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Post by boynsy on Jun 18, 2021 14:33:46 GMT -5
My entry for the National Treasure design contest is complete! Given the country of Turkey, the course is located in Istanbul, just barely on the Asian side of the city. It is from its location that it derives its name, as it sits just metres away from the iconic Bosphorus Strait Bridge, where Tiger launched a drive between Asia and Europe. The course is a resort style, inspired by those in the Belem region, set in the Bosphorus National Park, so it features both city and natural views aplenty. The course is 7100 yards, and par 72. There are plenty of scoring opportunities, with two drivable par 4s, but also winds its way around a cascading waterfall and two large artificial lakes that can threaten. Thank you to bradleystuart for the following photos, please check the course out and let me know what you think! And thanks to mctrees02 for the following bridge photos!
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Post by karma4u on Jun 18, 2021 15:13:47 GMT -5
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Post by jwtexan on Jun 18, 2021 19:03:11 GMT -5
*Deeply inhales for at least ten seconds*
BRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE!!!!!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2021 11:51:40 GMT -5
This course looks like it's packed with tasty eye candy. Multiple waterfalls on a rock-lined stream... Sold!
Seriously though, I will be giving the last few NT publishes a round later today, and I'm excited to give this one a round.
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Post by cd06 on Jul 3, 2021 6:10:19 GMT -5
Hey Sam! Liked this course, a great environment and backdrop especially. I would like to see you really focus on the hole designs in future - I wasn't convinced by a lot of the bunkering and strategic options on a few holes. Great work though! Well done
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Post by boynsy on Jul 3, 2021 9:55:12 GMT -5
Hey Sam! Liked this course, a great environment and backdrop especially. I would like to see you really focus on the hole designs in future - I wasn't convinced by a lot of the bunkering and strategic options on a few holes. Great work though! Well done Thanks man! Interested to hear what holes you felt were weaker - I personally thought that every bunker on the course served a purpose, albeit it some of them only visual.
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Post by cd06 on Jul 3, 2021 10:03:49 GMT -5
Hey Sam! Liked this course, a great environment and backdrop especially. I would like to see you really focus on the hole designs in future - I wasn't convinced by a lot of the bunkering and strategic options on a few holes. Great work though! Well done Thanks man! Interested to hear what holes you felt were weaker - I personally thought that every bunker on the course served a purpose, albeit it some of them only visual. I think 18 was my least favourite hole on the course, but there were lots of good things here! 16 was a favourite for me. Keep it up
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Post by gamesdecent on Jul 7, 2021 17:40:08 GMT -5
Wanted to return the favor since you played every course in the contest and took time to provide feedback. I looked up pics of Belek and the Bosphorus region to get an idea of what you were going for.
1 - Kind of a Road hole vibe with the building in play off the tee and the bunker fronting the green. I like the fairway texture in the low light, but not so much how the dark green heavy rough burns out into the brown. I think the tee shot view being split into clear city and nature halves is a good nod to your goal of showing both sides of the area. The hole itself feels like it punishes the shorter hitter more than the long hitter though, 3W landing zone is pinched off to where it's virtually unhittable but D is like 100 yards wide. 2 - I like the way the shadows extend through the waste bunker, it's a cool look off the tee. I get the placement of the fairway bunkers behind the landing zone as a visual aid, but I feel like the fairway wrapping around behind them is pretty pointless, I don't think you can reach it or hold it and even if you do, it's a worse angle into the green. The undulation fronting the green is cool, that's something I do a lot on par 5's too to try and ricochet short shots offline. 3 - This is a cool hole. As a big long-view sightline fan, the chute leading down the hill right at the mosque is a great look. Retaining wall is a little squiggly and it's hard to get the land to look good on them, I think this part could use a little work, but I prefer just leaving them out altogether lol. 4 - Not a bad step-down creek going through here, though I think the low falls instead of the high falls would've worked better for it. Left side of the fairway needs some heavy rough brushed up against the light rough, it looks weird going straight from light rough to the sandy delta texture. I like the spine on the green but I wouldn't be afraid to bump the entire green complex up 5-6' so you can see it from the fairway. 5 - Love the contours on the green, how it sits on the land, and that you can see them all from the tee box. Bridge towers in the background is a cool touch. My only tiny critique would be that one tree that casts a shadow on the green - if you moved it like 10 feet to the left that shadow would sit right above the bunker and frame the green rather than split it. 6 - Pretty textbook drivable 4 with another good look at the mosque. I hit the kicker and got to watch my ball bounce and roll all the way down but too far to hold the green and then had to hit the partial splash shot back toward the pin, which was deserved. 7 - I feel like I've seen too many greens angled in this direction at this point. I also don't like the planes flying overhead, lol. Green contours are good again though. 8 - I see what you're going for here, but the spine in the green feels a little forced. I could picture it coming into the green about halfway from the high side of the right bunker, but going all the way across to the lowside of the left bunker is a little awkward, and it being a sharp and narrow spine rather than something more natural looking kind of threw me off. Appreciate another look at the mosque though. 9 - I gotta be honest, there's nothing about this hole that works for me. Neither fairway is wide enough to go for over the fairway from the hole to the left's. And then you're either hitting 4 iron to the green or going SW-SW if you miss the fairway and have to layup. 10 - This hole is night and day from the previous hole. Even though the fairway is really wide, the camber still makes it difficult to play to the correct spot to allow for an easy approach. it also looks much more natural. I also like the green contours and surrounds much more on this hole, and the spine here is much better than that par 3's and actually affects the strategy of the hole and where you hit your tee shot. Probably my favorite hole so far by a long shot. 11 - Hmm, ok, lol. A lot going on here. I like the rock wall and how the green sits way up on it. I don't love the green shape and how the bunkers kind of feel like an afterthought, they may come into play on one pin but if so, you'd have two pins pretty close together, it would make me wonder what you're using the rest of this green for with only 2 other pins to place. Maybe this is a double green? Will revise judgment if so. 12 - I love how diabolical the green is for a short 4, but I actually thought it was a par 3 because there's no fairway visible from the tee. A lot of these holes using the river feel like they kind of force the river's path based on how you wanted to design a hole rather than the other way around, if that makes sense? 13 - Man, the holes without the creek and retaining walls where it's just natural golf land are so much stronger, it really feels like two different courses and two different skill levels. I love this hole too, up there with #10. I think the fairway bunker being in the shadow and also kind of flat could be a small nitpick. 14 - Another good looking hole, I like this perspective on the bridge towers in the distance. Clearing the fairway bunker is strategically beneficial, so that makes sense. I actually like the tree blocking the view of the green on the second shot even if it isn't really in play. Green contours might be a little haphazard looking, like a flatten fuzzy brush was thrown down in a few random spots so pins could be placed there. 15 - I'm sitting on the tee trying to remember if there has been more drivable 4's than par 3's up to this point. I love a good short 4 as much as the next guy, but I also like hitting long irons and even the occasional hybrid into par 4 greens and watching them run out. There also wasn't much to think about on this one, especially with tempo off. Pretty standard drive and putt. 16 - Not sure if it was intentional but I like how the fairway bunker and the greenside bunker layer together and appear like one bunker complex from the tee. Also how the landing zone after the carry of the fairway bunker is blind. Now if there was a strong tailwind and my ball rolls off into the water that I can't see from the tee, that would change my opinion. I think this is the second par 5 I've had driver + 4 iron into, and combined with the short 4's I'm trying to figure out how I'm only 4-under. Putting has been atrocious. 17 - Not sure what's up with the tee box to the right out in the middle of the lake, that's a hard no from me. Green contours here are pretty good, I bet that pin on the far left finger of the green is fun to be around. Should've had a hole in one here but it rolled and hit the pin and bounced a couple feet away. 18 - I recognize this fairway, second time I've played down it, lol.
Overall, you can chalk it up to just personal preference but I left wishing there were more natural holes on the course and less retaining wall, creek, and "manufactured" holes. And by less I mean preferably none, lol. I thought the greens showed a lot of potential, most were really interesting and only a couple stood out as needing some work. I think the one thing that stood out most was a lack of variety, whether it was the way greens were angled with a bunker fronting them the same way each time, or the distances on holes, etc. Some template study would probably benefit you in that aspect quite a bit. Loved the city in the background, thought the planting was fairly good. Congrats on the tour worthy and thanks again for all the playthroughs and comments of the other courses in the contest, keep up the good work.
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9ironanon
Amateur Golfer
Posts: 168
TGCT Name: Jackson Quagmire
Tour: Challenge Circuit
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Post by 9ironanon on Jul 8, 2021 0:21:40 GMT -5
I played this earlier today and this is what kicked off my current run of contest courses so I popped back in and took a quick routing pic, nice and tight routing. I really enjoyed 9's multiple fairway approach and its shared green with 18, both holes were highlights and that f***in' bridge man, who cares that its made out of pools, its awesome. This pic also shows off all in one image your river, rock and waterfall work along with the waterlevel bridges that connect the course together, with all the water on the course its quite surprising how tight the routing is compared to other courses in the contest.
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Post by boynsy on Jul 8, 2021 2:27:11 GMT -5
Thank you very much for the play and the in depth review! Really gutted to have missed out on the semi final but I never expected to even make it out of the alternates so I’m also thrilled. Such extensive feedback is incredibly valuable, especially to newer designers; I took some risks to try to stand out in the field and I wasn’t sure how some of them came off. I think I can at least justify all of the decisions I made in building this. Obviously it sounds as though 9 and 18 were both a bit of a swing and miss, which is disappointing because I actually really enjoyed designing those holes. Actually, I really enjoyed designing the hole course - it was a fun challenge and it definitely brought out my best work so far, by a long way. Interestingly the holes that you’ve had more good things to say about are generally the ones that I was less sure about - particularly 10, 13 and 14. This had definitely given me a lot to think about and a lot of motivation to crack on with my next effort, a links style course for CCDC. You’ll be please to know that there is no creek anywhere to be seen on the plot! Again, thank you so much for the valuable feedback!
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Post by cd06 on Jul 15, 2021 2:54:22 GMT -5
This course really grew on me on my second playthru. Still a few things you will get better at over time such as strategy and sculpting (kinda directed at that island tee box - 18?), but I really enjoyed this second go! Well done
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