Short But Sweet
Are short courses a sign of the times in golf? Across the American landscape, a host of par-3 courses, nine-hole tracks and other nontraditional options are popping up, giving golfers a more time-friendly option than simply playing the regulation 18 holes. These courses are often fun and casual, with a less stodgy feel, making them suitable to golfers of all ages and abilities. For serious golfers, these short courses also offer a spot for a player to warm up before a serious round, or a cool-down facility that is mostly about fun and not about a score.
Mike Keiser’s grand public facilities at Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Sand Valley in Wisconsin incorporate par-3 courses as part of the menu of appealing and memorable golf. Bill Coore, the design partner of Ben Crenshaw, credits Keiser with igniting a trend in such courses. Coore and Crenshaw have done par-3s at both of Keiser’s massive golf buffets.
“It’s incredible,” says Coore of the recent trend. “Ben and I grew up playing nine-hole courses and some par-3 courses. Years ago we tried to talk owners into building those courses. If they had property that was interesting but not expansive enough for a regulation 18-hole course, we’d talk to them about building a nine-hole or par-3 course. Those conversations always went nowhere. Those were considered ‘not proper’ golf courses.”
Times have changed. “When Mike Keiser called and asked us if we would build what became The Preserve at Bandon, we’re like ‘Absolutely.’ That call ultimately led to the 13-hole Preserve, with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and a challenging layout with undulating greens, despite holes as short as only 60 yards.
Coore and Crenshaw are hardly alone. Tiger Woods has a par-3 course at majestic Pebble Beach, which opened under his redesign in 2021. Gil Hanse designed The Cradle at Pinehurst, nine holes of casual play ideal for a warmup or an evening cooldown. Legendary designer Alister MacKenzie even has a short course to his credit.
Golf has never just been about 18 holes. More than 25 percent of the golf facilities in the United States have only nine holes. Famed clubs like Merion and Newport Country Club began as nine-hole courses. It took a few years for famed Shinnecock Hills on Long Island to finally reach 18.
If your visions of a nine-hole or par-3 course are limited to those you may have played in your youth, touristy tracks with poorly kept greens, meager facilities and unchallenging layouts, these are not the short courses of today. These new tracks can be challenging and memorable. And in this day and age, when time is a precious commodity, playing 18 holes—which might take five hours—just doesn’t always fit well with a busy life. But zipping around some sort of hybrid layout in two hours or less might just hit the spot.
And to make things official, in a sense, the United States Golf Association has also incorporated nine-hole, par-3 and even the truly odd 12- to 17-hole facilities into its handicapping system. Playing one of these tracks can still help (or hurt) your handicap.
If you’re still not certain a shorter course can be taken seriously, don’t forget the importance of such a track at the very temple of golf. Augusta National Golf Club founder Cliff Roberts had architect MacKenzie design a companion par-3 course on property, which wouldn’t be built until 1958. It became immensely popular with and now, of course, it’s become a staple of Masters week with the pros playing a competition on it the Wednesday before the Masters begins.
Here is a look at some of the standout short courses around the United States that make up a prominent part of the American golf landscape.
The Hay At Pebble Beach
It doesn’t get much better than having a par-3 course designed by an iconic player at an iconic destination. That would be Tiger Woods reworking The Hay, a nine-hole course at Pebble Beach that reopened in 2021.
The Hay was built in 1957 and named for Peter Hay, the Pebble Beach club pro who imagined the first par-3 course there. Tiger’s reimagination of the course is just a five-minute stroll up the hill from the fabulous and famous 18th hole at Pebble, and it’s centered on fun holes, including a replica of the seventh hole on the big course. It all plays against the awesome views of the Pacific Ocean. The property also includes a 20,000-square-foot putting green that snakes over 100 yards.
When Woods got the job, his mind went back to his playing days growing up on public courses in Southern California. “There are a few key ideas that I like to make sure that we do on all short courses,” Woods said upon the opening. “One is to be able to putt—from the tee box. I grew up playing at Heartwell in Long Beach. The only hole you couldn’t putt on was 14, there was a little lake right there. Having 17 of the 18 holes where you could putt, it made a difference in the learning curve of the people being introduced to the game of golf. They don’t feel intimidated having to hit the ball high. They can bump it along the ground. It’s a lot less intimidating than putting in waterfalls, island greens, things of that nature.”
The Cradle, Pinehurst
Pinehurst, North Carolina, is becoming America’s version of St Andrews, a mecca to golfers near and far. There is no shortage of terrific courses to play at the resort (its famously tough No. 2 course played host to the U.S. Open in June for the fourth time) and in 2017, Pinehurst opened The Cradle, a nine-hole, par-3 course designed by the prolific and proficient Gil Hanse. It’s a relaxing course, with speakers disguised as rocks spaced throughout, and a teardrop-shaped bar ready to provide a cold beverage to pair with your cigar. It plays right out of the clubhouse and is perfect for an early-morning warmup, a late afternoon soiree or just a way to knock off some rust after a winter golf hibernation.
It’s no No. 2, but that doesn’t make it a pushover. The third hole is, in Hanse’s estimation, the most interesting and challenging. “A little uphill, semi-blind par-3 about 70 or 80 yards into a punch bowl green,” says Hanse. “I think the hole is going to be a lot of hoops and hollers. You aren’t going to be able to see if the ball has gone in the hole, but you have all these slopes behind the green to it and feed balls back toward the hole. We’ve built a little flat space behind the green where hopefully people will congregate, maybe sit in some Adirondack chairs with a cold beverage.”
The Preserve, Shorty’s And Charlotte’s, Bandon Dunes
The elegant design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were given a rugged, rolling piece of land to work with at Bandon Dunes, on the southern coast of Oregon. They turned it into a beautiful set of par-3s to augment Mike Keiser’s majestic Bandon Dunes.
The 1,609-yard, 13-hole Bandon Preserve course, which opened in 2012, is just one of a trio of short courses here. “The first ever picture of Ben, Mike and me taken at Bandon was in the dunes where The Preserve is now,” says Coore. The course plays adjacent to a wild ravine and has views of the original Bandon Dunes course as well as the panorama of the Pacific. It’s quite the baker’s dozen, with holes as short as 60 yards and no longer than 150 yards, and a set of greens that can be confounding both to hit and to putt. Some of the shots are semi-blind, some of the putts are semi-outrageous. The thirteenth was added once clearing had largely been finished, and a perfect green site along the western extreme of the layout was exposed. Coore says Keiser wanted the short course to be serious: “He said each one of those holes needs to be of the quality that you could pick it up on any one of the regulation courses.”
This year, Bandon Dunes added a new par-3 course named Shorty’s, in the wild dunes not far from Bandon Trails. Built by the WAC Golf team of Rod Whitman, Dave Axland and Keith Cutten, the 19-hole layout plays down a large hill, around and through the dunes and back up to a new clubhouse. Holes range from 60 to 160 yards. The course name honors Keiser’s close friendship with the late Shorty Dow, the first caretaker and self-appointed “governor, mayor and sheriff” of Bandon Dunes. The property also has a short course named Charlotte’s, which is intended for juniors and locals to play. It opens in the afternoon after business on the practice range winds down. The name honors Shorty Dow’s wife, as does the restaurant that services the facility.
Keiser’s commitment to the Bandon area is further enhanced by revenue generated by The Preserve and Shorty’s. “I knew that many people would bridle at $100 for a par-3,” Kaiser says. “So we determined to make all profits from The Preserve and now Shorty’s go to the local nonprofit that distributes the largess to those entities that need it.” The par-3 courses at Bandon are so popular you may need a tee time to play them.
Northwood Golf Course
Across the Russian River from the famous Bohemian Club Grove in Monte Rio, California, lies the Northwood Golf Course, nine regulation holes played through towering redwoods and spruce trees. It’s a modest layout, but no pushover, and dates back nearly 100 years.
Northwood is distinguished by the man who envisioned the space back in the 1920s and the man who set down the design: Jack Neville and MacKenzie. Neville was one of the people behind Pebble Beach, and MacKenzie was one of the greatest architects in the world, his work spanning the continents and including such notable courses as Augusta National, Cypress Point and Royal Melbourne.
Neville was a member of the Bohemian Club and thought this land on a bend in the river would be a good place for the boys to play a spot of golf. While he was eminently qualified as a golfer and architect, he had come to know MacKenzie, who had moved to California and had worked several projects there. Northwood is their lasting mark in the wine country of Sonoma County.
Northwood can be tight as a drum off the tee and a driver is not exactly your friend. The tee shot on the par-4 second hole can look as if you are hitting through a closet door. For around $28 for nine holes, Northwood is a bargain walk through a piece of golf history.
Old Brockway
Overlooking Lake Tahoe, one of America’s most beautiful bodies of water, Old Brockway is one of the game’s great strolls. This regulation nine-holer can be a challenge from the back tees for most players, and a pleasant treat from the middle tees for the average duffer.
The crooner Bing Crosby, who performed at various venues in Lake Tahoe, found Old Brockway so appealing that he began his famous “Clambake” tournament at the course in 1934. (It became so popular he had to move to an 18-hole course, eventually ending up at Pebble Beach as the Bing Crosby Pro-Am.) While his event was at Old Brockway, it attracted the best entertainers of the era, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Rita Hayworth.
The course, opened in 1924 and now 100 years old, was designed by Scottish architect John Duncan Dunn, whose work included Shinnecock Hills on Long Island. The first hole can be a bit intimidating with State Route 267 running close up the right side. (Aim a little more left.) And while you are strolling through the tree-lined fairways, let some of Crosby’s and Sinatra’s tunes float through your head.
The Chain At Streamsong
Streamsong Resort in central Florida, 90 minutes from Tampa, has become wildly popular as the state’s version of public links golf. Coore and Crenshaw had already built one of the resort’s three regulation courses when they were asked to continue the trend of short tracks by building The Chain.
The Chain is 19 holes of par-3 golf—or is it? The scorecard has no par score, and you can play the course from one of many suggested teeing areas marked by large, dragline chains that were used when the site was a phosphate mine. One of the suggested ways to play here, should you be in a match-play situation with your buddies, is whoever wins a hole picks the teeing area for the next. The course can be played in six- and 13-hole loops, as well as 19 holes. The holes are as short as 50 yards but the eighth hole can stretch out to nearly 300 yards. You can play it as short or as long as you want and from different angles.
The Sandbox At Sand Valley
Given all the success that Keiser has had with the short courses at Bandon Dunes, he was bound to include a par-3 at his Sand Valley development in central Wisconsin. The Sandbox is 17 holes of family-friendly golf and can be played with just a few clubs. The holes sprawl over a sandy tract dotted with native scrub, making for a beguiling walk. It’s situated next to the resort’s lodge, making it convenient to play.
Coore, Crenshaw, associate Jim Craig and the Keiser family peppered the layout with some heaving contours. There are holes that pay homage to the iconic architect C.B. Macdonald. The longest plays at 149 yards from the Crenshaw tees, but only 104 from the shorter Coore tees. There’s another set of tees that encourage the use of a putter, making it a sophisticated sort of miniature golf and definitely a family-fun destination.
The Links At Terranea
Architect Todd Eckenrode has made the most of a dramatic piece of land near the Pacific Ocean at the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes, California. The nine-hole, par-3 course has full views of the ocean, none more striking than the 173-yard seventh signature hole with Catalina Island in the distance.
The course was built on a Marineland aquatic resort that had closed decades before. “How many golf courses occupy land once housing killer whales?” asked Eckenrode after the opening. “The Links at Terranea was a unique project due to its limited acreage and incredibly scenic site, on the bluffs of coastal Palos Verdes.”
Spy Ring At Heritage By Heatherwood
What to do with a failing short course facility in Setauket, Long Island? Owner Doug Partrick had a plan. His family developed the original executive course over 70 acres in the early ’60s and 50 years later, it was seeing a sharp decline in play. The property needed to be repurposed to make any money and thus the nine-hole golf course plays around the perimeter of a luxury apartment complex.
“When I approached the town I had an idea to go for a multifamily rezone,” says Partrick. “There was some pushback from the town. The compromise was we’ll take 25 of the 70 acres and rezone that for multifamily in the core of the property. The deal was to maintain a public golf course of nine holes.”
Partrick brought in architect Tyler Rae to build a regulation nine-hole course that is a friendly 3,100 yards from the back tees. There are wide fairways, dramatic bunkering and large, sometimes sprawling greens all adding up to a classic looking parkland course.
“It became a win-win,” says Partrick. The course, like all the others here, also addresses the reality of modern living. “Nine holes these days is very attractive to people,” says Partrick. “People don’t always have time to play 18. Our idea was, let’s do something iconic here.”
