Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2019 10:56:40 GMT -5
Group B Results
1. Harrenhal 1-0-2
2. Connemara Bay Golf Club 1-1-1
3. Dawkins Harbour GC 1-1-1
4. Valley Shrew 1-2-0
Harrenhal vs. Valley Shrew
JUDGE 1
Harrenhal had a nice look to it and good playability although the green sculpting could be better and a few questionable pins and could use a little more polish, a solid course and enjoyable Rd .
Valley shrew felt all over the place with average playability. I felt the textures we're not suitable and not a fan of mow lines on a links course with light rough run offs everywhere would have be more suitable to use fairway run off, the planting was erratic and felt like it was thrown in. Just not a course that would ever bring me back.
Harrenhal wins.
JUDGE 2
Harrenhall is a great course that gives you a decent enough challenge and is the sort of course that can be enjoyed by all players regardless of skill level and clubsets without for that matter being a pushover.
I enjoy a course where I always have to think about my next shot and Harrenhall does exactly that. There are very few tee shots where you can just rip the club you have in your hand and can expect a good result from it.
On the other hand, Harrenhall's perhaps greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Many tee shots gives you very few options. You need to think about your shot, but there are seldom more than one viable option that is viable. This can be seen from pinched fairways and various hazards and doglegs designed purely around the carry distances of the master club clubset. Favourite Hole #13
Valley Shrew is not a bad course by any standard, but in a competition like this it falls well short of its competitors in an otherwise good effort.
I love the setting the designer puts you in on this course. The little town areas looks great from a distance and really gives you that British country life feel the designer is aiming for. I would hope though in future designs that if you put things right next to the course it could use a bit more detail. As it sits right now I get the feeling that I'm playing an unfinished product.
I'm not going to go into detail about where this course needs to improve to be a contender, but I want to give an overall recommendation to this designer and any other newer designer for future projects. Focus first and foremost on the golf course itself. Leave all the buildings, the planting and any other non essential extra out of your design for a bit. Let that stuff be extras that you add at a later point for now. Next time you go in to the designer pick an area you want to improve. It could be bunker sculpting or experiment with putting down surfaces and compare your look with your favorite designers. Just do one thing for a few hours. I'm not trying to discourage designers from entering competitions. I actually think its a fantastic way to improve. I'm just saying that in between designs. Take some time to practice using the designer and one day it will just click. Favorite Hole #14
Summary:
The difference in experience and execution shows in every category. Once again. Valley Shrew isn't a bad course even if I might give that impression, but this was fairly clear cut in my opinion.
Winner: Harrenhal
Connemara Bay Golf Club vs. Dawkins Harbour GC
JUDGE 1
Connemara Bay Golf Club:
Solid course that there isn’t much to say about: Realistic but also lacking some interest; no risks were taken. There were a couple cool ideas, but weren’t executed quite right. Not sure on the decision to make the fairways soft. You took away some of the fun in your well-sculpted fairways. Almost every green was too big in my opinion. 12 and 13 were two stand out holes back to back!
Dawkins Harbour GC:
A course of missed opportunities. There were a lot of half-baked ideas that seem to fall flat or needed better execution. For example, the drivable par 4 and the par 3 17th that were super elevated with big rock walls in front. There wasn’t a lot of pop due to a lack of macro and micro-sculpting. For example, almost every bunker lacked depth. The most interesting part of the course were the greens, but almost every green felt the same with the wide front and back and pinching in the middle, like very severe hourglasses. Also, half the greens were too big. Eliminating the front lobes on them would help in both departments. General sense that this was thrown together the last 2 weeks of the contest.
Connemara Bay Golf Club wins.
JUDGE 2
Connemara:
This is a good playable links course with some nice views and some planting. Could be a little smoother with the sculpting but pretty clean overall.
Dawkins:
Solid tee to green but some strange green shapes and sculpting of the greens has some views from some of the holes. Planting is average at best
Connemara wins.
Harrenhal vs. Connemara Bay Golf Club
JUDGE 1
Harrenhal:
Nice opening tee shot, and then a blah next few holes. Memorable holes for me for the wrong reasons. The 8th is a cool hole.
This course has a nice look to it, just wish it played better.
Connemara:
Excessive Length is always a negative for me. Combine that with the tight fairways and the tricky pins and this course could make some people mad. 11th hole is just too difficult with the length and the drive required. A lot of these holes look nice, but they'd play better from a forward tee. Perfect examples are holes 14 and 15.. nice holes, but play better shorter because the pinched fairway in the driving zone takes away driver. Liked the 17th.. great view for a finishing par 3. Loved the 18th... great risk reward on both tee shot and 2nd shot.
Nice clean solid course... could see this on Euro.
Winner: Connemara
JUDGE 2
Harrenhal:
The golfer feels like he/she is playing a round in the dunelands of Australia or Tasmania. Aesthetically, this is a course you sink into – you really feel the environment, due to the lighting, minimalist use of planting, well-placed trees and rocks and bridges and other objects. The golf cart path itself is a significant design element on the course, its presence seen and felt throughout the round – and excellently done. Gorgeous ocean views from almost every shot, panoramic views from each teebox, sight-lines and hole-framing is well-thought-out here. Strategically, this is a well-planned course – distances on almost every shot are challenging, requiring serious thought on club and shaping, depending on the wind and lie and club-set. The replayability factor is extremely high due to this – various winds, pins, the thoughtful routings of each hole, and tee choices will offer an endless variety of shots and choices each time the course is played. Fairways are masterfully contoured, bunkers are well-placed and not over-done. Greens are gorgeously-sculpted, and challenging in the best way – punishing errant approaches, rewarding close ones. Very clean and smooth design throughout, with challenge, interest, and lots of choices on every hole, this is a course the golfer will want to play again and again.
Connemara Bay Golf Club:
This is bare-bones no-frills strategic golf. Playability is the name of the game on this course; any aesthetic considerations are present in the inherent beauty nature puts there by default – the sun on the water, the rare wild grasses of the rough swaying in the wind, the light hitting the fairways. The bones of the earth jut up in the raw sculpting of the plain hills that litter the course just off the fairways – no flowering plants or bushes grow there. The rare trees stand like sentinels watching the barren landscape. Thin fairways require precision and planning, and are carefully contoured to favor well-placed shots. Bunkering is minimal, but strategically placed to cause pain. The green complexes are intimidating, in their deceptive simplicity. Careful sculpting makes them seem easier than they are – punishing for the careless approaches, and still challenging for the more precise. This is a links course that is Doak-ish in its rawness and reliance on the natural landscape, rather than seeming imposed upon it. The designer knows the tools, knows contouring and sculpting and routing; the beauty of this course lies in its precision and reliance on choices made by the golfer, and his or her skill. This is not grip-it-and-rip-it golf, or flashy short games. It is a test, on every hole and every shot, as good golf should be. The flip-side of that coin is that the lack of some visual appeal brought out by enhanced lighting, or planting choices (even if appearing natural), can degrade the replayability factor of the course. And especially where high winds are present, the narrow fairways and limited options on the longer clubs due to this will limit the appeal of the course to the more skilled players, and most likely intimidate the less-skilled. Nevertheless, an excellent design that is close to what pure links golf aspires to be.
Harrenhal wins.
Valley Shrew vs. Dawkins Harbour GC
JUDGE 1
Dawkins Harbour GC:
Really nice looking course, clean textures. I liked the look along the waterline on Hole 1, but it wasn't carried consistently through the rest of the course. I didn't think the mulch areas worked. There were so few of them that they looked out of place when you saw one. If it was used more consistently it would have worked better. You could have done more with the clubhouse area for a contest course, but that doesn't affect playability. Consistent use of multi-segmented greens. I felt like it was overdone and got too segmented at times, as if you had 2 or 3 separate greens rather than 1 green with multiple zones, but clearly it was what you were going for. I thought the green sculpting on #3 was a bit heavy-handed. There were also some really bumpy areas to the left of 3rd fairway that seemed out of place. The greens play quite differently across the pin sets, but the course seems heavy on long par 4s. It felt a little repetitive at times, long par 4, pinched landing area, long approach into a tiny segment of a green. That could get old over a 4 round tournament. I did think the course played well in general, and had a couple of intriguing short par 4 options. It's a good challenge for sure, and you better plan your approach shots well.
Valley Shrew:
Course played pretty well, but several issues knocked it down a few notches. Surfaces, transitions, and sculpting are not as clean and polished. All the bushes everywhere did not work for me, and takes away from the look of the course. Nice seating area overlooking 9th green.
I like the look off of 14 tee, best view on the course IMO, but could be even better if that tee was raised or ground was lowered so that you could see more of the water and bridge. The 2nd shot on 16 is a nice look over the pond and gives several options. I did not like the bush traps in the middle of 13 and 18 fairways. I did not understand the houses on 8 and 9 that were just in the middle of the course. That did not work at all IMO, and took away from those holes. Bunker style was inconsistent, random unique shapes for a while, then a few perfect circles, then random again. Good variation in hole distances, but routing is all over the place. Tee box shapes are haphazard and seem like an afterthought.
Dawkins Harbour GC wins the matchup.
JUDGE 2
Valley Shrew Notes -
Nicely laid out, and the palette of colors fits together and blends very well. The only thing I would have recommended on the visual side is to have a bit more separation between the rough and heavy rough areas, as the barriers of each hole where objects start can be ill defined in some areas. Probably some greener heavy rough areas that fill space between light round and unmaintained areas would help differentiate the two.
The layout was a bit strange, as it was very twisty through the hills, but overall the holes played well. The fairways were on the large and forgiving side, but there was enough firmness in them to make you think about how the ball was going to bounce, and with very little light round, it provided a good challenge.
The greens were quite large, and most hole locations I played were on the easier side, but there are some bumps and mounds in the greens that keep things interesting.
Dawkins Harbour -
A very pretty landscape to begin with - everything is well smoothed, and the course seems to fit into the land very well. There is also some really nice object work, and the hole borders are well defined, so it generally keeps your eyes focused on the hole in front of you.
The greens follow a pattern of sharp turns in the middle, generally dividing them into 2 separate sections that were both smaller. With the exception of a few hole locations that had some tiers and sharp slopes near them as a penalty for missing, the greens were forgiving and tended to be on the easier side. However, the fairways were fairly narrow, which balanced them out well.
This matchup generally came down to some cosmetic details, because both courses played very well. Dawkins Harbour just had a bit cleaner look, mostly because of the clearly defined hole boundaries, a bit of object work (particularly rocks and shrub), and a nice, smooth landscape that made the holes visible in front of you.
Winner: Dawkins Harbour
Harrenhal vs. Dawkins Harbour GC
JUDGE 1
Harrenhal:
Nice cartpath work. I would have preferred default lighting with the sun a touch higher in the sky as it played too dark on my setup. Resorted to the snaky fairway and detached green format a bit too often. A very, solid cohesive course but it lacked the wow moments to make it memorable.
Dawkins Harbour GC:
A very well made solid course. Default lighting had the sun a touch too low in the sky for my liking when playing directly into the sun. This felt like the land was created to put holes on rather than being a landscape with a golf course in it. Never saw much of a harbour!
Conclusion:
This was a close contest with both courses well constructed and feeling very consistent throughout. However they both suffered from similar issues with few memorable holes; a landscape that was a bit underwhelming and lighting issues playing into the low default sun. However I preferred the holes and the look of one slightly more than the other, so the winner is
... Dawkins Harbour.
JUDGE 2
Harrenhal:
A really beautiful course that at times benefitted from the wide-open look, but other times I thought it hindered the ability to give the player some different looks and dark areas. Enjoyed the width and greens, thought the course was fun to play, but lacked in the “bring me back” factor. Thought the planting lacked a bit, it felt too sporadic with the grasses especially. Not sure if auto-generated or spammed around but I thought it could have been better executed.
Dawkins Harbor GC:
I thought there were good risks and bad risks here. Some fun holes with water coming into play, and some interesting (in a good way) hole design...but the greens let this course down a bit. Some greens (most notably #3) just tried to do too much. I am a fan of crazy greens but this was too crazy (and yet in spots too flat).
That said, still a great-looking course, but not enough planting/items to truly excite.
Winner: Harrenhal
Similar course locales, but one had the superior design and slightly better execution.
Valley Shrew vs. Connemara Bay Golf Club
JUDGE 1
Valley Shrew:
Pros: Really fun course to play - good challenging greens, good hole designs. Nicely planted.
Cons: Lots of round bunkers! The lighting causes bad glare off the background hills on a few holes (14 and 16 specifically). Random OOB on 18 for no reason. The village and several individual houses don't have sensible access (both sculpting and roads!). Designer has really tried to show expertise with bridges, steps etc - but gone overboard with it - several times there were unnecessary long bridges, two that were overly long for no reason (at 13 and 15). No real access from clubhouse to the 1st tee and putting green!!! Would have liked to see better use of the lakes - finally used them nicely at 14 and 16.
Connemara Bay:
Pros: Loved the closing stretch (14-18), especially the 14th tee shot, and the double fairway at the par 5.
Cons: Felt the first 13 holes were fairly bland - no exciting hole designs, huge but pretty tame green. I get that he was going for a minimalist planting look - but it is TOO non-existent - links courses need planting
Difficult decision this one - one designer who pulled out all the stops to impress - but overdid it, versus the other whose course simply didn't sparkle until the closing stretch.
Winner (just): Valley Shrew
JUDGE 2
NOTES TO BE SAID IN A VIDEO POSTED AFTER CONTEST IS OVER
Valley Shrew Wins
