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[Jim Colton]

Here's the course tour of my amateurish armchair effort.  Ballysnoop is named after the two most influential things in my life: Ballyneal and Snoop Dogg.  Actually, it's probably more of a Pete Dye-ish design, inspired by numerous road trips over the years from Chicago up to Kohler to play Blackwolf Run.  I would've like to have had a more amorphous style of bunkers, but couldn't achieve that look in Sketchup.  In any case, I enjoyed trying to come up with a coherent routing.  Kudos to Charlie for organizing the contest and picking an interesting site in Erin Hills to work with.  Like I said in an earlier post, I have the utmost respect for those who do the real thing, and that respect has only grown after participating in this exercise.

[Jim Colton]

1st Hole - Par 4, 405 Yards - "G Funk Intro"

Pretty straightforward starting hole.  Wide open fairway and flat lie if you want to hang back, or challenge the bunkers for a closer approach to the uphill green.

[Jim Colton]

Hole 2 - Par 4, 468 Yards - "Upside Ya Head"

Long dogleg right par 4.  The urge is to probably flirt with the right bunker to shorten the hole, but a drive near the far left bunker will leave a better approach to the green

[Jim Colton]

3rd Hole - Par 3, 196 Yards - "Lay Low"

[Jim Colton]

4th Hole - Par 4, 335 Yards - "Who Am I?"

Risk reward short Par 4.  Downhill tee shot, driveable for an agressive long hitter.

[Jim Colton]

5th Hole - Par 5, 588 Yards - "The Shiznit"

Uphill dogleg left par 5.  A couple centerline bunkers to deal with off the tee.

[Jim Colton]

6th Hole - Par 4, 434 Yards - "Gold Rush"

Downhill par 4 that bends left to right.

[Jim Colton]

7th Hole - Par 4, 429 Yards - "Deep Cover"

Plenty of room left, but the drive from the elevated tee wants to hug the right side to get the best angle into the green.

[Jim Colton]

8th Hole - Par 5, 608 Yards - "Gz Up, Ho'z Down"

Long par 5 that winds it way back up the hill.

[Jim Colton]

9th Hole - 216 Yards, Par 3 - "Gin & Juice"

Par 3 to end this side.  The green sits on top of this little ridge, sloped right to left and accepts a shot from that direction.

[Jim Colton]

10th Hole - Par 4, 430 Yards - "Dogg(Leg)Fatha"

Long, uphill par 4 to start the back nine.  It's 430 from the 2nd tee box, so can be stretched out another 40 yards or so for tournament play.  Fly the two bunkers on the right for the best angle to the green, or hug the left side to shorten the hole but have a potentially blind approach shot.  The green sits in the exact spot as the real 6th green at EH.

[Jim Colton]

11th Hole - Par 3, 205 yards - "Drop It Like It's Hot"

This green sits in almost the exact spot as the love-it or hate-it 'Dell' hole at EH.  I used the taco shell in the same manner but instead of having it completely blind, you can see most of the green in my version.  Depending on where you tee off, the left 1/3 of the green might not be visible.  Personally, I like this version a lot better than hitting over a white rock.

[Jim Colton]

12th Hole - Par 4, 476 Yards - "Step Yo Game Up"

Pretty much blast away on the long par 4.  Green sits in a natural amphitheater.

[Jim Colton]

13th Hole - Par 4, 365 Yards - "Sensual Seduction"

A couple options off the tee here.  Play it safe to the right and you'll have a much tougher angle to a shallow green and over some deep bunkers.  Or carry the ball over the bunkers on the left and have a much better angle to the green.  I enjoy a good false front -- come up a yard short or hit a wedge with a little too much spin here and you're rolling back down the fairway.

[Jim Colton]

14th Hole - 538 Yards, Par 5 - "Freestyle Conversation"

Reachable par 5.  I took a page from Ballyneal and put a little tee box behind and above the 14th green to lengthen this hole if necessary (this tee could also play over the water to the 4th green as a drop shot 135-yard par 3, if you wanted to play a 10-hole loop of 10-13, then 4-9).  Although at Ballyneal the likely scenario would be to take two steps off the 14th green and just blast away, so I suppose you could do that here too. 

A good drive will put you in 'go' range, but this green is well-protected.  A center line bunker messes with the 2nd shot if you decide to lay-up.

[Jim Colton]

15th Hole - Par 4, 363 Yards - "That's That S***"

I really like this hole for some reason.  There was a cool little spot for a green nestled right in between two mounds.  Depending on your strategy off the tee, you could be left with a tricky 3/4 wedge to a shallow green.  Big drop-off if you miss long/right.

[Jim Colton]

16th Hole - Par 5, 603 yards - "Lodi Dodi"

Long par 5 to an elevated green.  The green sits in just about the same spot as the real 2nd green at EH, although it's much bigger.  If you've played EH, imagine a hole coming up the 3rd fairway in reverse to the 2nd green.

[Jim Colton]

17th Hole - Par 3, 181 yards - "Beautiful"

This was the last hole I built.  Originally I had the down and to the right and tee to the right of the 16th green, but I later realized this would've been a long blind shot over a giant hill.  I kind of like how this one turned out with the green perched on the side of the hill, reading and willing to accept a left to right shot.

[Jim Colton]

18th Hole - Par 4, 423 Yards - "Oh No"

One of those bite off as much as can chew par 4's to finish it up.  Room to bail out high-and-dry to the left but you bring the bunkers into play.

Congrats if you made it this far and thanks in advance for your comments.

[Pat Craig]

Very cool. Although I didn't actually enter the contest...I did play around with it alot.

The biggest difference between yours and mine was I used the finger of land on the bottom left of the landscape.

Well done!

[Jim Colton]

Pat,

  Thanks.  I originally had some holes in that back corner just like the real 15th and 16th, but I couldn't find a way to get out there and return the nine without simply going straight out and straight back.  I guess I could've added an extra hole like EH, but that would've probably been contest suicide.  It looks like most of the other entrants were able to get back there successfully.

[Brad Swanson]

Does the routing account for a "sippin' on gin and juice" halfway house?

Cheers,
Brad

[Charlie Goerges]

Nice job Jim. Like Gar and the others, you've put a great deal of thought into strategy...what gives!

[Garland Bayley]

I haven't look at this one much in detail yet, but the first thing I notice is that all three designs we have seen so far have routed a par 5 in the same upper part of the property. Also, if you have read my posts you know that I am against using ponds as hazards lining fairways and guarding greens. However, at least to my eye, you look to have captured a Pete Dye style in using them quite well.

[Jim Colton]

I'll take any comparisons to Petey as a great compliment.  Charlie, any way to add railroad ties to my design?

[Charlie Goerges]

Anything's possible!

[Garland Bayley]

18th Hole - Par 4, 423 Yards

I love it! Fade tee shot, draw approach. Pete might like it too.

[Garland Bayley]

I like the way you used the terrain to make a more interesting par 5 5th along the edge of the property, making it more interesting than my par 5 running along the same edge.

To my eye it looks like the bunkers on the inside of the 6th are too short from the tee to be in play. What does your measurement say? Obviously you have many bunkers that are not in play for the good golfers (of course Whistling Straits probably wins this category hands down). However, you must realize that a high handicapper like myself would probably choose to play somewhere else.

I think your best back to back holes are 13 & 14. From the pictures it looks like that center bunker on 14 will make the second shot very interesting for players like me. Making the second shot interesting on par 5s is something I was not too adept at.

On 13, can the tee markers be set to make the ideal approach point blind from the tee behind the esker? I think that would be a great bit of quirk for this hole.

Enjoyed your routing. Wish I was as artistic.

[Jim Colton]

Garland,

Thanks for your comments.  I think the 2nd bunker on the 6th is probably far enough to at least think about.  I think the one on the left is about 290-300 from the back tee.  I can measure it tonight.

On 13, I meant that esker (I'm going to pretend I know what an esker is) to play a role visually on the tee shot when I drew it up, but I think the tee box is elevated just enough to where it doesn't play much of a role.  Perhaps the start of the left fairway and probably the closest bunker is partially blind.  I like what you were able to do with the esker (I'm going to start using this term all the time now).  Maybe I could've made that area one big fairway, including the esker, and just have the left side littered with bunkers.

I like the centerline bunker on the 14th in that it forces you to think a little bit more on your 2nd shot.  So many times I play par 5's and my strategy (or lack of it) is just to hit the ball down the fairway as far as possible.  The bunker forces you to decide what you want to do and commit to doing it.  I would've liked to have moved it about 2 yards to the left of where it is, but once I stamped it in Sketchup there was no turning back.  That way there would be a little bit more room down the right side, but then you're flirting with the water and it comes into play more on the third shot.

[John Mayhugh]

Jim,
Wouldn't you want to build this course in Long Beach?

How about naming the holes after Snoop songs?  There are plenty of good options, though not all are necessarily appropriate.  And I'm guessing the blunt-shaped tee markers are out for a similar reason......

Thanks for sharing all your hard work and imagintion with us.

[Jim Colton]

East Si-ide!

Apparently Snoop Dogg has put out a bunch of albums since 'Doggystyle' and 'Doggfather', but I really stopped paying attention.  Surprisingly, I thought for sure this would've been the first intersection of GCA and Snoop Dogg, but he pops up multiple times in the Search function.

Looking at his song catalog, there are actually a ton of workable song names that could go on a golf course.  I'm usually against naming unless the course is really worthy, which my design definitely is not.  Maybe if I win the contest I will go back and name the holes.

I imagine the course logo would look something like Ballyneal's, except a marijuana leaf behind the 'B' instead of a yucca plant.

[John Mayhugh]

East Si-ide!

Apparently Snoop Dogg has put out a bunch of albums since 'Doggystyle' and 'Doggfather', but I really stopped paying attention.  Surprisingly, I thought for sure this would've been the first intersection of GCA and Snoop Dogg, but he pops up multiple times in the Search function.

Looking at his song catalog, there are actually a ton of workable song names that could go on a golf course.  I'm usually against naming unless the course is really worthy, which my design definitely is not.  Maybe if I win the contest I will go back and name the holes.

I imagine the course logo would look something like Ballyneal's, except a marijuana leaf behind the 'B' instead of a yucca plant.

I'm not familiar with anything beyond those first couple of albums either.  I'm not a huge fan of naming holes, but your Snoop theme would yield some interesting ones.

Wonder how much Snoop your fellow Ballyneal member, John Kirk, has on his iPod? 

[Charlie Goerges]

Thizzle Casizzle nizzle some sizzle.

Fo' Shizzle.

[Ian_Linford]

Hi Jim, very cool course.  I think my favorite hole is #14, a great par-5 that gives the player the option of staying away from the water if he so chooses.  #11 looks fun as well.  I noticed our designs share no green sites, although your # 5 and #14 are somewhat close to my holes 16 and 5 (my design is #007, I'll have my tour up in a couple  days).

Your holes 15-18 run nearly the exact same route as my 1-5, except in reverse, which I found very interesting.

[Jeff Tang]

Jim, great design!  There's a lot of room out there to choose holes and you can see from your course aerial that there's a lot of space between holes which is nice.  Looks like it would be a fun course to play and having been to Erin Hills I'm sure it would be very cool to look at as well.  The Dye influence is apparent especially with your par 5-3-4 finish with 18 being a stout par 4 running alongside water.