Washington’s Top Par-3s
Intro by Brian Beaky, CG Editor
There’s nothing more fun in golf than standing on the tee box of a great par-3.
Sure, we love those risk/reward par-4s and short par-5s — that’s why we dedicate a feature in every issue of Cascade Golfer to one. But for as fun as those shots can be, they rarely come without a price — sure, it’s rewarding to hit the green, but even as we’re lining up our shot, that risk is ever-present in the back of our mind (which, frankly, is probably why we plunk it in the water more often than not).
A great par-3, though? Yeah, we might have some sand or water in our way, but all that stands between us and a par — or even a birdie — is one well-struck iron or wedge, and that’s nothing to be afraid of.
There’s also that little bit of extra adrenaline that comes from knowing that maybe — just maybe — this will be the moment that we’ve been waiting our whole lives for, when that perfect shot lands on the green, rolls towards the pin … and disappears.
You certainly can’t get that on a par-5.
That’s why we’ve always said if we were to design a Cascade Golfer Golf Course, we’d have five par-3s, five par-5s, and only eight par-4s — heck, we might even go with six of each. For most amateur golfers, par-5s represent the best chance for birdie, while par-3s (typically) limit the damage to our scorecard — and offer that tantalizing tease of a hole-in-one. We’ll take that over another 400-yard, par-4 any day.
Great par-3s come in all shapes and sizes. Lone Fir, the 15th at Chambers Bay, is just 120 yards from the sand tees, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a player whose heart doesn’t flutter every time they step on the tee. Conversely, the 12th at Gold Mountain’s Olympic Course is a full 200-plus from the blues, but isn’t any less spectacular for its length. There are unforgettable par-3s surrounded by water — like the 18th at Echo Falls, the third at Druids Glen, the 14th at the Home Course or the 12th at Semiahmoo — and others tucked deep in the woods, like the 7th at McCormick Woods, the 12th at Battle Creek or the 13th at Meadow Park. There are breathtaking, downhill par-3s like No. 6 at Gamble Sands, No. 9 at Chambers Bay, No. 12 at Druids Glen (yes, we’re aware we already mentioned Druids — they have great par-3s!), No. 15 at Eaglemont or No. 16 at Legion Memorial, and still others that plot a direct course, or even — like the fourth at Palouse Ridge or the sixth at Port Ludlow — send your ball careening uphill to what you can only hope is a pleasant fate.
And when you combine water, a severe downhill shot and a panoramic vista — well, that’s when you get cover-worthy gems like the 17th at Apple Tree and the seventh at Bear Mountain Ranch.
Now, we haven’t even reached the meat of this feature, and we’ve already named a full 18 outstanding par-3s — and those are just the ones that immediately come to mind. So, you can see the predicament we were in when we decided we wanted to try to rank Washington’s best par-3s — no matter which ones we chose, we were inevitably going to leave out at least as many that were equally outstanding, unless we decided to rank 30 or more.
So, rather than try to generate our own list, we reached out to some friends in the local community to find out what their favorite par-3s are to play in Washington state. You may have heard of a few of our panelists — they include a three-time NBA All-Star, a four-time PGA TOUR winner and, oh, only the greatest American goalkeeper of all-time. There’s also additional PGA and LPGA Tour players, ESPN television and radio hosts, plus a handful of local experts whose opinions we just couldn’t pass up. And, since this is Cascade Golfer, after all, we asked our readers, too — check out some of your responses on page 51.
When it comes to par-3s, everyone has a favorite. Here are some (but most certainly not all) of ours.