The Par-3 Challenge – Course Strategy Golf Lesson

In the end every hole is virtually a Par-3. When you have made a successful approach (one shot on a Par-4 or two shots on a Par-5) you should be playing a Par-3.

So if you want to play good golf, you must be able to make good tee shots and finish Par-3s effortlessly. Of course this is a simplified look at it, but there is a lot of truth to it, too.

So today we want to focus on making these Par-3s. You play a round of golf, but make a Par-3 out of every hole.

I want you to leave your tee shot behind and start each hole right on the fairway in a distance of about 150 yards to the flag stick. You do not do this on the Par-3s. But on the Par-4s and Par-5s you do not start off the tee, but from the fairway.

If you want to, you can even tee your ball up.

Doing this on a full course that was not designed to be a Par-3 course can be an interesting experience. For me it took away a lot of the anxiousness I had on the long holes.

I concentrated better and made better approaches over all.

This exercise teaches you the importance of a good tee shot and shows you first hand how good you are from 150 yards in.

If you are playing in a flight, just do the tee shot with everybody else, but drop the ball for your second shot and tell your flight partners that you are doing the Par-3 challenge and that you are working on your approaches.

Once you have some experience with this exercise, you will feel safe in the future when you got your ball in the Par-3 zone, so to speak.

You will also get better with your course management breaking each hole down like that.

• Play a full round of golf.
• Start every hole except the Par-3s from the fairway with a distance
  of approximately 150 yards to the flag stick.