Armchair Architect contest (Mission Hills/Schmidt-Curley)

[David Harshbarger]

Here's the first of the remaining 4 designs I have to share:

To The Moon is the first design and looking at it now, the crude nature of the illustration is almost painful. How could I have made a grand Par 5 look so small?

The thought process that led to this was that a Par 5 should be a journey, what is more iconic than the Moon, hence, To The Moon.



PAR 5 - "To The Moon"
David Harshbarger - 2011

Inspiration - To The Moon is inspired by the Chinese Space Program and the Moon Exploration program, as well as the recently announced Space facility in Hainan.  To The Moon celebrates the Iconic journey to the moon as a dramatic, dangerous, larger-than-life journey befitting a par 5.  To The Moon incorporates 5 Icons, a Rocket leaving the Gantry and nosing into  Space, and the Chang’E 2 lunar orbiter circling the Moon. 

Experience - This hole should inspire, fear, awe, and when successfully played, a sense of accomplishment.  The features have immense scale, and at night, when illuminated, will make a great statement about Mission Hills, Hainan, and China.  It should also be unforgettable. 

At its core To The Moon is a par 5 dogleg right with a diagonal hazards encroaching on the tee shot landing area and the approach shot.  Better players can cut the corner on the drive (3) setting up a make able approach to the green in 2 (though a large sand hazard is in play).  Less confident players can  play into a Cape-like fairway from the tee, choosing whether to lay up short of the hazard (1) or challenging the hazard (2) for a better second shot.

Players taking the safe route have choices on the second shot.  There is a large landing area short right (4), that brings the sand on the approach to the green into play.  Or, they can challenge a second Cape like feature left (5) to gain a more advantageous angle to the green.

Confounding the golfer: the safer line is away from the line of instinct; while the landing areas are meant to be forgivingly wide, the choice of angle and club has a direct impact on the margin of safety.

The green complex is very large (40-50,000 s.f. of putting surface).  The good side is that unlike other island greens, reaching the green should be relatively doable.  However, the green is flat, but with many internal undulations, creating perspective and distance challenges on approach shots, so placing the ball near the hole may be difficult.  Depending on pin placement and approach, players could face putts of 150-200 feet across many contours.  Walking across this “lunar landscape” should leave one feeling very small in a great expanse.  Conquering this hole should leave one with a feeling of great accomplishment.

Summary- To The Moon presents an over the top experience, grounded in fundamental strategic golf.  It builds on universal themes, but also themes of distinct relevance to China and Hainan. For those fortunate to play it, it should provide memories not soon forgot.

[Ryan Farrow]

Garland, please take another look at the finalists.... there are some pretty poor visuals, but like we said earlier, it is not about the visuals on paper, its about the idea..... it just so happened, that the most well thought-out and detailed entries also had good graphics which help you better understand the design and philosophy. Its hard to judge how a hole plays if its just a few lines scribbled on a piece of paper.     Hopefully we can agree on that?

 Another overwhelming factor, is "can we make this read". We do not want to build 18 holes that you cannot visualize/understand from ground level. A hole might look good on plan, from a birds eye perspective, but it needs to show up when you play the hole....

Ironically, with that said, another reason we really wanted to do this concept at Mission Hills Haikou, is that every plane that lands at Haikou Meilan Airport will fly over-top of this golf course, sparking interest and curiosity from above.

We liked the idea of Grant's great wall hole going through the green, but the size and scale of what he wanted and how it interacted with the putting surface, just did not work out how we imagined it would. There were plenty of other great wall holes, and we thought we picked the best, as we really like how the other entry located the tees on the great wall, and used it as a cart path while creating an interesting Par 4 concept.... We are envisioning the use of artificial tees to keep maint. costs down and to open up more unique playing experiences that would be impossible if using real turf.



We picked the entires for different reasons, having 5 finalist for each par 3,4,5, we really wanted to show the variety of concepts and ideas people came up with, not the just the 5 best designed "golf" holes.  But interesting and unique concepts like having a timed water feature shoot up out of a lake when you are about to tee off,  painting turf like a football field, Tees built up on great wall turrets or on top of Ruins.... or just the outrageous noodle bowl concept.

Unlike many other "armchair" contests, we were not necessarily looking for the most strategic golf hole... (not like that happens anyways) but we were looking for out of the box ideas and concepts that could be translated into fun and interesting golf experiences.


Based on site conditions we will work with the winners to help improve their designs and help them "fit" the land, improving any problem areas. Through the Facebook page, our plan is to update the construction progress and show how these winning entries will be built, so stay tuned.

[David Harshbarger]

Here's the second of two Dragon and Tiger concepts that I submitted.  I can only imagine how many dragons were entered. Having communicated with a number of entrants now, I'm thinking that there are enough to create the "Dragon Links" resort where every hole is a rendering of this iconic Chinese construct.

This one is unique in that it is two holes, but the synergy between the two, and the strength of the metaphor suggested that they be built together.  I can definitely see why these would be excluded in the contest.  For one, part of the text is upside down.  More importantly, the instructions are for a single hole, not a set of holes per submission.  

It was much later after the submission that I came to understand that the site was volcanic rock.  If done again, the Yin/Yang would be volcanic rock and sand, not water and a white meadow.



PAR 3 - Tiger And Dragon

David Harshbarger  -2011

Inspiration - The Par 3’s Tiger and Dragon are inspired by the “Eternal Conflict” between the Tiger and the Dragon in Chinese lore.  These holes work together to represent this Iconic conflict: the Tiger and the Dragon battling around the Yin/Yang; Strength against Guile; Power against Fluidity.

Experience - These holes are connected together to complete the Icon, but also to drive the experience.  Going Out, the player first encounters this couplet playing the Tiger.  The players enter a tilted bowl, with a lake in the middle.  The Tiger stretches around the left side.  The mouth of the Dragon is visible to the right, along with the pin placement.

The Tiger plays across the lake from tees elevated (by tee) to a green that climbs up the side of the bowl opposite.  The fairway, green and hazards are sculpted to describe a Tiger. From the tips, play is across the lake, bunkers representing the Tiger’s paws and claws, to the Green.  Within and adjacent to the green, pot bunkers representing the teeth and eye, and a shallow bunker representing the ear provide protection.

While the green’s are sloped they will hold direct shots.  A fade will play best, and anything left is safe.  Shots right may catch the teeth.  Long is bad.  The wining shots are strong, sure and direct.

Coming In is the Dragon.  The Tiger is apparent, the Dragon is obscured.  Longer, a hillock shows the flag, but obscures the green surface.  The Green is in a bowl, but the left is guarded by pot bunker teeth, and the right by another eye pot bunker.  If the player has remembered the pin position when playing the Tiger, they may select the right club for the aerial shot.  If they do not remember, yardage to the pin will be inexact.

Otherwise, a ground shot played left, off the line of instinct, should carom around to the green entering left. The winning shot uses knowledge of the pin location along with the slope of the ground.

Visually, the Dragon’s features line the bowl left.  Talons climb the hillock right.  The head is obscured, but the filigree is not obscured by the hillock.

The Tiger plays 180 from the tips.  Tee boxes follow the Tiger’s tale.  Shorter tees progressively remove the lake.  The Dragon plays 225 from the tips.  Tee boxes follow the Dragon’s tale as it winds around.  Shorter tees do not change the fundamental element of a semi-blind tee shot with a ground game option left. 

Summary - This submission brings to life a classic Chinese Icon. 

[Mike Nuzzo]

Ryan
How many of these holes are you building?
Cheers

[Grant Saunders]

We liked the idea of Grant's great wall hole going through the green, but the size and scale of what he wanted and how it interacted with the putting surface, just did not work out how we imagined it would.

Ryan

Any chance you might be able to expand on this comment. Im just curious to learn more about the process and not questioning your decision. Reply by PM if that suits better.

[David Harshbarger]

Contest is almost complete, and it should be interesting to see the winners.  For the record, here are the final two entries I submitted.

This entry, Heavy Seas/Tsunami, is in my opinion as interesting a playing hole as any in my set of entries.  In choosing this theme, my goal was to get beyond "things" and focus on a state and an experience.  The sea is mysterious force, and when the sea is angry, and the waves begin to churn, it's a place of fear and great unease.  The goal of this hole was to use this feeling to inspire the hazard, fairway with such pronounced swales and rolls that going down into it would be like being down in the trough of a swell at sea.

Having read so much on this site, I also wanted the hazard to be not overly penal.  The ball would be playable, but the penalty is a bad lie possibly a foreshortened club, and a loss of visibility.  In some cases, the player would find the traps topping the swells, whitecaps if you would.

The drawing is, clearly, crude, but, I think this would be an interesting hole to play even on a normal course.
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PAR 5 – Heavy Seas/Tsunami

Inspiration – This hole is inspired by the drama of heavy seas, and the awe-inspiring (and fearful) tsunami wave that rises from them.  In this case, the heavy seas are the hazard the player must navigate to the green, while the tsunami rises up above the green in front protecting (some) approaches from all directions. 

Golf Experience – This par 5 presents two primary routes to the green.  Left, the player can drive to about 300 yards into a generous landing area (1) in front of the seas.  From there, a second shot can layup (2a, 3), or for pin location A, a well placed shot can use the carom off (2) to reach the green.  Better players may also approach over the tsunami to pin locations B (hidden) and C (visible).

Going right, better players can challenge a 270 yard carry to 5, or layup at 4 then hit a short island to 5. 

Wayward shots will find the heavy seas.  This is fairway that drops from the landing areas down and up in 8-10’ swales.  These swales are capped with white sand bunker “whitecaps”.  Recovery shots from this area will be blind, and will likely have poor stances.  However, by keeping the ball in play, at least a recovery shot is possible. 

At the green, the front left is protected by a massive bunker that towers 10-15’ above the green.  The bunker should be cut to evoke a cresting tsunami wave.  The large green is divided into three sections.

Section A runs top left to lower middle.  It is the lowest section, and has the rough shape of a trough.  It is open to shots coming in from the left, but is protected by the tsunami.  Aerial shots short will kick up the side of A towards B.  Putts from B or C can/will be fed back towards the center of A by the back slope of the tsunami hill.

The middle section, B, is also a trough but it runs ever so slightly front to back, but with a false front.  It is higher than A, but pins here may be fully obscured by the Tsunami.

The top section, C, occupies the right side and top of the green.  It has a moderate back right to front left slop.  Pins here are visible from 2a, and the slope is most receptive to shots from that direction.  It, too, has a false front.  At its back it sits a good 20-25’ above the seas below.

Heavy Seas/Tsunami is intended to provide strategic options from green back to tee.  Visually, the tsunami wave should read from ground level, as should the pitching seas.  The hazards are difficult, but keep the ball in play.  Ground game is in play depending on pin placement.  The green plays like three greens, and provides dramatic challenges.

[David Harshbarger]

Here's the last of the entries I put into the contest.  This is a variation on the Dragon theme that I called Dragon vs. Tiger.  This Par 4 provides 2 fairways, one sort of direct representing the Tiger, and one somewhat circuitous representing the Dragon.  The fairways converge on a Yin/Yang green complex, where the location of the pin in large part dictates the fairway taken.

The two dragon/tiger concepts, I thought, played very well into the Icon theme, and it was my hope that by combining the Dragon and Tiger with the Yin/Yang, as they are commonly associated in Chinese Iconography, that I would be able to add a dimension beyond the Dragon, alone. 



PAR 4 – Dragon Fighting Tiger

This hole is a short par 4, split fairway played along a hillside and lower plateau to a tiered green.  Strategically, the days pin placement should drive the decision on which fairway to take.  One fairway favors a ground approach, the other an air approach. None of this will enter the mind of the golfer when he approaches this tee.

What the golfer will see is a dragon fighting a tiger.  The dragon’s body, the left fairway, rises up over, and down a slight ridge in the hill, then the neck, jaw and spine scales emerge as the fairway curves down and right to the green.  It’s mouth opens at left of the green.  It’s important that the sweep of the neck and head, and the sand traps for the spine scales and the ornament around the head are framed by the sweep of the hill they are set in.  White sand traps billow like smoke around the bottom of the green, sand flashed high for maximum impact.  The fairway of the dragon’s neck and jaws is smooth and fast. There is a small hill, however, that sits between the dragon’s front right leg (not visible from tee) and the area under the neck of the dragon.  This hill obscures the views of the green from the right hand side of the fairway, as well as a bit of the lower part of the dragon’s neck, as well as the traps that make up the filigree around the bottom of the dragon’s head.  A small trap defines the dragon’s eye.

The right fairway, a tiger’s body, falls away and through a plain, to where the tiger’s head turns and snarls at the green from lower right.  The tiger’s outstretched claw circles above the green, claws extended.  (From the tee, only the tiger’s arm is visible, as the paw and claws are below the green height as the green falls away to the back).  His front left sand trap paw sits below the green, black pothole bunker claws extended, also.  For these traps, the claws should be deep enough to read black from the tee.  The paws should be white and flashed to be intimidating.

If possible, use subtle mounding to accentuate muscles in the body of the tiger, but not so much as to create bad lies.  A well placed shot to the tiger should yield a good shot to the green.  Also, the tiger should be wide enough to welcome a full drive, though the angle into tiger’s body will cause some problems.

The green itself, which the dragon and tiger appear to be fighting over, is round, bisected from lower left to upper right by a ridge forming the shape of the yin/yang symbol.  The lower/right section falls towards the mouth of the tiger, quickly around the ridge, then more gently to green’s edge.  In the middle of this section there’s a small round bump.  The upper/left section of the green falls away to the back of the green, gradually from the ridge.  In the middle left, there’s a small round depression.  The surrounds around the green are cut short.

The tee boxes are arrayed in the curls of the dragon’s and tiger’s tail.

The area between the two fairways could be given many treatments, but should not be inviting enough to play through, nor high enough to obscure the panorama.

The hole’s strategy is inspired by the different fighting styles of the dragon and the tiger.  The dragon fights through knowledge of movement and motion.  Success with the dragon involves the ground game.  The far part of the dragon fairway should fall down and to the right dramatically enough that a well played ball will roll around the hill and onto the green.  Because the green slopes away/to the left, an aerial shot will be very hard to hold.

The tiger, however, fights with brute strength.  To attack the green from the Tiger side requires the aerial attack.  The tiger’s mouth, paw and claws obstruct the ground game, and the green with it’s strong slope is receptive to the aerial shot.

Choosing the wrong fairway based on pin placement will be disastrous.  With the pin in the back/left, an aerial approach from the tiger will have a hard time holding the green and avoiding the tiger’s claws.  With the pin front/right, an ground shot will have a hard time cresting the ridge, and if it does, will be propelled across the green.  An aerial shot will have a hard time holding the green and avoiding the tiger’s mouth, while a shot right will catch the dragon’s flame.

I have made this a short par 4 as I like the mental challenge presented by that setup.  The line of instinct is challenged by the divergent fairways, but the temptation will still be there to drive up into the tiger’s mouth.  Better players may be able to drive the green by way of the dragon, if they catch a favorable bounce on the down slope.

However, this could also be played as two par 4’s with a shared green.  In this case, I would lengthen the holes to about 375-425.  Visually, the impact is still strong, and each fairway’s strategy is strong.

Either way, this could be an Iconic hole for the Icon course, as I’m sure players will never forget the thrill of battling against the Dragon and the Tiger.

[David Harshbarger]

The winners of the Schmidt/Curley Mission Hills Fantasy Contest have been announced.

http://apps.facebook.com/missionhillscontest/contests/68452/prize_giving?ogn=facebook

Congratulations to the three winners from one vested participant.  And, congratulations to Mission Hills for running this competition, and for receiving and selecting three excellent design concepts.

All three designs deliver a tee-to-green fantasy experience, in and within an iconic concept.  Each winning design brings a scale and boldness to the question, that if duplicated around the course, is certain to provide a singular experience of golf.  Without doubt the course will be the best of its kind  . (Couldn't resist). Honestly though, I believe that this will be a really special, popular, and much loved course by the designers, players, owner, and community. 

I have added the Mission Hills Haikou Icon Course to my bucket list. 

Congratulations, agains, to the winners.

Dave

[Mike Nuzzo]

Oh Boy
It is getting closer - 2014
Looks like there are going to be 18 fantasy holes...
http://media.apggnews.com/ezines/GCII/gcii-july-aug2012/index.html

I missed the video the first time...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zgNo2k-bbk&feature=player_embedded

[David Harshbarger]

The noodle bowl seems claustrophobic from that video, as though the bowl's owner might come back at anytime, pick up the chopsticks, and resume eating.

That the amateur entry is leading the press is kind of cool.

Here's the site per google maps and my best guess.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=19.867041,110.288672%20%28China%20Hainan%29