AAC III - Ready, set, go! Open for Submissions (March 15 deadline)

[Alex Miller]

Location: 3 miles west of Hooker, NE. Vistas from your course may look like this:




The plan is to build another private destination golf club, and you've got 1,000+ acres to present the best routing you can to the founding members of the club. They want to compete with Sand Hills and Dismal and are located nearby. No pressure, right?  

They are looking for no more than 18 holes, and the opportunity for "sunset golf". (Sorry, they were not super clear on what that meant  .)

The entrance to the club must not come from the west (map is oriented with North up). You may site the clubhouse wherever you like.

You have the permit to access the aquifer which lies below the sand hills. You do not need to show any irrigation details in your drawings.


Your canvas:



Divided into 4 quadrants for closer consideration. (top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right)

I

II

III

IV



I would hope that submissions could be collected on the order of 2-3 weeks. We will then have a poll open for ~1 week to narrow it down to 8 finalists, and then the esteemed judges will step in. Routing is the primary focus of this exercise, but please do your best to artistically display your golf course as none of our imaginations work the same. We can only see what is on paper  . Please include the location of your clubhouse, practice facility, and on-site accomodations.

Topographic lines are at 10ft intervals with shading showing more detail in some areas.


Link to the full-size images, which can be downloaded, emailed, etc... Click through the preview to access the full-size image. http://armchairarchitectcontestiii.imgur.com/all/

Please post any questions and get started!

[Neil White]

Alex,

The imgur page is suggesting that the image is not publicly available - any ideas?

Cheers,

Neil.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Alex,

Stunning picture.

I think it was Bill Coore who said that Sand Hills was the best site for golf in the U.S.

I wish them luck.

[Alex Miller]

Alex,

The imgur page is suggesting that the image is not publicly available - any ideas?

Cheers,

Neil.

Fixed I think. Sorry about that!

[David_Elvins]

Alex, what are the intervals on the contour lines?

[ChipRoyce]

Can it be inferred that we can site the clubhouse as we see fit?

[Alex Miller]

Can it be inferred that we can site the clubhouse as we see fit?

Yes. I'll add that for clarification, though toward the end of the post there are instructions asking for clubhouse, practice area, and on-site lodging.

[Steve Lang]

  Alex, I appreaciate your effort, and I'm sorry and if it hurts the review of my submission, but so what,...  that topo map is essentially useless and shows no detail sufficient of elevation changes to associate with visual background shapes

3400 ft seems only topo line readable

edit.  ok, maybe not useless but there are plenty of elevation clues that don't seem to line up with background



really need to put more topo elevations out there and what is shading really representing in its gradations?  
folks are going to go blind following those very lightly colored topo lines can 't they be made to contrast with back ground instead of blend??

[Alex Miller]

Alex, I appreaciate your effort, and I'm sorry and if it hurts the review of my submission, but so what,...  that topo map is essentially useless and shows no detail sufficient of elevation changes to associate with visual background shapes

3400 ft seems only topo line readable

Sorry you feel that way, but I really did do my best to reach out and find something we could use. NOBODY had anything to offer, so I went searching and found this to be a usable map.

I think it's very readable and I'm not sure what issues you're having with it. "No detail sufficient of elevation changes to associate with visual background shapes"? Sorry, I don't know what you're saying here. 

I would suggest clicking on the fullsize images and checking them out. There are indeed very readable lines, and they are at 10ft so the site definitely has elevation changes (in fact more than the last contest which had 1ft. topo lines).

[Alex Miller]

Alex, what are the intervals on the contour lines?

10 ft. Guess that got lost on the transfer from word, but it's in the post now.  

[Jeb Bearer]

Alex, looks great. I can't wait to get started. Any info on how busy the course is expected to be?

[Alex Miller]

Alex, looks great. I can't wait to get started. Any info on how busy the course is expected to be?

Hey Jeb,

I'm not certain of the number of rounds per year, but it is a destination private golf club. I would expect it to be generally not busy.


To clear up some of the confusion with the contour lines, I thought I'd point out some relative highs and lows, especially in the confusing upper-right quadrant. These are my interpretations from the lines and relief shading. Understand that contour lines follow paths of equal elevation, and since the lines are at 10ft intervals sometimes the line may look a little off.

Black = higher
Red = lower

[Pete_Pittock]

I am pretty sure than sunset golf means having a loop that you can play at the end of the day. Example a six hole course where 3 green is near 16 tee.

[Dieter Jones]

Hi Alex, thanks for posting the maps. looking forward to getting stuck in tonight.

Just 1 thing, I know this is a hypothetical exercise but my belief is that the map you have used is actually 40 foot intervals not 10. I based this on looking the location up on www.mytopo.com. I typed in Hooker NE and then zoomed in to show the squares labelled 23,24,25 & 26 in red on their map. This shows 20 foot intervals and has the high points in the W (at 9 o'clock) and SE corners as 3483 and 3485 respectively.

cheers, Dieter

[Alex Miller]

Hi Alex, thanks for posting the maps. looking forward to getting stuck in tonight.

Just 1 thing, I know this is a hypothetical exercise but my belief is that the map you have used is actually 40 foot intervals not 10. I based this on looking the location up on www.mytopo.com. I typed in Hooker NE and then zoomed in to show the squares labelled 23,24,25 & 26 in red on their map. This shows 20 foot intervals and has the high points in the NW and SE corners as 3483 and 3485 respectively.

cheers, Dieter

Yes, well done on that find so quickly.

If we used 40 foot intervals that would leave too much unknown between lines. I made a choice to change the scale so we would have something better for the contest.

[Dieter Jones]

Cool. Just checking :-)

[Jeb Bearer]

Prevailing wind?

[Alex Miller]

Cool. Just checking :-)

No problem. Also it looked like 20 ft intervals on mytopo, but that doesn't really matter.

Prevailing wind?

From Ran's profile on Sand Hills, "As the member tells his guests, there is no prevailing wind at Sand Hills."

Assume the same, but I would make sure the course is playable in wind, whatever the direction.

[Eric Smith]

Thanks, Alex!

It is a privilege to be considered for this project. The sand hills are near and dear to me and my associates and we're all excited to get started. I think Tom Doak's idea of a sand hills golf trail is a good one. We've seen signs along the way to support this notion as the folks at Dismal River have lent their support from the word go, having put up me and my associates, JC Jones and Anthony Gray, in one of their cabins on both of our site visits. [Our most recent having lasted nearly 5 months!] Great people. I hope that if our design is chosen, they'll allow me to keep my membership there.

[Dieter Jones]

Cool. Just checking :-)

No problem. Also it looked like 20 ft intervals on mytopo, but that doesn't really matter.

Woops Typo there. I meant to say 20 feet. My Bad.

[Matthew Rose]

So, you just want something drawn right on the topo?

Any requirements for par/yards/sets of tees?

[Wyatt Halliday]

"It's the MOST, wonderful time....of the year!!!"

DING DONG/DING DONG

[Matthew Essig]

Is 2-3 weeks enough? The last one took me about a month.

[Mike Viscusi]

Anybody else having an issue downloading the full resolution images from the imgur site?  When I try I get a "File Not Found" message.

[David Minogue]

Mike, I have had the same problems. When I have printed it the map doesnt seem to come out very clear!!