Is the Extremely Long Par 3 the Solution?

[Nigel Islam]

The problem is the ball, fix the ball.

+1 on that. I'd only lose less yards proportionally on a balata than the pros would.

[Mac Plumart]

Why list a par to start with?  Nothing changes, except "psychology" of a number, right?

VK...that is the most powerful and impactful part of golf, the psychological impact.

[Peter Pallotta]

Why list a par to start with?  Nothing changes, except "psychology" of a number, right?

VK...that is the most powerful and impactful part of golf, the psychological impact.

Damn straight, Mac. And those who handle it best do the best, which is a good thing  -- unless of course we want to throw out scoring well and actually winning as somehow beneath us, an antiquated card and pencil mentality not now worthy of our lofty modern ideals.

That's why Jack Nicklaus won majors so often, and Tom Weiskopf so rarely -- because by temperament and/or training, JN could deal with the psychology of golf so well.  

Who knew that for so many years great golfers like Hogan and Nicklaus and Woods were simply rubes and country bumpkins who couldn't figure out how meaningless "par" was, and were duped by Robert Trent Jones into thinking that it mattered!

[Doug Siebert]

The problem is the ball, fix the ball.

+1 on that. I'd only lose less yards proportionally on a balata than the pros would.

You should fare better than that if they do it right, and roll it back via similar means to where the distance increased.  Multilayer balls meant that the distance increases were in greater proportion the faster one's swing speed, so if done right a guy who carries it 300 loses (for the sake of argument) 10% and carries it only 270, the guy who carries it 180 should not lose 18 yards, but far less than that.  The guy with the 80 mph swing speed never got anything remotely like the distance increase the guy with the 120 mph swing speed did, so why should a rollback penalize everyone equally?

[Nigel Islam]

Sorry Doug that's what I was trying to say. I could switch to balatas again and after I stopped leaving my chips short score the same as always. The pros would score similarly too, but 8000 yard courses would not be seen as a necessity.

[Matthew Mollica]

The longer par 3s at PGA National a few weeks back, and the longer ones at Bay Hill this week, are giving some of the guys fits. Even still, at 215yds, the 17th is only putting 5 and 6 iron in the pro players' hands. Maybe the best thing to do is not assign par, as Mr. Kmetz says, and have a series of 230-270 holes per round, and let players each tackle it the way they feel they may best score...

[Brett_Morrissy]

MM, did you play Riviera on your trip?

I didn't get up early enough to see the 4th at Riviera played in this year's tourney - what were the pros using?

For me, this is the best long p3 I have played.

[Matthew Mollica]

Brett, I've been lucky enough to play Riv twice now. Once with still conditions on 4 and once with a headwind. I've hit 19* hybrid into it, and 3wood. I'm not sure what the pro players hit in there during the Northern Trust Open but seem to recall Luke Donald bemoaning the difficulty of the hole several years ago. Great hole.

[Sean_A]

Why list a par to start with?  Nothing changes, except "psychology" of a number, right?

VK...that is the most powerful and impactful part of golf, the psychological impact.

That's why Jack Nicklaus won majors so often, and Tom Weiskopf so rarely -- because by temperament and/or training, JN could deal with the psychology of golf so well.  

And what is the psychology of golf?  I would argue that the better the player the less he will worry about par simply because he can earn par in numerous ways.  Par only really afflicts the stupid among us who aren't good enough to cope with a specified number.  The good guys know that what matters is the final score and play accordingly.  They fully understand target scores with par merely being a temporary measure along the journey of a round.  I am always impressed by the handicap golfer who uses his shots wisely.  He knows the target score is 36 points or whatever par is plus his handicap.  This is the character I want as a partner - the guy who ignores par!

Regardless of how one treats "par", I think it an awful business when archies start to design to "par".  I don't have much time for that sort of inside the box thinking from a guy who is meant to be creative.

Ciao