I tried to create a strong line of instinct that would be difficult to score low from. There is one bunker, a deep one, in front of the green right on the line of instinct, from which the green basically runs away from in all directions. The line of instinct is strong because it is the only route that does not have a blind drive or is not very circuitous. The lines of charm that would allow the player to get the ball closer have a blind drive, or both a blind drive and blind approach.
When I later looked back at the contest information, I saw the reprint of Alister's guidelines and noticed he did not like blindness. Oops. Since I was breaking up existing dunes to create the hole, I wanted to give the created dunes some similarity to what the rest of the site has so it would at least seem somewhat natural. Therefore, I did not put cuts in my dunes to make landing areas visible.
The description I sent with the entry is as follows:
The motivation for this design came after first playing Astoria Country Club with its quirky minimalist design routing narrow holes between 30 ft. high parallel dunes. When the course was created designs preserving the dunes and designs cutting through the dunes were submitted, with the design preserving the dunes winning out. The one slight misfortune of this is that there are two pairs of holes that are essentially mirrors of each other, running in opposite directions between the same dunes. Therefore, the variety of holes on the course is reduced as you feel you are playing the same hole in each case, but in the opposite direction. A redesign of the course could keep one each of these pairs as they are quite distinct given the width between dunes. One of the pairs has fairways approximately 12 yards wide, while the other pair has fairways over 25 yards wide in the shallow between the dunes.
The hole design I have created could be used to replace one of the holes that has a 12 yard wide base between the dunes, with the green nestled into this narrow area and the dune in front leveled near the green, the dune in rear leveled later providing a ‘backstop’, and the material from the leveled dunes distributed to bring a series of smaller dunes that define the options on the hole.
The hole is 380 yards long in a direct line from the tee to the center of the green and measures 420 yards around the dogleg of approximately 60 degrees. Various routes can make the hole as much as 440 yards long. There are two routes that could be played without crossing any dunes. The far right route (F) which would be the 440 yard route could be played with low drawing shots to keep the ball below the wind since this is a coastal area with winds blowing in at right angles to the dunes. The far left route (A) would allow a shot of approximately 160 yards between the sets of dunes to the fairway fronting the green after a drive of approximately 230 yards. It is doubtful anyone would try to cross the large dune in front of the green from this position. Route B allow a person that can carry the ball near 300 yards to get in a position for a blind wedge over the fronting dune to the green. The short but straight hitter may choose route C playing through narrow slots between dunes with a drive of 180 yards and a second of 160 yards to get in position in front of the green to try to get up and down. Routes D and E would be require blind drives. Route D would require a carry of approximately 250 yards and would leave a short iron into the green. Route E would give the most generous landing area for the drive carrying 210 yards. From there the player could attempt what would be essentially a bank shot off of the back dune to get the ball on the green. After a 220 yard drive, route F would leave a 220 yard approach that would most likely use the dune to feed the ball onto the green.
The least successful approach to the green would be to come in over the bunker (dug by sheep of course) in a hollow on the left front of the green. There is a ridge between the bunker and the green that will help prevent shots running off of the back dune to run across the green into the bunker. Therefore, it would be extremely hard to get up and down out of the bunker. A hole location on the front ¼ of the green would utilize these features. There is a ridge running thru the back ¾ of the green that makes it advantageous but not required to approach the left rear ¼ of the green with a lob over the tall fronting dune. This would make a mini-Dell hole with a rock placed to designate where you must stay left of to keep out of the bunker. The ridge would also tend to shed balls coming in over the bunker to the wrong side for the current pin location. Two or three pinable areas would be placed in the remaining ½ of the green.
The hole is drawn with one tee. The options are so numerous that players of all abilities should find the hole interesting and challenging without additional tees.