TGCT Survivor - Course Design Edition LIVE!
Feb 27, 2018 18:47:34 GMT -5
SAM, joegolferg, and 5 more like this
Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2018 18:47:34 GMT -5
Welcome to TGCT Survivor - Course Design Edition, a one-of-a-kind contest for golf course designers in TGC2 to create the best course they possibly can, strategize with a team of other designers, stave off elimination, and hopefully be the last one remaining at the end.
Not everybody will find this idea to be their thing, and that's okay, but the name of the game here is to build camaraderie within the community between designers of all levels, whether it be novice to veteran. My hope is that you'll enjoy the challenge of getting through the game, and see if your course survives until the end!
CONTEST DETAILS:
Registration: Designers may register until May 1st, at which point there is a firm deadline so that I can record the team draw video, which I will post on my YouTube channel.
Contest Timeframe: The contest officially runs from May 1st through July 15th, with a publishing window of July 5th-15th. Contestants may begin their course at any time from the date they register, but MAY NOT publish it prior to the submission window, or it will be disqualified.
Prizes: 1st Place - TGCT Gold Donor; 2nd Place - TGCT Silver Donor; 3rd - TGCT Bronze Donor (I will donate to TGC Tours on your behalf)
Design Rules: One of the goals of this contest is to provide value to the TGCT community through the addition of new, tour-worthy course designs. As such, contestants may design in any theme they wish, and there are no restrictions being placed on the creations, although a par 70, 71, 72, or 73 championship course is recommended to ensure that it can be approved by TGCT reviewers and have potential for being selected as a tour course.
Scoring Rubric:The courses will be judged on very traditional elements of architecture and design. I will once again be providing a scoring rubric for the judging panel to use as a guide, which I feel results in consistent qualitative metrics to be able to compare the courses during the contest. The elements in the rubric are broken out at the bottom of this OP.
Judging: I will be carefully selecting a panel of judges from two categories: TGCT players from each tour that don't design, and well-respected course designers that have produced several tour-worthy courses for the TGCT community. This should ensure that each course is examined from different perspectives, not just from fellow designers being critical of the course architecture elements, but from players of all levels that see things based on how a course plays. I believe this will add balance to the scoring and provide me with the most well-rounded aggregate score for each contestant's design. The aggregate score awarded to each contestant's design will be hidden during the competition, as it will be used in head-to-head matches several times throughout the contest, but I'd be happy to provide full transparency as to what the score for each course was after the competition is complete.
Teams: After the registration deadline, I will take all of the entrants and subjectively rank them into three categories: novice, experienced, and veteran. The way this will happen is by "seeding" the contestants on a list, and then breaking that list into thirds, with the top third being veteran, the middle third being experienced, and the bottom third being novice. **This will likely be the first point of angst from the crowd, but the purpose of this will become more clear as contestants see how the rounds will work, and it is actually put in place to keep the initial mix as fair as possible in the opening rounds. However, let's be clear here... this categorization is ONLY predicated on what the designer has done up to this point, but has no bearing on whether or not a novice could create a better course and score higher than a veteran in this competition (all entrants go through the same scoring rubric, and there is no favoritism given to any category of designer as it relates to their course's score)!** Once I have the contestants broken out into three categories, the two teams will be chosen by a blind draw recorded on video and posted to YouTube to prove there is no preferential treatment or funny business going on. The first two names will come from the veteran category, and they will be the team captains, one for Team 1 and one for Team 2. From that point forward I will continue picking names from the veteran category, then the experienced category, followed by the novices, alternating between Team 1 and Team 2 until each team has an equal mix of veterans, experienced, and novice designers. This will be the contestants' beginning team, but it won't be their final team!
Terminology: You will see the "19th Hole" used in the rules coming up, which is the term I'm using to mean the tribal council meeting at the end of each round.
THE COMPETITION:
Round 1: August 1st-3rd - The opening round will feature seven head-to-head match-ups, three from the veteran category, and two each from the experienced and novice categories. Both team captains will select three veteran courses, two experienced courses, and two novice courses and submit them to me privately for the 19th Hole. The captains may coordinate the selections with their teams via group PM discussion, or they don't have to, that's totally up to the team (and they may select their own course in the veteran category if they wish). The captain must identify an "A" course, a "B" course, and a “C” course from each category when they are submitted (just A and B from experienced and novice). Once I have both team's selections, I will put the A's, B’s, and C’s from each category against each other and use the judges’ scores, including a subjective "match-up" discussion using the judges notes, to determine a winner of each match-up. This will result in seven players receiving victory, and seven players being "eliminated" after the 19th Hole in round 1 - but wait, there's more! This is where the fun begins! The seven courses that won in round 1 will have immunity for round 2, and cannot be chosen for the 19th Hole match-ups in round 2. Also, the team that won the most of their seven match-ups will be given an extra immunity, which the captain will use to select one more “safe” course for round 2.
But guess what?! The seven courses that were “eliminated” in round 1, aren't really dead just yet...
Round 2: August 3rd-5th - This round will once again feature a big 19th Hole match-up bonanza, but with a twist added beforehand. Remember those "eliminated" players? Well, they're BACK! Each player that lost their match-up in round 1 gets to jump back on a team of their choosing, and it does not have to be the team they started on, but it can be if they want (IF a team captain had put himself up in round 1 and ended up losing, he is no longer the captain, and I will ask the team members to select a new one from ALL of the remaining players on their squad, which means the captain may end up being an experienced or novice category player). However, it is possible that they will be picked again to go to the 19th Hole. Once I have been notified of which teams those players jumped back on, the team captains need to pick five more courses from their teams for head-to-head competition, with one exception... the winners from round 1 have immunity, plus the “safe” course, and cannot be sent back to the 19th Hole in round 2. The captain needs to select two courses (an A and a B) from the veteran category of designer, one from the experienced category, and two from the novice category (an A and a B) and submit them to me. When I have them all I will use the judges average scores, plus our subjective conversations, to determine the winners of each match-up at the 19th Hole. Unfortunately, this time around, the five courses that lose their match-up are eliminated from the contest for good.
** But what would round 2 be without a previously unannounced rule? It is true that this isn't a team competition, but this round, more than ever, will be critical to your strategy and hidden agenda for the future rounds. The team that wins this round will be able to remove three courses from the winners side and put them BACK on the losers side prior to the seeding for round 3! The team members will lobby the captain with their choices, and then the captain will make the final call.
Now the competition takes a wild turn of events...
Contenders Round: August 5th-8th - For this round of the competition, the teams get shuffled a little bit, because whichever ten teams are remaining from the round 1 immunity and the round 2 victories (after the three teams got moved back) are now Team 1, and all of the losing players (and the three that got brought back over) are Team 2. Not only that, the categories that separate the players are removed! I randomly selected the captain of each squad, and at this point the captain ranked his whole team 1-10, not necessarily on their merit, but on whatever order seemed to provide the best chance to win match-ups. The team's "seedings" were sent to me to prepare for this round's 19th Hole match-ups so that each seed could be matched up against the same seeded course on the other team. The ten winners will survive, and the ten losers of these match-ups will be eliminated.
** And now for the scoring curveball: for this round, my scores for each course will be added into the average of the other 8 judges, which could change the foundational "rankings" of the courses slightly on our sheet. But just as before, those rankings will serve as a baseline for a subjective conversation about which course should win the matchup. However, since adding me to the panel makes an odd number of judges, 9, we will "vote" on each matchup based on the averages scores, subjective opinions, and our own preference between the two courses, and the team winning that vote will win the matchup in Round 3.
But what would a survivor style competition be without one last twist?...
Round of Revenge: August 8th-10th - The team portion of the competition is now over, and each player will be left asking himself, "Did I play my strategy well enough to survive?" And remember those "eliminated" players? Once again, they're BACK! This time they're not back in the competition, but they will play a role in this round. I will randomly draw a team captain to represent the contestants that are no longer in the competition, and that person will host a discussion via PM with the other eliminated players to determine which courses they want to see matched up against each other in the Round of Revenge. There are no guidelines or categories of designers, the eliminated players can decide on whatever match-up combinations they want to see in this round. Once the team captain provides this list to me, the final 19th Hole will take place and the judges scores and subjective discussions will once again be used to determine the match-up winners. The contestants whose courses were victorious will move on to the Championship Round, and the participants that lost will be eliminated. At this point, all eliminated players are out of the game completely.
Championship Round: August 10th-12th - It's time for the final round, which is the big reveal of the top 3 finishers. There are no more twists and no more 19th Hole match-ups. The contestants that remain can take a deep breath at this point! All of the courses that have survived this far in the competition will be ranked based on the judges scores, and the top three courses in this final ranking will be awarded the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes, and the title of TGCT Survivors!
Sounds simple, right? But there is strategy, or could be, depending on how you negotiate with your teams, and what courses you put up in each of the first two rounds. This game will be what you make of it, but it could be pretty wild! As I've said on the thread, though, if you make a GREAT golf course design, you will likely score highly with the judges when they grade your course on the rubric, so if you have a high-scoring design you have a very good chance of surviving every match-up you're in, no matter what the other players do! Now, let's see who's brave enough to enter...
Confirmed Participants (25):
Wayne Adams - bigcat023 - Whispering Winds GC
Cullen Allen - culallen - Zilker Park
Pablo Alonso - pablo - Path of Blame
Justin Ciboch - CiB0RG - Treadwell Heights Club
Curtis Cockerill - toddfather - Broken Bow Golf Preserve
Mark Davies - mav78 - Lost Oaks CG
David Dix - ddixjr509 - The Olmsted South Course
Marc Fischer - overr8edplaya - Uluru Golf Course [Ayers Rock]
Matt Fritsch - mattf27 - Hickory Creek Golf Club
Scott Fulton - hippystein - Dragon's Pass GC
Terry Grayson - Terry Grayson - The Kraken
Joe Greenhalgh - joegolferg - Cincinnati Club
Dan Griffith - PithyDoctorG - Lion's Gate Resort and CC
Justin Inwood - statelyowl - Queen Charlotte Sound Resort
John Ives - jivesinator - Havre Hills Golf Links
Brian Jeffords - reebdoog - Sonoma Sands Golf Club
Lloyd Jones - lajvol20 - Riverbend Golf Club
Chris Lane - MAJORHIGH - Davenport Athletic Club
Jeremy Mayo - mayday_golf83 - Monterey Bay Country Club
Simon Morris - SAM - Lockwood Downs Golf Club
Pat O'Dell - Celtic Wolf - Wolf Trail at Illinois State
Ste Owens - @stowey - Azteca Canyons
Tom Rausch - GrumpyOldMan - Trout River at Bootleg Gap
Danny Scarano - sharky21 - Razorback Ridge Country Club
Jimmy Sheridan - nevadaballin - Idlewild South Memorial GC
SCORING RUBRIC: All categories will be scored between 1-10, therefore the course can earn a maximum of 250 points, and a minimum of 25 (this will give my judges more autonomy in their evaluations than the 1-5 I used last time).
Tees:
Placement/Strategy
Sculpting
Framing/Aesthetics
Surfacing/Transitions
Consistency
Fairways:
Placement/Strategy (hazards)
Sculpting
Surfacing/Transitions (rough)
Firmness/Playability (landing areas)
Consistency
Greens:
Placement/Strategy (complex design)
Shape/Contouring (scale)
Surfacing/Transitions (fairway, rough)
Firmness/Playability
Consistency
Bunkers:
Placement/Strategy
Shape/Scale
Transitions (rough)
Sculpting/Playability
Consistency
Presentation:
Design/Architecture
Environment
Planting/Finishing
Enjoyment/Playability
Tour Worthiness
Please let me know if you have any questions. As you can see, there are no specific course requirements, no fantasy elements judged, and nothing goofy or strange necessary. Build a great course design, and you can survive!
Not everybody will find this idea to be their thing, and that's okay, but the name of the game here is to build camaraderie within the community between designers of all levels, whether it be novice to veteran. My hope is that you'll enjoy the challenge of getting through the game, and see if your course survives until the end!
CONTEST DETAILS:
Registration: Designers may register until May 1st, at which point there is a firm deadline so that I can record the team draw video, which I will post on my YouTube channel.
Contest Timeframe: The contest officially runs from May 1st through July 15th, with a publishing window of July 5th-15th. Contestants may begin their course at any time from the date they register, but MAY NOT publish it prior to the submission window, or it will be disqualified.
Prizes: 1st Place - TGCT Gold Donor; 2nd Place - TGCT Silver Donor; 3rd - TGCT Bronze Donor (I will donate to TGC Tours on your behalf)
Design Rules: One of the goals of this contest is to provide value to the TGCT community through the addition of new, tour-worthy course designs. As such, contestants may design in any theme they wish, and there are no restrictions being placed on the creations, although a par 70, 71, 72, or 73 championship course is recommended to ensure that it can be approved by TGCT reviewers and have potential for being selected as a tour course.
Scoring Rubric:The courses will be judged on very traditional elements of architecture and design. I will once again be providing a scoring rubric for the judging panel to use as a guide, which I feel results in consistent qualitative metrics to be able to compare the courses during the contest. The elements in the rubric are broken out at the bottom of this OP.
Judging: I will be carefully selecting a panel of judges from two categories: TGCT players from each tour that don't design, and well-respected course designers that have produced several tour-worthy courses for the TGCT community. This should ensure that each course is examined from different perspectives, not just from fellow designers being critical of the course architecture elements, but from players of all levels that see things based on how a course plays. I believe this will add balance to the scoring and provide me with the most well-rounded aggregate score for each contestant's design. The aggregate score awarded to each contestant's design will be hidden during the competition, as it will be used in head-to-head matches several times throughout the contest, but I'd be happy to provide full transparency as to what the score for each course was after the competition is complete.
Teams: After the registration deadline, I will take all of the entrants and subjectively rank them into three categories: novice, experienced, and veteran. The way this will happen is by "seeding" the contestants on a list, and then breaking that list into thirds, with the top third being veteran, the middle third being experienced, and the bottom third being novice. **This will likely be the first point of angst from the crowd, but the purpose of this will become more clear as contestants see how the rounds will work, and it is actually put in place to keep the initial mix as fair as possible in the opening rounds. However, let's be clear here... this categorization is ONLY predicated on what the designer has done up to this point, but has no bearing on whether or not a novice could create a better course and score higher than a veteran in this competition (all entrants go through the same scoring rubric, and there is no favoritism given to any category of designer as it relates to their course's score)!** Once I have the contestants broken out into three categories, the two teams will be chosen by a blind draw recorded on video and posted to YouTube to prove there is no preferential treatment or funny business going on. The first two names will come from the veteran category, and they will be the team captains, one for Team 1 and one for Team 2. From that point forward I will continue picking names from the veteran category, then the experienced category, followed by the novices, alternating between Team 1 and Team 2 until each team has an equal mix of veterans, experienced, and novice designers. This will be the contestants' beginning team, but it won't be their final team!
Terminology: You will see the "19th Hole" used in the rules coming up, which is the term I'm using to mean the tribal council meeting at the end of each round.
THE COMPETITION:
Round 1: August 1st-3rd - The opening round will feature seven head-to-head match-ups, three from the veteran category, and two each from the experienced and novice categories. Both team captains will select three veteran courses, two experienced courses, and two novice courses and submit them to me privately for the 19th Hole. The captains may coordinate the selections with their teams via group PM discussion, or they don't have to, that's totally up to the team (and they may select their own course in the veteran category if they wish). The captain must identify an "A" course, a "B" course, and a “C” course from each category when they are submitted (just A and B from experienced and novice). Once I have both team's selections, I will put the A's, B’s, and C’s from each category against each other and use the judges’ scores, including a subjective "match-up" discussion using the judges notes, to determine a winner of each match-up. This will result in seven players receiving victory, and seven players being "eliminated" after the 19th Hole in round 1 - but wait, there's more! This is where the fun begins! The seven courses that won in round 1 will have immunity for round 2, and cannot be chosen for the 19th Hole match-ups in round 2. Also, the team that won the most of their seven match-ups will be given an extra immunity, which the captain will use to select one more “safe” course for round 2.
But guess what?! The seven courses that were “eliminated” in round 1, aren't really dead just yet...
Round 2: August 3rd-5th - This round will once again feature a big 19th Hole match-up bonanza, but with a twist added beforehand. Remember those "eliminated" players? Well, they're BACK! Each player that lost their match-up in round 1 gets to jump back on a team of their choosing, and it does not have to be the team they started on, but it can be if they want (IF a team captain had put himself up in round 1 and ended up losing, he is no longer the captain, and I will ask the team members to select a new one from ALL of the remaining players on their squad, which means the captain may end up being an experienced or novice category player). However, it is possible that they will be picked again to go to the 19th Hole. Once I have been notified of which teams those players jumped back on, the team captains need to pick five more courses from their teams for head-to-head competition, with one exception... the winners from round 1 have immunity, plus the “safe” course, and cannot be sent back to the 19th Hole in round 2. The captain needs to select two courses (an A and a B) from the veteran category of designer, one from the experienced category, and two from the novice category (an A and a B) and submit them to me. When I have them all I will use the judges average scores, plus our subjective conversations, to determine the winners of each match-up at the 19th Hole. Unfortunately, this time around, the five courses that lose their match-up are eliminated from the contest for good.
** But what would round 2 be without a previously unannounced rule? It is true that this isn't a team competition, but this round, more than ever, will be critical to your strategy and hidden agenda for the future rounds. The team that wins this round will be able to remove three courses from the winners side and put them BACK on the losers side prior to the seeding for round 3! The team members will lobby the captain with their choices, and then the captain will make the final call.
Now the competition takes a wild turn of events...
Contenders Round: August 5th-8th - For this round of the competition, the teams get shuffled a little bit, because whichever ten teams are remaining from the round 1 immunity and the round 2 victories (after the three teams got moved back) are now Team 1, and all of the losing players (and the three that got brought back over) are Team 2. Not only that, the categories that separate the players are removed! I randomly selected the captain of each squad, and at this point the captain ranked his whole team 1-10, not necessarily on their merit, but on whatever order seemed to provide the best chance to win match-ups. The team's "seedings" were sent to me to prepare for this round's 19th Hole match-ups so that each seed could be matched up against the same seeded course on the other team. The ten winners will survive, and the ten losers of these match-ups will be eliminated.
** And now for the scoring curveball: for this round, my scores for each course will be added into the average of the other 8 judges, which could change the foundational "rankings" of the courses slightly on our sheet. But just as before, those rankings will serve as a baseline for a subjective conversation about which course should win the matchup. However, since adding me to the panel makes an odd number of judges, 9, we will "vote" on each matchup based on the averages scores, subjective opinions, and our own preference between the two courses, and the team winning that vote will win the matchup in Round 3.
But what would a survivor style competition be without one last twist?...
Round of Revenge: August 8th-10th - The team portion of the competition is now over, and each player will be left asking himself, "Did I play my strategy well enough to survive?" And remember those "eliminated" players? Once again, they're BACK! This time they're not back in the competition, but they will play a role in this round. I will randomly draw a team captain to represent the contestants that are no longer in the competition, and that person will host a discussion via PM with the other eliminated players to determine which courses they want to see matched up against each other in the Round of Revenge. There are no guidelines or categories of designers, the eliminated players can decide on whatever match-up combinations they want to see in this round. Once the team captain provides this list to me, the final 19th Hole will take place and the judges scores and subjective discussions will once again be used to determine the match-up winners. The contestants whose courses were victorious will move on to the Championship Round, and the participants that lost will be eliminated. At this point, all eliminated players are out of the game completely.
Championship Round: August 10th-12th - It's time for the final round, which is the big reveal of the top 3 finishers. There are no more twists and no more 19th Hole match-ups. The contestants that remain can take a deep breath at this point! All of the courses that have survived this far in the competition will be ranked based on the judges scores, and the top three courses in this final ranking will be awarded the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes, and the title of TGCT Survivors!
Sounds simple, right? But there is strategy, or could be, depending on how you negotiate with your teams, and what courses you put up in each of the first two rounds. This game will be what you make of it, but it could be pretty wild! As I've said on the thread, though, if you make a GREAT golf course design, you will likely score highly with the judges when they grade your course on the rubric, so if you have a high-scoring design you have a very good chance of surviving every match-up you're in, no matter what the other players do! Now, let's see who's brave enough to enter...
Confirmed Participants (25):
Wayne Adams - bigcat023 - Whispering Winds GC
Cullen Allen - culallen - Zilker Park
Pablo Alonso - pablo - Path of Blame
Justin Ciboch - CiB0RG - Treadwell Heights Club
Curtis Cockerill - toddfather - Broken Bow Golf Preserve
Mark Davies - mav78 - Lost Oaks CG
David Dix - ddixjr509 - The Olmsted South Course
Marc Fischer - overr8edplaya - Uluru Golf Course [Ayers Rock]
Matt Fritsch - mattf27 - Hickory Creek Golf Club
Scott Fulton - hippystein - Dragon's Pass GC
Terry Grayson - Terry Grayson - The Kraken
Joe Greenhalgh - joegolferg - Cincinnati Club
Dan Griffith - PithyDoctorG - Lion's Gate Resort and CC
Justin Inwood - statelyowl - Queen Charlotte Sound Resort
John Ives - jivesinator - Havre Hills Golf Links
Brian Jeffords - reebdoog - Sonoma Sands Golf Club
Lloyd Jones - lajvol20 - Riverbend Golf Club
Chris Lane - MAJORHIGH - Davenport Athletic Club
Jeremy Mayo - mayday_golf83 - Monterey Bay Country Club
Simon Morris - SAM - Lockwood Downs Golf Club
Pat O'Dell - Celtic Wolf - Wolf Trail at Illinois State
Ste Owens - @stowey - Azteca Canyons
Tom Rausch - GrumpyOldMan - Trout River at Bootleg Gap
Danny Scarano - sharky21 - Razorback Ridge Country Club
Jimmy Sheridan - nevadaballin - Idlewild South Memorial GC
SCORING RUBRIC: All categories will be scored between 1-10, therefore the course can earn a maximum of 250 points, and a minimum of 25 (this will give my judges more autonomy in their evaluations than the 1-5 I used last time).
Tees:
Placement/Strategy
Sculpting
Framing/Aesthetics
Surfacing/Transitions
Consistency
Fairways:
Placement/Strategy (hazards)
Sculpting
Surfacing/Transitions (rough)
Firmness/Playability (landing areas)
Consistency
Greens:
Placement/Strategy (complex design)
Shape/Contouring (scale)
Surfacing/Transitions (fairway, rough)
Firmness/Playability
Consistency
Bunkers:
Placement/Strategy
Shape/Scale
Transitions (rough)
Sculpting/Playability
Consistency
Presentation:
Design/Architecture
Environment
Planting/Finishing
Enjoyment/Playability
Tour Worthiness
Please let me know if you have any questions. As you can see, there are no specific course requirements, no fantasy elements judged, and nothing goofy or strange necessary. Build a great course design, and you can survive!
