Short and Stout

In golf's increasingly bigger-is-better world, the Lilliputian par 3 rarely gets its due. But as this collection of tiny one-shotters shows, a hole doesn't have to be long to be lovable.

By Ron Whitten

Follow: @RonWhittenGD

March 2013

Golf architecture has succumbed to the long ball. Drivable par 4s and 290-yard par 3s are all the rage. A one-shot hole that is a delicate pitch to a daunting target has been all but forgotten. Not that they were ever that popular. The best took courage to design and courage to play.

We're talking about truly short par 3s, ones no longer than a football field, end zones included, 120 yards more or less. The 155-yard 12th at Augusta National is far too long for our purposes, as is the 137-yard island-green 17th at TPC Sawgrass. Fine holes, but not pitch and putts.

A great short par 3 is as rare as a Democrat on the PGA Tour. Here are seven examples. Most of them are the 18th-handicap hole at their club, a rating that shows just how much overemphasis is placed on yardage in golf.

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Golf Courses & Golf Travel /

Los Angeles CC (North)

Bye hole, 121 yards

The Little 17th

When Herbert Fowler designed and George C. Thomas Jr. built the North Course at LACC in 1921, they seemed inspired by the Postage Stamp in the design of the 17th, a 120-yarder playing over a wash to a double-level green recessed into the base of a hill. It was notorious. One writer called it a "trying short hole" surrounded by "dire trouble." Rival designer Robert Hunter wrote, "The slope on this green is too pronounced." When Thomas remodeled the North in 1928, he scrapped the hole in favor of a new par-3 15th. (His new 17th became a par 4.) Ninety years later Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and Geoff Shackelford rebuilt L.A. North to recapture Thomas' flair. They also reclaimed the old 17th, now positioned as a betting hole between the 17th green and 18th tee.

Courtesy of Los Angeles CC