What score would you expect on a par three course?

[Canary_Yellow]

I’ve been playing a fair bit with my 7 year old this summer on a few different par three courses. In particular, Poult Wood, Westerham and The Northcliffe at North Foreland. The greens are smaller than a full size course, there’s a bit more punishment if you just miss with the tee shot.

Anyone else here regularly play short courses? I’d love to know what kind of scores you get relative to your handicap.

My scores have been between 6 over par and 14 over (eek!). I’m a bit out of practice, so I’d estimate my handicap would currently be around 12 - 15.

I always thought my long game was my weakness, in particular off the tee. These scores have made me question that.

If you have access to a short course and don’t currently use it, I highly recommend you do, I’ve been really enjoying it

 

[Bratty]

You should come down to Hilden range and golf course. Have a session on TopTracer on the range and then play the 9 hole. Four par 4s and 5 par threes, none of which are massively long (260 longest par 4).
It's really tight though, so bring a good few balls, and it's not in as good nick as those mentioned above, but it is good fun.
I usually go round there between level and 6 over. I have yet to go under par!
After lockdown, two neighbours and I went out 3 mornings a week, which was great fun and good for my short game. A good par 3 course is brilliant.
If you do think about coming over, let me know, as I live opposite and will gladly join you.
Another fun one is Pedham 9 hole, but the M25 junction 3 has been brutal of late, so take the back roads!

 

[Orikoru]

Probably depends on the length of the holes. There's a nice nine hole par 3 course at Redbourn, where the hole lengths vary from 100 to just over 200 yards. Played it a few times with my wife and my best score there was 31 - so four over par. She played well also and scored 45 which was pretty good for her level. The worst I did in four attempts there was shoot 35.

Playing short courses when my wife started playing was really beneficial for me. If it's wedge distance I'll often not use a tee - the tee boxes are usually not pristine on these sorts of courses, so this is good practise for hitting greens from average to scrappy lies.

 

[Imurg]

Aylesbury Park had a nice little 9 hole par 3 course...longest was 97 yards, shortest 54
Pencil bag, 3 wedges and a putter it took 45 minutes to go round twice.
Decent greens, a couple of ponds
Sharpened up your short game for sure....best I went round was 20 or 21...
Its now the foundations of a high speed railway........

 

[jim8flog]

Our SIs are based upon difficulty (using a load of medal scores from comps) and they are ranked

3, 5, 7 and 14

I think this shows par 3s are not as easy as some would believe.

If you miss your tee shot on a par 3 you only have one chance to recover whereas on a lot of par 4s you have 2 chances to recover.

It is a long time since I played a 9 hole par 3 course so I have nothing to really compare against although our 9 hole course has 4 par 3s and it is very easy to bogey 2 of them, however the greens are quite big because they were designed to have 2 different flag positions one for each 9.

 

[Albo]

I play a 9 hole par 3 regularly, my HCI at the moment has just gone up to 10 I think, anyways it’s been hovering around 8.4 to 10 the last 2 years, as for scores round the par 3 course, best I’ve done is level par, a few +1 - +3 rounds, all the way up to shooting a million. If I try and don’t spend most of the time just hitting and practicing many balls/chips I think I’d be averaging +4/+5 guess about half my handicap. For reference there is 1 holes less than 100y and the longest is about 150, water on 5 of the 9 holes.

What I would suggest if you can is to play a 2ball worse ball scramble match with yourself and see how you score. There is nothing more frustrating than stiffing your tee shot to 3ft only to have to play your other ball that ended up in a bunker, or holing a 15ft putt but it not counting as you didn’t make the other one.

 

[Slab]

I see Par 3's as the toughest holes to score on (for us and the Tours)

Pretty much gotta be on in one and a regulation 2-putt just to 'break even' (and missing a green is not uncommon for players of every level)
One-putts happen but seem rare enough that I see clubs up and down the country run a 2's pots every week

So to have 9 of them in a row I'd imagine scoring sub 30 would be more than a bit tough for your average dude/dudette

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Robert Rock won the British Par 3 this year on -8 for 36 holes (9 hole course) so not exactly a push over at Nailcote Hall. I managed not to embarrass myself last year when I played it

 

[hairball_89]

I quite like the 9 at poult wood. Played it a few times this year. I usually do a bucket, give myself a handicap of 9, and go back on the range for some long clubs after.

Never done the 9 at hildenborough tho. Next time I’ve got time to head over there I’ll ping both (@Bratty and @Canary_Yellow ) a pm, sounds like it could be good fun.

 

[Mel Smooth]

We have a par 30 course at our place, not particularly long but it’s still pretty tough to get a low score round there.
Great fun to play, especially when is colder and the days are shorter, and a full 4 hour, 18 hole round isn’t practical.

 

[nickjdavis]

I play a 9 hole par 3 regularly, my HCI at the moment has just gone up to 10 I think, anyways it’s been hovering around 8.4 to 10 the last 2 years, as for scores round the par 3 course, best I’ve done is level par, a few +1 - +3 rounds, all the way up to shooting a million. If I try and don’t spend most of the time just hitting and practicing many balls/chips I think I’d be averaging +4/+5 guess about half my handicap. For reference there is 1 holes less than 100y and the longest is about 150, water on 5 of the 9 holes.

What I would suggest if you can is to play a 2ball worse ball scramble match with yourself and see how you score. There is nothing more frustrating than stiffing your tee shot to 3ft only to have to play your other ball that ended up in a bunker, or holing a 15ft putt but it not counting as you didn’t make the other one.

I play 2 ball worse ball scrambles sometimes when I go out in the evening and I know I'm not going to be able to fit in a full round. They are a great way to add a bit of pressure to your game....especially when you hole a 6 footer but know it means nothing in terms of your score unless you hole the second attempt.

 

[Bratty]

Another par 3 that's fun is Chelsfield Lakes. It's where I learned to play golf.

 

[pendodave]

I sometimes play a p&p with various family members up at Chadwell springs in ware. Holes between about 60 and 90 yds. Tiny greens. I'm normally around par (a generous 27). It's a great facility, and tbh I've seem some people on our big course nearby who would be much better off there and the attached slightly longer par3 course.

 

[pendodave]

Apologies for the tangent, but I had a hole in 1 at the 73 yard 9th the other week (happily, in front of the whole family).
Does it count????!!

 

[Bratty]

Apologies for the tangent, but I had a hole in 1 at the 73 yard 9th the other week (happily, in front of the whole family).
Does it count????!!

Only if you got the drinks in!

 

[DeanoMK]

When I was a postie and before I joined a full course, I joined the local par 3 course which was £120 for the year. My time spent playing on it improved my short game a ridiculous amount, I was on there almost everyday after work.

The shortest hole is about 90 yards and the longest 170, I think my best ever score was 2 or 3 over but the average was likely 5 or 6 over.

 

[The Fader]

A few years back we set our course up as 18 par 3's for a fun end of season comp.

Lengths ranged from 110 - 190 yards. We didn't just simply shorten the holes but played
some from "interesting" tee positions on adjacent holes and tried to create tee shots that were
not the normal approach distances for the holes.

It was enjoyed by most players as a change from the norm.

Out of 120 players - only 2 beat their handicap!! Although we did play the comp off 85% allowance.