I am working on a renovation/restoration at a course close to where I live.  It is looking like we are going to have to build a new hole to connect the routing to an old hole we want to restore.  The land is pretty severely uphill but there are a few flatter areas that we can use for a greensite.  It will be following a very tough slightly downhill 180y par 3 so I was thinking of making the new hole somewhere between 130 and 160y at most.  This would also be the best yardage to connect the routing seamlessly.  Over the next weeks and months I am going to spend alot of time walking the area to pick the best greensite and area for the hole.  For now I am looking for some inspiration.  What are the best uphill Par 3s you have played.  Pictures are always great if you have them.  It seems to me that this is one of the hardest holes to design I cannot think of very many great ones myself.  Most uphill par 3s are only slightly uphill but this one is going to be more severe.  One of my favorites was the old 15th hole at Salishan in on the Oregon coast that they plowed over when they redid the course a few years back.  It was really a pity as I really thought that was a great hole and the one they replaced it with was nothing special. 

Off the top of my head...Crystal Downs #9, Prarie Dunes #2 and #10

What about 11 at Shinny. I know you remember that hole when we played ari. 10ft putt for birdie and hte wind blew the ball off the green!!!!!!

Ari:

Cribbed from Dan Moore's recent photo essay on Lawsonia, this is the Redan-esque 4th, it plays 165-175-203 (gold, white, tips). It's not sharply uphill, but it's an additional club for many players; it plays directly into the prevailing wind in the summer:

4th  Hole Drawing


4th From Tee (Brent Carlson first photo)


4th Look Back

4th From Right Side


Milwaukee Country Club has two excellent uphill par 3s; the first is the 4th:

No. 4 (194 par 3)

Although not a classic Redan, the 4th has some Redan-like attributes:  a deep fronting bunker left, a green that runs away from the player, a back bunker right, and small knob right of the green that could be used to propel a ball toward the hole. But the green lacks the requisite tilt of a classic Redan. Still, the play here is a long, high draw – it plays uphill, perhaps a full club-length.




The fronting bunker on the Redan-esque 4th.



No. 17 (224 par 3)

The tee shot is all uphill; add at least a club.


The green on 17 tilts from back to front, and from left to right, toward this cavernous bunker guarding the entire right side of the green.

Ari,

Think Pasatiempo. The 3rd is a great Par 3, but the 5 is also sneaky difficult. Not exactly sure on the elevation change but its probably a club uphill at 5.





Ballybunion's 12th and 14th are also good contenders. One long, the other short and IMHO tougher!

#5 at Pine Valley is probably one of the best uphill par 3's I've ever experienced.  230 yards to a tremendous green.  The picture from Ran's review back in 2002 is the only one that I could find and unfortuately does not do the hole justice.

Sorry - I went back to read the original post and saw your yardage limitation.  Even a miniature version of this would still be great though.

PV 5:

4th at Riviera.

Isn't the 4th at NGLA (Redan) slightly uphill?

How does that uphill par 3 at Dismal River -- where the green wraps around a huge bunker in front -- play?

When I saw this topic I knew Phil McDade would be all over the 4th at Lawsonia. 

Here is one I saw for the first time this year.  Spion Kop, the 11th at Flossmoor CC in the Chicago area, named after the famous artillery scared hilltop battle site in the Boer war.  Originally 138 yards when laid-out by H.J. Tweedie in 1900 it is now stretched to 183 or so.  The original was heavily bunkered including a large fronting bunker in the face of the hill.  That bunker has been lost over the years and the hole would be more ferocious if it was restored.  What makes the hole unique for an uphill approach is the fact the green slopes away and to the right making front pin placements very difficult.

  The MOST uphill one has to be the one at Crail.
We need photos.

   Anthony

Surely not the best out there but a pretty good one. Always game me fits. Picture does not do it justice.



#17 The Cobb Course - Glade Springs Resort, Daniels WV

Ari,

I am not saying it's the best uphill par 3, but there are few that are more uphill  than the first hole at the Traigh Golf Course in Scotland. Captain's Caper is a 130 yard shot to a green that is seventy feet above the tee. They have a good web site.

Bob

Here it is -- this is the 1st green at Traigh; the tee is to the left of the little white clubhouse pictured down below:

http://www.traighgolf.co.uk/images/zg_h400.jpg

You can get a sense of the uphill nature of the 1st at Traigh by looking at this photo, which is the finishing 9th hole that runs roughly parallel to the 1st:

http://www.traighgolf.co.uk/images/c_400.jpg

Traigh is a great little course -- essentially designed along one long sand dune/ridge that runs parallel to the coast. The 1st hole, as Bob mentions, takes you up to the sand dune, and you play alongside it, around it, over it, and then back down over the course of the remaining 8 holes.

#13 at Sand Hills and #8 at Friar's Head are very nice.