At present we're designing more par-3s that ever before. Jeff and I feel we're becoming "The Short Course Experts" given that we've got 14 par-3 courses on the planning boards, with one fully under construction.
Can par-3s have strategy? Absolutely. It rests in the putting surfaces, but also in how those surfaces work with the ball coming inbound.
As many know, I've opined that ALL golf holes have strategy, it's just that some have different types and different doses. When I re-wrote Trent Jones' theory about "Strategic Design," I offered, instead, that there are five basic golf hole types. Each golf hole can present itself to players differently, and with different forms of these five strategic qualities.
The types of "strategy" being:
• Heroic
• Detour
• Lay-up
• Penal
• Open
You combine the above to create golf holes, and in many cases the same finished hole will be mostly heroic to one player, while perhaps a lay-up or detour hole to the next. And, on a windy day, even the typical player who might approach it as heroic, could be playing it as a lay-up.
At the par-3, a heroic quality would be one where the player decides how much to bite off and I think we can all agree what this looks like. The more risk an a particular angle toward the flagstick or green area requires more risk..."Be the hero." There are numerous features that can bring this strategy about — including the particular tees (and angle created) being used.
A Detour strategy would be a quality where there is more than one way to get to the flagstick. It may be a draw around a hazard or feaure; or another, completely different line of play, perhaps using the ground game. Hence: "Detour." I might place a bunker in the front-center of the green from a set of tees, and there could be three fully unique shots to attack a cup location.
A Lay-up strategy — even at the one-shot hole — is the purposeful decision "forced" upon the player to throttle back. Like Hell's Half Acre, where a strong hitter must carefully gauge a tee shot to come as close to the broken ground as possible, yet not too far. At the par-3, this strategy is simply to "wait it out" and take the chance of the decent short game, and a one putt in favor of the full on attack. It may even be that a lay-up purposefully 20-30 yards short is better that the dreaded 7 yard pitch.
The Penal strategy is a forced play — "This way, or no other..." whether it be the angle...the width...the distance or other factor. Penal is the absence of choices, at least for a particular player at a particular moment in time...and on a particular shot. How is that a "strategy"? Well, for one, it is the player who is deciding what type of shot, and it is this decision that "makes" the hole what it is. So, to be "penal", a player must come to the conclusion that there is no other option. Once he or she drifts outside that notion, another type of hole (shot) is brought on to the scene. That self-inflicted decision is, of itself, "strategy" on the part of the designer. Like Indiana Jones — we think there is only one way out...PENAL...yet, we often find we were wrong.
Open is unmistakeable. It is the no-hassle approach with absolutely nothing (or barely anything) as an obstacle. How is that "strategy"? Like all "easy" things in life, it is often the unremarkable stretch of highway for the trucker, the "easy" airspace for the pilot, or the seemingly "easy" report to write that often "gets" to us. Many times it is the easy parts where we fail the worst. We've all been there. So, the absence of any overt challenge in golf can, at times, allow us to rest on our laurels and perform our worst. Such can be the case when we leave the door wide open. Take the full open, flat green — yet with a sharp drop off to the back rear. That is open, yet carelessness in the distance and even a small angle error can bring about trouble.
Anyway — The simply answer Adam - YES. All shots in golf are "strategic" and one cannot exclude the one-shot hole.