How I Designed a "Perfection" Template
The template went pretty far in the Fried Egg design contest, so I thought I would share how I threw it together in a few hours.
The results are in for the Ace Valley Hole Design Contest, hosted by Fried Egg Golf and Staples Golf Design, and my entry did not win. However, I did get to the final four, and apparently the results were very close. I wanted to do a write up regardless of whether I won or lost, so I wrote this last week when I didn’t know whether my ideas would be considered “good” or “bad,” because all of this comes down to some votes. I really liked my entry and I’m happy it got as far as it did. I thought I would share my process and the tools I used to help folks who might want to do designs on their own.
Note: I wrote the following on Thursday, Nov 13th. I thought it would be worthwhile to get this written before the tournament ends in case I am influenced by actually winning this thing.
Background
So, if my memory serves me correctly, I actually only spent a few hours designing the template. I know, I know: what’s to design if you’re “designing a template”? I would say that I put a bit of effort into the shapes, and I should explain them here.
I Got (un)Lucky
I think the main thrust of this is that what put the idea of Perfection into my head was just mostly luck. I recently played North Berwick, and it was very, very windy, and I played pretty poorly (though I had moments of glory sprinkled here and there). When I teed off on the 14th, I actually drove the ball wide right, and it landed on the 4th green. After taking relief, I again pushed it right, missing the landing zone and ending up in the rough right of the green. I ended up with a pretty standard bogey, but I was really annoyed that I didn’t get to hit that shot. I wanted to send a pitch and run onto the green, even if it ended up on the beach. I desperately wanted another chance to hit that shot. I’d already contemplated returning to North Berwick just to hit that shot. I wanted to hit it ten different times. Thus, when I sat down to design a template. I didn’t even think twice about it. I just opened up my computer and got to work.
This Ain’t My First Rodeo
I didn’t design all three submission entries allowed. I didn’t think I had a chance at winning the contest, because I’ve been burned before. Last year, I submitted my entry to the annual Lido Prize and it was promptly never heard from again. I loved that design. I still love it. I had sketched it up on PGA 2K23, then taken screenshots from different angles so that I could trace it by hand at the appropriate angle to maximize the impact on paper. I’m not the best artist, however, so if I’d known they were accepting digitally created entries, I would have designed it completely differently:
I put a ton of work into this design. I absolutely stand by it, and honestly think it’s fantastic. It allows multiple options off the tee, and four different strategies for four different pin positions. I realized after that year’s winner was picked that my design likely only got a cursory glance. I learned then: less is more; play to the audience. The 2024 Lido Prize winner had a ton of risk-reward, plus the novelty of a beach as a hazard… which I would assume immediately presents huge safety issues, but whatever. It was a good design. It’s not the kind of design complexity I’m interested in. I’m usually focused on optionality over risk-reward tradeoffs. Let people play the hole the way they want to play it, unless it’s an easy shot, and only then force people to take chances.
I think the lesson I learned from that helped me in this contest: don’t put too much work into it. Find an idea that’s immediately identifiable, and go with that. Don’t over complicate things. Don’t worry about letting the reviewers know I thought a lot about positioning the forward tees such that the challenge was effectively the same. Maybe barely show the forward tees, if at all.
I Did Some Research
I thought about the contest, and realized a template contest was never going to be about me and what I can design. I didn’t want to try anything too cute. I just wanted to find a template that played to the themes I care about, but also one that would fit with the architect’s existing themes.
The only bit of research I did was to look at the holes that were already planned for the course: Punchbowl, Dell, Gate at North Berwick, bathtub green, #4 at Huntercombe, #14 at Pine Valley, Double Punchbowl, Redan, Short, Lion’s Mouth, Road. There are a few things I gathered here. The Dell template means blind shots are allowed. The inclusion of two punchbowls, the Gate green, and a bathtub green means the spirit of fun over skill is definitely important to the architect. And the fact that there’s already a North Berwick template means that if I take my template from North Berwick, they’ll already be familiar with the ideas without me having to explain it on paper. All of this pointed to Perfection as a suitable entry.
Perfection is a Masterclass in Optionality
I care about optionality on difficult shots and fun as a theme. I was drawn to the second shot on Perfection exactly because it’s a challenging shot, but offers exactly the optionality on a difficult shot that I’m obsessed with. You can bite off as much as you want. Fly the shot 180 yards straight to the hole if you want or play it 120 yards and let it bounce down toward the green. You can get to the hole either way, but the more you hold back, the more variance you bring into the result. Here the tradeoff I prefer is not risk for reward. It is a risk that offers control vs an easier shot where much more randomness is involved, instead of an automatic disadvantage. That’s really the only way I could put my personality into the design without making it too cute or messy.
Process
The Mechanics of Creating the Design
I do my two-dimensional designs in Inkscape. It’s a free vector graphics software that works on all the major operating systems. This is how I quickly sketch up a yardage book-like image for the Golf Course Wiki. It is a vector graphics program that lets me layer different editable images on top of each other and it allows me to trace novel designs with multiple sources at the same time.
Here I’ve layered the course plan, which is under the topo/layout, which is under the google earth image with correct distance measurement, which is under the actual yardage book image. All these images are scaled and sit on top of each other as exact in their sizes and positions as possible. This allows me to bounce back and forth quickly, throughout the design process, with everything already locked into place. Here, I can make adjustments on the fly, referencing different materials where needed.
Next, I tried to just map the hole as best I could from the real hole. I started with the rough, traced the rough, then traced the various cuts on top, adding a new vector using the “pen tool” on top, until I got a pretty approximate illustration:
This is just the first step, and needs to remain as a reference. So, to start tweaking I just copy the layer.
After this, I start flipping back and forth between the reference image. I traced the existing topo lines with the pen tool. I added the unchanged lake into the left side of the image. I added all the trees. I basically tried to get everything where it should be from the reference images before starting to add the specific design aspects I wanted.
What I Actually Designed
Here, to defend myself from the charge of “it’s just a template,” I’ll write about what I actually added to this version of Perfection:
The most obvious change is integrating the left-side fairway bunker into the shore of the lake, and I also tied that into the waste area behind the hole that represents the beach.
More importantly, I was focused primarily on the biggest weakness of the hole – that it is a blind shot, and that carries real danger and risk to the folks playing it. The first benefit I had was that this was going to be the opening hole, so I could rely on a starter to limit access to the tee, worst case. However, I thought it was important to keep line of sight from the back tee to the second tee, so that players could clearly see the group ahead when hitting the most potentially dangerous shots. To facilitate getting players, visibly, to the second tee, I extended the beach waste area farther than it needs to extend, and instead offered a bridge to incentivize players to get into next group’s line of sight as fast as possible.
My biggest worry about this modification is the shape and the playability of space just left of the landing area. To get line of sight, I had to make the land drop off dramatically. It overly punishes a standard pull or hook with a nasty shot left of the green.
The beach waste area was also placed and extended and curved to protect the 10th green. In retrospect, after watching Andy Staples talk about his concerns, I would have extended it to the edge of the build area to offer more protection to the 11th tee.
I kept the general idea of the hole, but I extended and curved the contouring of the carry hazard and ignored the contouring short-right of the green. I did so because multiple teeing locations could be placed short of the carry hazard, which would likely be positioned forward and right of the back tee. This change in contours on the left side of the landing zone should help deflect shots more rightward to the green. This would offer more of a kick to players who are playing off tees farther right, without changing the nature of the hole for players off the centerline tees.
Probably the most significant change from Perfection is the area short-right of the green. I left most of the existing contouring there both to preserve the natural appearance of the trees that protect the 11th hole. I did add a (not properly marked) bump short of the green, to feed shots toward the green. Then, I allowed that existing contouring to mimic the bumpy drop off short-right on the original hole.
The original hole has a subtle green, but there is still some drama. That drama comes from the fact that the obvious miss (right), means you need to pitch or chip the ball straight at the hazard. The only thing I did with the green was make sure that that danger was there. I did this by marking a funneling contour that helps balls running in from the fairway, but drops off in back so that chips coming in from the short-right miss would easily run into the beach waste area. This is why I also completely removed any rough behind the green. Players need to know that flying the ball straight into the green comes with risk. That risk lends itself to the standard right-handers miss (long-left and short-right). The long-left miss is obviously the beach waste area, but that funneling contour adds more risk to the short-right miss by making that pitch up more dangerous.
Changes I Would Make Considering the Attention
Extend the rough more left of the green.
Add small arrows to indicate architecturally important areas of slope instead of just submitting a topo. Especially along the left side of the landing area, mound short of the green, and the section of the green that runs into the beach waste area.
I did not know there would be carts on the course, so I would extend the fairway or at least add a dew path along the right side so walkers and folks in carts have a clear route to the green without climbing the ridge.
Note: I wrote the following on Sunday, Nov 16th, after learning the results.
Result
Welp, I lost
Ah, well, you can’t win them all. I’m happy I got as far as I did. I’m glad I got this down before I knew if the hole won or not. It was obviously an honor that it was even selected for discussion, much less that it made it to the final four. Designing golf holes is really fun for me, so it’s something I’d be doing even if there were no prize. I hope this helps other folks with a bit of graphic design. Inkscape is free and fairly easy to learn with a bit of help from YouTube. I really think more people should be using it for these types of design instead of just working with pencil and paper.