CSU's Design Tips #3 - Tee Boxes Made Easy
Nov 18, 2018 8:43:30 GMT -5
mayday_golf83, mrvinegar206, and 2 more like this
Post by csugolfer60 on Nov 18, 2018 8:43:30 GMT -5
Hi everyone, we're back with a new walkthrough. This post is a tutorial on how to create tee boxes!
Here we go -
We've got a hole laid out with no features yet. You can see that the tee box is on a slightly elevated area - I would always reccomend starting on a slightly elevated area, because it naturally follows that tee boxes generally (besides the green) are the nicest patch of grass around, with the better view. If you start with a better natural plot for your tee box, you're already a step ahead.
So to start, we lay down our tee box. There aren't really any firm rules on how your boxes should be shaped, but to make it more realistic, I generally like a tee box to average about 7-10 yards across, and about 10-12 yards long. This looks pretty realistic, and consistent with real life courses. This is some of the toughest grass to maintain, so you don't want to create any tee space that can't or won't be used.
The first thing we will do is elevate the back tee slightly. Take the 3rd circle brush, and make it big enough to encompass the tee grass, and flatten one area up to the elevation you want. It's OK if the brush doesn't encompass the entire tee area yet.
Do the same for the rest of the box, but only up to the elevation you established in the first raise in the previous step.
Now, use the same brush, and just "flatten" the entire tee with no elevation change. The reason we use this brush, is because it creates a natural gradient slope around the edges of the tee. You can use the brush several times on all areas of the tee until it's flat.
OK, it's starting to take shape. We have a flat tee surface, now lets work on the area around the tee.
We're going to lay some heavy rough down, to separate the "maintained" rough from the "natural" grass. I always like to put the heavy rough down until there is a natural "low" border around the tee box. This may be dictated by the hills around the tee, but you can kind of see the elevation taking shape already.
So, we have some heavy rough down now, but we need some detail work to make it look more natural. The "seam" between the heavy rough and natural rough creates a valley, and a natural looking transition between playable and unplayable space.
So, lets use our favorite brush, the gradient flatten, to go all the way around the edge, and smooth out that seam.
Much better - it's now a more natural looking elevated tee, with a natural-looking transition between the heavy and natural.
Now, lets do a last bit of detail to make sure the tee area is flat. Take the second flattening brush, with a cleaner edge, and go around the tee area, flattening it until satisfied.
Very good, now we're ready to rinse and repeat for the other tee boxes on the hole, once we find the distances we want to add tees on.
In fact, one of the best ways to lay cart path down is to lay it along the seam on one side of the hole.