Knockout Round of 8 Results

[Deleted]

The Golf Course @ Oxcross vs Cedar Pointe GC

Judge's Comments:

"Cedar Pointe vs The Golf Course @ Oxcross....

Well, now that we're at the final eight..i guess some nit-picking has gotta come in..
Remember. this is JMO.......

Cedar Pointe

Pros..
unique layout
F/w's..perfectly laid out
Retaining wall finishing..(transition)..absolute perfection

Cons...
f/w's are almost too perfect..nah, that's plain silly..

Oxcross

Pros
great lighting
liked the f/w's and they set up well for wind
rock work on 10th & 12th hole was really well done
9th green, gorgeous with driveway etc..

Cons
1st tee...cart paths...squiggly lines..
cart path to green has steps going up to bridge???
also, 13 and 18..

These are both extremely playable courses that look great...
In a contest such as this, i believe, it's the little things...

For those reasons the WINNER is....

                                   CEDAR POINTE GC.........."


Cedar Pointe GC vs The Golf Course @ Oxcross

"Both courses were very well done, however i think Oxcross played better. Oxcross is a beautiful course, it lacked a little of the WOW factor but was very well designed and everything flowed nicely, i did find one issue , although it did not affect gameplay, the bridge to get from 12th green to 13th tee was floating, i think the steps have been left off each side.

I liked the big greens on Cedar Pointe makes chipping in and creeper flopping that much harder. There were a few tee shots for me that were a little small in the landing zone, but that is about all i could find in the cons column for Cedar Pointe.

Both courses are worthy of a place on tour.

Close call
Oxcross 9.1
Cedar Pointe 8.9

My Winner is Oxcross"

Cedar Pointe GC wins 4 - 2 and advances to the final 4.

[Deleted]

Silent Ivy Hotel vs The Wanderer's Club @ Blackwater Fen

Judge's Comments:

"The Wanderer's Club @ Blackwater Fen vs. Silent Ivy Hotel

First of all from a judging perspective this matchup just outright sucked.  Playing the courses back-to-back almost felt like playing one 36 hole course instead of two seperate 18 hole ones.  There were just so many similarities between the ways theses courses looked and played it became hard to remember which one was which.  One was more marshy than the other and one had....are those cart paths red?!?  That's the coolest thing ever.  Massive bonus points for that.

Both courses did an incredible job of looking great without going overboard with fancy eye candy.  Everything just looked so natural in its' setting without being forced or overdone.  Golf wise both were a pleasure to play.  Tee shots required some thought.  Approach shots needed to be carefully placed.  Greens were challenging with being frustrating.  Both featured putts that both refused to stop and roll any faster than a slow trickle.  Both courses managed to bring out the worst in my game.

Now to differentiate the two.  Blackwater seemed more challenging off the tee as many tee shots had small landing areas and thick, punishing rough if you missed.  Ivy mixed up the challenging and gimme tee shots quite a bit more giving you a break off the tee every now and then.  Both had hole locations in precarious positions where a slightly missed landing area could very slowly turn a good looking approach shot into a chip from the fringe 10 or 11 yards away.  As someone whose approach shots are drawn to green slopes like a magnet Ivy did this far more often than Blackwater did and I spent more time chipping than I did putting.

Overall a very tough match to call as both courses are well done and so similar but there must be a winner so:
Blackwater - 8.1
Silent Ivy -7.9

Challenging tee shots are always going to be more fun for me than challenging hole locations are.  That's honestly the only thing that seperated these two courses for me and even red cart paths weren't enough to close the gap.

Winner - The Wanderer's Club @ Blackwater Fen"


Silent Ivy Hotel vs Wanderers Club at Blackwater Fen

Silent Ivy Hotel

I've recently had multiple plays of Silent Ivy during its rather epic battle with Port Sunlight in the last round, scored it twice and provided all my feedback then. With it still fresh in my head I don't see the need to play it again and am happy with the rating of 8.9 that I gave it, great course.

Wanderers Club at Blackwater Fen

The first thing I notice is how nicely presented the course is, but somehow also very dark and oppressive. I scored every single hole quite highly for presentation but for the course as a whole; no clubhouse or buildings of any kind, no way in or out, dead trees all over the place, I kept looking over my shoulder expecting to see the Blair Witch! But saying that there's lots to like about the look of the course. The ponds and lakes are really well done with some great planting and I actually quite liked the dead trees in the middle of them. The bunkering, especially around the greens, looks great and there are some nice touches around the course, particularly the wooden (retaining wall) bridge over the pond at the 15th.

Playability-wise Wanderers Club walks a tightrope between being challenging and being unfair and for the most part keeps its balance. It's all a bit like me, long and thin! Long holes with long thin fairways and long thin greens. It did lose that balance a few times, I thought the drives on 4, 6 and 11 were a little bit too unfair and the driving areas should be widened a bit, especially on 6 where I had a mid range crosswind and a near impossible drive because of it. But again there's a lot to like, there's some really clever hole designs in there. I was a big fan of the split fairways and you could see how some of the holes could play completely differently from the other tees. A good example was the already mentioned 6th, from the tee we played from there was a fairway off to the left we couldn't really use, but move to one of those front tees and it comes in to play. I loved the two short par 4's at 8 and 13, especially 13 which I thought was the best hole on the course - beautiful to look at with the planting in the water and so many options of how to play it, obviously I chose the wrong one and put it in the water but that's on me! One of the longer par 4's, the 5th, also had a nice 'hit it through the gap in the trees' risk/reward option off the tee which I enjoyed.

Verdict

I really did enjoy Wanderers Club but it would have to have been a bit special to match my rating of Silent Ivy. To me it almost felt like it's still a work in progress, but put the finishing touches in (like a clubhouse!) and maybe widen up one or two of those driving areas a little bit and it could be a cracker. As I said in the last round, Silent Ivy has very few failings on looks or as a golf course (don't mention the cart path, shhhhh…). For the record I scored Wanderers at 8.5, but my winner is
Silent Ivy Hotel"

Silent Ivy Hotel wins 4 - 2 and advances to the final 4.

[Deleted]

Olafsen Skerries vs Nenestin Estates GC

Judge's Comments:

"Olafsen Skerries
Score: 9.5
I'm not going to drill down into extensive details of each course, as both have been critiqued in previous rounds dozens of times down to every detail.
Overall, Olafsen Skerries is a fantastic golf course - very clean, uncluttered, gorgeous views from almost every spot. Not quite pure links, as the greens are soft and more forgiving, but very linksy still. Perfect bunkering - love the occasional bearded bunker complexes, like off the 9th green -  great hole routings, and the overall flow from hole to hole is very organic and natural. Feels like a real golf course, not a collection of 18 different holes. The coastal portions are really well-done. Take #13 for example, and the detail along the water by the green - the rock-work, the shallows, grasses: gorgeous. I like the fencework, and the signature brick walls surrounding each tee-box. Overall, just a fantastic golf course, both aesthetically and strategically. Favorited and can't wait to play it again.

Nenestin Estates
Score: 9.8
This is quite simply a masterpiece of golf course design. Every aspect of it is flawless, from the green complexes to the fairway contouring to the bunkering to the distances of every shot to the layout of each hole. Technically, it plays like a dream; I can find not a single flaw or room for improvement on any of the hole routings. So many unique and challenging shots on every hole. Very challenging green complexes, strategic pin placements that require a close read of the green before hitting approaches as well as serious putting skills. I could go on and on. Aesthetically, also gorgeous. The cart path is flawless. The fields in the distance, the bush-choked gullies that criss-cross the course, the rockwork (see around #9 green for example), fencing, very unique bridges - all add to the overall beauty of this course. This has PGA Tour written all over it. I would give this a 10, except that I don't believe in man-made perfection. But this comes closer than any other course I have seen so far.

Winner is NENESTIN ESTATES"

"Olafsen Skerries vs Nenestin Estates G.C.

Very different courses but they were similar in the fact that the most interesting aspect of each were the greens and I wasn't blown away by either otherwise. However, one stood out as technically superior to the other and for that reason I chose Olafsen Skerries as the winner."

"Nenestin Estates vs Olafsen Skerries

Nesnestin Estates

Pros:
We've got a large country estate near here with deer roaming around fenced fields in lovely grounds, and this course really reminded me of it.  Nice job of creating that look, particularly liked my approach to the 4th with the deer in the field behind the green, made me think I should approach the local council and suggest they build a golf course up there!  The hollows of shrubs around the place look very natural and the cart path is really well done, it feels like it could be a real golf course.  Playing my rounds I thought the bunkering was very good, and there was enough to worry about off the tee to keep your attention, and then we get to Nenestin's main strength, the greens.  Really nice sculpting, some lovely slopes at 180 speed to use, nice run off areas (the 1st set the tone with that right hand pin next to a nasty slope leading straight in to a very hungry looking bunker!), they are amongst the best I've played in this competition.  The par 5's were good, especially for me the stand out hole 3rd with it's risk/reward 2nd shot over the fenced off waste area and nice green side bunkers.

Cons:
I didn't like the rock work by the clubhouse or on the approach to the 17th green, for me it just didn't belong and looked like the designer had put it there just because he could.  Some of the water hazards had edges that were far too clean and looked more like puddles in a quarry than ponds on a park estate.  There seems to have been a problem with some of the greens on the back nine (11, 16, 17, 18) and we've got green beads in the fairway - not a biggie but not sure I've ever seen that before?  Playability-wise, the 8th is a dog leg left with a tight drive, water up the left and bunkers around the landing area, but if you club down you can avoid all that by using the 7th fairway.  What you lose in distance off the tee you gain by cutting 60 yards off the hole, for me that fairway should be out of bounds.  And then there's the 13th, I love a good short par 4 but there has to be a large element of risk/reward to it with a safe lay up and pitch option, otherwise it just becomes a very long par 3.  This one is just a very long par 3.

Olafsen Skerries

Pros:
Very nice, clean overall look.  The little islands and rocks off the shore look good, the planting is very good with lots of nice scrub and trees which fit the environment very well and are very easy on the eye.  I particularly liked the transition between 13, 14 and 15 with the fenced path leading to the tee along the cliff top (I know it's a small cliff but I couldn't think what else to call it!) and then the bridges over the water to the fairways.  Another feature that stuck out and impressed me was the inlet on the 7th with the rocks in the water.  The bunkering is excellent with a variety of shapes and depths used, and combined with the bumps and hollows in the fairways makes this play very much like a Links course in places.  The greens are also very good and nearly every one raised with a run off area to catch you if you're not accurate.  There's a good mixture of hole lengths and driving difficulty, basically plenty of variety and choices to be made to keep the round interesting.  As well as those pretty holes after the turn, stand out holes for me were the 4th and 5th with their potential for risk/reward tee shots and then the two closing holes - very difficult drive at 17 and then choices off the tee at the reachable par 5 18th.

Cons:
I have no clue why the designer has chosen to make all the little rocks and islands out in the water out of bounds?  Maybe they are homes to a puffin colony?  In my view totally pointless and just makes the overheads look unnecessarily ugly, it's a small thing but annoying!  And then we've got the 9th where we can cut out the hazards and get a better line in to the green by using the 1st fairway and it's not out of bounds - that's fine just as long as you don't try hitting one of those little rocks in the water!  I also had a bit of a problem with the drive at 16 - if you get a favourable wind and take on the carry over the bunker the fairway then slopes straight downhill in to the rough, not much incentive for having a go.  But that's about all I could find to pick on, it's a very good course.

Verdict
Now we've got to this stage we're playing courses who have got through their group stage and already knocked out another course which has done the same, so they've all done well.  For me Olafsen Skerries is amongst the best courses I've played in this competition so far and is very deserving of a spot in the last four, Nenestin is a good course just has too many flaws to be on that level.  I scored it 8.8 to 7.9, my pretty clear winner in this one is;
Olafsen Skerries"

Olafsen Skerries wins 5 -1 and advances to the final 4.

[Deleted]

The Low Course at St Bedes vs Hill Valley Country Club

Judge's Comments:
"The Low Course at St Bedes
Score: 9.3
+Gorgeous lighting, textures, aesthetically just beautiful. Loved the use of buildings/villages, lighthouses, fishing trawlers. Felt so realistic and rustic.
+Superb bunkering. Loved the use of grass inside the bunkers, gave it a real earthy, organic and natural feel.
+Cart Path well done. Blended nicely.
+Very "linksy" greens. Lots of movement, ground game is important on the approaches. Could be a bit firmer, but this will probably make the course more accessible than if done with pure links-style greens all around.
+Gorgeous views off most tees. Aesthetically, this is one of the better-looking courses I have seen.
+Some really unique and gorgeous hole routings. 9 is a perfect example. Ditto 16. And 18.
+The ruins on #11 - fantastic idea, very original, and very well done. Just don't hit your ball into them....
+ The overall organic flow of this course is wonderful in terms of continuity. The "theme" that was established on the very first hole is successfully carried out through the entire 18 holes.
+Love the walking paths tying each hole together, from green to teebox to fairways.
+Love that huge beach on #1-#3.
+Framing of most of the greens is just beautifully done.
+Did I mention how cool those ruins are?

Just a fantastic, gorgeous, and fun golf course, whether you enjoy links golf or not. This is a real beauty.


Hill Valley Country Club
Score: 8.0
Beautiful course, played really well, really enjoyed my rounds. #9 is a great looking hole, with good retaining wall work on the lake, great looking clubhouse/practice green/parking lot. Greens play nicely, a tad on the forgiving side in terms of movement and firmness, but easily adjustable, albeit on the smaller side. Fairways and bunkering well-done, some nice routings if a bit standard. #11 stands out, and #14. The roads and walls look great and add to the overall environment of the world of this course (#14/#15). Fantastic finishing hole. And definitely an extra point for the awesome name, like "freezing fire" or "wet desert." Borrowed from Back to the Future or not, I like it!

The cut transitions on the green on #6 is flawed; the front side looks good and uniform, but on the back side the fairway fringe-light rough are cut off. Not a biggie, but looks unattractive, when all the other greens are so uniform and clean. Not enough planting; the entire course has a very vanilla look to it, in part due to the theme used, which tends to look blah without a bit of extra added to it. The planting that IS done, like before the green on #15, looks fantastic - wish the designer could have incorporated more of that on more holes.

Overall a very nice golf course that plays very well and is good looking, albeit a tad bland. It lacked that special something that really gives a "wow" factor that would have pushed it up to a 9+.

Winner: The Low Course at St Bedes"

"St Bedes v. Hill Valley

St Bedes
+Lighting
+Firm done right
+Most unique holes I’ve played in awhile. Really fun course to play and replay
+Greens well done, very receptive and rewarding to good shots
+Variable FW sizes and shaped and designs
+Holes 10-13 are a super stretch
+Rock Ruins/rubble looks spectacular
+Great views on most holes/shots

-Light rough band very narrow early holes, then looks to get wider for the rest
-Grass in the sand, and all over. Doesn’t look quite right to me. The grass/planting seemed random too w/o a ton of thought. Some grass way too close to greens, was in my camera view on the fringe
-643yd par5. Too long in my book, especially since into wind and uphill
-OB on 3rd not uniform to the mesa
-Horseshoe bunker on 9th looks out of place
-No front pins. I know it’s firm, but a real course wouldn’t throw all deeper pins because their greens are hard. Make a few bounce up shots, or the short holes have a front pin
-FW to greens transitions: saw several thin slivers of FW. No way to mow that
-Ponds on 16 look forced, and look more like casual water after rain than a hazard
-Didn’t care for the 18th hole…would like to see some of the same magic of holes 10-13 recreated for a strong finishing hole. FW was huge and not a great view of your 2nd shot into the green

Hill Valley CC
+Simplistic approach and well executed
+bunker depths and shapes fit course. Looks realistic
+walking paths well done and adds to course
+housing on 14th and 15th + fences added to valley feel
+Slopes and sculpting well done, nothing detracted the eye

-Rock work on 2nd hole could look better
-Greens had too many shadows on them. For limited trees, would like to see less shadows on greens
-Bank on 18th would be better if light rough…heavy rough prevented bad shot from going into water
-Not strong replay for eye candy or memorable shots.

Overall both courses are well done and deserving to be this far in the contest. However, St Bedes delivers the thirst to play more rounds here, and host a tournament I'd be excited to see multipinned. It was a lot more original in hole designs and setting. It therefore stands out to me as the winner of this matchup."

The Low Course at St Bedes wins 6 - 0 and advances to the final 4.

[scampi00]

Were there 4 judges per round again?

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2017 14:43:28 GMT -5 scampi00 said:

Were there 4 judges per round again?

6 judges per round this time

[Hootbleet]

Feb 6, 2017 14:45:02 GMT -5 @griff said:

Feb 6, 2017 14:43:28 GMT -5 scampi00 said:

Were there 4 judges per round again?

6 judges per round this time

Bloody hell, this could take some time 😂

[scampi00]

Feb 6, 2017 15:14:41 GMT -5 Hootbleet said:

Feb 6, 2017 14:45:02 GMT -5 @griff said:

6 judges per round this time

Bloody hell, this could take some time 😂

That's okay in my book. Diligent and we should get a decent consensus. I'd have to imagine Griff almost has all the info if he's started releasing results.

[mayday_golf83]

Congratulations, reebdoog.

Honestly, it's the result I expected as I had Olfasen as the second-best course in the entire tourney, behind only Corran Castle. Guys like you and Patrick and Taste have a knack for finding that extra bit of polish in your courses that I haven't been able to quite grasp yet.

Definietly has been another great learning experience and, though there were a couple of bumpy patches along the way, I thought the overall camaraderie among the contestants made the contest a joy to be a part of. Thanks much @griff for putting this on and all the work you've done behind the scenes.  

Now go out and win that watch, Brian! You know Crazy knocked me out in the quarters of the CC Showdown and went on to win the whole darn thing, so no pressure, right? 

Also, cheers to ACES-R-WILD, mrooola and Hootbleet for reaching the semis. Good luck the rest of the way. Great efforts scampi00, welikeitroughnc & misternic on getting this far. Tied 5th in a field of 27 isn't anything to sneeze at!

[welikeitroughnc]

Thanks for putting this on great courses and mroola congrats well done.

[SAM]

Pretty convincing victories for reebdoog, ACES-R-WILD, mrooola & Hootbleet ..... congratz guys & good luck in the semis (especialy Ola  ).
Thought there might have been at least one tie at this stage!!?
2 great match-ups to come... exciting stuff.

[reebdoog]

Feb 6, 2017 18:25:46 GMT -5 mayday_golf83 said:

Congratulations, reebdoog.

Honestly, it's the result I expected as I had Olfasen as the second-best course in the entire tourney, behind only Corran Castle. Guys like you and Patrick and Taste have a knack for finding that extra bit of polish in your courses that I haven't been able to quite grasp yet.

Definietly has been another great learning experience and, though there were a couple of bumpy patches along the way, I thought the overall camaraderie among the contestants made the contest a joy to be a part of. Thanks much @griff for putting this on and all the work you've done behind the scenes.  

Now go out and win that watch, Brian! You know Crazy knocked me out in the quarters of the CC Showdown and went on to win the whole darn thing, so no pressure, right? 

Also, cheers to ACES-R-WILD, mrooola and Hootbleet for reaching the semis. Good luck the rest of the way. Great efforts scampi00, welikeitroughnc & misternic on getting this far. Tied 5th in a field of 27 isn't anything to sneeze at!

Onward! I love your track mayday. Was a good effort. Now to see about this blootheet bootheel leethoob guy ;-)

[ACES-R-WILD]

wow scampi texted me on ps4 congrats!!!! i said huh then realized the scores must have came in this has been such a great experience for me for my first fantasy course, i really enjoyed my course although i ran out of time on it to go up against such great designers in this field. scampi you had a real awesome design and to make it to the final four is more then i could ask for and its being used on tour congrats to everyone in the contest, theres some real quality people i met through all of this and Griff has put on quite a show my hats off to him and to my fellow group b monster reebdog congrats brain and to other two mroola and hootbleet

[Hootbleet]

Great news to wake up to this morning. Well done to everyone who got this far, looking forward to the semis, certainly didn't expect to still be in at this stage.

Thanks again judges and griff for all your hard work.

[pablo]

Some really nice matchups going on here. The skill shown by all of the 27 designers is huge, and filtering that to only the last four is an enormous job by @griff and the panel of judges.

Congrats to all the designers and to the staff for your job

BTW I'm betting reebdoog is the one taking the crown. Olafsen was my #1 seeded since I played one of the betas. Amazing job