EarthGolf

As usual, I’m the last to find out about anything - my July 6 edition of Golf World just showed up today. It had the winner of the Lido golf hole design contest (link is to a Google cache of the original story done in February on the contest) that is put on by the Alister MacKenzie Society.

First, let me say how absurd it is that Golf World’s website doesn’t have the article showing the winner’s design on its website. The redo of the Golf Digest/Golf World website is visually nice, but functionally broken. Finding anything is nearly impossible on the site now - and that’s saying a lot because it was nearly impossible to find anything on the old website. I couldn’t even find a link to the original article on the contest.

Second, my comments on the winning design. The article spends a decent amount of time pointing out the irony of the winner’s name - Links. Looking at Links’ design, it features a double fairway along an oceanside cliff top. The centerline hazard are dunes, and the green is wide, but shallow and surrounded by bunkers. The design claims that there are three options (it’s really frustrating describing a picture) - playing to either the left fairway, the right fairway or driving the green. Here’s where I think the hole doesn’t quite add up for me. The hole plays 375 yards from the tips. The dunes cut off the entire front entrance into the green, meaning the only way you could drive the green from the tips would be to belt it at least 330 yards on the fly to carry the dunes. The hole has no ground game option to reach the green or really anyway to land a ball short to run up on to the green, which is rather bizarre since it’s oceanside - one would think it’s rather windy there. Considering the green is so shallow, there is no way even a well struck (monstrous) drive could possibly hold the green, and the sand traps directly behind the green, along with a 10 yard opening in front of the green mean that this really isn’t a drivable par 4.

Of the four entries shown in the magazine, the hands down best design was Richard Fletcher’s 19th hole at Augusta National, which also features a double fairway with a number of options of reaching the green - including a ground assault.

Here’s what Ron Whitten, this year’s judge, said in his article announcing the contest in February.

I am hoping for designs that push it even further, maybe something with five optional routes, or a hole with a classic MacKenzie skinny, diagonal green, or a design that relies on dramatic changes in elevation.

This year’s winner doesn’t hit any of those desires. Fletcher’s entry actually did have five unique methods of attack on the hole, featured dramatic changes in elevation, and while he didn’t use a MacKenzie skinny, diagonal green, he did use a classic MacKenzie green and bunker styling.

Whitten also writes that they received just 64 entries, which can’t possibly be correct.

My priority this spring from a creative golf standpoint was setting up this blog and getting it going, which left me no time to work on an entry this year. I’m looking forward to next year’s competition, though.

UPDATE 2007-07-16: Here is the winning entry, courtesy of George Pazin.

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