Kaiuma Bay (WCoD entry)

[b101]

Kaiuma Bay

Please set greens and fairways to very firm for the best experience and for judging. HB publishing bug defaults Tropical to medium in spite of it being at max in designer

Kaiuma Bay (pronounced K-eye-oo-ma) is my entry into Group B of the 2020 World Cup of Design. A tropical links inspired by Cape Kidnappers and Shanqin Bay, this peninsula course overlooks the South Pacific Ocean and the intricate routing sees you meet the ocean multiple times in your round. The fairways are wide enough to accommodate all golfers, but the undulations and subtle green contours will reward the player who thinks before they swing. The course is fairly long at just over 7,600 yards from the tips, but a par of 73 ensures you will have scoring opportunities, whilst you will enjoy the variety of inland, clifftop and riverside holes. Above all, the course should leave you with holes that stick in your memory. 

I feel Kaiuma is comfortably my best work to date - I had an absolute blast designing this and hope you enjoy your round as much as I did coming up with it! Default green speeds are at 157, with the course easily handling fast (164) and whilst very fast wouldn't be what I recommend, I think it will probably cope once you're on the greens; there just may be a few putts from top tiers to bottom that become dicey. Let me know what you think below. A few pictures (you'll see by the number how much I like this course):

[b101]

Oh and for the template guys amongst you. You'll notice a lot of spins on the classic characteristics - part of that's because I hadn't originally envisioned this as a template course when designing it until about halfway through before I realised that they'd just gotten lodged in my brain... :

1 - Cape (par 4)
2 - Long (par 5)
3 - Knoll (par 4)
4 - Redan (par 4)
5 - Maiden (par 4)
6 - Short (par 3)
7 - Leven/Alps (par 4)
8 - Coore/Crenshaw (par 5)
9 - Punchbowl (par 5)
10 - Long/Reverse Redan/Punchbowl - call it what you will, there's bits of all of them (par 3)
11 - Bottle (par 4)
12 - Prize Dogleg (par 5)
13 - Cape/Plateau (par 3)
14 - Knoll (par 4)
15 - Double Plateau (par 3)
16 - Valley/Lion's Mouth (par 5)
17 - Road (par 4)
18 - Eden (par 4)

[Deleted]

Ho...ly...Crap!

[ohheycat]

Releasing course while im working, - 10 points.

I am not actually a judge but still

[15eicheltower9]

Dec 20, 2019 11:21:30 GMT -5 ohheycat said:

Releasing course while im working, - 10 points.

I am not actually a judge but still

Wait... you work?

[rjwils30]

Look forward to playing this one!

I see a hole inspired by 7 at streamsong red. Is that number 8?

Dec 20, 2019 11:00:44 GMT -5 b101 said:

Oh and for the template guys amongst you. You'll notice a lot of spins on the classic characteristics - part of that's because I hadn't originally envisioned this as a template course when designing it until about halfway through before I realised that they'd just gotten lodged in my brain... :

1 - Cape (par 4)
2 - Long (par 5)
3 - Knoll (par 4)
4 - Redan (par 4)
5 - Maiden (par 4)
6 - Short (par 3)
7 - Leven/Alps (par 4)
8 - Coore/Crenshaw (par 5)
9 - Punchbowl (par 5)
10 - Long/Reverse Redan/Punchbowl - call it what you will, there's bits of all of them (par 3)
11 - Bottle (par 4)
12 - Prize Dogleg (par 5)
13 - Cape/Plateau (par 3)
14 - Knoll (par 4)
15 - Double Plateau (par 3)
16 - Valley/Lion's Mouth (par 5)
17 - Road (par 4)
18 - Eden (par 4)

[b101]

Dec 20, 2019 12:20:29 GMT -5 rjwils30 said:

Look forward to playing this one!

I see a hole inspired by 7 at streamsong red. Is that number 8?

Dec 20, 2019 11:00:44 GMT -5 b101 said:

Oh and for the template guys amongst you. You'll notice a lot of spins on the classic characteristics - part of that's because I hadn't originally envisioned this as a template course when designing it until about halfway through before I realised that they'd just gotten lodged in my brain... :

1 - Cape (par 4)
2 - Long (par 5)
3 - Knoll (par 4)
4 - Redan (par 4)
5 - Maiden (par 4)
6 - Short (par 3)
7 - Leven/Alps (par 4)
8 - Coore/Crenshaw (par 5)
9 - Punchbowl (par 5)
10 - Long/Reverse Redan/Punchbowl - call it what you will, there's bits of all of them (par 3)
11 - Bottle (par 4)
12 - Prize Dogleg (par 5)
13 - Cape/Plateau (par 3)
14 - Knoll (par 4)
15 - Double Plateau (par 3)
16 - Valley/Lion's Mouth (par 5)
17 - Road (par 4)
18 - Eden (par 4)

Yep, good spot! It's my favourite way to design par fives in the game as it really makes you hesitate before going for it. With this one, there are layup zones as well, but none are quite what you want them to be, which should further entice you into going for it with the big miss left looming large. I've done something similar on Greenstone River (15th), but this one has a little more quirk to it and the green site is just better. That hole is the fifth image in the OP, so you have some sort of visual. There's a fair bit of the Alps template to it as well, just not quite so much blindness or the hidden bunker, which I've never really liked.

Oh and the final fun twist to this hole (8 at Kaiuma) is that, to get at the very back pin (pin 3 IIRC), you can actually use the kicker slope behind the mound for a Redan like effect. It's a bit of a tricky shot to pull off, but definitely an option if you play wide right off the tee.

Rob, I'm sure you know of it by citing the 7th at Streamsong, but for anyone else interested, this is the article that I leaned on for 15 at Greenstone River and 8 here: thefriedegg.com/coore-crenshaw-template-hole/. Really keen to get your thoughts on this one (either here or PM), as it's got a lot of RJWils influence in it as well. Hope you enjoy your round.

[ohheycat]

Dec 20, 2019 11:47:43 GMT -5 15eicheltower9 said:

Dec 20, 2019 11:21:30 GMT -5 ohheycat said:

Releasing course while im working, - 10 points.

I am not actually a judge but still

Wait... you work?

More like check on my minions and look at my bank account but yeah

[ohheycat]

Good read there, I thought I had an amazing unique idea with my new par 5, turns out its just a cat, coore, and crenshaw, right down to the mounding taking away access to the ground game. Seriously, is it possible to make a non template hole that is strategically interesting? Even ignoring templates entirely it seems one always lines up perfectly, or at least a combination of 2. Anyway, looking forward to my round later. No doubt it will be a good one

[Trayys]

It's a KEG takeover! Boom! Congrats on the entry partner

[cplampman]

Just a fantastic job here. I could see a few holes (specifically 8) giving up some high scores. Good luck!

[CuseHokie]

I enjoyed it. Could only fire -11. Missed a bunch of putts. Would prefer trying a faster speed of greens. Maybe a tour edition?

Will try 163 next time!

Hit two beautiful shots into 12 and couldn’t convert the eagle.

[meyo]

First of all great job, loved the course. The front nine was a breeze but then back brought me back down to earth Here's my play thru if you want to see how I tackled your course....

[jwtexan]

In on page 1 of greatness. Just pure class all around, will be a great tour stop someday and a force in group B(en)

My favorite holes are always half pars and this course is flooded with them. Well done and good luck!

[DrnkNdKnwThngs]

Great job, Ben!



Love it!!!! (secretly...it's my winner...)

~Drnk