Par 3 Golf Players

[Parker0065]

When my son was younger he played exclusively par 3 courses until he reached age 8. Par 3 courses are awsome for beginners and kids!!!!

[par3forme]

Dude, check my screen name
There is a great 9 hole right behind my office that was just built in 2000. 5 of the holes are par 3 ranging from about 100-175 yards with the other 4 being par 4's roughly 300 to 350 yards. Total is 3,535 yards from the longest tees for a par of 31. The course rating is 29.4 and it has a slope rating of 86.5. It sounds quite a bit bigger than some of the par-3 courses some of you have described. Its just enough to practice with every club, plus its only $9 a round. I play it at least once a week. I finally met my goal of breaking 40 with a 39 about a couple months ago, and since I broke that barrier I have hit several more rounds under 40. It's amazing how meeting a goal like that can change your game mentally. Today I got my first 2 birdie round thanks a great deal to my new square head driver. The best part of today though, even better than my score, was that my 3 year old son walked the course with me and had a blast. I even got him a novelty smiley face golf ball at the clubhouse for behaving excellently...and it is sitting on his nightstand right now while he is sleeping.

[Smallville]

5 of the holes are par 3 ranging from about 100-175 yards with the other 4 being par 4's roughly 300 to 350 yards. Total is 3,535 yards from the longest tees for a par of 31.

Can you check your total yardage? 5 holes @175 = 875 and 4 holes @ 350 = 1400; total 2,275 and that's all the holes being the longest you mentioned. Your total comes to averaging 392+ yards a hole. Is your total if you play it twice?

The executive course (par 60) I play totals 3,402 yards for all 18 (189 a hole).

[CG031]

Seems like a good way to mix things up a little. Short tracks place a premium on accuracy and putting - the cornerstone of honing a golf game. You can always decide not to re-visit if it's not to your liking, but I say, go for it.

I was thinking the same thing. Something new, and a good practice with irons, chipping, making putts for birdie, etc.

[bflat450]

Yeah definitely I played a par 3 course from ages 10-12.

[par3forme]

Can you check your total yardage? 5 holes @175 = 875 and 4 holes @ 350 = 1400; total 2,275 and that's all the holes being the longest you mentioned. Your total comes to averaging 392+ yards a hole. Is your total if you play it twice?

Wow you are absolutely right, that does not make sense. I cut and pasted the yardage, rating and slope directly from the course's website, but those numbers do not add up. I went out to my truck and got today's scorecard and the correct numbers are: holes 1-9: 124, 147, 268, 146, 97, 373, 299, 78, 327. The correct total for 9 holes is 1859. I guess they were talking about 2 rounds, although that is not exactly correct either. Oh well. Sorry about that, I guess just didn't notice the numbers made no sense when I quickly cut and paste. I was just estimating on the holes before. My mistake.

[Smallville]

I've noticed before also that a course website was incorrect, usually its the price though! No biggie, I just saw the total yards and thought man, if I play that twice and it's as long as the beast I played this weekend! So I had to get out the calculator! Might give a heads up to the course but other than that, it's all good. That's still 300 yards further than the one I play, so it's likely a good test for an executive course.

[NI4NI]

The best part of today though, even better than my score, was that my 3 year old son walked the course with me and had a blast. I even got him a novelty smiley face golf ball at the clubhouse for behaving excellently...and it is sitting on his nightstand right now while he is sleeping.

I do the same thing - I let my 4 yr old son tag along, and putt around at each hole. We usually only do 3-4 holes, since he likes to spend more time on the putting green near the pool (he goes around in a circle with three balls, knocking them into each of the 5 putting holes). He behaves so well that I picked him up some Spongebob Squarepants balls of his own - couldn't believe how psyched he was!! That's the beauty of this Par-3 course: low playing traffic + close to the home = bringing my kids out more often with me to enjoy the good times! It's all good.

[Fon Duc Tow]

I just started playing last July. Literally picked up my first club besides a putter...last July.

Made sure I practiced at least a little every day.

Started taking lessons right away.

Well I played a couple regular 9 hole games but it was taking me par just to reach the green. Then the standard 3+ putt.

At first, I thought it made me feel bad from an etiquette standpoint. But then I realized I wasn't playing slow. I made sure I kept up with everyone else. And to compensate for my extra strokes, I wouldn't even bother looking for a lost ball. I would just take the penalty and move on.

What I realized is, the only thing bothering me was the fact that it wa taking me 8 strokes per hole.

So I started going to the par 3's by myself, at least 3 or 4 times a week. (Queue Rocky music. Just kidding. ) Anyway, the first couple games I shot in the 50's. But then I cracked the 40's. Just broke another personal record yesterday and shot a 34.

It has been invaluable to my short iron, chipping, and putting. My goal is to hit par on the par 3's before I even set foot on a full 9 or 18. Hopefully that happens by the end of the summer. We'll see.

Now let me tie all of this together. The guys I played with on the full 9's were not good. They could drive the ball 250 yards, but more often than not, the balls landed in the woods. Then when it came time to chip and putt, many times I wasn't the only one 3 and 4 and even 5 putting.

These are the guys I could see making fun of par 3's. As they shank another chip shot and 4 putt for the 2nd hole in a row.

Best part is, they are hardly ever busy. The public one I go to, 2 days ago was a Saturday, I played 2 rounds in 2 hours and only saw 4 other people the whole time. Many times, as stated by others above, I will hit three or four balls at a time if there is no one behind me.

I consider the par 3's to be an ignored resource by a sizable portion of the golf community (mostly by the "my driver is bigger than your driver" crowd).

I hope it stays that way. This message will self destruct in 5 seconds. ;)

[NI4NI]

Exactly my points:

- Low / No Playing Traffic
- Close to home (makes several weekly trips possible)
- Challenging enough from PW to Putter (where skills are a premium)
- Best bang for the buck to improve scores for when you play "real" courses
- Awesome way to introduce this fine game to my kids
- Even better excuse to sneak away with the kids with minimum wife static
- Annual dues at my course: $200!! How can you beat that?!

[GaijinGolfer]

$200 for annual dues? Nice! Only one of the par-3 courses that I play on offered a membership (where you pay a certain amount and can play as much as you want) and its $700.
Every now and then, some of my friends who are the, "my driver is bigger than your driver" type tag along to the par-3 courses and its always entertaining.
These are the kinda guys who practice mostly with their driver and can hit the ball 250-yards easily, but couldnt hit a decent iron or wedge shot if their life depended on it and their putting leaves much to be desired.
Its fun to watch these guys who think they are golf pros shoot 50 on a par-3 course.

[NI4NI]

I know, $200 is such a sweet price for a very nice, and lightly-played course.

Here are the hole yardages (Blue Tees):

HoleYardage Description
194 Tree in middle of fairway with bunker in back
2137 Straight shot with bunker on left
368 Nasty sloping green, trees blocking left with bunker on right
493 Straight from elevated tee box with bunker on right and back
5133 Nice and straight with trees on left and bunker on right
6115 Approach over deep bunkers in front & left with trees on right
797 Slightly downhill to hidden green with bunker on back left
8167 Left-to-right slope tee to green with bunkers on left & right
9106 Straight uphill tee to green with elevated mounds left & right

Total: 1,010 yards

[Harold]

Whenever I play par 3 courses I simply drop the ball somewhere on each tee box and call it a "fairway" and play it as it lies. Goal from there is to get as close to par as possible

[NI4NI]

Whenever I play par 3 courses I simply drop the ball somewhere on each tee box and call it a "fairway" and play it as it lies. Goal from there is to get as close to par as possible

Me too. Tees are not allowed as each hole is played as a second or third shot to simulate Par 4's and 5's. Par is the goal.

[GaijinGolfer]

I know, $200 is such a sweet price for a very nice, and lightly-played course.

Thats a pretty short course (even for a par-3 course) but at $200 a year thats still pretty sweet.