Blind Par 3’s

[Jeff Schley]

The 6th at Lahinch “The Dell” is what stands out to me. Wanted to see what is the most recent itineration of a blind par 3 that has been built.  I’m thinking insurance issues for creating them make them prohibitive now.


There aren’t many I have played.  There can’t be that many in the world.

[Mike_Clayton]

Blind where you can't see people on the green - or blind where you can't see the green?


Bob Harrison and Greg Norman did a blind one at The National on the Mornington Peninsula - green but not golfers.
We redid one at Bonnie Doon in Sydney - again - the green but not people.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I built one in Carne where from the white tee you see the front and left of the green but the back and right is masked by a dune shoulder, even the pin / golfers (i.e. not just the green surface).


It would have been easy to take the dune shoulder out but I thought the hole looked far cooler leaving it in and teasing what is behind it. (Aside from the green, there is a short grass surround and a hidden bunker tied in to a huge blowout. This is also a great reveal as you walk up to the green).

[Tim Martin]

I built one in Carne where from the white tee you see the front and left of the green but the back and right is masked by a dune shoulder, even the pin / golfers (i.e. not just the green surface).

Ally-It sounds similar to the 17th hole at Atlantic City CC built by Tom Doak where you get a peak at the left side but the rest of the green is hidden. It’s a fun hole with the reveal coming at the green for all shots played to the left center, center and right side.

[Tom_Doak]

Ally-It sounds similar to the 17th hole at Atlantic City CC built by Tom Doak where you get a peak at the left side but the rest of the green is hidden. It’s a fun hole with the reveal coming at the green for all shots played to the left center, center and right side.

I had forgotten about that hole, it's been so long since I've been there!  One of the reasons for building it that way was that the green was very close to someone's back yard and we wanted everyone to hedge away from the boundary without thinking about the boundary.


Even earlier in my career, I built the 8th hole at The Legends (Heathland) so that you could see everything from the white tee [high right], but if you played the blue tee [low left] most of the green was hidden behind a low ridge.  It had started out as an homage to the 11th at Lahinch, but I got a bit of the Dell in there, too.  ;-)


15 at Ballyneal is another where a fair portion of the green is invisible from the tee.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Ally-It sounds similar to the 17th hole at Atlantic City CC built by Tom Doak where you get a peak at the left side but the rest of the green is hidden. It’s a fun hole with the reveal coming at the green for all shots played to the left center, center and right side.

Even earlier in my career, I built the 8th hole at The Legends (Heathland) so that you could see everything from the white tee [high right], but if you played the blue tee [low left] most of the green was hidden behind a low ridge.  It had started out as an homage to the 11th at Lahinch, but I got a bit of the Dell in there, too.  ;-)

Seeing as everyone seems so obsessed with templates, it may be of interest to know my working titles for the nine holes as we built them in Belmullet. The hole I describe (2nd on the nine) was also “Dell”.


- The 3rd was “Island” (after the 5th, now 6th at The Island)
- The 4th was “Postage Stamp”
- The 5th was “Alps”
- The 6th was “Spion Kop”
- The 7th was “Calamity Plus Plus”

[Jeff_Brauer]

Jeff,


I built a few Dell greens and one Alps.  In all cases, I made sure part of the green was visible, figuring modern golfers just wouldn't like a fully blind green. 


I did a few things to make it obvious if golfers were still on the green, such as keeping the ridge low enough to see the top of the flagstick.  If you didn't see the top of the flag, you have to figure golfers have taken it out for putting on the blind side.  It also helps to make sure the cart parking area near the green is fully visible to oncoming golfers, i.e., if two carts are parked you have to figure the green is occupied.  I preferred the ridge to hide the entire flag, and then seeing the carts is obviously more necessary.  I suppose others have used the "ring the bell when leaving the green" method.


In the few golfers I have talked to, they seemed to enjoy that, especially when the blind spot also functioned as a punch bowl front and back, so they had a wider range of miss options that would kick back on the green.

[MCirba]

Joe Bausch and I just surprisedly played one on Friday at Shade Mountain GC (PA) designed by Edmund Ault.  The mid-length, slightly uphill 7th only has the top half of the flagstick visible from all tees, hidden from view by a natural rise about halfway.

[Ian Andrew]

The best that "never was" was the 17th at Sebonack. It was a beauty right up until the next site visit. I would have been able to post an image, but I was asked to not photo anything that day. Wish I did. I was terribly disappointed when I finally returned to play years later knowing what it should have been.

[Ian Andrew]

The 6th at Lahinch “The Dell” is what stands out to me.

Funny, I don't consider that a blind hole. Perhaps my memory ifs off.
I thought you saw enough to understand where everything is, including a whisp of the green surface.



Jeff, I certainly get why you have picked the hole. It's on my Mt. Rushmore.

Prestwick "Himalayas" is what I would consider blind.
A swing of complete faith and a climb to see what became of that shot.

[Mike Worth]

Ian — I am with you. I did not consider Lahinch #5 (it’s #5 not #6) a blind hole.


Also Tallgrass (Hanse NLE) had a blind par 3 on the front 9 - it was uphill around 180 yards where you had to hit it over a knob on the right side of the uphill.


And for Tom D.  I was a member at ACCC for a year. I like #17. The thing that got me more than anything was trying to hit it over the mound of rough when the pin was back right. For some reason, I never believed the pin was as far away as it was, and then you usually had to add a club which taken together made me feel less than comfortable.  Over time I reduced myself to simply going for the part of the green one can see from the tee in the lower left.

[Cal Seifert]

4th hole at Shelter Island CC is probably the craziest I have ever played. The green even runs away from you.

[Tom_Doak]

The best that "never was" was the 17th at Sebonack. It was a beauty right up until the next site visit. I would have been able to post an image, but I was asked to not photo anything that day. Wish I did. I was terribly disappointed when I finally returned to play years later knowing what it should have been.

It was only there for a few days, sadly.  At least you got to see it!

[M. Shea Sweeney]

The 4th hole at Goat Hill (shelter island ny) is a 220yd hole which you hit over a hill to a small severely sloped green on the bottom of it. The peak of the hill is around 180/190 yards and is dusty hard pan (or at least it used to be) with an aiming flag atop of it. There's all sorts activity on the other side of the hill, sloping hard right to left and trouble on your left and long. To hit the green you had to hug the right side, but if you miss too far right you would get a kick onto 5 tee or even right of 5 tee. The green slopes away from the player and right to left. The idea is to land it over the crest of the hill to feed your ball into the green, but if you miss short, its a really hard up and down with the green pitching away from you. The hill twists a bit as well where miss it too much left, you're gone, too much right you're gone. What a thrilling hole- however, this is a par 4!! for good reason I suppose.


Friars head #10

[Cal Seifert]

The 4th hole at Goat Hill (shelter island ny) is a 220yd hole which you hit over a hill to a small severely sloped green on the bottom of it. The peak of the hill is around 180/190 yards and is dusty hard pan (or at least it used to be) with an aiming flag atop of it. There's all sorts activity on the other side of the hill, sloping hard right to left and trouble on your left and long. To hit the green you had to hug the right side, but if you miss too far right you would get a kick onto 5 tee or even right of 5 tee. The green slopes away from the player and right to left. The idea is to land it over the crest of the hill to feed your ball into the green, but if you miss short, its a really hard up and down with the green pitching away from you. The hill twists a bit as well where miss it too much left, you're gone, too much right you're gone. What a thrilling hole- however, this is a par 4!! for good reason I suppose.


Friars head #10 has blind features

This link below is to the Goat Hill website which shows the scorecard indicating #4 is a par 3. I have never even thought of it as a par 4, that makes me feel better about all of the 5’s and worse I have scored on it.


https://www.shelterislandcc.org/course-details/

[M. Shea Sweeney]

The 4th hole at Goat Hill (shelter island ny) is a 220yd hole which you hit over a hill to a small severely sloped green on the bottom of it. The peak of the hill is around 180/190 yards and is dusty hard pan (or at least it used to be) with an aiming flag atop of it. There's all sorts activity on the other side of the hill, sloping hard right to left and trouble on your left and long. To hit the green you had to hug the right side, but if you miss too far right you would get a kick onto 5 tee or even right of 5 tee. The green slopes away from the player and right to left. The idea is to land it over the crest of the hill to feed your ball into the green, but if you miss short, its a really hard up and down with the green pitching away from you. The hill twists a bit as well where miss it too much left, you're gone, too much right you're gone. What a thrilling hole- however, this is a par 4!! for good reason I suppose.


Friars head #10 has blind features

This link below is to the Goat Hill website which shows the scorecard indicating #4 is a par 3. I have never even thought of it as a par 4, that makes me feel better about all of the 5’s and worse I have scored on it.


https://www.shelterislandcc.org/course-details/

Cal,
Well there you have it-- it's been too long since I played the Goat. In the day, this was a par 4, and it completely made sense.




https://golf.com/news/bamberger-7-best-things-golf-shelter-island/


Now you have two beast par 3's!

[Matt_Cohn]

I don't see the joy of a par 3 where the location of the hole is a genuine mystery. I played a par 3 recently where we had to walk 50 yards to the side to get even an approximate idea of where to aim. There just wasn't anything fun about it.

[Keith Phillips]

The 11th at Bayonne is partially blind, and 236 yards from the back - a very demanding hole - I think the hardest on the property.

[Jeff Evagues]

I'll submit the eighth at Maidstone. A sand dune blocks most of the green.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I don't see the joy of a par 3 where the location of the hole is a genuine mystery. I played a par 3 recently where we had to walk 50 yards to the side to get even an approximate idea of where to aim. There just wasn't anything fun about it.

To counter that, I just played nine holes on Tuesday on a closed course with no pins in (but holes cut). Aimed for the centre of the green and then pot luck how close I was to the hole. Found it a load of fun having the reveal (partially because I seemed to fall on the right side of luck vs my partner, admittedly)

[Ally Mcintosh]

.

[Matt Schoolfield]

I like a blind par 3, but I like high-luck (high randomness) on a golf course.

To me, there is no more archetype of living/breathing a specific golf course, than simply by knowing the approximate pin position also knowing which club to pull and which the target line to play. It's knowing a hole like the back of your hand and playing it as if your eyes were closed. A blind par 3 is, in this way, always a locals/members hole and probably shouldn't exist on a resort course.

I can understand why many folks are not into them. Especially folks that play to a number, especially folks who prefer to explore golf architecture over a deep relationship with a few courses, and especially when the blindness is not caused by a beautiful land feature.

A blind par 3 where the pin can be spotted on the way to the tee (somewhere along the course) rewards the attentive player, but even a totally blind can have merit if the green has a distinct, defensible position to play to, e.g. a double plateau. The player can still be rewarded for playing a good shot, even if that reward is stochastically distributed across many rounds.

---------------------------

The blind par 3 I'm most familiar with is the 15th, Himalayas, at Sharp Park (mapped here on the wiki and I suspect this is the hole Matt is referring to as well), but I don't know it well enough to just pull a club and hit. I don't see it as an exceptional hole, though it is one of the MacKenzie holes there. However, I've seen this hit-and-hope moment spark so much joy with higher handicaps, that I think there is merit even if it goes against the principals of golf that most of my lower handicap friends hold.

[Roddy Scott]

11th at Elie is blind to an extent… always good to check pin position on the way over the hill at the 10th.


The 12th at Ballybunion is again blind ish as surface of green is not visible from the tee.

[Richard Fisher]

14th at Hunstanton (not totally unlike 5th at Prestwick, not least in distance)
In the old days both the 3rd at Aberdovey 'aka Cader' and the 14th at Harlech aka 'The Castle Bunker' were properly scary blind short holes over sand dunes. In the 1970s a bulldozer went through the Castle Bunker and a while later the tee at the Cader was moved significantly. Both are still good and testing holes, but not quite what they were (especially now that Harlech's 14th has a raised tee and you can see a little bit of the flag)

[Tony_Muldoon]

Colt refashioned the finish at West Herts GC so he may be responsible for (or he left intact)  the 16th


https://www.westhertsgolfclub.co.uk/hole_16

The Picture is from behind the green.  On the tee you are looking at hitting into a void, as you approach it the feeling is of looking down into a pit.  I'm told the members are sharply divided on wheter it has merits or not, but those who would like to change it can never get a majority to support them.

I believe Marc Westonborg is helping the club update Bunkers et, with good results and hopefully he'll persuade them to leave the 16th alone.


Hertfordshire may lack any world class courses, but it's on the borders with London and yet it seems a secret that it has a real depth of interesting ones.