[David_Tepper]

NY Times article on par-3 courses:

http://onpar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/pitch-and-putt-and-behold-the-glory/?ref=golf

[Tony_Muldoon]

Thanks David.  


700 dollar golf bags and 100 dollar Par 3 courses, where's JK when we have clear evidence of American golfers getting gouged?



You can't compare P&P in Ireland with this. The most I've ever paid is 6 euro's.  That's right 6 bucks.
The Ladies Course (Himalayas) at St Andrews is 2 pounds.
18 holes.

[Sean_A]

Thanks David.  


700 dollar golf bags and 100 dollar Par 3 courses, where's JK when we have clear evidence of American golfers getting gouged?



You can't compare P&P in Ireland with this. The most I've ever paid is 6 euro's.  That's right 6 bucks.
The Ladies Course (Himalayas) at St Andrews is 2 pounds.
18 holes.

Spangles

In a way I agree with you.  No matter how you slice it, its $100 to play half(ish) a course or drag your ass out there after playing 36.  Each year Bandon becomes more perplexing.  Soon it will be the same pricing as Pinehurst, Pebble and all the rest.  It really is getting more and more difficult to get my head around paying so much for a game of golf.  As you know, we are off to Ireland next month and to play two of the finest courses in the world we are paying under 100 Euros a game - and people say Ireland is expensive!

Ciao

[Garland Bayley]

You are paying $100 for the views and for a donation to an environmental fund. Bandon has another par 3 course (Shorty's) of 9 holes that is free.

[Bill Seitz]

There's not much to the article, but I enjoyed the sentiment expressed.  I started playing golf when I was probably nine years old, and didn't play a regulation course or hit a wood until I was 13-14 years old.  Once or twice a month, my dad would take my brother and me to the Arcadia (CA) three-par.  We would load our clubs (maybe four irons per, plus putters) into a bag and drag a pull-cart for 18 holes.  When I was in about sixth grade, some friends and I would get one of our moms to drop us off at the course during the summer about once a week.  It wasn't until I was almost a freshman in high school that I started playing "big" courses.  A few years ago I went back and played again with my dad, one of the last rounds we'll ever play together, and had a great time. 

Par threes are a great place to teach kids the game, to learn the swing, and more importantly to learn course etiquette in a fairly low pressure environment. 

[David_Tepper]

My wife & I flew to Tucson 8-10 weeks ago for a long weekend with a family wedding attached. United Airlines wanted to charge us $100 per golf bag, both going & coming back ($400 total!)

We were told we could check a box with total length, width & height of less than 62 inches for free. We were able to cram a 6i, 8i, PW, SW & putter for each of us into such a box.

We played 2 rounds at Quail Canyon, a fun and slightly funky 18-hole par-3 course in Tucson. Not a life changer, but a very nice way to spend an hour & a half. The holes ranged from 100 to 165 yards in length.

http://www.quailcanyongolf.com/    

[David Cronheim]

I've always drawn a distinction between a "Pitch and Putt" course and a "Par 3" course. I'd be curious if anyone else did as well. I tend to think of a par 3 course as being more like a regular golf course in terms of maintenance and layout, just shorter. In other words, I conceptualize a par 3 course as a course consisting of holes which would be par 3's on a normal golf course. I think of a pitch and putt as being shorter than a par 3 course and not typically found on a golf course.

Am I the only one who thinks there's a difference?

[Garland Bayley]

I've always drawn a distinction between a "Pitch and Putt" course and a "Par 3" course. I'd be curious if anyone else did as well. I tend to think of a par 3 course as being more like a regular golf course in terms of maintenance and layout, just shorter. In other words, I conceptualize a par 3 course as a course consisting of holes which would be par 3's on a normal golf course. I think of a pitch and putt as being shorter than a par 3 course and not typically found on a golf course.

Am I the only one who thinks there's a difference?

That's exactly the difference I make. The readers of the article may have gotten the pitch and putt concept from the mention of the 78 yard hole. That's my criticism of Bandon Preserve, it's has too many holes too short to be what is normally known as a par 3 course IMO.

[Colin Macqueen]

David C, What you describe is exactly my memory of a "pitch and putt" lay-out in Scotland. To boot the ball you played with had a very low compression and really would have a difficult time flying 50-60 metres,

Cheers Colin

[Tony_Muldoon]

From the Irish P&P website

8.3 (i) The maximum distance from tee to green shall be 70 metres, measured
from the forward edge of the teeing ground to the centre of the green.
(ii) The total length of a course of 18 holes shall not exceed 1,000 metres,
each hole being measured from the forward edge of the teeing ground to
the centre of the green.
(iii) The length of each hole must be marked accurately in metres at the tee
post.


This is my only beef with the game. Over 18 holes there are too many similar pitches. However most sites are on the side of a hill and the seaside ones are of course very windy. In Ireland most people treat them as two separate games. Golf and P&P.  If you read "Golf Scotland’s Game" you can trace those routes back to a) the Long Game played by gentlemen on the links, with fine expensive hickory clubs and featheries and b) the short game, played with old clubs and stones to some local feature e.g. a church door usually within the confines of the town.


I do recommend a go at P&P if you’re doing a tour of Ireland. Max 2 clubs and have fun trying to find what are mostly tiny greens.

[David Harshbarger]

I've always drawn a distinction between a "Pitch and Putt" course and a "Par 3" course. I'd be curious if anyone else did as well. I tend to think of a par 3 course as being more like a regular golf course in terms of maintenance and layout, just shorter. In other words, I conceptualize a par 3 course as a course consisting of holes which would be par 3's on a normal golf course. I think of a pitch and putt as being shorter than a par 3 course and not typically found on a golf course.

Am I the only one who thinks there's a difference?

David, that's the distinction I would make here in the U.S.  The best Par 3 courses I've played are setup and conditioned just like long course.  The Executive course at the Saratoga Spa Park (William Mitchell, 1961-ish) is the best example in my experience.  The holes have the proper scale, there a just more 3's and few 4's and no 5's in the mix.

The pitch and putt's I've seen here live in this space between a driving range, a putt-putt, and the Par 3.  They are a venue for a golf activity.  They are often lit in the evenings.  They are accessible for all skills and interests, from families with young kids, to teenagers out for an evening, to folks wanting some short game variety practice.  You get to play a round, unlike the driving range.  It's real golf, unlike putt-putt.  And it's scaled to even the most novice player, unlike the Par-3.  Of the one's I've seen, I'd say the have the architectural interest of a trailer park: decisions were made about where things go so that the space functions. Noted.

[David Cronheim]

David,

I tend to agree with you. Although not always the case, pitch and putts are generally uninteresting and squeezed into the space on the side of a driving range. They're not a "real" course in that sense. A par 3 course just a collection of holes that all happen to be par 3's. There are very few holes on a pitch and putt that would look in place on a regulation course.

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