At this US Open, golfers will be faced with a rare collection of par 3s

If ever there was a postcard of the Los Angeles Country Club, it would showcase the breathtaking view from the tee box on the par-3 11th hole. Downhill and in the distance, the towers of the city’s skyline frame an elevated, rolling greenery protected by three hogweed-shaped bunkers.

However, the hole is symbolic of more than just the view. It’s one of those five par 3s on the North Course, site of the 123rd United States Open starting Thursday. Together, these various holes form a rare sight, as the typical US Open course only has four par-3 holes.

In an era when mass drives are routine, this distinctive feature will test the accuracy of players trying to gauge par-3 flagsticks from as close as about 100 yards or from as far away as nearly 300. The holes are a prized collection of gems such as the club organizes its first major tournament.

“I think the members look at each one individually because they are so different,” said Richard Shortz, former club president and co-chair of the US Open Committee, of how club members view the holes. “They’re proud of all of them, but they’re not clustered in a way that you can classify all five.”

One, however, deserves a special rating: the 15th. That’s the hole for aces.

Last October, Shortz played on the court. The 15th hole played at just 78 yards at the 2017 Walker Cup, but on the day Shortz played, he played at 120, as the flag was further back in the green. Shortz hit a clean hit with his 9-iron and felt the ball could be close to the hole. But with the pin hidden behind the front bunker, Shortz pulled out his putter anyway.

As he approached the green, he didn’t see the ball until he peered into the cup and grinned. It was Shortz’s first hole-in-one on the 15th.

Looking ahead to the Open, he made a bold prediction for a hole that is on the tournament’s scorecard at 124 yards.

“I think at 15 we’re going to see some holes in one,” said Shortz, who is an older brother of The New York Times crossword creator Will. “It’s not like it’s going to be easy. If someone hits the right shot, well these guys are good.

There have been notable holes in one this past month: from Southern California club pro Michael Block at the PGA Championship and from Scottie Scheffler at the Charles Schwab Challenge the following week.

Scheffler, No. 1 in the world, may have an advantage as he competed as an amateur in the Walker Cup at the Los Angeles Country Club six years ago, partnering Collin Morikawa, who is scheduled to play in the Open.

Judging by the statistics, the leaders in par 3s on the PGA Tour there can also be favourites: world No. 2 Jon Rahm ranks first in this category (average 2.92 strokes), followed by Max Homa (2.94). Scheffler is in fifth place.

In 2013, Homa, then a senior at the University of California at Berkeley, shot a first-round 61 at the Los Angeles Country Club, on his way to winning the PAC-12 tournament. Rahm, then a freshman at Arizona State, finished 10th.

Yet that limited experience is no guarantee of success, says architect Gil Hanse, who designed George C. Thomas Jr. in 2010. from 1928 restored.

“The par 3s will not favor one particular type of player,” said Hanse. “Here, because you’re talking about accuracy with the wedge versus accuracy with a 3-wood, that’s a big gap to have, to allow one player to accomplish all of these things.”

Jeff Hall, the USGA championship director who built the 7,421-yard, par-70 course for the Open, marveled at the “dramatic variety” of these so-called short holes. The two longest par 3’s are the fourth at 228 meters and the eleventh at 290 meters.

“On tour week in, week out, there just aren’t many par-3 holes that play on numbers like this,” he said.

Each of the par 3s is problematic in its own way, characterized by natural hazards and firm, tricky greens.

The first par 3 – the fourth hole of 228 yards – has a barranca, a dry, sandy ravine typical of Southern California, that slides like an anaconda through the front nine. On the fourth hole, he lurks in front and then curls back behind the green. There are also two sloping bunkers on the sides of the green.

“It’s a small target for a long hole with a lot of problems around it,” Hanse said.

In 1927 and 1928, when Thomas teamed up with Billy Bell to improve upon W. Herbert Fowler’s original 1921 draft, he created some par 3s with the flexibility to play as par 4s. The seventh hole of 284 meters is one of them. It’s a par 3 for the Open, and it could also play at 264 yards depending on where the tee is, Hall said.

However, the seventh green will be particularly difficult to read due to the topography. “You feel like the putts aren’t as uphill as they actually are because your eyes fall on the barranca and think it’s more downhill,” Hanse said.

After the 547-yard par-5 eighth hole—one of three par 5s on the course, which is also one more than normal for a US Open—players come to the final par 3 on the front nine. The ninth hole measures 171 yards on the scorecard.

“It feels like it’s a flat hole, but it’s really uphill and deceptive,” Hanse said. “There are four different quadrants in green to move the pin.”

During a tournament, officials change the location of the pin not only to reduce wear on the greens, but also to challenge the players. Hall, who oversees the course set up in his role as championship director for the golf association, explained that tee boxes at the Los Angeles club also have some room for the tees to move up or back. So, depending on the tee and pin locations for any given day, golfers could be dealing with a 30-yard difference on the eighth hole, he said.

The next par 3, the 11th, will test players’ adaptability. From a distance, “it’s such a great view, sometimes you want to stand there and not take the tee off,” said Shortz, the club’s former president.

Up close, the 11th offers a history lesson. The green is modeled after Scotland’s 15th hole on the West Links Course at North Berwick Golf Club. In the 19th century, when a veteran of the Crimean War played that famous hole, he noticed that the green jutted out at the front and then sloped from right to left; the shape reminded him of a fortress from Sevastopol.

The triangle jutting out next to the fort’s entry point was called a redan. The redan has since become a feature golf course architects love to incorporate into their course designs.

For his part, Thomas turned the 11th hole at the Los Angeles Country Club into a reverse redan because the green, 125 feet deep, slopes left to right. But the descent only continues halfway down the green because it’s slightly uphill again, Hanse said.

“It was actually a pretty monumental achievement when you consider how much dirt they moved to create that,” he said. “When you look down the valley, all of a sudden you see a protrusion of a green sticking out into it, and that didn’t happen naturally.”

The final par 3, the 15th, comes after the course’s longest hole, the par-5 623-yard 14th. Since the 15th is followed by three solid par 4s, the first two averaging 531 yards and then the 18th at 492 yards, players may be tempted to be too aggressive on the 15th to birdie at the hole before facing the rigors of the next three.

Watch out: Hanse placed a slight bump between the front stretch of the green and the back portion of the 15th.

“It’s not okay to just hit the green,” Hanse said. “You have to hit the green within the green to not worry about three-putting.”

Or, like Shortz, you can just bury it in the hole and not worry at all.