Who would be in favor of a par 5 course?

[David in FL]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

Par 5s are the easiest holes.

But good luck finding the land for this monstrosity. Plus, it'd get pretty boring hitting driver and then a long club for your second time and time again, and lots of wedges or chip shots for your third all day.

So no, I wouldn't play it even if it did exist somewhere.

This, exactly.

[Rainmaker]

I voted no - it would just be like regular golf with about 15 extra long shots.  It would be horrible for bad slicers/hookers but it wouldn't be such a big challenge for others.  So it would either be overly brutal or kind of boring. 

[iSank]

Voted yes, there are plenty of places where there Is enough land, and it would be a fun game. Until you play the coarse you won't know who it favors. A good coarse, of course, would have something for everyone. I enjoy the game as a 72 shot game, but am open to the free market to see if the idea could be profitable. Doubt it, but it would be fun.....err could be fun.

 

four!

[It_is_Albatross]

No. Golf was never suppose to be about distance, its about hitting shots. up, down, left, right, hook, slice, fade, draw, punch, lob, chip, knock down (stinger for the kids) putt. Its about the shots. A par 3 course can be as challenging as any other course

[boogielicious]

How about a course with a variety? Example: 4 Par 5s with one on each side reachable in two. Then maybe 4 Par 3s: one short one, two mid length and one monster? Then a variety of Par 4s: two short ones, 4 or 5 with dog legs or risk reward situations, a few long but straight with wider fairways so you can let loose? I'd love to see something like this.

These all Par 5 courses I have been playing are really dull. 

 

[Ernest Jones]

I would like to see a course with floating par values. After holing out, you self-evaluate how you felt about the hole. Feel you did really well and hit great shots? Give yourself a Birdie. Feel it's a great hole, but you could have done better? Par. Feel the hole got the best of you and you haven't figure it out yet? Bogie. 

 

[Lihu]

18 hours ago, Coronagolfman said:

At a time in this country when many areas in the Western states are fighting drought conditions on a yearly basis, building a course that might go out to 9,000 or more yards would probably not work too well.

Probably.

Quote

If you want to try something akin to that type of course, go play Los Serranos in Chino, CA - the South course is par 74 with 6 par 5's, 6 par 4's (of which half are 450ish in yardage) and 6 par 3's.

Nice course.

My son recently shot 49/40 from the tips on the south course, and birdied the last hole. Not sure what happened to him on the front?

2 hours ago, Ernest Jones said:

I would like to see a course with floating par values. After holing out, you self-evaluate how you felt about the hole. Feel you did really well and hit great shots? Give yourself a Birdie. Feel it's a great hole, but you could have done better? Par. Feel the hole got the best of you and you haven't figure it out yet? Bogie. 

 

To the OP, try playing the par 5s at your local course 18 times in a row to get an idea what it feels like or you can play all 4 par 5s repeatedly to get in 18 holes. Guessing you'll get bored.

[Jeremie Boop]

14 minutes ago, Lihu said:

To the OP, try playing the par 5s at your local course 18 times in a row to get an idea what it feels like or you can play all 4 par 5s repeatedly to get in 18 holes. Guessing you'll get bored.

That's not necessarily an equivalent comparison to a 18 hole course of par 5s because they would each be different holes and set ups as opposed to playing the same 4 holes repeatedly.

[Patch]

If some one built it, I'd play it. I'd play it a lot if it were close by my digs. 

Pretty sure I would break 90 most days, as I now average below 5 on the par 5s I play these days. 

There's a par 75 up north I play when in that area. A par 90 would not be a big deal. I would treat it as a "tricked up" course, and play it just for the fun of it. Probably a few drivers of the deck and lots of 3 and 7 woods. Except for my wedges, most of my other irons would get a rest. I might use a cart more often too.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Patch

[Lihu]

4 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

That's not necessarily an equivalent comparison to a 18 hole course of par 5s because they would each be different holes and set ups as opposed to playing the same 4 holes repeatedly.

Play them from different tees or something, it'll give him some idea what it's like. I'm not sure there will be that much more variety on the proposed course anyway?

[Patch]

19 hours ago, Coronagolfman said:

At a time in this country when many areas in the Western states are fighting drought conditions on a yearly basis, building a course that might go out to 9,000 or more yards would probably not work too well.

If you want to try something akin to that type of course, go play Los Serranos in Chino, CA - the South course is par 74 with 6 par 5's, 6 par 4's (of which half are 450ish in yardage) and 6 par 3's.

A course this size could save maintenance and irrigation costs by using forced carries over undisturbed, native land. The developer could use standard landing areas after 100, 150, and 200 yard carries. A 9000 yard course could easily be made a 5500 yard course for maintenance purposes using forced carries. 

[Jeremie Boop]

10 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Play them from different tees or something, it'll give him some idea what it's like. I'm not sure there will be that much more variety on the proposed course anyway?

I would expect you'd see a decent variety, just like if you played par 5s on different courses. Shorter, longer, dogleg left/right, double dogleg, forced carries, forced lay ups, slanted fairways, water, sand, multi-tiered greens, etc... It's hard to know, it's all just speculation anyway, but I figure if they are actually went the route of making one they'd make the holes all different enough to be worth playing.

[Lihu]

49 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

I would expect you'd see a decent variety, just like if you played par 5s on different courses. Shorter, longer, dogleg left/right, double dogleg, forced carries, forced lay ups, slanted fairways, water, sand, multi-tiered greens, etc... It's hard to know, it's all just speculation anyway, but I figure if they are actually went the route of making one they'd make the holes all different enough to be worth playing.

I'm not a course designer, but you'd need a lot of natural features to get your desired variations. I'd hate to say it, but a practical par 90 course will likely look like a parkland style course. Pretty boring just like the concept of all par 5.

Plus, having played a few holes backwards and from different tees, you get pretty reasonable variety in terrain even as compared to actually having a par 90 course.

OTOH, my answer was "WTF?", so obviously I'm a bit biased about a course of all par 5s.

[9wood]

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

I'm not a course designer, but you'd need a lot of natural features to get your desired variations. I'd hate to say it, but a practical par 90 course will likely look like a parkland style course.

Alright then, how about a 9 hole par 5 course instead of an 18 hole par 5 course? Would something like that have any appeal to duffers?

[Lihu]

28 minutes ago, 9wood said:

Alright then, how about a 9 hole par 5 course instead of an 18 hole par 5 course? Would something like that have any appeal to duffers?

I think it would be a fun novelty, but the CR would still be around 38-40. The better golfers will just get more birdies and the shorter hitters will just get frustrated.

You haven't made the course that much harder for better golfers, but probably just alienated all the high handicap golfers unless you change the definition of par 5 to include 400 yard holes.

[9wood]

2 minutes ago, Lihu said:

I think it would be a fun novelty, but the CR would still be around 38-40. The better golfers will just get more birdies and the shorter hitters will just get frustrated.

You haven't made the course that much harder for better golfers, but probably just alienated all the high handicap golfers unless you change the definition of par 5 to include 400 yard holes.

Maybe a 400 yard hole or two with water in front to make it interesting

[Lihu]

9 minutes ago, 9wood said:

Maybe a 400 yard hole or two with water in front to make it interesting

I think that would just piss off golfers who need to run up to the green, but it still won't change the CR.

[9wood]

7 minutes ago, Lihu said:

I think that would just piss off golfers who need to run up to the green, but it still won't change the CR.

If people want their golf to be easy then maybe putt putt was designed specifically for them.