I’ve been thinking of doing this for some time now, and waited until getting a really cool site.
Now’s your chance.
At the link below, you will find an aerial picture of a site where we must design 18 holes. The planning is still at a VERY preliminary stage (we haven’t even been to the site yet) but we’re now in the process of looking at the property to see how and where 18 holes could fit, and how much land it would use.
Note: Before clicking the link below, please note that I have a low limit to web traffic allowed, and the picture is fairly large (600kb). I encourage you to participate (or even to have a look), but please go there only once, and download the aerial onto your computer (right-click on the picture and “save as”). Then print it or do whatever you want.
http://pages.ca.inter.net/~jglenn/aerial.jpgSo the scale is roughly shown (the red line = 500m) You are free to roam anywhere within the aerial picture, even cheating a bit and going slightly beyond, (but then you're just guesstimating what's there). The red arrow at the bottom right shows the access to/from the 1st and 18th holes, which are coming in from across the road. The first hole is 150-175 yards long, the 18th is about 400yds. Those two holes are fixed, so you now need to route the other 16.
The course will also be built in two phases. So there has to be a way of playing 9 holes (including the present 1st and 18th) in one phase, and later on adding 9 other holes later on. Those 9 holes can be added however and wherever you want. Returning nines are not necessary (not possible, I would say), but a ninth and tenth hole within a resonable walking distance of the clubhouse would be a bonus.
The beach areas are off limits, but you can come quite close to them. There is also a wetland very roughly shown in yellow, which I would recommend you stay away from. You might be able to fill parts, but do so at your own risk… There are no trees on the site. It's as close to oceanside linksland as we'll get this day and age. It's also a flat site, with basically no elevation changes.
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Anyway, I’m currently working on routing options at the office over the next couple of days, but I thought it would be fun to see your creative solutions as well. I already have a couple of options that work quite well, but if you come up with something better or have interesting ideas, WE WILL IMPLEMENT THEM.
So there you have it, come up with an interesting routing , and I’m dead serious, it might be built.
And if you have any questions, post them below, and I’ll be happy to help.
And the due date? Welcome to the real word: Submissions must be entered by Sunday evening. (I’m giving you the weekend). The client is waiting.
Good luck, and have fun!