Thoughts from a first time TGC contest judge
May 17, 2021 14:03:57 GMT -5
jwfickett, catcherman22, and 8 more like this
Post by virtualgolfer65 on May 17, 2021 14:03:57 GMT -5
TLDR: Congrats b101 on the win. Second, realize that a huge amount of time went into judging and you should volunteer to judge in the future.
For those who want the details….read on.
First, congrats to all the competitors, as the entire field should be proud of their designs and incredible efforts! While there is only one "winner" (congrats b101) the fact is the community is the real winner with another batch of incredible courses to play and enjoy!
Now, a few notes from a first time TGC contest judge:
1. There is a difference between playing a round on a course that you enjoy, which usually parallels how well you score AND judging a course using the rubric. The first is dynamic round to round, whereas the latter is consistent (or should be).
2. I suspect the majority of judges played every course in the contest, on every pinset at least twice and perhaps more. I wanted to ensure I fully vetted each course, so I played them all, including those that weren’t assigned to my judging pod from early rounds. A safe estimate is that I spent at least 5-6 hours per course, playing, writing notes and rating. In essence, if I were a great designer I could likely have created a course or two in that time.
3. It's easy to find favorite courses quickly (see #1 above), but giving the course it’s just view, means that you spend a proper amount of time going over it. It's only fair and should have proportion to the amount of work that the designer put into the course. That can be the problem with societies and the sheer volume of published courses, namely that we rush through our rounds and don't appreciate the very good of courses, but also note the "not so good". See #1 above (TLDR: scoring low makes a course great and not doing so makes it not great)
4. Everyone's opinion is different. Further, there are bias that can creep into judging a course, if one isn't careful. Perhaps you don't like the designer personally OR perhaps you love them. Either way, that should have no bearing on judging the course itself. The rubric speaks and the rubric should be followed. I can confidently state that my experience in judging this contest that bias and favoritism or “cliché” not only didn’t exist, but it never had a chance to “enter the chat” so to speak. A top notch group of judges for which I was thankful to be a part of.
5. When you get to the final 8 courses it can be the little things that separate one course from another. Extras, like campfires or sheep on a spit (Kukimbia) or horse crap done with mushrooms & a snake (I see you Cape Clements) or tram cars in the distance (that’s you GC Champs Lumineux!) can be the garnish that separates a course, but it can never offset poor designs, etc. Note: the courses I mentioned above got higher holistic from me for that extra "garnish". In the end, the draw may knock courses out, but the top courses that may also include some “garnish” rose to the top as the brackets played out.
6. Deep into the contest there was very little that separated course to course. Picking an order at that point is judge to judge and the fact that the contest were so close, including ties broken with the average adjusted holistic score is amazing and speaks volumes to the quality of the courses. If you could be the fly on the wall for the judges discussions throughout you’d see differing points of view and upon replaying the course, one might agree or not. I can say for my pod the discussions were helpful and of course mayday_golf83 was available for discussions, feedback and so forth.
7. Judging is difficult, since you want to the do the best job you can, but there will often be those in the community who will vehemently disagree and that’s perfectly okay. I’m comfortable with my ratings, as I’m confident that all the judges are. I can’t speak for other contests, but in this one the decisions made weren't made lightly and with a murderer’s row of courses to judge throughout, the results are sound.
8. In line with #7, and as the WCOD champion b101 has said in his post, volunteer to judge for a contest. Even if you're a newbie, the experience, what you'll learn and the chance to give back to the community will be paid back 10x. If you’ve placed high in this or other contests then please leverage your expertise to sit out a contest and judge instead. Until there is major prize money associated here the real prize is giving back to this awesome community.
Another contest has come and gone and another one is a month from being judged (NTT) and another (CC), the course building has started. For the experienced and inexperienced, get involved by maybe sitting out a contest and judging instead, as the community needs your experience.
What a blast, but now back to getting better as a designer and special thanks to Jeremy for letting me be involved.
For those who want the details….read on.
First, congrats to all the competitors, as the entire field should be proud of their designs and incredible efforts! While there is only one "winner" (congrats b101) the fact is the community is the real winner with another batch of incredible courses to play and enjoy!
Now, a few notes from a first time TGC contest judge:
1. There is a difference between playing a round on a course that you enjoy, which usually parallels how well you score AND judging a course using the rubric. The first is dynamic round to round, whereas the latter is consistent (or should be).
2. I suspect the majority of judges played every course in the contest, on every pinset at least twice and perhaps more. I wanted to ensure I fully vetted each course, so I played them all, including those that weren’t assigned to my judging pod from early rounds. A safe estimate is that I spent at least 5-6 hours per course, playing, writing notes and rating. In essence, if I were a great designer I could likely have created a course or two in that time.
3. It's easy to find favorite courses quickly (see #1 above), but giving the course it’s just view, means that you spend a proper amount of time going over it. It's only fair and should have proportion to the amount of work that the designer put into the course. That can be the problem with societies and the sheer volume of published courses, namely that we rush through our rounds and don't appreciate the very good of courses, but also note the "not so good". See #1 above (TLDR: scoring low makes a course great and not doing so makes it not great)
4. Everyone's opinion is different. Further, there are bias that can creep into judging a course, if one isn't careful. Perhaps you don't like the designer personally OR perhaps you love them. Either way, that should have no bearing on judging the course itself. The rubric speaks and the rubric should be followed. I can confidently state that my experience in judging this contest that bias and favoritism or “cliché” not only didn’t exist, but it never had a chance to “enter the chat” so to speak. A top notch group of judges for which I was thankful to be a part of.
5. When you get to the final 8 courses it can be the little things that separate one course from another. Extras, like campfires or sheep on a spit (Kukimbia) or horse crap done with mushrooms & a snake (I see you Cape Clements) or tram cars in the distance (that’s you GC Champs Lumineux!) can be the garnish that separates a course, but it can never offset poor designs, etc. Note: the courses I mentioned above got higher holistic from me for that extra "garnish". In the end, the draw may knock courses out, but the top courses that may also include some “garnish” rose to the top as the brackets played out.
6. Deep into the contest there was very little that separated course to course. Picking an order at that point is judge to judge and the fact that the contest were so close, including ties broken with the average adjusted holistic score is amazing and speaks volumes to the quality of the courses. If you could be the fly on the wall for the judges discussions throughout you’d see differing points of view and upon replaying the course, one might agree or not. I can say for my pod the discussions were helpful and of course mayday_golf83 was available for discussions, feedback and so forth.
7. Judging is difficult, since you want to the do the best job you can, but there will often be those in the community who will vehemently disagree and that’s perfectly okay. I’m comfortable with my ratings, as I’m confident that all the judges are. I can’t speak for other contests, but in this one the decisions made weren't made lightly and with a murderer’s row of courses to judge throughout, the results are sound.
8. In line with #7, and as the WCOD champion b101 has said in his post, volunteer to judge for a contest. Even if you're a newbie, the experience, what you'll learn and the chance to give back to the community will be paid back 10x. If you’ve placed high in this or other contests then please leverage your expertise to sit out a contest and judge instead. Until there is major prize money associated here the real prize is giving back to this awesome community.
Another contest has come and gone and another one is a month from being judged (NTT) and another (CC), the course building has started. For the experienced and inexperienced, get involved by maybe sitting out a contest and judging instead, as the community needs your experience.
What a blast, but now back to getting better as a designer and special thanks to Jeremy for letting me be involved.
