I always chuckle when pros complain about holes being of an improper length. As the best golfers in the world, they should have
less reason to complain than anyone else, and yet...
Anyway, I love long par 3s, especially as a clever way to balance against a the remainder of the golf course if there are a lot of shorter holes. If an aim of a golf course is to test every club and shot in a player's bag, why is a hole where a player tees off with a long iron a fairway wood less intrinsically worse than one where the player tees off with a wedge or short iron? And especially since the golf ball is allegedly so out of control that the pros are all hitting wedges into literally every single hole (
), don't long par 3s represent a perfect opportunity to test their longer clubs?
Some of my favorite long par 3s:
- 13, Crail (Balcomie Links)
- 12, Sedgefield
- 8, Hartford Golf Club
- 11, Keney Park
- 13, Heritage Club (SC)
- 17, Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards
- 5, Copake CC
- 9, Yale
- 5, Mountain Lake
- 8, Greenbrier (Old White)
- 3, Shelter Harbor
- 7, Wintonbury Hills
- 16, Streamsong Blue
- 15, Old Town
There are lots of really good long par 3s!