Where do you aim on par threes?

[Jim_Coleman]

   I’m pretty sure Tiger waited 15+ years between holes in one as a pro. I’d say luck is pretty important.

[Steve Lang]

   Only took 36 years to get first one, 193 yds with 3 iron, played my fade, 2 hops and it disappeared, simply aimed left of pin, knowing green contour, lucky, perhaps, but some skill in distance control...


... 2022, second in retirement, 26 years after #1, still aiming and still considering distance control issues and using stronger lofted clubs now, had #2 (128 yds), #3 (170 yds), and #4 (124 yds) 3 different courses....  go figure,... 


... 2023 two near misses within a foot, luck or skill?


got to be the reps

[Rob Marshall]

How many average, even very good players hit a ball that its hops and stops with anything other less than an eight iron under normal playing conditions?

[Ken Moum]

I've been lucky enough to make 4. Won a car (only a Honda Civic ) with one of them.

Can't say I aimed at the pin on any of them.

And there's the one you'd have missed seeing if I hadn't said, "go in."


FWIW,  I'm pretty sure no other golfer as crappy as me has made six, and I usually aim in the general direction of the green.

[cary lichtenstein]

  Only took 36 years to get first one, 193 yds with 3 iron, played my fade, 2 hops and it disappeared, simply aimed left of pin, knowing green contour, lucky, perhaps, but some skill in distance control...


... 2022, second in retirement, 26 years after #1, still aiming and still considering distance control issues and using stronger lofted clubs now, had #2 (128 yds), #3 (170 yds), and #4 (124 yds) 3 different courses....  go figure,... 


... 2023 two near misses within a foot, luck or skill?


I got you beat sadly to say. Took me 53 years of playing golf to finally have one, my 2nd one I lost in the sun and found it in the hole. The first one, I said out loud FINALLY. My second one, I said where did that go? There was never a 3rd


got to be the reps

[archie_struthers]

 




Architecture students all.....and you don't  hit into the high side on a par three......shameful

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Architecture students all.....and you don't into the high side on a par three......shameful

Feels like you believe some old myth here or something… Elaborate?

[Richard Fisher]

Tommy,
Bernard Darwin wrote that he found the 16th at beloved RND the hardest short hole in England at which to know where to aim, with the wind somehow always unhelpful...

[Steve Lang]

Architecture students all.....and you don't into the high side on a par three......shameful

Archie, that's lumped into my distance control thoughts and how its flying/curving any given day,... 2 of my 4 I played the slopes and was lucky enough to see miracles... the other 2 were dead center of green with minor slopes but local knowledge ...  quite fun to watch it tracking and disappear...


   now if the pin is front and high side is in the back??[size=78%]  [/size]
 

[Steve Lang]

,,,

FWIW,  I'm pretty sure no other golfer as crappy as me has made six, and I usually aim in the general direction of the green.

Ken , FWIW, Ms Sheila might disagree with you, she has 8 HIO's, and notably the only one at Dismal White #3 back in 2014, at the 5th Major that year...  she likes to visualize how it could go in and which clubs could be used... after all, her first was 150 yds with a Driver    during a club championship...

[Tommy Williamsen]

Tommy,
Bernard Darwin wrote that he found the 16th at beloved RND the hardest short hole in England at which to know where to aim, with the wind somehow always unhelpful...

Richard, 16 was the most difficult par 3 for me. Five was always a knockdown shot into the prevailing wind. Eight was longish, but it was with the wind, and the green allowed a shot to run a bit. Fourteen was tricky because the wind was quartering. Sixteen, the prevailing wind was off the left. It is about 145 yards to a small green, so the shot usually gets up in the air. The green was not conducive to a knockdown shot. I generally overplayed the wind. I even have ended up on the 17th tee. The first time I played it, I hit it there with a group on the tee. It was very embarrassing. I was just glad I didn't hit anyone because the prop was one of the players.

[cary lichtenstein]

Regardless of where the pin was, I aimed to the right as I hit a draw. If the pin was in the extreme right next to the water, I gutted it out, aimed over the water and drew it in. Did not work 100% of the time but 90-95% because my draw was very predictable.

[Rob Marshall]

Regardless of where the pin was, I aimed to the right as I hit a draw. If the pin was in the extreme right next to the water, I gutted it out, aimed over the water and drew it in. Did not work 100% of the time but 90-95% because my draw was very predictable.

Mine is not that predictable. That reminds me, when I was playing the 5th at Pebble my caddie told me it was so windy the day before he would have had me start the ball out over the ocean. Tough to do from 185.

[Buck Wolter]

Won a car (only a Honda Civic ) with one of them.

Beautiful. A momentous achievement followed by disappointment. I can't imagine your anguish.

No wonder the non golfer and the recreational one find the elitism of the game so distasteful.

P.S. Congratulations on the aces. Hope those in the future come with proper rewards.

I hope the game of golf recovers from this horrible event-- either way, your virtue has been signaled.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I've been lucky enough to make 4. Won a car (only a Honda Civic ) with one of them.

Can't say I aimed at the pin on any of them.

David, do you have to declare the car to the USGA? If you accept the prize, do you have to turn pro, or is there an exception for an event? I figure you're ok. Just curious about the rule.


Don't mean to hijack my own thread.

[Jim_Coleman]

   They changed the rule on winning prizes for holes in one several years ago. You’re no longer considered a pro. You do pay the taxes though.

[David_Tepper]

"David, do you have to declare the car to the USGA? If you accept the prize, do you have to turn pro, or is there an exception for an event? I figure you're ok. Just curious about the rule."

Tommy W. -

Yes, I had to declare the car to the NorCalGA. It was in the handicap flight of the Santa Cruz City Amateur, August 1996.

I became a mid-teen handicap "pro" and could not compete in NCGA events for a year. My CPA insisted I declare winning the car on my income tax as well.

I think the USGA has changed the rules to now allow someone to keep the car/prize and not lose their amateur status.

DT   

[Jim_Kennedy]

Architecture students all.....and you don't into the high side on a par three......shameful

I love this!


I've been lucky to have had 8 roll in, 7 of which were on greens that I knew well, and all went in from the 'high side' so trying to get the ball to that location is a no-brainer. As Tim mentioned, you might think twice if stakes (or a win) are involved, but you'll rarely ever see one playing it safe. 

[Tim Martin]

Architecture students all.....and you don't into the high side on a par three......shameful

I love this!


I've been lucky to have had 8 roll in, 7 of which were on greens that I knew well, and all went in from the 'high side' so trying to get the ball to that location is a no-brainer. As Tim mentioned, you might think twice if stakes (or a win) are involved, but you'll rarely ever see one playing it safe. 

Another smart Irish guy.

[archie_struthers]

 
Eric it just seems that you would aim to the high side knowing that the statistical advantage would be to play into the slope. Isn't that why you see so few greens that have a strong canter from front to back but many that have backs higher than front. I'm not saying that's great architecture, but most don't do it for fear of complaints from the golfing public.

If you are a really good player you might cut or draw it into the slope to hold it , just to control the ball. Control of the ball equals more balls close to the pin. Also playing into the slope aids your distance control


Think about putting on severely sloping greens that are also fast. If you miss it a couple inches low and it rolls out you might be looking at a five footer on your come backer> likewise if you miss it way higher than your mark and the speed control is good it's generally close to the hole and often to your surprise falls in.  I've only seen only a couple of golf witches that can make them break uphill into the hole, and they must have made a deal with the devil.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Eric it just seems that you would aim to the high side knowing that the statistical advantage would be to play into the slope. Isn't that why you see so few greens that have a strong canter from front to back but many that have backs higher than front. I'm not saying that's great architecture, but most don't do it for fear of complaints from the golfing public.

Let's imagine a green is 30 yards wide. With the flag anywhere on the green, most people should still be aiming… at the middle of the green. If there's water right, many should be aiming at the left-center of the green. Regardless of the flag, and regardless of the slope (unless it's really severe, in which case they're still playing to the "middle" as the final position, roughly).

If you want to play smart, tactical golf, the "high side" is almost never relevant. Just like the old BS about how you'd rather have a six-footer up the slope of the green than a three-footer 90° to the slope (or a downhill putt).

The Shot Zones of most amateurs are 30+ yards wide, so if the green is smaller than the Shot Zone, by trying to aim to the "high side" of the green… you're going to hit a lot more shots into the bunkers, rough, water… whatever.

[archie_struthers]

 




would totally disagree with Eric as much as I love his analytics as a rule...in observing thousand of rounds of golf in person and in my own game playing into the higher side results in excellent results as to proximity to the hole

[Rob Marshall]

Do it all the time on our 16th green Archie. You can actually miss the green and end up with a great shot.

[Carl Johnson]

Mid-line, always.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

would totally disagree with Eric as much as I love his analytics as a rule...in observing thousand of rounds of golf in person and in my own game playing into the higher side results in excellent results as to proximity to the hole

Millions of shots > your anecdata, Archie.


The math, too, beats your anecdata. Plus, greens are generally front-to-back, not R to L or L to R.