The most boring par 3 in the world

[Joel_Stewart]

Plays about 150 yards.  Road and former dump sit to the left.  

Dead flat.  No bunkers.   Green basically flat, slight tilt.

Built in the 1950's and built on landfill.

Tee box is raised about 4 feet.  

Are there any redeeming qualities?

[Jim Sherma]

Playing it is significantly better than sitting in the office.

[Garland Bayley]

The bench is nicely shaded by the tree.

It's better than hitting balls at the driving range and not being able to complete the play.

[Stu Grant]

I suppose it is the simplest, less tricked-up examination of your golf game as possible...150 yards with no one to blame but yourself if you don't make par?

[Ronald Montesano]

Perhaps the methane will ripple the green and create some internal contours~

Ground game?

Practice hitting fade/draw/fade/draw?

[JLahrman]

I'd rather play the most boring par 3 in the world than the worst par 3 in the world.

[Sam Morrow]

It's still playing golf, looks fine to me.

[Matthew Rose]

I regularly play a golf course that has 18 holes like this.

I still have fun.... I pay little money, I play quickly, and sometimes I shoot under par. It's all good.

[John Kirk]

Is that the 8th hole at Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course?  I though the 8th hole was about 180 yards, usually downwind.

[Duncan Cheslett]

This looks very much like the 9th at Hazel Grove in Cheshire - another contender for the title.

What makes that hole even more pointless is that you have to retrace your steps all the way back to the 10th tee box, which sits adjacent to the 9th tee!

[Jim Nugent]

The old Forest Park (St. Louis) 9 hole course consisted of nine holes of this type, par 3, 4 and 5.  It was still fun to play golf, though. 

[David Davis]

The sun is shinning!

I could take that same photo about 100 times in The Netherlands on Polder courses, except it would be raining, muddy and the wind would be blowing. The tee boxes would not be flat and the greens would run about 5-6 on the stimp.

The fairways grass would be as long as the rough grass there.

[Dan Herrmann]

Hell - I'd have a better time playing that par 3 with 3 great guys than Pine Valley with 3 curmudgeons  

[Mark McKeever]

If the green was mowed up onto that slope long left, that could make for a fun back stop.  Like the others said, it beats NOT playing and sitting in the office.  It always helps to see the bigger picture to keep things in perspective.



Mark

[Scott Weersing]

Yes, there is a redeeming feature. This is the perfect hole to take your game from the driving range to the course. The driving range is flat and boring, and so is this hole.

[PCCraig]

What a wonderful example of modern minimalist architecture!! Who's the GCA? Doak? Hanse? C&C?

[Andrew Buck]

The old Forest Park (St. Louis) 9 hole course consisted of nine holes of this type, par 3, 4 and 5.  It was still fun to play golf, though. 

I played Forest Park once in about 1998.  I remember it being on of the least fun golf courses I ever played, as it felt like I was in a park, and they just put a few tees and greens in odd places among the tree filled park (almost like frisbee golf), people were riding canoe's in the water hazards, people wandering around, etc.

I just googled it, and it actually looks decent.  The must have done a huge renovation, correct?

[Gene Greco]

     The hole would pose little challenge for Neil Regan whose club and shot selection would be putter up the cart path with slight left to right sidespin.

We have witnessed Neil making par on the Eden and Cape holes at NGLA using only his putter, both holes with water fronting the tee box!  

[Gib_Papazian]

It looks fairly interchangeable with #10 at Pacific Grove, without the salt air, sand dunes and sound of crashing waves of course. That stated, the closely mowed footpath from the tee allows Ladies Captain Mrs.Havershire and the Tuesday octogenarian 9-hole luncheon group a fairway (of sorts ) to swat the ball along the ground to the green.

This is actually the opposite of #11 at Shinnecock - the most emotionally traumatizing short par-3 in the world.

[scott_wood]

There is a nice walking path. 

[Jim Nugent]

The old Forest Park (St. Louis) 9 hole course consisted of nine holes of this type, par 3, 4 and 5.  It was still fun to play golf, though. 

I played Forest Park once in about 1998.  I remember it being on of the least fun golf courses I ever played, as it felt like I was in a park, and they just put a few tees and greens in odd places among the tree filled park (almost like frisbee golf), people were riding canoe's in the water hazards, people wandering around, etc.

I just googled it, and it actually looks decent.  The must have done a huge renovation, correct?

Andrew, Forest Park used to have two public courses.  The 18 hole course was fun, quirky in places, hilly in places, short (5860 yards or so) but with four long, tough par 3s that made it pretty resistant to par.  (Plus two other par 3s that were short but not bad.)  The 9 hole course was totally flat, had next to no hazards of any kind, was mostly for beginners.    

Not sure when, but sometime in the last 15 or so years (?) Hale Irwin's design group did a major renovation.  I haven't played it, but I understand they made the old 9 hole course a lot more interesting, changed a number of holes on the 18 hole course, and now split the whole thing up into 3 separate 9s.  The St. Louis guys here on GCA can tell you more, and there has been at least one thread in the past on Forest Park.  

[Carl Rogers]

so what would one do to make it 'better' or more 'interesting'?

how many different 'features' or 'items' or whatever would you have to add?

[John_Conley]

I have always wondered what I would shoot on a pool table style golf course.  No hazards anywhere, just 18 holes.  Flat.  There still would be a premium on hitting it straight and you obviously have to get it in the hole. 

[jeffwarne]

I suppose it is the simplest, less tricked-up examination of your golf game as possible...150 yards with no one to blame but yourself if you don't make par?

The world needs more par 3's like this.

Guaranteed that for the better player it's a more difficult up and down from off that green in the notso perfect semiburnt fluffy rough/fairway/than from the obligatory bunker left right and/or short,
and easier for the average guy to bumble up a running shot for par or bogie

[Wade Whitehead]

There are more holes like this than you think.

WW