Go small or go home: These are the 12 best par-3 courses in America
Drive for show, and putt for dough. But if you really want to test your full arsenal of shots, try playing a well-designed par 3 course. Augusta National has a pretty one. So does Pine Valley. But good luck getting on either. In the democratic spirit—and to demonstrate that size doesn’t always matter—we give you 12 of the finest public-access short courses in the United States.
THE SANDBOX, Sand Valley Golf Resort, Nekoosa, WI
“Take what the land gives you.” Call it the unofficial motto of the Keiser family, the same bunch who brought you Bandon Dunes. What the land has given them at their burgeoning new resort in central Wisconsin is two 18-hole courses, a third in the making and this 17-hole (yes, 17) short course, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Sandbox is the perfect name for it, given its dune-sy setting and its receptiveness to creative play.