[Brian Phillips]

As promised here are a bunch of some of my favourite Par 3's that I have played.

This is the 2nd hole on Berkshire Red course.  It is 147 yards off the back and slightly uphill.  I love the bunkering, the fact you can't see the bottom of the flag in the hardest flag position.  I also like the fact that by changing the flag to the front it becomes a much easier hole.

I also like the that anyone can play this hole and enjoy it.  Even Grandma can get onto the surface wihout having to go over a bunker.



The next is the 16th on the same course. it plays 221 yards off the back and 205 yards from the yellows.  The right bunker is not really in play for the good player and is more a 'feel good' bunker for the poor player.  A poor player 'feels good' when they clear the bunker on the right.

The bank on the right is in play but it is not that penal and it should be quite easy for any player to get back on the green but how close depends on the quality of the chip.



Now to the other side of the Atlantic

These two holes are some of my favourite holes in the world not just favourite Par 3's.

The first is the 13th at Sand Hills.  It plays 216 yards off the back (which is an elevated tee) and 185 yards off the middle tee on a lower (and more difficult tee) level.  Again, a feel good bunker that helps set the hole up and gives it some eye candy for the good player but makes a player playing off the front tees something to get over.

A long hole that is hard to get up to but there is that huge opening that allows all sorts of play in to the green.



The next one is a favourite of many that have visited Sand Hills.  The 17th which plays 150 of both the main tees and 101 off the front tee.  One of the things that C&C seem to be good at is putting in a bunker to challenge the lesser player to take to make it also interesting and fun for that type of golfer.

The photo is taken from up the hill behind the tees where I think (correct me if I am wrong Tom D) C&C had thought about putting a back tee.  I think the made the right decision, it shows too much of the next hole and you don't need that amount of vista overload.

Again, there is an opening to the green and you can bounce it in if you want or you can draw it in or hold a fade against the wind to stop gently by the flag...

Is this one of the greatest Par 3's in the world?




I have a number of other photos of my favourites does anyone have their own?  What I like about these holes is that there are a number of ways playing the hole not just clearing two front bunkers and hoping you have the right club.  You could be a fourball and all four players would be able to all hit different shots and all manage to birdie these holes.

Brian

[A_Clay_Man]

Brian-I don't mean to be obtuse, but have you designed holes that fit your preferences, or is it completly what the client wants?

P.s. I like your preferences.

Here's one I was surprised I liked so  much, but do. The pic is a bad one and taken from behind the green. I'll try to put up the schematic and that shows the bunker cutting in from the left.





here's the aerial schmatic

[Carlyle Rood]

Atlanta CC, Hole 13, 145 yds
There's a ruin of a Confederate paper mill adjacent to this hole.  The bunkers are new.  I'm not a fan of them, though I haven't hit a shot into them (yet).  In fairness, there's rock underneath the bunkers, so it's always been awkward to grow anything there.


Same hole, circa 1980


Amelia Island Plantation (Ocean Links), Hole 15, 3 iron
A lot of this course is forgettable.  Maybe it stands out in my mind because of its contrast with the rest of the course.


Pebble Beach GL, Hole 7, 2 iron to LOB WEDGE
I hit a three-quarter 60-degree wedge OVER the green when I played this hole last spring.  I think the wind was in the opposite direction than it usually is?  (I hit driver, 4-wood, 4-wood into the eighteenth hole--made par.)  I am NOT a big fan of the 17th--yet.


Sea Island GC (Seaside), Hole 12, 206 yds
Sorry about the photo.  This is a hole you should see as a 360-degree panoramic.  Former #3 on the original Seaside nine.

[RJ_Daley]

Here are a couple of mine, in no particular order of preferance...


Whistling Straits 17th, Pete Dye


across the puddle - Arcadia Bluffs 9th, Warren Henderson


Boxcar 7th Lawsonia, Wm. Langford... and from high above left side...



11th Country Club of Charleston- Seth Raynor


17th Bayside, Axeland and Proctor

[DPL11]

The Redan 4th at Hidden Creek


The short uphill 11th also from HC


Another Redan from an Open Venue in the near future


Pine Valley 5th-Makes everyones list

[Paul Richards]

back-to-back -

15th and 16th at Cypress Point!!!

 

[Paul Richards]

Of course, my 'real' two-favorites are:

#3 at Beverly CC

#7 at Chicago GC


it's easy to love these two holes when you've ACED them both!!!!!!!!!

 

[A_Clay_Man]

Here's a par 3 I have never ever felt comfortable over, and I hit a fade.


But here is my favorite. Believe it or not they are on the same course but it wasn't always so.

[Gib_Papazian]

Gentlemen,

Sadly, I lack the proficeny (see I cannot even spell it) to post a photo of anything. However, I would like to throw a par-3 into the mix that I have a particular affinity for in the purity of its challenge.

#13 at Spanish Bay seems an innoculous little pitch shot of about 130 yards from a lower tee to a slender hourglass putting surface hanging off the shoulder of a hillside.

A tick short, and down you go. A tick long and you are treated to a delicate little bunker shot with a pit of perdition on the other side of the tiny putting surface.

The wind swirls over the hill and is almost impossible to judge - similar to #12 on a certain Mackenzie, Jones, Fazio track full of azaleas.

Does anyone have a picture handy of this hole? It is not stunningly beautiful like the rest of the golf course, but a nasty little witch she is - and as dangerous as the Straits of Magellan if you want to reach the clubhouse with score intact.

Don't ask me how I know this . . . .  

Also, does anyone have pictures of these?:

#7 Rustic Canyon
#12 The Pit
#11 Shinnecock Hills
#11 Lahinch
#6 Olympic Club Cliff Course
#11 Creek Club
#2 Garden City
#17 Piping Rock
#7 Stevinson Ranch
#14 Newport
#all of them at Woodhall Spa.

Actually, except for Sethman and C.B.'s set of par-3's, I nominate Harry Colt as the best short-hole architect of all time.

Anybody got a photo of the set at Swinley?  

[Joe Hancock]

From Kingsley Club:

#2) 82 to 162 yards


#2) if you miss left....


#5) 145 to 220 yards, blind punchbowl green...much fun!


Joe

[Hunt]

Here's one of CB's Shorty designs from St. Louis CC

[Martin Del Vecchio]

This is a crappy picture, because I took it myself, but I think anybody who has played Myopia Hunt Club in Hamilton, MA will recognize the ninth hole:

[SPDB]

Gib -
As requested, the 11th at Biarritz, a truly one of kind golf hole. (For the uninitiated, CBM/SR's only island biarritz)

From the Tee


Side angle

*Photo credit - Chris Hunt

Gib - also curious why you fancy the 17th at Piping?

[Pete Lavallee]

Just for Gib, a photo of the 13th at Spanish Bay.

[RJ_Daley]

Here is a great set of pattern Seth Raynor holes I have seen on one course. Blue Mound CC, Milwaukee

Biarritz line of play and swale from left side...



short


redan line of play and back kicker, I'd like to see it mowed out into kicker further...



eden, line of play and back right high looking back

[Brian Phillips]

Here are a few more..

Dornoch Hole 6 that was compared to the Ross hole on another thread.  It measures 163 yards off the main tees.  As you can see the drop on this hole on the right is extreme.  Not only a great hole but also a beautiful hole.



The next is the 13th on the same course.  It measures 180 yards off the back and 148 yards off the yellows.  Another great Par 3.



Brian

[ForkaB]

Brian

Thanks for being my straightman!  As good as 6 and 13 at RDGC are (in their separate ways--6 for being hard and beautiful, 13 for being beautiful and a breather), I think 2 and 10 are better holes.



I'm trying to post pictures of each from the famous photogrpaher Kelly Blake Moran (who also dabbles in GCA, or so I am told...).   The one of 2 shows the right hand drop off from which one must pitch off an always very tight lie.  This is a much harder shot than being in the right hand bunker (shown on the picture) and neither of those two shots is as difficult as being in the similarly vertical left hand bunker, or worst of all, down in the gunge to the left.  The subtle but signifcant left-right cant of the green makes recovery from the left hand side very problematic.

The one of 10 shows the contours of the green, and while it might seem that the bunkers front and left are to be avoided, in fact being right on this green is potential death, because of the subtly sharp right to left contour of the green which makes a pitch from the 4-foot hollow to the right impossible to hold unless struck perfectly properly.  With the front pin position, hitting into the front bunkers is often the preferred option, particularly downwind.

[James Edwards]

My home club, has four solid par 3's.

Chart Hills - The Smyers / Faldo collaboration.

If you follow the routing from top left, the opening 600 yard par 5, you will find par 3's at the 3rd, 7th, 11th and 17th.  Great positions in the round with the 17th being an island green at 147 yards from the back tee.  All varying in topography.

[James Edwards]

17th

This is a good example of a green which is smaller than the 17th and Sawgrass, Longer by 15 yards than the 17th at Sawgrass but not in the same category in terms of visual intimidation..



Shares the same place in the round as Sawgrass #17.

[Brian Phillips]

J.J.

That routing of Chart Hills just shows the variety of the course and the holes.  Although much of it looks very manufactured this is outweighed by the quality of the holes.

I never realised there was so much variety not only in the course but all the Par 3's.

The reason I didn't mention the 2nd at Dornoch is that although it is a good hole, I feel it comes too early in the round for such a hard hole and the eye candy is nearly non existing...with the houses on the left.

The tenth is a fantastic hole and I don't have any pictures of it.  It looks a simple hole on the tee but it really can be a card killer for a good player like yourself or Rich.  I know that Rich likes that hole but I think even he struggles there sometimes.  It is probably one of the best short par 3's in Britain...no?

Brian

[James Edwards]

and the Redan inspired 3rd..

[James Edwards]

Brian,

Good Points about Dornoch..  I've pinched th picture of the 10th, from Mr Goodale's Home Course feature on Royal Dornoch - an excellent one at that.



Come down my friend in the summer and experience the course..  I'm sure you won't feel any less manufactured on that course than Kingsbarns.

[Tom_Doak]

Brian,

The 17th at Sand Hills DID have an upper back tee on that spot when the course opened, just because of the view.  But Bill and Ben didn't really like how the hole played from there, so it was abandoned after a year or two.

No one has really posted a photo of any of my favorite par-3 holes yet.  The sixth at Dornoch is the closest.  Rich, I hope you meant to say that thirteen was the "breather," becuase six has been the scene of a couple of disastrous scores for me.

[James Edwards]

Tom,

11th at TOC?

[A_Clay_Man]

Gib- I have always been under the impression that the 13th at SB was either inspired by, or a replica of, the postage stamp hole. From my recollection of seeing the postage stamp on TV a few years back, the 13th is not a replica. Also, your post intimates that the forward yardage is 130, when in fact that is close to the tips. The whites are 99 and there's a forward tee. Combining local knowledge of the wind, and ones expected trajectory, are certainly key to getting it close. What's also great about this hole is it's placement within the flow. Following the marvelous 12th green complex and preceeding the tumble to the sea Par 5, is as Bob would say, delicious.

One of my arguments to those who feel this should've been the site of the hotel, is the loss of such a great stretch of golf. And it isn't even the climax, more like foreplay. How this is perceived as a "waste", is beyond my comprehension. Maybe because I didn't walk it before I golfed it?

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