I commented elsewhere that Monterey Peninsula Dunes course just might have the best overall set of par three holes of any course near it, which obviously includes Cypress, Pebble, Spyglass, etc. This deserves some fleshing out, and for those who haven't had the great fortune to play this wonderful course, well, make it happen! It is described well by Ran in the Courses section on this site, but in brief, the par three holes are:
#4 - downhill 230 yards or so, with biarritz type green. Set back in the forest, the wind swirls making this one darn tough green tough green to hit, and when one inevitably misses, the biarritz-type swale make for some very interesting chipping. It also takes some skill to ace this hole, right Bob H.?
![Wink ;)](http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/Smileys/classic/wink.gif)
#7 - app. 160 yards, but plays a lot longer and once again, the enormous trees cause the wind to swirl, making club selection very difficult. Extremely well-bunkered green also, with fall-offs on all sides... and the green itself has subtle internal contours that continue to mystify me.
#10 - wow factor to the max. Tee sits up on a sand dune, green is blow on another dune, set up with grass falling off to the left, hazard to the right. Wind on this exposed point is diabolical, and this 150 yard shot can play anwyhere from 100 to 200, although most of the time you get a cross wind. Views extend to Japan out over the bay... just an incredibly great golf hole.
#14 - what can you say, it was the cover-boy for the NCGA annual magazine a few years ago so it has even more wow factor. Renovations pushed the green closer to the ocean, such that from the back tee, now set on a little perch amongs the rocks, it is a full 180 yard carry over perdition, to a green with more wonderful contour... Hitting from that perch, with all the tourists watching from behind a fence, is both terrifying and wonderful. This hole now competes with 15 and 16 at Cypress, just up the road.
Put all those together, and you can see that the competition against Cypress is a good one... I'd have to say 15 and 16 Cypress do get the nod in beauty, and each are fantastic holes, so if one was to go head to head, well... maybe overall Cypress does still get the nod. But each of the non-oceanside holes at MPCC Dunes are better than their non-oceanside cousins at Cypress, so this is a close race.
I'm trying to think of other courses with great sets of par threes that would defeat MPCC Dunes, but it ain't easy... NGLA has wonderful ones in the redan and the short but the Eden isn't any better than the worst par 3 at MPCC Dunes... Shinnecock's are usually the standard, but again I can argue for MPCC Dunes against these....
We likely have covered this before, so my apologies if so but I couldn't find such using the search feature. What courses are said to have the best set of par threes? I'd be interested in setting MPCC Dunes against them....
TH