[...]... par- three hole is that it truly represents the designer’s policy as to the character of the golf course It is a wrong idea that a par- three hole is easy to make because it is just a short yardage The [good] designer puts his heart into making a par- three hole special among others.” The top courses are distinguished by a strong complement of par threes, each good to great In many cases, one of the threes. .. holes A MacKenzie admirer, Doak did the same at Pacific Dunes with consecutive threes at numbers ten and eleven— with two tees at ten no less A few architects start their routing plan with the threes Stanley Thompson, who considered par threes to be the vital links of a golf course, stated, “First choose the sites for the par threes. ” Tom Simpson also favored this method In The Practical Greenkeeper,... for a course About this time too, a design convention began to prescribe that the eighteen holes should be divided up, somewhat arbitrarily, between eight par fours, four par fives and four par threes Notably, it wasn’t until 1911 that the term par was formally defined by the United States Golf Association In 1913, writing in Golfing, Alister MacKenzie codified the practice with his “Thirteen General... The modern belief in a par 72 made up of two threes and two fives a side is absurd There is a lot to be said for five par threes Golfers enjoy good short holes; they don’t take so long to play and today’s best players probably drop more shots on them than the fours and fives.” Progressively, architects have adopted a more flexible approach about the number and sequencing of threes, fours and fives,... solely to the par- three hole This was a curious omission that we decided to rectify Our goal: Canvass the world for some of the finest, most interesting, dramatic, beautiful, historic, delightful and confounding one-shot holes and assemble them in a collection that showcases their particular virtues and role in golf history Why else a book on par- three holes? Looked at imaginatively, a par three is... the wonderful diversity that defines golf’s playing field We are pleased to see that the holes chosen are a roll call of the best architects and great courses, our own among them So, we encourage you to settle in and enjoy a reading tour through some of the world’s great par- three holes We are glad to be part of it — Pete and Alice Dye x INTRODUCTION IN PRAISE OF GOLF’S ONE-SHOT HOLE “The merit of any... obvious par three drove the entire layout of the course.” Kyle Phillips, Kingsbarns’ creator, who worked on Sugarloaf Golf Club with Robert Trent Jones, Jr., says the drop-shot eleventh (the signature hole) triggered the routing of the back nine And Doak’s Pacific Dunes found its beginning in the corner of land where he ended up placing the fifth, tenth and eleventh holes — all par threes Is the Par Three... must get on the green and putt out or keep plunking balls in the water, no matter how many tries it takes It is golf’s version of the Flying Wallendas meet Evel Knievel Aristotle said the way to understand the big picture is to examine “the involution of the universal in the particular.” The par- three golf hole is best understood by observing the principles and execution of golf course architects What... extant par threes, numbers eight (“Short”) and eleven (“Eden”) at St Andrews’ Old Course The inspiration of these visionary golf architects stemmed from the desire for a golf hole that required a single shot to reach the putting area, the need to route a course in a certain direction, and the practicalities of fitting holes into a given space Once the one-shot hole was fixed as an essential part of... of one-shot holes on an 18-hole course and their sequence, the length of the one-shot hole, the teeing ground and the distinctive nature of the par- three tee shot, green size and green complexes, defenses used to 15 protect the short hole, why so many par threes are signature golf holes and what this reveals and classical and contemporary champions of the short hole Old Tom Morris and Charles Blair .