Lester George's Contentment - The Template Game (Results Posted)

[Ed Oden]

OK, the betting window is officially closed.  Bill Brightly made a late charge, but came up just short with a total of 12.  So the final tally is as follows:

1.    Jay Flemma - 13
T2.  Alex Miller - 12
T2.  Bill Brightly -12
T4.  Tim Gavrich - 11
T4.  Dean DiBerardino - 11
6.    Michael Goldstein - 10
T7.  Mark Saltzman - 9
T7.  Bill McBride - 9
T7.  Garland Bayley - 9
T7   Cristian Willaert - 9
11.  Corey Lewis - 8
12.  Jason Topp - 6

Here are the template hole names on Lester's routing map:

1  -  Lion's Mouth
2  -  Biarritz
3  -  Narrows
4  -  Hog's Back
5  -  Bottle
6  -  Short
7  -  Road
8  -  Valley
9  -  Alps
10 - Sahara
11 - Cape
12 - Redan
13 - Punchbowl
14 - Long
15 - Eden
16 - Knoll
17 - Plateau
18 - Contentment

I think it is interesting that the individual holes fell into three distinct groups: (i) the easy ones that everyone got right (Biarritz, Short, Redan, Long, Eden and, of course, Contentment), (ii) the moderately difficult ones that were correctly identified on between 4-8 of the entries (Lion's Mouth, Bottle, Road, Cape, Punchbowl, Knoll and Plateau), and (iii) the hard ones that almost no one got right (Narrows, Hog's Back, Valley, Alps and Sahara).  Amazingly, not a single entrant had the 7th as Valley.

I should note that Jay's margin of victory was the result of the clarification I received from Lester.  On his plan the 17th hole is identified just as "Plateau".  So I asked Lester if he felt "Double Plateau" was an acceptable answer.  He said yes, which bumped Jay up to 13 correct.

Special kudos should go to those who were the only one to correctly identify a hole:  Tim Gavrich (Narrows), Corey Lewis (Alps), Cristian Willaert (Sahara) and Tim Gavrich again (Plateau - several guys had Double Plateau but Tim was the only one to truly nail the 17th).

Finally, here is Lester's full routing plan for Contentment (I have intentionally left the image in a large size in hopes some of the detail can be seen):



Most importantly, let's hope Lester gets this thing built!!!

[Morgan Clawson]

Along with the answers I would be interested to hear what Ed and Lester think are the best US versions of these templates.


Sorry, not trying to make work, just trying to turn this into a learning experience (for me).


Great post Ed!

[Tim Gavrich]

Cool deal; I got lucky with 17 because its green looked to be the same shape as that of #7 at Old White, which is called "Plateau" rather than "Double Plateau."

There are more than 18 holes on that map; what's the deal with the third nine on the north side of the routing plan?  Are they template holes as well?

I also notice a 19th hole.  Another Short?

Looks awesome, Lester.

[Ed Oden]

Tim, here is the 19th hole...



You are correct, it is another Short.  If I recall correcty, Lester said the 6th is more indicative of CBM's style while the 19th is more like Raynor's.  But I may have that backwards.

What you see north of the main course is a short course...



I don't believe these are template holes in their purest sense, although I understand they share similar concepts and styling.

[Lester George]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for playing along.  This was an admitedly hard task given you could only use existing topo to study the holes.  In this case we (Ed and I) thought it would be the correct way to do it since the existing topo is what is dictating the base terrain of each hole and little dirt is being moved to create most of them. 

The 9th (Alps) is hard to determine because of this fact.  The void in the top of the fairway mowing pattern is where the highest ground resides.  If you drive the ball to the obvious landing area, some portion od the green should (will) be obscured. 

Just look at all of the high ground surrounding the 13th green and you can invision the punchbowl green.  The blue thing in the fairway is an existing pond that will be filled in. 

One thing that threw most off was the hogback (4th) becuase of the split fairway.  If I were to build the right fairway alone, the hogback would be the prominent feature.  I put the left route in just because it is very cool and affords another "strategy" hole. 

The state has taken the righthand fairway on the 16th (knoll) away from us (trade-off) so we wont have that option.

Lester

[Garland Bayley]

...
The 9th (Alps) is hard to determine because of this fact.  The void in the top of the fairway mowing pattern is where the highest ground resides.  If you drive the ball to the obvious landing area, some portion od the green should (will) be obscured. 
...

The 9th was hard to determine, because there was no bunker in front of the green.

[Jay Flemma]

That was a lot of fun, I hope we get a chance to do that again.

I thought it was a double plateau because of the three sections and because it was on a par-5.  I also go the Knoll hole b/c of something Mike Strantz told me.  He said he once built a Knoll hole by find a great hill, then lopping the top off the knob behind it, and that popped into my head for the pic at Contentment.

[Bill_McBride]

...
The 9th (Alps) is hard to determine because of this fact.  The void in the top of the fairway mowing pattern is where the highest ground resides.  If you drive the ball to the obvious landing area, some portion od the green should (will) be obscured. 
...

The 9th was hard to determine, because there was no bunker in front of the green.

I thought #8 looked a lot more like an Alps, with the bailout right and the daunting uphill carry over all that trouble. 

[Jay Flemma]

I honestly had trouble finding an Alps at all.  I'm also kicking myself because I saw Sahara after I posted.  Coulda had 14

How many did Ran get?  Who won the dinner bet?  Where are you getting dinner?

[Garland Bayley]

...
The 9th (Alps) is hard to determine because of this fact.  The void in the top of the fairway mowing pattern is where the highest ground resides.  If you drive the ball to the obvious landing area, some portion od the green should (will) be obscured.  
...

The 9th was hard to determine, because there was no bunker in front of the green.

I thought #8 looked a lot more like an Alps, with the bailout right and the daunting uphill carry over all that trouble.  

I could see the blind nature of the 9th from the topo. The 8th would allow you to see the green position although since the green would have less slope than the hill leading up to it, you would probably not be able to see the surface. Since our instructions were to not use reference works, I had a limited set of templates to look for. I remember Raynor's prize dogleg and the Knoll from Bahto's book. Other than that, all I could recall in the short time I took to do the exercise was the templates used on Old MacDonald. Therefore, I looked carefully for the Alps. I easily ruled out the 8th. Without the hazard I ruled out the 9th.

On a later examination of the topos (at home after work), I found hogsback. But by then the verdict of 8 right had come in so I didn't change my guesses.

[Alex Miller]

This was a fun game! Though if you ask me, Lester really should rename #8 "The Pits" because the approach looks just like #2 at Yale 

[Lester George]

Update on Contentment!


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