Short Course Concept Has Long Legs

Golf could be in the midst of a short course revolution. 

As we pointed out in last week’s story about night golf becoming more popular, the Google search history for “par-3 golf near me” is up more than 60 percent since the pandemic started, outpacing the growth in general “golf course near me” searches. 

And, according to the National Golf Foundation, 50 percent of new course openings in the United States over the last decade have been nine-hole layouts or short courses. 

It feels like every other course opening is a short course, particularly at resorts and public facilities. Just last year, we saw notable short course openings with the Battlefield at Shangri-La (Oklahoma), The Swing at PGA Omni Frisco (Texas), The Park West Palm Beach (Florida) and Sandhill Crane (Florida). 

There is no mystery in why this is happening. Short courses are packed with advantages: 

Less expensive to play, often coming in at half the cost of regulation courses.  Not as expensive to build, requiring less land and maintenance.  Easy enough for beginners to feel welcome but challenging enough for all skill levels. The time spent to play is significantly less than on a standard course.  The vibe is usually more laid back, which appeals to a broader audience.  Caters to juniors, women, families and beginners—all of whom are growing segments. 

About 90 percent of these courses cost $30 or less and the average time for a round is under an hour. 

A typical regulation golf course needs some 150 acres, but a par-3 course can be accommodated at well under one-third of that size. In many cases, just 25 acres will do. That has all sorts of downstream effects to make course operation more efficient. 

It makes sense from a business and consumer perspective—now it’s becoming a clear trend. 

Let’s take a look at where the short course craze stands and where it is heading. 

Short But Sweet

There are about 1,538 par-3 and executive courses in the United States, which accounts for roughly 10 percent of all courses in the U.S. About 700 of those are par-3 courses. 

These courses had been under attack for much of the first two decades of the 21st Century—even more so than 18-hole regulation courses—as developers gobbled up real estate.

From 2005 to 2021, par-3 courses in the U.S. declined by 27 percent and executive courses were cut by 13 percent. Regulation courses fared slightly better, closing at an 11-percent rate. 

The short story (pun intended): These courses on smaller tracts of land were really vulnerable. 

However, 2021 was the first year since 2000 where we saw a net gain of short courses. In that year, six of the 19 course openings in the U.S. were par-3 layouts. The past two years have followed with similar upticks in short course construction. 

Short courses are widely centered around public facilities (81 percent of par-3 courses are public) with an emphasis on golf destinations, often within golf hotbed states. For those wondering, the top five states for par-3 courses are California, Florida, Wisconsin, Texas and New York—in that order.

The push began in earnest with places like Bandon Preserve at Bandon Dunes (2012), Top of the Rock at Cedar Lodge (2014), The Cradle at Pinehurst (2017), The Sandbox at Sand Valley (2018) and The Hay at Pebble Beach (2021) making the concept popular. 

The Hay hosts more than 60,000 rounds per year with guest rates of up to $75. Not bad for a course where the longest hole is 106 yards. 

We have reached the point where virtually all notable golf resorts in the U.S. have added at least one short course or are in the process of adding one. 

The Baths of Blackwolf Run (Wisconsin) came online in 2021. The Nest at Cabot Links (Nova Scotia) was constructed in 2020. PGA National’s Staple Course (Florida), Cabot Citrus Farms’ The 21 (Florida) and Gamble Sands’ QuickSands (Washington) have also been recently added to the “short course at a golf destination” trend. 

More short courses that we have seen come to fruition in the past five years: Desert Mountain No. 7 (Arizona), The Nest at Boar’s Head (Virginia), Bootlegger at Forest Dunes (Michigan) and The Gimme at The Concession (Florida). 

And coming soon? 

Another short course at Bandon Dunes, one of the facilities that ushered in this new era of nontraditional golf. 

8AM Golf has acquired 3’s—a unique 12-hole course in South Carolina—and has plans to add locations in Nashville, Charleston and Tallahassee. 

Boyne Golf’s Highlands location (Michigan) is about to unveil the “Doon Brae” par-3 course where each of the nine holes is inspired by a template hole to pay homage to Scottish roots. 

Josh Richter, Boyne’s Senior Vice-President of Golf Operations, said there is a plan for Boyne to add more short courses within the Boyne profile. There are currently 11 courses at the northern Michigan resort. 

“Short courses have been gaining in popularity since they increase the opportunities to enjoy the game for everyone,” Richter said. “Non-golfers and families can enjoy it as an activity while avid golfers can play a few more holes without playing another 18, since fun is paramount to the experience.” 

That is a critical point from an operator perspective: short courses are attractive to non-golfers on vacation who are looking to give golf a go. 

The operating cost is reasonable and meets a wide range of demand. Short courses can also accommodate more rounds, making up for the cheaper green fee. 

Everywhere you look, there is a press release announcing a new short course. The majority are being built at public resorts but there are plenty of private clubs adding them as well. MGS just wrote about Panther National, a new private club in South Florida that added a short course called Panther9.

Breaking Convention in Every Way

What really stands out when it comes to short courses is that normal golf traditions usually don’t apply. 

A prime example of this movement is happening at Streamsong Resort in Florida. The facility just unveiled a short course called The Chain, which opened for preview play back in December. (Streamsong has another short course called the Roundabout that was built in 2017.)

The Chain perfectly represents the “breaking of convention” we are seeing in short courses. 

It is 13 holes but has a six-hole loop within the 13-hole loop. The six holes are shorter and the remaining seven holes are longer, offering more flexibility in how people want to play (and how much time they want to spend).  The scorecard has no reference to par so there is no expectation on what a player should shoot.  There are no set tee markers. Each hole has teeing areas with dragline chains in the ground to mark the teeing area. Catering to a match play format, guests can choose from where they would like to play each hole with the winner of the previous hole choosing the tee location on the following hole. Hole lengths are between 109 and 293 yards from the farthest teeing area, allowing players to use a variety of clubs. 

The course was designed by  Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, renowned architects who built the regulation-length Streamsong Red layout on the property. 

Why was it built? Crenshaw points out that The Chain is friendly to golf newcomers while still being a legitimate challenge for more experienced players. He said it allows Streamsong to offer something unique, especially when golfers may want to play more golf but not an entire 18-hole round. 

“There are all sorts of holes of shorter length that are very unusual, and the really good players will really enjoy it and say this is not like a pitch and putt,” Crenshaw said. “There’s some real golf there.”

The Chain is not alone in throwing golf conventions out the window in the name of making golf more fun, accessible and affordable. 

We now have established “niche inside of a niche” segments that are gaining momentum. 

There is night golf, which we covered in the aforementioned article. Grass Clippings has been a smashing success at their Rolling Hills location in Tempe, Ariz.—they are seeing 94-percent tee time utilization over 15 hours worth of tee times each day—and they have plans for a few more facilities across the southern U.S. and beyond. 

There are more challenging short courses. The 10-hole Horse Course at The Prairie Club (Nebraska) not only has no tee markers—there are no tee boxes. The winner of the previous hole picks where to start, firing at greens with pronounced undulations. 

But there is still the conventional, nine-hole par-3 course that offers a more straightforward test of golf. How about Palm Beach Par 3 (Florida), the Raymond Floyd-designed gem along the Atlantic Ocean that has been an iconic par-3 course over the decades? It regularly hosts professional and amateur events. 

About 80 percent of short courses are nine holes but that is slowly changing as it really doesn’t matter how many holes are being offered. 

There are all sorts of short courses—it is a buffet for golfers to choose from. 

Short Courses and the State of the Game

We all get the “why” of how short courses are becoming popular. 

But where do they fit in with other forms of golf? Is it an add-on to normal golf, a separate category or a legitimate competitor to Topgolf ? What does it mean for golf as a whole? 

Let’s start here: There is a bit of irony in short courses becoming so popular as the USGA and R&A have announced plans for all levels of the game to get a rolled-back golf ball by the end of the decade. 

A key part of the rollback discussion is that courses have apparently been getting longer and more expensive to maintain while also being harder on golfers because those longer courses are often costly to play, take a considerable amount of time and are more difficult. 

A rolled-back ball would alleviate those concerns, the governing bodies have said. 

But golfers and non-golfers alike seem to be demanding a different experience entirely. U.S. golf courses built from 2010 through 2020 averaged 6,652 yards, almost 300 yards shorter than those built between 1990 and 2010. Back tees on courses are used for less than five percent of rounds, indicating the masses are not utilizing any potential added length on courses. 

Now the 2020s have started with a passionate push for courses well short of that average yardage. 

People are flocking in record numbers to game-ified versions of the sport like Topgolf, PuttShack and Five Iron. A burgeoning interest in short courses—where keeping score is an afterthought—is now a part of that mix. 

There is still an impressive demand for all forms of golf, including championship 18-hole courses—but we get the sense that short courses are another option in the “golf is purely for enjoyment and not self-punishment” industry. 

Are they a serious competitor to Topgolf? Maybe not at this moment but it could get to that point. 

Short courses have a distinct advantage over alternative forms of the games—they appeal to hard-core golfers just as much as non-golfers. It is still “real golf” with the added dimension of being more playable, less expensive and requiring less time. 

While Topgolf is not necessarily for hard-core golfers, there is a lot of crossover. In 2023, there were 18.5 million off-course players in the U.S., 12.1 million on-course players and 14.5 million people who did both.

But for our money, short courses are more of an add-on and their own category. 

They are an add-on at resorts where the main attraction is famous championship courses, but short courses have real legs as standalone facilities—and 67 percent of par-3 courses are standalone. 

We feel like golf is only going to push more in this direction over time. It’s even possible that one day we see short courses reach 20 to 30 percent of all U.S. golf courses. 

What do you think of the short course push? Is it a blip on the radar held mostly to resorts—or a sign golf is pushing into a new era? 

What are your favorite short courses? Where would you like to see short courses added? 

Let us know below in the comments. 

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