addington
14 Royal Cinque Ports
15 North Berwick
16 Royal St George's
17 Walton Heath (Old)
18 Painswick - but it's a field of 1!

[Gary Slatter]

The 15th at Kingsbarns is a very difficult par three, too difficult for 90% of golfers.  I really like the hole and where it comes in the game, but is it a good hole if many can't finish it?
North Berwick would win my vote for 15th holes, other than that the 11th at the OC is superb.  There are so many great par threes in the UK, in Fife alone!

[Mark Pearce]

  The long uphill par 3 at Crail is a classic.

  ARG

That's the 13th.  Good hole but not as good as Muirfield.

[Niall C]

9 at Silloth must be in with a shout, surely, though I haven't played St Annes.

Mark

That would be an interesting sequence with the original Postage Stamp followed by a copy.

While we're in Cumbria what about the second par 3 at Carlisle (5th or 6th ?). One of the best short par 3's I can think of without a bunker in sight.

Niall

[James Boon]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Just reliased I didn't give the original article its full flavour as they also listed honourable mentioes for each hole as follows:

1. Berkshire Blue, Southport & Ainsdale
2. Wentworth West, Prestwick and Royal Dornoch
3. Royal Portrush
4. Swinley Forest, Sunningdale Old, Royal Porthcawl
5. Prestwick, Sunningdale New, Loch Lomond, Royal Worlington, Gleneagles Kings
6. Turnberry, Lahinch, Royal St Georges, Royal Dornoch
7. Doonbeg, Walton Heath Old, Western Gailes
8. St Andrews Old, Gleneagles Kings, Sunningdale Old
9. Royal Lytham

10. Royal Dornoch, Royal County Down
11. Turnberry, Prestwick (Woodhall Spa, but I assume they mean the 12th there?)
12. West Sussex
13. Royal Dornoch
14. Doonbeg
15. Portmarnock
16. Hunstanton, Royal St Georges, Carnoustie, Berkshire Red
17. Castle Course, Chart Hills, Littlestone, Tenby, Troon
18. Royal St Davids, Forest of Arden, St Pierre, Mahoney's Point Killarney

Dont forget, these are the honourable mentions from the from the original list in the magazine.

As for me, I'm suprised that they missed so many obvious holes out from theoriginal list, let alone the honurable mentions! How North Berwick's Redan doesn't even get a mention is amazing?! 

Anyway, I couldn't really get a full list of 18 based on my playing experience, but here are a few others not yet mentioned I was giving consideration to, though not necessarily bumping some of those already mentioned:

4. Royal West Norfolk
6. Brora
7. Huntercombe
9. Brora
11. Askernish or Castle Stuart
13. Notts
14. Burnham & Berrow
15. Sutton Coldfield
17. Saunton East
18. Lindrick

Scott, the 18th at Painswick is the worst hole on the course, so we have to get you to a course that closes with a par 3 pretty quickly! 

Cheers,

James

[Tony_Muldoon]

6. Turnberry, Lahinch, Royal St Georges, Royal Dornoch

Shurely shome mishtake!

[James Boon]

Tony,

I should have spotted that one! I copied out from the magazine and they do mention Lahinch under the 6th hole, but then they got the 12th at Woodhall down as the 11th and they mentioned Carnoustie for both 16 and 17. Some great editing obviously going on at Golf World...

Cheers,

James

[Kevin Pallier]

Despite some obvious errors and potential omissions - the thing I find interesting is the lack of domination from the Open rota courses

Shows the spread of quality of P3's available throughout GB&I ?

[Niall C]

Despite some obvious errors and potential omissions - the thing I find interesting is the lack of domination from the Open rota courses

Shows the spread of quality of P3's available throughout GB&I ?

Kevin

I was actually thinking that probabaly a lot of the holes mentioned are there because of the course they are on ie. top tier courses. I'm sure there are loads of great par 3's on not so great courses which might be better than some of the holes listed.

Niall

[Chris_Clouser]

Also as a darkhorse, what about the 5th at Anstruther?

[Ally Mcintosh]

Off the top of my head, some that haven’t been mentioned:

15th Ballybunion
7th County Louth (admittedly not quite as good as 5 but better than 15 in my book)
7th Hankley Common
2nd Woking
13th Worplesdon
14th St Georges Hill
7th County Down
13th The Island
14th Crail Balcomie
8th Castle Course (St Andrews)
5th Eden Course (St Andrews)
15th West Hill
13th Connemara

[Mark Pearce]

Also as a darkhorse, what about the 5th at Anstruther?

I thought that this morning, then wondered if it would get shot down in flames.

Of course there's always the questiion as to whether it really is a par 3........

[Mark Pearce]

14th Crail Balcomie

A lovely hole in a run of good par 3s (13 and 16 are both good uphill par 3s).  For my money, though, the best par 3 at Crail is 17 on the Craighead.