Starting and finishing par 3

[Mark Mammel]

I was playing at Pacific Grove GC and noted that the front 9 begins and ends with a par 3- in fact, it begins with 2 par 3s. Then the back 9 also begins with a par 3! Royal Lytham begins with a par 3; Pasatiempo, Town & Country in St Paul, the Struie at Dornoch and Brora end with par 3s. Durness, the northernmost course on the Scottish mainland, is a 9 hole course that ends with a par 3. The only course I remember playing that both begins and ends with a par 3 is Reay, a Braid course north of Dornoch (the front 9 also ends with a par 3.)
In spite of this rather quirky feature, all are good to great walks and courses. Have you played others out there?

Durness GC

[Thomas Dai]

Church Stretton starts with 3 consecutive par-3's and the 18th is a par-3 as well.
The 1st and the 18th on the Stranahan course at The Players Club are both par-3's.
atb

[Erik J. Barzeski]

It's not a good or great course, but the course on which I played my PAT has par threes… at the start and end of BOTH nines. Yes, 1, 9, 10, and 18 are all par threes. They're all about the same length, too.

Got renamed recently… here's a look at those holes. Except the first (the longer one, third down from the top), they're all about 165 IIRC.

[Mike_Clayton]

Bingley St Ives in Yorkshire starts and finishes with par 3s

[Marty Bonnar]

Traigh.
https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,70966.msg1705636/topicseen.html#msg1705636
Cheers,
F.

[Michael Dugger]

While not exactly this scenario, I think the new course TREE FARM begins with a par 3 and closes with a drivable par 4.

[JohnVDB]

Pacific Grove’s start is even wilder than that. The first 10 holes pars are:


3-3-4-4-5-5-4-4-3-3

[Tom_Doak]

I was going to say I don't think I've ever played a course that starts and ends with a par-3.


I guess Pacific Grove is the exception!  The reason I didn't remember that is that I've played the front nine a bunch of times but never played the back nine, only walked it.

[Mark Mammel]

Actually Reay GC in Thurso is the only one I've seen. PG has a staring par 3 on both the front and back 9s, and as mentioned above goes 3344554433 for the first 10 holes!

[Tom_Doak]

If you're just talking about one or the other:


The best starting par-3 I've seen is The Berkshire (Blue).  I also like the 1st at Kilspindie for an opener.


Finishing par-3's are more common.  The best, for me, is the 18th at Garden City, Walter Travis' version of an Eden hole.  Pasatiempo's is good, but they don't get to use some aspects of the green at modern speeds.


I have yet to build a course with a par-3 opening hole or finishing hole.  Clients have had something to do with that . . . at Stone Eagle, I wanted to use the 19th hole for either the 1st or 18th, but they just couldn't bear it.  [The client was a development company; you have more chance of convincing an individual.]  As mentioned, the 1st at The Tree Farm will be a par-3, but I only get partial credit for that . . . I had drawn it as an alternate on my original routing, and Zac liked that alternative better than the other choice, which was a par-5 all the way to the 2nd green.

[Ira Fishman]

Kilspindie is a great opener. I am partial because it is our club, but the 18th at Hope Valley is a terrific hole.

[Mark Pearce]

The best starting par-3 I've seen is The Berkshire (Blue). 

Of course a 36 hole day at The Berkshire, playing the Blue in the morning, Red in the afternoon starts on a par 3 and finishes on a par 3.......

[Sean_A]

The best starting par-3 I've seen is The Berkshire (Blue). 

Of course a 36 hole day at The Berkshire, playing the Blue in the morning, Red in the afternoon starts on a par 3 and finishes on a par 3.......

That finisher is sneaky tough.

Ciao

[James Reader]

Bingley St Ives in Yorkshire starts and finishes with par 3s

Bingley’s first is a short par 4 for members - 272y off the back.  Was it played as a par 3 for the Lawrence Batley tournaments?

[Phil Burr]

There are four courses in Golf's latest top 100 that end with par 3s:


Garden City (Travis)
Pasatiempo (MacKenzie)
Caprock Ranch (Hanse)
Glens Falls (Ross)


I don't know when Cascades (Upper) fell out of the top 100, but for decades this Flynn design was a staple top-100 that also ended with a par 3.  So great architects designed great courses with closing par 3s, and kudos to Gil for being the only modern architect to do so on a ranked course.

[Max Prokopy]

Cascades (Virginia) ends with a ho-hum par three.  The finish there is 3-5-5-3, with #18 unfortunately being the least interesting of the quartet.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Green Spring Valley Hunt Club in Maryland (north of Baltimore in "Hunt Country") has par 3's for #1 and #18.  And...holes 7 thru 15 are all par 4's (9 straight)...followed by par 5's for #16 and #17 and of course a par 3 on #18.  Old and very very low key, exclusive, quiet, Waspy club. 


Also hosted the 1999 USGirl's Junior Championship.

[Søren Rye]

Københavns Golfklub (Copenhagen GC, est. 1898, https://www.kgkgolf.dk/) starts/ends with 3’s.


Tried to post an overview photo via my phone but I get an error message on the file type.

[David_Tepper]

Didn't Congressional in one of its routings end with a par-3?

[Jim Franklin]

Green Spring Valley Hunt Club in Maryland (north of Baltimore in "Hunt Country") has par 3's for #1 and #18.  And...holes 7 thru 15 are all par 4's (9 straight)...followed by par 5's for #16 and #17 and of course a par 3 on #18.  Old and very very low key, exclusive, quiet, Waspy club. 


Also hosted the 1999 USGirl's Junior Championship.

Two of my hole-in-ones were at #18 at GSVHC and both were in tournaments with nice crowds around #18.

[DFarron]

The current 6th hole at Pac Grove used to be #1, the clubhouse was the building behind #5 green and #6 tee…#5 was the first hole….that makes it a heck of a routing !