The Best Par 3s at Mid Columbia Golf Courses — Curt Cartier’s Favorite Holes

What is now Hole 14 when I first started playing that course it was No. 4. It's a long, downhill par 3 with a tongue-shaped green and bunkers on each side. It's an elevated tee so you're shooting at a downhill target with the meandering Yakima River as a backdrop. I like how it's sagebrush and shrub steppe with the lush Horn Rapids course cut right out of it. It's the most picturesque hole in the Tri-Cities.

Runner up is par 3 at Canyon Lakes. It's the largest green in the Pacific Northwest. It has a bunker on the right and water in the front. It's another downhill shot -- noticing a pattern?

Since I like the downhill shots, No. 3 goes to the most drastic high to low: Tri-City Country Club's Hole 13 (or is it 14?).

With the busy traffic flow of Highway 12, if you put one on the highway you've used too much club, which is a hell of a shot. (I couldn't even get there with a super driver). Your success depends on how much trim the guy cutting the holes does the night before. If he got enough loving, he'll make it easy for you. If he was rebuffed, he'll make it ridiculously hard to get close.

Those who golf with me may be surprised it's a favorite because I constantly put it in the huge sand bunkers or into the water to the right -- or onto the road running parallel to the approach. It's a favorite because it's such a challenge. The irony is it's a relatively easy hole, but all the sand and water gets into my head. It just seems like it's extra hard to focus sometimes on doing what I got to do.