Courses

2011 Lido Competition

March 06, 2011
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Thad Layton won the 2003 Lido Prize for his original hole design (pictured above) which, as all entries must do, utilized the design philosophy of Dr. MacKenzie within the confines of a two-shot par 4.

Here's your chance to win up to $5,000, plus play one of the most obscure yet fascinating Alister MacKenzie designs in America.

The 2011 Lido Competition, the annual golf design contest co-sponsored by Golf World and the Alister MacKenzie Society, offers a grand prize of $3,000, and if this year's winner attends the MacKenzie Society annual meeting at Claremont Country Club in Oakland, Calif. Sept. 12-15, he or she will receive a bonus $2,000 to defray travel expenses.

The par-68 Claremont Country Club is one of the great secrets of the Bay Area golf. Originally designed by Jim Smith (brother of golfers Alex, Willie and Macdonald Smith) in the early 1900s, it was remodeled by MacKenzie in the late 1920s, who revamped greens and bunkers but didn't alter its funky routing, which has crisscrossing holes. (The seventh features a shot over the fourth and fifth fairways and the par-3 eighth plays over the 18th.) MacKenzie's flair at Claremont was given a recent polish by Tom Doak's Renaissance Golf design company. Judging the 2011 entries will be golf architect Brian Costello, a San Francisco native, who started in the business in 1989 working for designer J. Michael Poellot and is now a partner with Bob Moore and Mark Hollinger in the JMP Golf Design Group. Costello's designs include the environmentally sensitive Callippe Preserve Golf Course in Pleasanton, Calif., Las Lomas Golf Club in Guadalajara, Mexico and two South Korean tournament venues, Blackstone Golf and Resort in Jeju and Black Stone Executive Golf Club in Incheon.

The Lido Competition is patterned after a 1914 magazine design contest won by Dr. MacKenzie with his concept of a par-4 with multiple options of play. His hole was soon built at Lido Golf Club on Long Island, N.Y., but the course did not survive World War II. In the spirit of MacKenzie's original, the Lido Competition is restricted to a two-shot hole no shorter than 360 yards, no longer than 460 yards.

Contest entries must be a hand-drawn design, on paper not larger than 11"x17", along with one sheet of supporting explanation. Contestants are limited to one entry, and an entry form must accompany it. To download an entry form, as well as a full set of rules click here.

Deadline for receipt of all entries is June 15, 2011. The winner will be announced no later than June 30, 2011.