No offense, but you guys who are saying that any par 3 over 200 yards is too long are under no obligation to play from the tips, you know.
I think there's a place for par 3s that even the longest pros and amateurs are hitting woods to, and might be unreachable for most everyone even with a driver if you catch it with an unfavorable wind. Given the inflation in distance, especially in the last few years, par 3s are the best chance for the course to force a player to play a shot with a longer iron or wood, or force a go/no go decision on him that he's perhaps uncomfortable with. Its one thing to test that go/no go decision when its a choice between taking a chance for an eagle putt or simply a birdie, its another when a layup produces a one putt par opportunity.
Why is it everyone is universally in favor of the half par hole when the "half" is in their favor, but the vote is less than overwhelming for those holes when the half against them? There are many people who don't seem to like the 500 yard par 4 all that much, either. If you run into a 285 yard par 3, there's nothing stopping you from playing it just like it was a 285 yard par 4, and laying up and hoping for 3 and trying to make no worse than 4.
And to be honest, if we don't allow par 3s to stretch to 300 yards and a bit beyond, we'll probably see precious few holes in the 250-310 yard range in the future. And that would be too bad, because those holes are quite a lot of fun, regardless of whether the scorecard has the numeral "3" or "4" next to the yardage.