The Demise of the Short Par Three

I agree, I miss the courses where I can eagerly walk to the tee box knowing I can fire at a pin with a short iron as opposed to grabbing a 4 or 5 iron. The short par 3 also makes it more fun for the group i'm playing with as we often have closest to the flag bets on the short par 3

I agree. Not only are they long, but usually well protected. When you see a pro tournament, and not a single pro is hitting the green from the tee, that may be a sign that the hole is playing a little bit ridiculously difficult.

Agree, at my level I can't stand par 3's over 180 yds.

That seems to be the norm though.

The overly long, difficult par 3 is high on the list of guilty parties contributing to the 4+ hour round of golf. My feeling is that a scratch golfer should be able to hit the green and two putt most of the time on a "par 3". There are a few exceptions (Riviera #6, Winged Foot #10, Cypress Point # 16), but the vast majority of the world's best par 3s are under 180 yards. The technological improvements in long irons have helped low handicappers, but your swing has to be good to hit anything less that six iron consistently. Today's five irons have the loft of Hogan's three iron. Today's balls might curve less, travel farther, and stop quicker, but they don't defy physics, you still have to strike them well. The ridiculously long par 3 is responsible for beginning golfers to quit the game. Nothing more demoralizing than scoring an 8,9,10 on a par 3. When a par 3 is over 200 yards, a novice golfer is likely to score a very high number on a log jammed hole they had to wait 10 minutes on the tee box. If it happens a few times, I could imagine that person giving up the game. Making a par 3 a borderline driveable par 4 reveals a lack of imagination on the part of the architect. Considering the log jam it creates, it's also bad for business.

I have often thought that the par 3s on a course should be along the lines of

- 1 PW/SW type hole.  I would call that 110-130 yards

- midiron iron type hole.  Somewhere in the 140-170 range

-1 long iron/hybrid hole. 200-220 or so.

and the other one can be whatever fits the course.  For the pros add a couple more yards. The courses where all the par3s (or 4s for that matter) play within 20 yards of each other is poor course design. The short holes can still be tough ones.

I don't feel like they should be so "make or break" for your round either. If I'm +5 thru 11 holes, let's say, I'm having the round of my life up to this point. And if my round has the possibility from going from +5 to +8 or +9 on one hole - a combination of water or O.B. and length can make that a very realistic possibility - that seems a little ridiculous. Dropping a shot or two on a difficult hole is part of the game, but 3 or 4 due to an absurdly difficult design seems more counter productive than anything else.

i fully agree. two of the more regular courses i play have 200+ par 3's from the white tees. i played the blues last week and it was 230, uphill, and had trees protruding into the lower teeboxes. i hit a low 3 wood, barely brushed a single branch and ended up with 70 yards uphill left on a par 3. i had a similar approach shot or shorter on at least 2 par 4s. my partner cooked it right trying to overswing a hybrid to reach.

isn't the beauty of a par 3 is that when you don't reach you have an opportunity to stick a great scramble/sand shot close?

that wasn't the worst par 3 on the course though. they had one that was a 150 dogleg left with the pin tucked into the corner. it was a completely blind par 3 shot with tall trees guarding the dog leg and almost zero fairway to work with to lay up. bunkers were just right of the short fairway, short and right of the green, and of course the green was sloped.

my favorite par 3? how about a water carry about 120-130 with a fairway on the right side and bunker behind it?

i have one of those on one of my courses and the discussion every time amongst the group is do i take a club to go at it or do i club up and just try to get over the water. it's a fun hole and they call the hill 10 yards behind the green "chicken (bleep) hill."

that's what i think a par 3 should be. risk/reward, do i take a short club that i have to hit very well and try to make the carry for a birdie opportunity or do i take a safe club that i can not get all of and still have a chance at par.

I'm not a long hitter, probably more on the short side while I'm working out my swing.  I love shorter Par 3's, 130 yards or less as I'm pretty accurate with my shorter irons and can usually get par or bogey at worst on them.  Long Par 4's are death, 180+ yards means that I'm (and most of my group) hitting a hybrid into it.  Assuming I don't blow the tee shot the best I hope for is bogey and usually it's worse, especially if it's a narrow fairway with water or woods to the sides.

I get that for pro's and more accomplished golfers who can hit 180 with a 5i or 6i they pose a challenge, but for myself and the guys I play with we all groan when we come up to the long par 3's as that's usually when our round takes a turn for the worse.

I also agree completely. My home course opened in 1999 so it's relatively new and the four par3's are by far the toughest holes on the course. The shortest hole is 183 yds which is a 6-iron for me. On the rest of the course my approach shots are all hit with SW thru 8-iron giving me a much better chance at scoring. The standard par 3 on many newer courses have become a hole to just get your par and get out of there unless you hit a great shot or make a great putt! It would be great to have at least one par 3 in the 120-140 range on every course just to mix things up. You can make the green smaller and well guarded with bunkers and water to still make it challenging.

There was an article in Golfweek? a couple months back where they surveyed every tour player and had them rank every course that the tour stops at.  The old courses scored the best while more modern designs faired worse.  One of the biggest reasons for that according to the comments, were that modern course designs have eliminated the risk/reward on par 3s.  In older courses, the holes were shorter, but were surrounded by trouble waiting to penalize you for an errant shot.  If you wanted/needed to pick up some strokes, you could be aggressive and try to pick up a birdie by going at the pin.  The problem with modern courses, is that they've got 200 yard par 4s.  95% of the time, tour pros are simply going to stick it to the center of the green, then two putt for their par and move on to the next hole.  They don't even bother attacking the pin from that distance.  It really makes for a boring hole.

Perhaps the mindset, at least on the PGA Tour, is to make pros hit long irons somewhere on the course. With the distance pros drive it, any par 4 under 450y is usually a short iron second shot. Par 5s may be a wood/hybrid second shot. So when do they hit 4/5/6i? The long par 3.

at my home course, I kind of got lucky with the par 3's.

first one plays from either 165-170 yards or 173-179 and you're hitting into the width of the green vs. the length.  tough hole

second one plays from 160-170 or 135-140 and is downhill and a VERY fun green to shoot at.  Green almost has 4 "corners" as I call them where the flag can be placed for a tougher hole or it can be through the middle of the green which has severe slope.  Still have to be accurate but its very gettable.

3rd is another longer one...plays anywhere from 170-190 over water but you're hitting into the length of the green with a sideboard on the left so its not too tough.  Big bailout area to the right, as well

4th plays from 150-135 again over water and can be tricky depending on the flag.  Length isn't what makes the hole tough, though..so its fun to play.

I'm not sure the Tour cares about what irons pro's use, I think it's more as others have said protecting the course Par.  Long Par 3's are the equalizers for the shorter Par 5's that most pro's birdie or eagle.  If your point was that pro's are less accurate with their longer irons and thus more likely to not score well then I guess it's similar reasoning.

Going back to the use of long irons, I remember reading that during one tournament Ben Hogan left his 6i out of his bag because the way the way the course was set up he'd never need it.

I actually have started watching more senior and LPGA golf just to see how people who can't hit a drive 300+ yards and a 7i 170+ yards play the game.  I've learned a lot more from them about course management and definitely relate to it better.

I agree that most golf courses now adays are lengthning their par threes to a point of ridiculus. I played a course last weekend where we had to play from the back tees ( Interclub competition ) and the par 3.s measured 225, 195, 215, and 245. This seems to be a trend, it does not mean that we have to play from that tee box if we don't want to, although our ego would say otherwise.

Most courses now offer multiple tees boxes for every handicap level, some have even integrated their slope/handicap rating to reflect the use of different teeing ground selection.

My point is just because the back tees are there, it does not mean that you ( or I ) have to play from there, play where you are comfortable, talk to your club pro about having the golf course rated from combination tee boxes.

Cheers

Actually, I think it was his 7 iron, because Merion didn't have a 7 iron shot.

I do agree about the LPGA.  They play a game with which I am more familiar.

I also agree wholeheartedly with Iacas when it comes to par threes.  Shorter, risk-reward style holes are so much more interesting to play, as well as watch.

I was watching the Wegmans LPGA Championship, and I was so jealous of one of the par threes that was only 136 yards. Long par threes usually kill me.

There is one course I occasionally play that has an 85 yard and 120 yard par 3 on the back,

It kind of makes up for the constant water hazards/island type greens on the front 9 (some holes you have to carry water twice)

Home course has 2 par 3s that are generally 4 hybrid shots for me and 2 others that are usually a 6 iron - but all have plenty of water/trees/sand traps around them.