This was my last week in the Pacific Northwest and I have to admit I was running low on energy. Too many late nights and early mornings! We had a private course lined up for Wednesday afternoon and wanted to get in a bit of evening practice on Tuesday (which sadly didn’t help me). So, we headed over to Lakeview Par-3 Golf Challenge.

The course is in a cool spot, next to Vancouver Lake and close to the Columbia River. It occupies a small piece of land with the holes seemingly dropped into the middle of many of those big, beautiful Douglas firs that are so common in this area. Not only do you get good views of the lake, Lakeview Par-3 was a blast to play!

There are nine holes at Lakeview Par-3 but plenty of options to mix things up if you want to play the full “eighteen”. For the first loop around the scorecard says you should play to the yellow flags (852 yards total) and gives you a certain set of tee boxes. If you go around again then you’ll want to play to the red flags (1,003 yards total) and another set of tee boxes.

Because of the small property the distances don’t vary much between the different sets of tee boxes. However, you’ll get some significant changes when it comes to angles into the greens! Playing from the red tee boxes and to the red flags will have you firing over, under and possibly even through trees to get to the greens. This isn’t the best for the score but it made for good drama in our match play game.

Most of the holes are just a wedge (70 to 128 yards) but good luck hitting these greens. The “challenge” in the course’s name is quite appropriate. The greens are small, surrounded by trouble and slope off on many sides. Lakeview Par-3 showcases many of the modern design features which is neat.

For example, there is quality bunkering (for a par-3 course!) and even a couple pit bunkers on the 6th, complete with steps and railroad ties. You’ll want to avoid those two bunkers at all costs. Then there are the water hazards. The 4th, 8th and 9th all have water just off the edges of the greens so you can easily putt or chip the ball into the water.

We paid $20 each and the conditions were good. The tees are mats and didn’t seem too out of sorts. The greens were in really good shape and there was plenty of grass to chip off of when I missed the greens.

I thought Lakeview Par-3 was a great little par-3 course and it had plenty of that “fun” factor! To me, it felt like a cross between mini golf and real golf. If you have two hours with the clubs then I’d recommend stopping by to play here.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):