For golf design enthusiasts, it’s as much a tradition of spring as the Masters, which is appropriate given that both events trace their origins to a common source. The Alister MacKenzie Society announces the invitation for entries into the 2022 Ray Haddock Lido Prize, where aspiring and recreational golf architects can design their own hole and win $3,000 in cash, plus an additional $2,000 to be applied to the annual society gathering at Titirangi Golf Club in Auckland, New Zealand.
MacKenzie, of course, was the co-designer of Augusta National with Bobby Jones, as well as Cypress Point (giving him two of the top three courses on the Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Courses ranking) and several dozen other designs in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand and South America. A medical doctor by trade, he began his design career in much the same way as this competition, by designing a multi-route par 4 hole for a contest sponsored by Country Life Magazine in 1914. MacKenzie’s hole was chosen as the winner, and C.B. Macdonald proceeded to use it as the model for his 18th hole at the Lido, a course he built on Long Island beginning the same year.
Last year’s winner, Bo Weeks, created a unique par 3 hole featuring a multilevel green with stepped up pin placements that boomeranged around a chasm of sand. Previous winners of the competition, which started in 1998, include several who have gone onto careers in the design business, including Thad Layton of Arnold Palmer Course Design, David Hoekstra, Riley Johns and Clyde Johnson.
This year subject matter is a par 4, by definition a two-shot hole that should be between 360 and 460 yards measuring from the back tee to the center of the green. The hole should reflect the principles of design that Alister MacKenzie utilized throughout his career.
Additional requirements are that the prospective hole must be drawn by hand, including any that may have been computer assisted, presented in color or black and white and not bear the name or logo of the designer. Entries must depict the entire hole (teeing grounds, fairway, green complex and surrounds, hazards, shapings, environment and other surrounding effects) and be presented in both plan view and elevation with symbols and yardages clearly depicted in the manner that MacKenzie drew his Lido hole.
The deadline for entries is June 1, and the winner will be announced June 15. One entry per contestant.
For full details about the competition, the rules and entry instructions, click here.
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