European Tour 3-hole Design Challenge

[Robin_Hiseman]

Time to put your money where your mouth is and enter the European Tour's 3-hole design challenge.


https://www.europeantour.com/european-tour/news/articles/detail/3-hole-design-challenge/



The prize is a fourball at any one of European Tour destinations courses. See below for the selection. Be aware that you'll have to pay your own way there!


https://www.europeantourdestinations.com/


Closing date is 17:00 BST on Monday May 18.




Please share your entries here. I know there is plenty of talent on here, both professional and amateur, so show us what you've got and good luck!

[Ally Mcintosh]

Be interesting to see those who enter put their drawings up on here.


I had a quick look and there was an immediate routing option that jumped out at me. But I’ll take a bit more time to see if there are other answers to unlock.




Ally

[Ben Hollerbach]

This contest to me feels like they already have a plan for the closing 3 holes and the winner will be the one that gets closest to that routing.


From a design perspective, the mature trees do seem to create very specific number of possible hole corridors, but also an interesting design constraint. the topography of the land along the northeast boundary seem to be virtually unusable for this contest without a substantial amount of land work. It could possible work for a 1st/10th that would run from the clubhouse towards the A green, but that would be a hole of ~340 yards.


The rest of the hole parts shown are what confuse me. We can see bits of 9 holes, we're asked to design another 3, leaving 6 holes unshown in any degree. Presuming that neither a 1st or 10th are included in this image I have a hard time seeing how the B hole could be the planned 15th. Its possible that the A hole could be, but that would require a hole to connect to the par 3 adjacent to A. Based on the hard slope along the NE boundary I would presume that boundary is a "road". So either their is an opening hole of ~340 yards that skirts the NE boundary to connect to the par 3, or there is more golf course across the "road". The par 3 C hole seems like the most likely 15th.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Ben,


You’re overthinking it.


The clubhouse is in a fictitious location so I doubt that any of A, B or C are the “actual” 15th. I think participants just need to concentrate on connecting from one of those holes to the best three hole finish.

[Matt_Cohn]

edit: I no longer agree with what I originally wrote here

[Matt_Cohn]

Any thoughts on these three drafts?


#1, starting at C



#2, starting at C



#3, starting at A

[Ally Mcintosh]

Matt,


The first solution that jumped out at me was similar to your Option 2.


Main differences were that I’d place the green on 16 sitting on top of the ridge (slightly shorter hole) and also start the 18th from the higher ground. Your tee shot seems unnecessarily blind as your first 50 yards is hitting up a steep hill.

[Robin_Hiseman]

Allow me to confirm that this is not a case of trying to find a solution that matches what is actually on the ground, or what is proposed. There are no real golf holes in this area, nor will there be. The clubhouse location is fictitious.


The ability to read contour maps is an advantage!

[Tim Gallant]

Thanks to Ally - I had a bit of fun reading the map. Here's what I came up with on a first pass. Sorry that the drawing elements aren't great as I was using preview


16th - a medium sized par 4, I liked the idea of having the green on a high, and being tilted from back to front and left to right (from the fairway), so that the optimal angle will be coming from the way right. From the left, players would either need to hoist one up over the tree, or play towards the front part of the green.


17th - Redan esq par 3, it just made sense given the drop off from R to L. I also liked playing downhill a bit and through a valley (if I'm reading it right).


18th - Loved using the natural shape of the ground to create a funky green with a little hump in the middle. A drivable par-4 to end! Maybe add a bunker or something to create a force carry, but quite like it as is.





Just looking at it again, think there are some space issues as the 18th green is quite close to the hitting line on what would be 16. Don't think there's that much space for galleries and infrastructure, and it's not very long. But I'd quite like playing it (which is not the brief!).

[Tim Gallant]

Slight update (again).





Ben rightly pointed out that my 17th green would be too tilted and balls would fly off the green! Have revised its position slightly.

[Matt_Cohn]

and also start the 18th from the higher ground. Your tee shot seems unnecessarily blind as your first 50 yards is hitting up a steep hill.

Thanks. I revised!

[Matt_Cohn]

Fourth draft. Tried to use the terrain on 18 better. Tee on higher ground, fairway up a bit of a valley with bunkers cut into the slopes.

[Tom_Doak]

Fourth draft. Tried to use the terrain on 18 better. Tee on higher ground, fairway up a bit of a valley with bunkers cut into the slopes.

Glad to see that you took out the fairway bunkers to the left of the first hole, from your earlier version.  If you were in them, the two trees blocked the direct line to the green!


As it is, the bunkers 75 yards short of the green may make it look more dramatic, but they have no effect on the "A" player's line, and will only punish the "B" player that much more.


The trees are really a limiting factor on this contest -- there are a lot of potential solutions eliminated by not having a clear line between the trees for a tee shot.

[Ben Stephens]

Tom,




I personally think EGD has set a good brief and putting in tree restrictions also make it more challenging which is one of the brief requirements. A blank canvas is more boring from a challenge standpoint.




GCAers


Hope that there are a number of GCA members participating and that we have a gallery of really interesting proposals on this thread.


This site is quite steep and undulating which also adds to the challenge and like Robin said regarding reading contours is important.




Cheers
Ben

[Ally Mcintosh]

There’s no doubt the trees reduce the possible solutions.


In some ways that makes it more challenging (as Ben says) but it actually makes it easier to find the best routing because the constraints leave very obvious answers.

[Matt_Cohn]

As it is, the bunkers 75 yards short of the green may make it look more dramatic, but they have no effect on the "A" player's line, and will only punish the "B" player that much more.

When Tom hints I should take something out, then I guess I'll take it out. (Does that make me 1-up on Jack Nicklaus?)


I hope Tom, Jeff and the other professionals here show us their versions after contest entries close. I'd love to see what they think of that I didn't.

[Jonathan Webb]

There's some interesting stuff going on north of the Clubhouse but might create a long connection

[Neil White]

Here is the line routing for the design I have entered into the fray...

[Kyle Harris]

There's a 30', likely man-made but who cares, ridge within the scope of the project and nobody has featured that yet?!

[Ally Mcintosh]

How would you use it, Kyle? It is awkwardly positioned and very near the clubhouse.


I could see it being used as a tee site for a drop-shot par-3 heading along the boundary line, over the slight chasm to a raised green to the right of the trees. But no way to satisfactorily route to get back to the clubhouse.


I think a tee-shot coming the other way would be too tight to the clubhouse unless you played a rather forced uphill 3 as a finisher.

[Peter Flory]

What course is this?  Not the Tor Mastorta site in Italy is it (doesn't look like it to me based on the tree positions). 

Would just be nice to see the contours on Google Earth. 

[Kyle Harris]

It cuts at a diagonal next to the flattest area around the clubhouse that is at the end of one of the broader upslopes that makes for an appealing approach. I don't know how you DON'T use it as some sort of feature especially juxtaposed with the "chasm" and some of the trees. There's a landing area implied by the flat spot at the top of a hog's back between the two double trees, too.


Interesting to me that Green C is above the clubhouse. It seems the only useful choice as the 15th green. That way you can play down to the bottom and then half way up to the top again over three holes. More variety is implied there simply because of that. The only way to go from Green B or A is up.

[Kyle Harris]

Another thing is that the tree restriction is turning me off to the idea of using too many bunkers - especially to define strategy off the tee. Trees juxtaposed with crossing slopes are much more effective, IMO, in this situation. I think you could build a pretty interesting bunkerless 16th or 17th.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Can see your landing area but not quite sure where you are coming from, Kyle. Be interesting to see you draw a stick routing.


Agree that the only logical 15th is green C.


Although Simpson said (paraphrasing) that the obvious solution is rarely the best one, this exercise could be an exception.

[Ben Hollerbach]

Kyle,


I agree that the land north of the clubhouse is super dramatic, but it seems pretty challenging to link a hole through it without compromising the other two holes. The only teeing location that seems to line up with the hog back fairway location would be near the flat hill top located near the B green, playing diagonally across the property. Being that it cuts the property in half, I can't find good sites for a reasonable 16th and 17th holes that links the 3 and a 15th green effectively.


Beyond the limitations caused by the mature trees, the idea of making a final 3 that is suited for a Tour level tournament course lead me to start thinking about length. I appreciate the number of designs posted so far that actually use shorter length holes for their routing, It's sometimes hard on paper to see if a short hole will befuddle the best like the 10th at Riv, or just end up being a long par 3.