Actually, the tip I saw was in fact a par 3 of 185 yards with an elevated tee, but I quite take your point. The lie will change things to the point where an uphill lie might negate a de-elevated green.

Venturi did say in his tip that if you were to play in a competition you would want to play a few rounds beforehand so you could zero in on the right club on a particularly pesky hole.

In this tip (from his "Stroke Savers" series, on a dvd I got from MasterGrip) I thought it was interesting that, after explaining that 185 yards was normally a "big 4 or maybe even a 3" (remember, this was the '70s lol), because the tee was elevated 50 feet he was using a 6, he still went past the hole by a good 5 yards. I once heard Tiger say that gauging elevation changes was sometimes still just guesswork.

What I need to do is talk to an engineer who plays golf.

Thanks again for the responses.