Across 388 US par-3 courses, the typical hole plays 120 yards — a quarter are under 93 and a quarter over 148. Counted from 4,357 published holes, not sampled or estimated.
A par-3 course is one where every hole is a par 3 — the published par is exactly three times the hole count, read off each record rather than guessed from a name, so an executive course with a couple of par 4s is not in here. These lists rank par-3 courses against each other, which is the only comparison that tells a reader anything: against regulation golf they would all sit at the bottom of every length board together.
How long a par-3 hole actually plays
Every hole on the 383 published par-3 scorecards in the United States, in 25-yard bands. One tee set per course — the longest that publishes a card — so a course with six rated sets counts once rather than six times.
| Hole length (yards) | Holes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25–49 | 27 | 0.6% | |
| 50–74 | 414 | 9.5% | |
| 75–99 | 851 | 19.5% | |
| 100–124 | 1,088 | 25.0% | |
| 125–149 | 929 | 21.3% | |
| 150–174 | 592 | 13.6% | |
| 175–199 | 303 | 7.0% | |
| 200–224 | 112 | 2.6% | |
| 225–249 | 15 | 0.3% | |
| 250–274 | 10 | 0.2% | |
| 275–299 | 2 | 0.0% | |
| 300–324 | 0 | 0.0% | |
| 325–349 | 5 | 0.1% | |
| 350–374 | 4 | 0.1% | |
| 375–399 | 5 | 0.1% |
Par-3 courses ranked against each other
Each list counts only the par-3 courses that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality.
Longest
— the top 25 of 357 courses with a published scorecard
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Toughest test
— the top 25 of 131 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— the top 25 of 34 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 206 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | State | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shangri La Resort The Battlefield Par 3 | OK | 1,441 yds between tees |
| 2 | No 7 at Desert Mountain Golf Club | AZ | 1,428 yds between tees |
| 3 | Magnolia Grove Golf Club Short Course | AL | 1,311 yds between tees |
| 4 | Buttonwood Golf Course | NY | 1,229 yds between tees |
| 5 | 3's Greenville Golf & Gril | SC | 1,175 yds between tees |
| 6 | Yorktown Golf Complex | IL | 1,117 yds between tees |
| 7 | The Baths of Blackwolf Run | WI | 1,065 yds between tees |
| 8 | Middleton Golf Course | MA | 980 yds between tees |
| 9 | Palm Beach Golf Course | FL | 970 yds between tees |
| 10 | Reidy Creek Golf Course | CA | 924 yds between tees |
| 11 | Hawk's View Golf Club | WI | 922 yds between tees |
| 12 | Links at Lowell The | AR | 918 yds between tees |
| 13 | Shadow Hills Golf Club North Par 3 Course | CA | 900 yds between tees |
| 14 | The Back Nine Club | MA | 887 yds between tees |
| 15 | Mountain Top Course | MO | 836 yds between tees |
| 16 | Holly Ridge Golf Club | MA | 758 yds between tees |
| 17 | Red Ledges Golf Club 12 Hole Golf Park Course | UT | 720 yds between tees |
| 18 | Blue Rock Golf Course | MA | 714 yds between tees |
| 19 | Roadhaven Golf Course | AZ | 700 yds between tees |
| 20 | Peachtree Golf Center | GA | 687 yds between tees |
| 21 | Gravel Pit | MN | 681 yds between tees |
| 22 | Bentley Village Golf Club | FL | 678 yds between tees |
| 23 | Okeechobee at the Villages Executive Golf Trail | FL | 634 yds between tees |
| 24 | Hardys Custom Golf Center | NC | 630 yds between tees |
| 25 | Sullivans Par 3 | KY | 612 yds between tees |
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— the top 25 of 316 courses with an opening year
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— the top 25 of 388 courses with a coordinate we could sample
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.
By state
Only states with enough par-3 courses to rank appear here — below the minimum field an ordinal would describe our database rather than the state.