Does a hole-in-one on a par-3 course count? Here’s your final answer

By

[PHOTO: Onfokus]

The first par-3 course opened in Portsmouth, England, in 1914 for holidaymakers and beginners to play a little golf without taking all day. Since then, in the past 100-plus years, a debate springs up from time and time again whenever a golfer gets a hole-in-one on one of these lesser courses: “Should that count? Is this an official hole-in-one?”

The conversation continued yet again with this video that surfaced on social media earlier this week.

Because this is the internet, everyone ends up yelling at each other, sides are drawn and nothing is ultimately decided. Meanwhile, we’ve written and posted about this controversy many a time.

We here at Golf Digest are sick of this constantly popping up without any resolutions, so we decided to open this up to our staff to make a call. Should we count these aces on a par-3 course? What do the Rules of Golf say? Does any of this matter? Let’s get to the bottom of it.

Ron Kaspriske, Fitness Editor: There are no “official” rules for making an ace. Everything from having to finish a round for it to qualify to needing a witness are arbitrary. If you hole out from a tee, any tee, feel free to claim your hole-in-one and buy drinks for anyone who agrees.

Luke Hooten, Social Media Co-ordinator: How many strokes did it take to get the ball in the hole? There’s your answer. Now simulator aces on the other hand…

Christopher Powers, Staff Writer: My take on these hole-in-one debates is quite simple – if you have to ask “Does it count?”, it doesn’t.

Coleman Bentley, Loop Editor: Did it go in the hole in one shot? Then it’s a hole-in-one. The world is cruel and golf is crueller. Allow yourself a little happiness.

Does a Hole in One on Par 3 Courses Count?
byu/poncho15 ingolf

Greg Gottfried, Web Producer: I’ve always been a bit of a rule-follower, which has both helped me and burned me in life. I would treat an ace on a par-3 course as an accomplishment (of course!), but ultimately I wouldn’t count it as an official hole-in-one. We need to draw a line in the sand and this makes a real ace on a “normal” course even that much more impressive.

Steve Keipert, Editor: My baseline for hole-in-one legitimacy has always been the 100-metre barrier. So I don’t care what the nature of the course is or how many par 3s it contains – was the hole you just aced at least 100 metres long? If so, claim your ace and hold your head high.

Joel Beall, Senior Writer: This is such a microcosm of golf, that a cool experience somehow needs validation from others to justify its meaning. So if it’s consequential to the player in question, who are we to play God?

Sam Weinman, Digital Editorial Director/Guy who had a lot to say on this subject: The golf question “Have you ever had a hole-in-one?” comes with three potential answers, two being “yes” or “no”. The third answer begins “Well…” because it’s how you’d answer if yours came on a par-3 course. By the strictest definition, it shouldn’t qualify as a true ace because a par-3 course produces more opportunity than a regulation course, thus removing the true randomness when only getting a few cracks per round. But should you ignore it altogether? Does it not deserve at least the benefit of an asterisk on the back of your lifelong trading card? It maybe doesn’t “count” in the way we want it to count. But you at least deserve to tell the story to anyone who will listen.

So, there you have it! The answer is… hmmm, I guess we don’t have an answer. As a group, we definitely lean more towards allowing it to count, but it’ll depend on which one of us you’re teeing off with. Hopefully one of the kinder ones. Well, I’m sure we’ll figure it out in the next 100 years or so.