Unique, hard, good or bad......Three Pars!

[CHC1948]

Gentlemen,
I would love to hear about the good, bad and ugly, par threes.  Any three pars that stick out in y'alls memories for whatever reason!  Here are a few of mine:

Unique: Lineville Ridge (can't remember what #, but hit a nine iron over the green from over 200 yds.)  The hole must of dropped a hundred feet.

Hard & Good:18th at Monroe C.C. (recently restored by Richard Mandell), I wouldn't want to have to make a par to win, the recently restored grass hollows and bunkers are excellent)  Monroe C.C. is a muni. track and one of the best deals around!  

Bad:#10 Carmel C.C. (north) 90 yds. long, bad bunking, blind green.  All factors of poor routeing with a new parcel of land acquired by the club.  

[A_Clay_Man]

"Mercy" # 6 on the Valley nine at Blackwolf Run is an all carry multi length one shotter, over a ravine filled with all types of foilage. Not unplayable from, if your young and foolish to try, and can find your ball. The green has this wicked inverted buried elephant on just part of it. (big swale)

Even with the lake, I wonder how the one shotters on Whistling Straits could beat 'Mercy', especially when it was the 15th of the original course? Talk about butt puckerability when the wind was up. One last descriptive note, as you stand on that green you look down onto the most serene spot in the county, with the meandering creek and the 14th hole snakeing its way down the hill. Heaven!

[J_Dub]

The best par three, maybe the hardest I've ever played is the Biarritz at Fisher's Island.  Great view on the coastline, high degree of difficulty, it's just awesome.

# 17 @ TPC Sawgrass is pretty good too though.

[Pete Lavallee]

Here's a really good one: the 6th at West Sussex. Over 200 yards from the back tee, it requires a good shot to find the slender green. If you choose not to attempt the 185 yard carry over the pond there is an alternate fairway to the right of the pine tree (at the right of the picture). However the angle to the green is very poor from there, giving an advantage to those who attempt and make the carry. Love the wide shallow bunker to the right of the green which helps to protect the players on the 7th tee. The strategy of this  hole could surely be replicated, so long as the tee could be located above the landing area.

[DPL11]

Hard is easy.

Pine Valley #5 is one of the most intimidating, cruelist, unfair, and greatest 1 shotters in all the world. At around 230 yards, there is nowhere to miss except just short of the green surface. Left finds narrow finger bunkers and scrub, right is gone forever, and long is a ridiculous up and down. If one happens to find the green, it will most likely roll off the front anyway. It is definately the greatest and most difficult par 3 that I have played, and it certainly yields alot more 5's than 3's.  

Unique.

Although I've never had the pleasure to play, I would have to vote for #16 at Cypress Point Club.

[Brian_Gracely]

You'll get a bunch of #16 at CPC, #7 at PB, #5 at PV, #12 at ANGC, etc.  so I'll throw out a few that probably won't get mentioned otherwise.

Unique:
#5 at Prestwick - completely blind

Hard:
#5 at Pine Needles or #13 at MidPines. Both require long-irons to classic Ross domed greens.  

Good:
#9 at Pinehurst#2.  I think it was a fairer test from the original short tee (145-150yds) vs. the new back tee (185).  

And for consistant challenge and variety, I'll take the 4 Par3s at my home course.  the third plays similar to #13 at Muirfield in terms of slope of the green and severity of  left bunkers.  the sixth can play at 180-225 yards to a green that slope back to front and left to right.  fourteenth plays 230, but in the other direction (usually into the wind) to huge bunkers left and a valley of sin right..and the most severely slope green on the course.  the seventeenth plays as a 145yd reverse Redan.

[Stephen Brown]

Sirs:

The most unique 3 par I have ever played is #9 at Champion Hills, outside of Hendersonville, NC.  125 ft drop from 196 yards.  Green is slightly angled away and to the right, with bunkers on front right and back left.  Amazing view !!

The worst par 3 is hands down is (I can't remeber the Hole #) is one of the 3 Par's at Tot Hill Farm in Asheboro.  I enjoyed the course (as well as Caledonia, and Tobacco Road, which I,love), but this hole is crazy.  It was approx 135 with a green surronded by rock out croppings, and literally haf 3-4 separate levels. Just goofy.  I believe the hole was named "Strantz's Backyard".

I remember reading on GCA that Mr. Strantz was having some serious health problems, any word.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We have plenty to be thankful for!!

Stephen Brown

[John_Cullum]

I'll offer the following that I have seen:


Hard: 16 at Palmetto. Around 215 to a miniature, shallow green.

Hard: 11 at The Old Course, especially hard if you lay the sod over it and wind up in the Shell bunker

Hard: 4 at Augusta Nat'l, straight forward but with a severe green at high speed.

Long: 13 at Mission Inn-el Campion. Around 245, uphill, probably up to 265 with a back hole location.

Long: 18 (or is it 17) at East Lake. About 240 (which Vijay knocks stiff with a 4 iron)

Unique:
 8 at Royal Troon,
 10 at Pine Valley (unique if you don't count all of Fazio's  copies),
 5 at Palmetto, about 135 to a plateau green notched into  the side of a steep slope-right is dead, left in the bunker fearing going long to the right.

Historic: 12 at Augusta National. Many dramatic moents in golf history here.

 17 at Pebble- ditto

Scenic and Great: #? (maybe 14) at Broadmoor West. A back drop of the eastern slope of the rockies that is breathtaking, downhill about 170 with a drainage area crossing in front. You have to see this one.
 

[JBStansell]

#14 Coeur d'Alene Resort - The "Floating Green" is UNIQUE in so many different ways.  

# 6 Coeur d'Alene Resort - A dramatic downhill dropshot, with scenic lake Coeur d'Alene in the background, is fun and very memorable.  

# 6 Torrey Pines North - Also a dramatic downhiller, with the Pacific Ocean as its backgrop.  

[cary lichtenstein]

the first par 3 at Banff Springs

the 9th hole at jupiter hills

The 7th at Pebble Beach

One of the 3's at the new Ballybunion Cashen course

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

The 11th hole at Credit Valley Golf Club in Mississauga, Ontario
It is played from 212 yards down to 130 yards with the 100 foot wide Credit River running on a 30 degree bias the length of the hole.
This is not the place to be a hooker gone straight.

[ian]

Dick,

Fortuneately there is always room on the golf course for a hooker gone straight!

[Jeff_Mingay]

I've never discussed a golf course from the perspective of how I played it, but this thread reminds me of setting up over the ball on the 5th tee at Pine Valley, 1-iron in hand, thinking, "I can't hit this shot." Then, after making a "decent" swing, watching my ball sore over the creek, over that awesome bunker fronting the green, over the forecaddie, onto the front portion of the green.

Undoubtedly the most thrilling moment of my very uneventful golfing career  

[ian]

Without question one of the most unique and wonderful par 3's I have ever seen. The 4th hole at Hollywood is only a short to mid iron. The outside mounds are approximately 20 feet above grade and the green is 5 feet above grade. I don't know many architects outside of Pete Dye, with the guts to manufacture this bold a golf hole.

[Steve Lapper]

IA,

Great pix of a great hole! But for a collection of them, all on ONE COURSE: the 18 Hickory holes at Hamilton Farms, the best 18 hole three par course I've ever seen.





ps....a little chest thumping here!

[ian]

slapper,

I have seen most of them, they look great. I have a copy of Hurdzan Fry's picture book on all their major projects. Lots great pictures and wonderful stories too. The Hamilton Farms pictures are my favourites.

Chest thumping? do tell.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Ian,

Your Hollywood photo and accompanying comments emphasize the necessity of RESTORING the 12th at Garden City: a no-brainer, as far as I'm concerned.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Good to see W Sussex (lovely course) and 11th TOC (one of my favourite spots in all golf).  Blind 5th at Prestwick reminds me of 14th at Hunstanton, 219 yards played blind over a big ridge with an oscillator to give the line and indicate when the green is clear.  It follows a par 4 which is unique in my limited experience, with a stiff drive uphill towards a distant ridge and then a full carry with a mid or long iron, very often into the wind, over a wilderness of humps and bumps to a tiny green, a haven in very inhospitable country.

The hardest par 3 I know of is the 231-yard 1st at Bala, a 10-hole course in the mountains of North Wales.  It plays steadily uphill through a gap in gorse bushes and rocks to a diminutive hilltop green.  

The par 3 with the greatest capacity for putting egg on your face is the 7th at Royal Worlington, arguably the world's best 9-hole course.  I posted Patric Dickenson's description of the hole a few weeks ago.  I cannot approach the quality of his description.

For a combination of technical demand and incomparable setting I always look forward immensely to the 4th at Royal Co Down.

Donald Steel recalls the description of the short holes at Rye:  ....the hardest aspect of Rye is the second shots at the short holes.  I can well imagine, and they look so innocent, too.

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Ian:

A left handed hooker gone straight can play the 11th at Credit Valley.

A right handed hooker gone straight will be in the river.

There might be a way for the other hookers to play the hole also.

Dick

[Evan Fleisher]

In the unique and potentially good categories I'd nominate the 11th hole on the Veenker Memorial Golf Course at ISU in Ames, Iowa.

It plays a mere 155 from the tips, 134 from the "regular tees" and plays over a small creek, and up a hill that has to be 50-70 feet from the dead-flat teeing ground to the green up the hillside.  Once there you discover a pot bunker the size of a bathtub fronting the green, a couple of collection-type bunkers along the back, and a kidney-shaped green as big a pool (it seems).  tough, tough, tough...but fun, fun, fun!

[Casey Wade]

Any par three with a significant elevation change can be challenging, hard, or unique.  I really like the Hollywood picture.  My favorite par 3 would be at the Jones course at Treetops resort in Gaylord Michigan.  A 180 yard hole that you might hit 8 iron to with an incredible view. (I suggest you play it in September when the leaves are changing.)  

[RJ_Daley]

Hard bordering on bad (greespeed related) 11 Crystal Downs.  Best set of Raynor theme holes I've played, Blue Mounds CC with a Biarritz, Short, Redan and Eden.  Favorite 'shortish' holes, 11 Wild Horse, 17 Sand Hills, 17 Bayside, 7 (boxcar) Lawsonia, 14 Crystal Downs, 9 Kingsley Club, 3 Yeamans and 17 CCofC...too many to remember actually.   'Longish' hard/good par 3s, 9 Arcadia Bluffs, 17 Whistling Straits.  Bad par 3, 11 High Pointe, (for those who say we can't say bad things about Doak)

[Casey Wade]

RJ, have you played Eldorado in Cadillac?  If you have, talk about #12 222 yard over a marsh, ob left, marsh right and the only place to miss is long!

I grew up in Michigan and have played all over the west side of the state.  I will inlcude a great par 3 as #9 at Point O' Woods in Benton Harbor where they play the Western Am.

[stovepipe]

O.Kay, Stovepipe trying to e.mail you a par 3 pic, This may go wrong?  Take cover!

[stovepipe]

Right, having a few problems trying to E.Mail golf pic.  Anyone help? please. hang on! "she who must be obeyed" is calling  later.