Do you prefer driveable or long par 4s?
JE: I prefer the short par 4s, I enjoy the challenge of trying to hit a drive on the green with accuracy.
MT: Not for me, I find that I put myself under inordinate pressure on short par 4s. If I do take on (and miss) the green then I’ll be left with a chip shot which I can’t really do. The wise move is to hit a 6-iron and leave 100 yards but I am generally lulled into overswinging my driver and then taking five/not finishing the hole.
Likewise the long par 4, I’m poor with anything beyond a 7-iron so that, also, leaves a chip and the same problems.
JE: But I generally play better on the holes where I have to challenge myself, and hitting a driver into the fairway is hard enough, so to then find the green off the tee on a par 4 is great!
MT: Fair point but if a course was made up of a dozen par 4s of 330 to 410 yards then I would join immediately.
DM: I agree Mark. I quite like long par 4s because they are normally my shot holes.
You always need a couple of long par 4s towards the end of the back nine because they sort out the men from the boys.
At a short par 4, there is the chance for luck to play a part but at a long par 4 you need to hit two really solid shots and then you still have some more work to do to secure that rewarding par (hopefully nett birdie).
TI: I’m with Dan here, short par 4’s for me cause too much stress. You could bogey it which feels like a double and you could par it which feels like a bogey. The only satisfactory result is an unlikely birdie. Long par 4s at least provide satisfactory results, birdie, par and bogey.
If you are just off the edge of the green at a short par 4 you are panicked and angry, just off at a long par 4 in two though, you have cracked it. Chip and two-putt and nothing lost, chip and putt and you walk off stoked.
MT: I actually remember back in ’87 I halved a hole in eagle 2s, playing foursomes in a school match at Royal Wimbledon. It remains one of my career Top 5 highlights. I often wonder if we created a first that day, we didn’t of course but I still like to think that we did.
TI: Therefore it’s the hope that kills you really. We all want to halve short 4s in eagles but it happens on average once every 43 years (and counting) by the sound of things.
MT: But there are few more dispiriting things on a long par 4 than hacking put sideways/backwards in the knowledge that you can’t get home with the next shot.
TI: I disagree. A hack-out sideways and I can still make bogey or a not disastrous double. A missed green with a wedge at a driveable par 4 and it is all kinds of self-loathing. Besides, birdies and eagles at short par 4s don’t really have the substance to be truly rewarding, it’s like cycling downhill…
