[Tal Oz]

A few weeks ago I played the recently redone Roosevelt 9 hole here in LA and the par 3 7th had it's front bunker replaced with a few mounds which obscure the green surface. It got me thinking about bunkerless par 3's and how rare they are.

My favorite one I've played is Winged Foot East 17th which is the only bunkerless hole on the entire property. A few others I've played are the 10th at Pacific Dunes, the 8th at Swinley Forest, and the 4th at Deal. Interestingly none of these have any water in play either.

Though I haven't played it, the 16th at Portrush looks like the bigger brawnier brother of the 8th at Swinley with the steep falloff short and right of the green.
What are some other great examples?
For the architects here, what land features would make you consider leaving a par 3 bunkerless?

[James Reader]

I finally played Royal Worlington & Newmarket for the first time last week.  The 5th there has to be right up there as one of the best examples.  I can imagine it’s one of those holes that becomes more difficult the more you play it: the first time you don’t really appreciate just how tiny the landing area on the green is and just how difficult your second shot is going to be if you miss it.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I’ve built a few.


Both the 2nd and 7th on Carne Kilmore have no formal bunkers although the former especially has a lot of natural blowouts that we just left. These holes were blessed with original topography so didn’t require additional sand.


On the 14th at Strandhill, I removed the two previous bunkers, replacing the fronting one with a short grass mound and the left one with a short grass run-off. This hole is in a tight dune valley so I wanted to give a feeling of extra width.

[Sean_A]

On the 14th at Strandhill, I removed the two previous bunkers, replacing the fronting one with a short grass mound and the left one with a short grass run-off. This hole is in a tight dune valley so I wanted to give a feeling of extra width.

Ally

I like the sound of this. I recall thinking this was a beautiful hole which the bunkers made awkward in a tailwind.

Ciao

[John Mayhugh]

I like the 1st at Huntercombe. Greens that slope away from the tee are terribly underutilized and a hollow in front puts pressure on hitting the proper distance.

[Thomas Dai]

TO,
have a look via the search engine for course profiles of some of the rural U.K. courses. Courses like Kington, Painswick, Welshpool, Minchinhampton Old, Yelverton and you’ll see numerous examples of very fine even excellent par-3’s without sand bunkers.
Indeed I think there may even be a thread on the subject somewhere herein.

Atb

[Jon McSweeny]

About 50 miles due east of Roosevelt, Goose Creek Golf Course has two good par 3s on its back 9 (11 & 16) which are both bunkerless. It also has three par 3s on the front where the bunkering is very seldom the primary obstacle on your shot.
Industry Hills has a couple of long par 3s (Ike 5 and Babe 7) which are bunkerless and waterless as well. Provided you are on the right tee box, I think Babe 7 is a fun hole. No water, no stakes, no bunkers- a pretty rare hole.

[Jon Wiggett]

The 130 yard 9th at Dewsbury District Golf Club is played to a slightly raised green which is highly contoured with a serious rolling humps and hollows making the ball appear and vanish as it progress across the surface. Long and left are banked to contain a shot though OOB is hard left being just a matter of six feet from the putting surface. Right is a steep bank leaving a tricky but playable chip and short is slightly lower.


This is one of the great par three holes that almost no one has heard of which thankfully survived the awful Thomas/Alliss redo of the early 70s.


Jon

[Craig Moore]

The 6th and 15th at Greywalls are both bunkerless beauties

[James Brown]

I like the 1st at Huntercombe. Greens that slope away from the tee are terribly underutilized and a hollow in front puts pressure on hitting the proper distance.

I three putted the first after hitting it to 20 feet short because I still didn’t detect just how much front to back slope there was.  Welcome to Huntercombe!

[Mike Nuzzo]

The 6th and 15th at Wolf Point - both have bold natural terrain adjacent to Keller creek
The 2nd and 7th at Nine Grand - both are along Tarkington and Reese bayous


And Tom Doak's 15th at Memorial - is both bold and situated on a creek

[Mike_Clayton]

Paraparaumu Beach in NZ has 2 great bunkerless par 3s - and the 2nd (a long 3 with bunkers miles short of the green and largely out of play) is a bunkerless green.

[Sean_A]

Hell, Kington has three beauties in 5, 9 and 12.  Painswick has the all world 6th and one of my favourites anywhere, the 10th. Minch Old has two crackers in 8 and especially 16.

Ciao

[Tal Oz]

Thank you all for the examples, I've been quietly searching for photos of all of these.
@Ally, both of the Kilmore look intimidating yet stunning. 7 didn't need anything else to test your meddle!
@John, quite a way to start at Huntercombe! And I agree that a par 3 with a green sloping away from the tee is underutilized. The 6th at Rustic Canyon does this beautifully with the hollow short of the green too.
@Thomas, I had that suspicion that more rural UK courses would come up. Going to keep digging in here, I tried the search function and couldn't find a thread on bunkerless 3's
@Jon, I completely forgot about Industry Hills! Been years since I've played there
It looks like there are many more than I could initially come up with, but a common theme is having a dramatic landform abutting the green like the Kilmore examples.

[Sean_A]

Burnham's 14th is another nasty beaut, but the 8th on the next door Channel Course is outstandingly nasty.


I agree with Tucky & JB, Huntercombe's opener is very good and complex for a par 3. 


Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Burnham's 14th is another nasty beaut, but the 8th on the next door Channel Course is outstandingly nasty.

+1
"outstandingly nasty". Great phrase!
atb

[Jeff Johnston]

Two Irish examples come to mind, 13th at The Island and 4th at Co Sligo - re the latter, assuming it was left well alone in the recent tinkering (my last visit was a few years back). Don't recall it being one of the holes that was tagged for alteration (and by god it needed nothing done to it) but one never knows.

[Ira Fishman]

Number 13 at The Island Club indeed is a wonderful hole.  My wife has a picture of us on the tee as her mobile phone screen saver.  Number 14 at Primland also a very good hole that uses the danger of carry plus a severely contoured green as protection.


The Dell hole at Lahinch does not use water or a gorge.  Just a different and unique kind of forced carry.


Ira

[Daryl David]

The 1st, 6th, 12th, 14th and 16th at Arrowtown. 

[Alex Miller]

The 6th and 15th at Wolf Point - both have bold natural terrain adjacent to Keller creek

Two fantastic par 3's!


Obscuring the view of some of the ground / green surface as well as taking full advantage of the terrain make both of these work so well, and likely many others in this thread.

[Conley Hurst]

I like the 1st at Huntercombe. Greens that slope away from the tee are terribly underutilized and a hollow in front puts pressure on hitting the proper distance.

When I saw the word "bunkerless," I immediately thought of Huntercombe! Both the 1st and the 15th are fantastic bunkerless par 3s in my book. Watching a long iron bounce a time or two before disappearing into the punchbowl on 15 is great fun.

[Jon McSweeny]

Santa Ana CC- the current version- has a bunkerless par 3. Can't recall the hole, but the green sits on the northeast corner of the property.

[Chris Macios]

Royal Ashdown Forest has some great ones. The first of the round - 4 or 5th hope - is one I am particularly fond of

[Mark Chaplin]

Chris you mean the 6th at Royal Ashdown, at 125 yards it’s nearly on par with the Postage Stamp for difficulty.

[Chris Macios]

Chris you mean the 6th at Royal Ashdown, at 125 yards it’s nearly on par with the Postage Stamp for difficulty.

That’s the one!

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