An Unusual Par 3

[Paul_Turner]

The 3rd at Eindhoven (NL).  A mini Dell hole (6th Lahinch)?  Just see the flag peeking by the mounds.





Anyone seen a similar hole?

Photos:  F Pont

[mike_malone]

 I recall a par 3 at Pocono Manor where the green sat blindly in a depression. It has been 15 years, but I don't recall a extra large pin or any other way to know where the pin was.

[Joel_Stewart]

Pretty hole.  Whats the length and is the rest of the course consistent with this type of architecture?

[David_Tepper]

Paul T.-

Have you played this hole? Roughly how long is it? How big is the green? How difficult is it to recover if you miss the green?

The par-3, 17th at Golspie is a blind shot across a ridge of dunes to a large, flat, open green. All you can see from the tee is the top of the flagstick. The hole is about 190-200 yards. If you miss the green, you usually have a decent chance of saving par.

DT

[A_Clay_Man]

The first pic looks like a mini, mirror image of the tenth at FH.

[Gerry B]

Adam:

That is exactly what I thought after a first glance- the 10th at FH

[Paul_Turner]

Guys

Don't know the hole.  Only the pic.  I think the green slopes away behind the mounds.  I don't think there's any ugoly trouble, it just looks really hard to get the ball close.  It also looks like it encourages a shaped ball for some hole positions.  Which is always a difficult aspect to put into a par 3.

The course is one of the top in Europe with lots of fine holes:





The greens look particularly good.  Guy Campbell the architect of West Sussex, Rye (part)... was impressed with the approach contours to the greens.

[Doug Siebert]

It is a nice looking hole, but IMHO can't really be a Dell since you can tell there is actually a green somewhere out there!

[T_MacWood]

Paul
Have you seen any old pictures of Eindhoven...I'm wondering if that mound was once a bunker?

The underrated CK Hutchison deserves credit with Campbell at West Sussex.

[JDoyle]

Paul,

It reminds me of the 8th at Maidstone - where you can just see the left back corner of the green.  

[TEPaul]

Paul:

I agree with you about your sense of how that par 3 may actually play. It looks like a hole that could generally speaking make the golfer feel "uncomfortable" on the tee (perhaps because it really does call for a shaped shot---eg looks to me like it calls for a distinct soft left to right shot and one that's "soft" and "holds" off the right to left general slope of the green and green-end---and that other types of shots just may never work well unless by fluke).

Isn't it funny how some holes do that to golfers? I have to say that the great par 3 #3 at PVGC sort of does that too and I've very interestingly found a description attributed to Crump himself about basically the only way possible to play that hole well or the way he wanted it to be played. He said the hole called for a cut shot (obviously to land as softly as possible from left to right against the severe right to left slope of the green.

This hole in the photo seems to be somewhat the same, although it looks both milder in slope but more complex with the right side mounding before and right of the green.

Were holes like these designed around that semi-one dimensional "shot testing" idea and era? If so we should all recognize what that meant in our rush to always label the architecture of that era "strategic" (or at least in the sense we seem to define strategic).

[Paul_Turner]

Tom

I have seen an old pic.  No bunker.  Exactly as it is in the photo.  It's an unsual Colt hole.  I can't think of another, off the top of my head, that is mostly blind.

Tom

Do you think the 3rd at PVGC would have played more like a Redan from the tee position that Colt wanted?  i.e. from about the centre of the 2nd green.