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Par 3’s, 4’s or 5’s?

June 11, 2014 | By Greg D'Andrea | 3 Comments

Do you prefer one type of par over another? (photo by Greg D'Andrea)
Do you prefer one type of par over another? (photo by Greg D’Andrea)

As we all know, there are three types of pars for golf holes – Par 3’s, 4’s and 5’s. And as much as we think some par 5’s should be par 6’s, we all realize there’s no such thing!

Each of these par types force you to have drastically different strategies. On par 3’s, for example, you begin the hole as if it’s your approach shot on a par 4 – you’re targeting the green with an iron in your hand. Meanwhile on a typical par 5, it’s grip-it and rip-it a couple times before you even get to target the green!

And while we may not have thought about it much before, we do have favorites. For example, I like par 3’s (preferably 180 yards or less) – mostly because they play into my strength, which is mid-to-low iron play. And my results showed it – back when I would keep stats,  I always had a slightly better average on par 3’s than on par 4’s and 5’s.

Meanwhile, many people like par 5’s so they can “let the big dog eat” off the tee. I have to admit, there’s something very invigorating about crushing a long drive perfectly down the fairway of a 550-yard hole. And now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure I would like par 3 holes as much if there weren’t par 5’s mixed in to spice things up a bit. Par 4’s, on the other hand, can just go away as far as I’m concerned (just kidding about removing all the par 4’s, but that would make for an interesting course)!

But what about you? Maybe you enjoy a good par 4? Or maybe you’re like me and fancy par 3’s instead? Take the poll below and let me know your thoughts in the comments. I’d like to say I enjoy them all equally, but I just don’t.

What's your favorite? Par 3's, 4's or 5's

View Results

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Filed Under: Golf Life Tagged With: course layout, par, poll

What’s Most Important in a Golf Course

July 17, 2013 | By Greg D'Andrea | 2 Comments

sleeping giant golf course - hamden, ctSeveral years ago, I began playing a different golf course every time out (which was initiated through a quest I was on to play every public 18-hole golf course in my state). Anyway, after visiting about 20 or 30 (there were over 60 total), they all began meshing together in my mind – I couldn’t distinguish one from the next.

So, I began rating them on five criteria:

  • Difficulty
  • Layout
  • Grooming
  • Hospitality
  • Scenery

I felt that the five criteria above, when taken as a whole, produced the best way to ascertain how “good” a golf course is. For example, nice grooming or beautiful scenery might entice me to remember a particular course and convince me to come back again. Whereas an extremely difficult course or one with poor customer service might convince me to stay away.

Ultimately, it was these criteria that found their way into the rating system on Golfstinks.com. It’s true – you can become a member (for free) and start rating all the places you’ve golfed using our database of over 18,000 courses!

But periodically, we like to know these criteria are weighted properly. And to that end, we would like you to help us establish what is the most important feature on a golf course. By taking the poll below, you can help us do just that! And to make things even more interesting, we’ve added one more criteria currently not included in our rating formula: Price.

So, take the poll and then login to Golfstinks to start rating and reviewing the golf courses you’ve played – with a little help from golfers like you, we can create the best golf course review and ratings database on the web!

What's most important in a golf course?

View Results

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Filed Under: Golf Life Tagged With: course layout, golf course database, poll, ratings, reviews

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