Alister MacKenzie Lido Prize Competition - 2009

[Ross Tuddenham]

I had a go at it but looking at the above entries I can see that I didn't exactly stretch my imagination far enough.  I think the others make mine look even more amateurish.

My thoughts were to create some of the features of the road hole.  The sheds have been replaced by sand dunes and the road is now a bunker.  I think I chickened out and put a bunker/dune in the middle, would it have been better without it.  My idea was that the ideal position from the tee required the player to challenge the dunes on the right and maybe shape the shot a little left to right.  If the player achieved this they would not have to take on the road hole bunker.

I can now see I have not provided nearly enough options from the tee.

Well anyway here it is for people to have a look at.

[Ross Tuddenham]

Jonathon,

That is a very impressive drawing and I think the hole would look amazing.  What area of the world did you imagine it would be set?  I thought that was a good place to start so I could start to see the type of land you would lay the hole over.

Also what did you see as the advantages of using the right hand side of the fairway over the left?

Another question; does anyone know of similar competitions like this to enter as I found it great fun coming up with the hole?

[Charlie Goerges]

Ross,

Yours is a good-looking hole, but probably too realistic to win the Lido competition unfortunately. As for other contests, the Lido prize is the only one I know of that occurs on a regular basis, but various magazines have occasional ones sometimes. And probably late in the fall after golf season is over in the northern part of the country, I'll likely launch the second Armchair Architecture competition. But that one will be much bigger than a single hole, and a lot more work on the contestants' part.

[Mike Jansen]

I submitted an entry this year as well (have entered the last 5-6 years).  I would like to see the winning design, I'm sure it looks exactly like the last 5-6 winners... the Lido Comp continues to reward the same double fairway designs that mimic the original year in and year out. 

[Jonathan Webb]

Ross,

I envisioned the property to be somewhere along the Pacific Ocean with large rock outcroppings throughout the site with bold rockey cliffs about 40-60 feet above the ocean.

Here is the description I submitted for using the Right Fairway:

-Option 3 (Right Fairway) – This is the easiest tee shot as it plays to the widest portion of the fairway, will take the ocean out of play but beware should the tee shot find a fairway bunker a lay up may be necessary.  The right fairway is more than 60 yards wide in some areas but the drawback from taking the safer ‘route’ is having a longer approach shot and being faced with a deep greenside bunker in your line of play.  As the tee shot plays dramatically less downhill, than the left fairway, the longer approach shot from the right fairway will play substantially more downhill than the left making the longer approach a little less daunting.

[Jeff Martz]

Here is the winning design.

[Jonathan Webb]

Jeff,

Any idea when your submission is going to be in Golf World?

[Garland Bayley]

Wow, target golf to the max. Is that really MacKenzian?

[Jonathan Webb]

With all the talk of this year's contest I figured I would bump this thread.