Guide
The best famous par 3 holes you can play in GSPro
A great par 3 is the most photographed hole on the course for a reason. One shot, one chance, usually with water or a cliff between you and the pin. Most golfers will never stand on these tees in real life, but you can play a lot of them in GSPro tonight. Here are the most famous short holes in the game and where to find each one.
Updated July 2026
What makes a par 3 famous
Length is never the point on these holes. The best ones ask a nervous question with a short club in your hand: carry the water, hold a green that slopes away, or trust the wind off the sea. Miss and the penalty is right there in front of you. That tension is exactly what a simulator captures well, since GSPro reads the same carry number and wind the real hole would throw at you.
A note on names. GSPro designers often rebrand famous courses to avoid licensing trouble, so Augusta National shows up as Georgia Golf Club and Pebble Beach as DPC Pebble. The course underneath is the one you know. Every link below goes to that course in the directory.
The holes
The island green: TPC Sawgrass, 17th (137 yards)
The most nerve-wracking short wedge in golf. A green surrounded on all sides by water, reachable with a three-quarter wedge, and it still drowns dozens of tour balls every Players Championship. There is no bailout. On GSPro the shot is all commitment: pick the number, make a smooth swing, and watch it land. Missing here stings the same way it does on TV.
The one over the ocean: Cypress Point, 16th (231 yards)
Alister MacKenzie's masterpiece, and probably the most beautiful hole ever built. A long carry over the Pacific to a green perched on the rocks, with a safe route left for anyone who wants to lay up and pitch on. The decision is the drama: take on the whole carry or play the coward's route. In GSPro the ocean wind makes 231 yards feel like a lot more, and the bailout is genuinely tempting.
Golden Bell: Augusta National, 12th (155 yards)
The heart of Amen Corner and the hole that has ended more Masters than any other. It looks like a gentle wedge until you factor in the swirling wind over Rae's Creek, which can turn a perfect number into a wild guess. Short is water, long is bunkers and a bank. GSPro gives you the same shallow green and the same forced carry, so a par here still feels earned. Play the whole stretch and you get Amen Corner as it plays in April.
Play Augusta National (Georgia Golf Club) in GSPro · Masters guide
The cliff wedge: Pebble Beach, 7th (106 yards)
Golf's shortest great hole. A downhill flick of a wedge to a tiny green that hangs over the ocean, playing anywhere from a soft sand wedge on a calm day to a punched 7-iron when the wind howls off Carmel Bay. The tiny target is the whole test. GSPro nails the elevation drop, so on a still evening it is a birdie chance and on a windy one it is a survival shot.
The Ocean Course closer: Kiawah, 17th (197 yards)
Pete Dye built a brute by the sea, and the penultimate hole is its meanest par 3. A long iron over water to a green guarded by a nasty bunker, straight into whatever the Atlantic is doing that day. It has decided a Ryder Cup and a PGA Championship. In GSPro the wind setting is everything here: turn it up and this becomes one of the hardest shots you can face on the whole platform.
The links test: Royal Birkdale, 12th (183 yards)
An Open Championship par 3 that plays completely differently depending on the day. Dunes frame a raised green, and the wind decides whether you hit a smooth 7-iron or grip down on a 4. There is no water here, but the runoffs and the bunkering punish anything that is not committed. GSPro with firm greens and real wind turns it into the ground-game puzzle links golf is supposed to be.
The Biarritz: Fishers Island, 5th (229 yards)
A cult favorite that architecture nerds will drive hours to see. The Biarritz green runs long and narrow with a deep swale carved through the middle, so the pin position changes the hole entirely: front of the swale is a mid-iron, back is a full carry that has to clear the trough. Long Island Sound sits behind it. GSPro renders that green contour faithfully, and putting across the swale is its own small adventure.
Playing them right on the simulator
These holes reward the same discipline the pros use. A few GSPro settings and habits make them play the way they are meant to.
- Turn the wind on. Half of what makes Cypress Point, Pebble, and Kiawah famous is the sea breeze. Playing them in a dead calm removes the whole point. Set wind to at least moderate and let the number change on you.
- Commit to the carry. On an island green or a forced ocean carry, a half-hearted swing is the one that finds the water. Pick the club that covers the number and make a full, smooth pass.
- Read the green before you swing. A Biarritz swale or an Augusta false front means where you land matters as much as the total yardage. Aim for the correct tier, not just the flag.
- Match the launch monitor. Short clubs expose spin and carry differences between units. Our launch monitor settings guide covers the numbers that keep wedge distances honest.
More short holes worth a round
If a whole round of one-shotters sounds fun, GSPro has full par 3 courses too, from major-venue short courses to quick backyard layouts. Browse the par 3 courses list for the whole set, or the best GSPro courses guide if you want the famous full 18s these holes belong to.
Pick a hole and go