Are the hardest collection of par 3's,

[Patrick_Mucci]

from the back, middle and forward tees, found at Caves Valley ?

I know Shinnecock has a great set, and Pebble Beach has a great set, but collectively, from all three tees which course has the most difficult set ?

At Caves Valley, double bogie and higher is easily obtainable on every par 3.

As a complete set, what courses have difficult par 3's from every tee ?

[Sam Morrow]

I like the par 3's at Sawgrass (simply seeing on TV). I also think the par 3's at Huntingdon Valley are very good.

[Mike H]

After playing Victoria National for 4 days last week there is no doubt in my mind that those are the hardest par 3's I have played.

[Jay Flemma]

They are tough at Forsgate.

[J_ Crisham]

The par 3s at Harbour Town are pretty tough- no room for error.

[john_stiles]

A second for the par 3s at Harbour Town

[Mark Saltzman]

Xs are lurking at every par 3 at Kingsley, especially the three on the front 9.

[Jay Cox]

Even though I haven't played much golf in Indiana, the two courses that come to mind for me are both there:

The Ross course at French Lick is the toughest I've played to par all four.
Wolf Run is the course on which I'd expect to rack up the most total strokes, with 2, 13, and the tiny 16th all creating a serious danger of 5+.

If I recall correctly, neither set is significantly easier from the forward tees.

I haven't seen Caves Valley.

[Mark Saltzman]

Even though I haven't played much golf in Indiana, the two courses that come to mind for me are both there:

The Ross course at French Lick is the toughest I've played to par all four.
Wolf Run is the course on which I'd expect to rack up the most total strokes, with 2, 13, and the tiny 16th all creating a serious danger of 5+.

If I recall correctly, neither set is significantly easier from the forward tees.

I haven't seen Caves Valley.

Jay,

I'll second the nomination for Wolf Run. A fantastic and difficult set of 3s.

[Howard Riefs]

Xs are lurking at every par 3 at Kingsley, especially the three on the front 9.

+1

I still have nightmares of the 9th green. The 2nd is a great hole with danger lurking in all directions. The redan 16th is a special hole.

[Mike McGuire]

Lawsonia might be top 10?

Uphill 200 plus. Hard par
Down hill boxcar. Easy to make big number
230
Wicked shelved green -  180
Downhill - dead right and long

All distinctly different holes.

[Alex Lagowitz]

Jay,
Forsgate has a great set of 4 par 3s that as a set is probably world class...I am not so sure that they can rank that high in difficulty.
All the par 3s are difficult in that there are deep bunkers and tough greens, but IMO, really hard par 3s have double bogey easily if there is water, and there is no water on any of these.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change a thing.  I think those par 3s are great and pretty tough, but not the toughest.

[mark chalfant]

Patrick,

The set at Golden Horseshoe (RTJ) in Virginia is one of the hardest set Ive seen.  Water affects play on 3 out of 4 holes. Another  tee shot  carries a deep valley.  Two others are drop shots that require accurate distance, or a pond gobbles up the balll.


St.  Louis CC  has a great set of five varied and challenging one shotters.  Numbers  2 and 3  dont give the golfer a chance to warm up. Both demand precise shots to sand encircled or elevated greens


The set at Yale also springs to mind, quite visually intimidating


 

[Mark Johnson]

off the top of my head,   i'd put butler on the top of the list.

Not ridiculuously long (only one over 210) but all very narrow approaches with nowhere to miss.

The 8th is one of my all-time favorite holes; about 180 through a narrow chute of trees with a very tricky back to front green.

[Mark Chaplin]

To answer the question I do not know but Rye and Swinley Forest both have 5 challenging par 3s.

[Mark Pearce]

In the UK, in addition to the two Mark mentions, Muirfield's are far from easy.

In the US the toughest set I have played (of a very small set) were at Wolf Run.  The 16th may be the toughest 120 yard hole anywhere in the world!

[Mark Chaplin]

Mark the Postage Stamp was a 5 iron in May!

I'm not a fan of tough par 3s as they are usually pretty resistant to scoring through length alone. Some of the easiest holes to rack up a big number on 17 Swinley, 4 Deal, 7 Rye, 12 TCC, 8 Royal Troon & 12 Woodhall Spa have flat greens and are straightforward 3s if you hit the green but miss and a 5 or worse can easily appear. The skill is the one chance in making the putting surface.

[John Kavanaugh]

After playing Victoria National for 4 days last week there is no doubt in my mind that those are the hardest par 3's I have played.

Mike,

Yes they can be difficult but after playing the par 3's at the new course at Dismal I would say the Doak design provides a greater challenge though out the bag.  In contiguous rounds at each where at Dismal I hit 4 hybrid, Driver, 5 iron, 7 iron while at Victoria I had 6 iron, 9 iron, 6 iron, 8 iron I found the new course at Dismal a much finer test of ones overall game.

[Scott Warren]

It very well might be Rye.

2, 7, 14 and 17 are all really stern holes. When 5 is the easiest of them you know you have a tough set!

And as is often the case with questions relating to superlatives in golf design, an easy and accurate answer might be Pine Valley. 3, 5, 10 and 14 all possess a number of straightforward ways to card a hieroglyph!

[Mark Pearce]

Mark the Postage Stamp was a 5 iron in May!

I'm not a fan of tough par 3s as they are usually pretty resistant to scoring through length alone. Some of the easiest holes to rack up a big number on 17 Swinley, 4 Deal, 7 Rye, 12 TCC, 8 Royal Troon & 12 Woodhall Spa have flat greens and are straightforward 3s if you hit the green but miss and a 5 or worse can easily appear. The skill is the one chance in making the putting surface.

There are rooms in some of my partners houses bigger than the green on 16 at Wolf Run.  Miss left and tee it up again.  Miss short, tee it up again.  Miss long or right?  Tricky chip which, if slightly overdone you get to play again with a one shot penalty.  Not saying it's a good hole.  Just a bastard.  I played it twice and made 2 and 6.

[Kalen Braley]

Idaho Club,

3 out of 4 are longish holes 180+ and all of them require shots over water.

[Carl Nichols]

I've never played Wolf Run, but I would nominate Harbourtown and Winged Foot West (along with Caves).  Bald Peak Colony has two of the 20 hardest par 3's I've played, but the other two (including the famous Battleship hole) just aren't that hard.

[David Ober]

The par 3's at my home course, Bear Creek, in Murrieta, CA, are all quite difficult, with double bogey in the mix at any time for all of them.

Yardages are from the back (black) tees:

6) 147 yards. Plays directly down wind to a tiny, tiny green with a barranca hazard in front and a steep hill and rocks behind. the green is about 12 paces deep on the left side and about 6 paces deep on the right side. Controlling your short iron distance here is absolutely essential, and since the hole almost always plays downwind in the afternoon, you also have to spin the ball a considerable amount to hold the green

177 yards. Also directly downwind. Very funk green with a really cool shaved down collection area to the left of the green, and a barranca hazard left of that and deep bunkers/grass bunkers to the right.

12) 204 yards, into the wind. Gaping, deep bunkers in the center of the green. All kinds of nasty pin placements on this hole. Miss in the bunkers short, and bogey is about all you can hope for, with double and triple in the mix for even the best of players.

16) 212 yards, downhill to the most severely funky green I've ever played. Not really a very good green, but we're talking "difficult," not "great," right? LOL!

Again, double-bogey is in the mix here on all of these holes for even scratch and below players....

[Tom Kelly]

Royal Dornoch?

The New Course, St Andrews?

The 3's at Cruden Bay aren't easy either.

Maybe not the hardest but possibly my favourite set of 3's are at Sherwood Forest.

[Ian Andrew]

Winged Foot West, or Winged Foot East too for that matter.