A subtle and strategic par 3 design

[TEPaul]

I spent three days officiating the Pa Open at Stonewall and a good deal of time on holes #7 & #8. I've played the course plenty of times but until this week never really quite understood the subtelties of the hole and how strategic it can be.

It's a green that's set into a hillside sloping right to left with the green built up on the left falling off sharply down to a lateral hazard. The green is angled at about 45 degrees with a really well executed diagonal along the left side (supported by a bunker front) and a bunker into the hillside right about half way back and a bunker in the rear. As the green surface slopes primarily right to left it's obvious from the tee if you miss right you'll have a hard time getting up and down to a pin in the front or on the right side of the green. Left of the green and the really well executed diagonal is dangerous or death.

But the thing that fascinated me about the hole is on the first day with the pin very front and right (not much area to hit to with the hillside right and the beginning of the left side diagonal of the green) not much more than about 10% of the entire morning wave of some of the best players in Pa managed to even hit the green surface--while in the entire morning wave on the last day with the pin left and rear a good 90% managed to hit the green surface!

Why? It seems to me almost all the players with the pin front and right must have been calculating yardage to the middle, subtracting the yardage to the pin and gunning right at the pin in a very small and dangerous area (hillside right and beginning of the diagonal left). Plus the conditions were very soft and balls hitting around the pin were all sucking back off the green!

The scoring average between Monday and Wednesday on this hole must have been very different. I mentioned this after the tournament to a few of the players I know and all of them said in retrospect they sort of got faked out by the architecture of the hole and they should have played the same shot on Monday as they did on Wednesday--basically a shot just about right into the middle of the green despite the fact that the pin positions were probably about 50+ feet apart.

This is a subtle but highly strategic par 3 even for the best players in the state!

[Tom_Doak]

Tom:

Thanks for that description.  

It's pretty difficult to two-putt from the back of that green to the front, because you have to putt up and over a crown where the drainage changes direction; but I'd still rather try that than getting up and down from anywhere except right in front of the green, and that's no target at all.

How was the scoring for the event?  The scariest thing about Stonewall I is that board they have in the clubhouse honoring "notable rounds."  The course has been there eleven years now, and there are still only about three scores under the par of 70 on it!

[George Pazin]

Tom D -

I recall reading on this board that you feel the par 3s were one of the real strengths of Stonewall, and yet one of the board's widely experienced posters felt they were a weakness. Any idea for the discrepancy? Did he just miss this type of subtlety?

On another note, maybe Dan Belden needs to get out to Stonewall.  

[Tom_Doak]

George,

The par-4's are the real strength of Stonewall.  You can't afford to miss those fairways.

I like the par-3 holes, think they're a good variety, but I understand that some people think 15 too hard, 17 too easy, and some don't like the "blind" shot on 5.  Number five is my personal favorite of the group, but I wish there was a better place for a drop area.

[TEPaul]

redanman:

The tournament at Stonewall last week was not an amateur tone-a-mint, it was the Pennsylvania Open.

TomD:

The Pa Open was won after a play-off of two players at even par after 54 holes. I believe either the winner or runner-up or both shot a 67 in one of the first two rounds and the eventual winner went into the last round at -2 against -1 for the eventual runner-up. Through 8 holes on the last day the -2 was at +2 and the -1 was at -5 for a seven stroke lead in the tournament with ten holes to play. Even standing on the 16th tee the eventual runner-up was at -3 and the eventual winner at +1. The eventual runner-up proceeded to hit his tee shot right on #16--it hit the top of the wall and went behind it into Brer Rabbit's briar patch. He hit a good provisional down the center and after a brief discussion and a less than enthusiatic search decided to forego his search and ball ID and to hit his provisional--although a few of us had found about ten balls behind that wall! He proceeded to miss the green left with his provisional and made a 7.

The good news was he went to #18 tee with a one shot lead but hit it into the fescue right off the tee on #18. The eventual winner hit a great drive and an 8 iron to about 6 feet. Shields hit an 8 iron out of really thick fescue and pulled it so bad it went over the wall and onto the practice putting green. After taking "wrong putting green" relief he hit the best looking 60 degree lob wedge from very tight moist turf next to the practice putting green over the wall to about 2 feet to a pin at the extreme mid left of the green!!! His fellow competitor ran his putt in for birdie and Shields sunk his for par so they replayed the 18th in overtime. Shields hit about the same drive into the fescue right and Wheatcroft hit his tee shot within about two feet of his previous divot and this time hit a 7 iron to about ten feet. Shields couldn't get out of the fescue well and only managed bogie and Wheatcroft two putted for a par to win.

The scoring would've been far lower if it hadn't been for the fescue. Probably the toughest most penal fescue I've ever seen! In 54 holes any player was going to get at least a drive or two out in that fescue from which finding the ball was way less than 50% despite us with plenty of officials and two way radios tracking drives!

The holes that got the most comment were #5 and the green on #3. There're a bunch of players in PA who want to blowup #5 and some that want to blow up #3 green. I told some of those that criticized #3 green that it was a fairly exact duplicate of Crystal's #1 green and that they ought to have at least half a brain to recognize that the green falls off bigtime all along the back left and not to go too deep to that back pin! Basically down on #5 I just kept my big mouth shut and helped them with their relief procedures and let them be alone after they 3 putted the hole or missed the green. The first day the pin was in the extreme back of the green--a sucker pin if I ever saw one!!

Most of the field seemed to get by #15 OK. The greens which seemed to give them the most problems were #3 and #4--and as mentioned in the first post that front right pin on #7 in the first day! Less than 20% parred that hole to that front right pin despite some pretty decent shots--at least in theory! In the last day with the pin back left probably 80% parred #7. Again, #7 is an extremely strategic par 3 revolving around those varying pin locations. Playing the ball to the middle of that green regardless will get you out of there in better shape most all the time. I really didn't see much 3 putting from those guys in the tournament no matter where they were.

The thing that really did them in was the fescue!

The thing that sort of got me was a fair amount of players hit things like 2 irons off the tips on #8. I always thought that was a lot of hole to hit an iron off the tee but most of those guys hit everything so far these days. I guess they feel so what if I have 200 yds in, it's no more than a 5 iron! And to top it all off the course was soaking wet from constant rain the first day and a lots of balls plugged in the fairways!