I think a key element of a short par 3 is making club selection difficult.
At 120 yards, how is that possible ?
Black Sheep has three nines. Their 25th hole is a great short par 3, playing roughly 120 yards. The green is small and slightly elevated from the tee. The true challenge there is pulling the right club, because the hole sits in a depression on the course.
At 120 yards, there aren't a lot of club choices, are there ?
You won't be pulling out your 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 or 2-iron or hybrids.
It's really almost in a bowl. There is a line of trees directly behind the tee box.
These factors serve to mask wind conditions, making club selection very difficult.
Wouldn't those trees behind the tee only mask a following wind ?
And, wouldn't that wind be detected from:
A. Previous play
B. The flag
If you do miss the putting surface, the elevated nature of the green and bunkers make recovery a challenge.
Thomas,
Great photos
Pat -
At 120 yards, depending on the wind, you might have 3 different club choices. While that's not every club in the bag, you're still talking about needing to pull the right club to hit a smallish green. Missing that green means you're more likely to make bogey than par because of the surrounds.
The trees behind the box, of course, would mask a following wind. However, they can also mask a quartering wind. This factor, in combination with the bowl like nature of the hole, which sits in a depression on the course, makes judging wind difficult. The flag can often be very still on the green but that doesn't mean there isn't wind swirling up above the treeline and bowl.
Of course you can discern the wind conditions from the previous hole, a par 5. However, you cannot see hole 24 from the 25th tee box, and the two holes play diagonally from one another. You're third shot at 24 is typically a low skipping shot into a very narrow green in order to take advantage of green contours. You likely are not thinking about wind conditions on that shot.
So, the point is, a careless golfer may not pay close enough attention to his play on 24 to help him out by the time he arrives at the 25th tee. The land is disorientating. You may not be able to figure out your position standing on 25 tee in relation to the 3rd shot at 24, or, you may not have paid any attention to the wind on 24 because your shot was likely a low, running 50 yard pitch. I realize those factors only come into play if you are a careless golfer, but, in my experience, the average golfer, as he plays a round, is more careless than studious.