This is a contest for PGA 2000 that was originally started by LinksLegend and DanO at the Copyright Club Forum. The first contest was CC Park and the resulting course is now available for download. The second, Nine Mile Drive Bay, is currently in progress. DanO has supplied two excellent plots for both. It's mainly for fun and it has sparked some interesting conversations on different design philosophies.
How does the contest work?
The contest starts with a routing contest and after that each hole on the winning routing is done one at a time in order. For each hole a thread is started, the new plot is posted there, and a final date for when entries must be completed for that hole is set, usually 1-2 weeks later. You may enter as many or few holes as you want.
Who is allowed to join?
Anyone can join in, it doesn't matter what your skill level is. You'll learn a lot from this contest, trust me I sure have.
How do I join?
All you have to do is download the plot for the hole currently up on the Copyright Club Forum and you're ready to go. When you're done designing your hole, post screenshots in the thread.
What custom libraries are required for the plot?
Cypress is the only custom library required.
Can I use this plot for my own course?
Yes, Absolutely.
What are the rules for the routing portion of the contest?
No Cypress trees may be removed. You may add some but try to keep this to a minimum.
Do no make major elevation changes.
The routing may be a single 18 hole loop or two 9 hole loops.
All entries should be between 6850-7250 yards.
Par should be from 70-72.
Place generic green, fairway, and tee box textures for each hole along with placing the shot points and 1 pin.
What kind of rules are there regarding the designing of the holes?
According to DanO the rules are as follows:
Use the existing fairway as a guide only. Simply do not interfere with holes already designed and the following holes.
Stay roughly to the dictated yardage, adjustments are of course allowed but you must keep it as the designated par.
No Cypress tree can be eliminated. You may add trees. You may move a species or change the size but only if absolutely necessary.
The only custom library you may use is Cypress from Cypress point.
There is not a first cut, I may make one at the end of this project but it really isn't needed.
You may be as minimal or as wild with elevations as you like. You may add dunes and more rock formations but use discretion as we are around 500,000 detail points already...yikes.
You will have fun! Enjoy!
How do I take good screenshots that can be posted on the forum?
This depends on what kind of software you have.
Directions for Photoshop according to Terry:
In the game hit PRINT SCREEN.
Open Photoshop.
Click on FILE then NEW.
A box will open, and you will see that the preset size will be 1024X768 [or whatever your screen resolution is set to]
Hit OK on this box. Then click on EDIT and then PASTE and it will paste your screenshot those dimensions.
Now we will resize it: Go to IMAGE then IMAGE SIZE. This brings up another box. At the bottom make sure CONSTRAIN PROPORTIONS is checked.
Now on the top in the WIDTH put the number 900 and this will make the bottom Height 675 automatically.
Hit OK on this pop-up and the pic is resized.
Now time to save: Click on FILE and SAVE AS
Name it whatever you want on the top line, on the bottom change to JPEG file.
Now here is where you make it useful for the forums.
When you hit SAVE the JPEG options box pops up. It gives you a slider for quality from 1 to 12...Put it on about 3 and it will be nice and large for the forums and pretty good quality.
Directions for Paint Shop Pro according to me (BrianZ):
Hit Print Screen to take your image.
Open up PSP and right click in the empty window.
Select Paste As New Image.
Crop out the start menu at the bottom and the menu bar at the top using the crop tool.
Go to Image > Resize and resize it to 800 pixels wide. Make sure you have Lock aspect ratio checked.
Then go to File > Export > JPEG optimizer and change the set compression value until the compressed size is under 100,000 bytes.
Click ok and it asks you to save it.
Directions for MS Paint according to Robert@:
First, only picture taken from the arch is the overhead, all others are taken from the game.
When the pic I want is on my screen I hit the Print screen button on my keyboard.
Open up my regular, came with the PC paint program, and paste pic from step 1.
I then cut out the section of the pic I want in the shape I want the pic to be, removing all game portions of the pic out.
Open up a new paint file, discarding the portion left after my cut.
Paste again in new file, and save as jpg.
I then go to the forums to post my pics.
When ready to post desired pic, I locate it with the browse tool, provided in the forums. I right click on pic to get its properties for its size. At this stage pic is to big to post in forums, so I open up paint again, open pic file and then using the stretch and skew tool shrink it down as close as I can to the 102,400 size allowed to be posted. Always checking my size in the forums section to know when I've reduced it enough.
[Editors Note: You can view the file size by going to Image > Attributes and it is listed there as size on disk. This may be easier then going back and forth between Paint and your browser. Just remember to save it each time you make a change though or it won't update.]
I never enlarge my pic (distorts the picture) only reducing it in size. If by chance I reduce more then I wanted I simply undo my last resize and shrink less. I repeat never enlarge the pic using the stretch and skew tool, always undo a shrink to make pic larger if need be.
Once the pic is down to postable size, click open in forums section again and then post.
What kind of screenshots are recommended?
It is recommend that you take the following: an overhead from the architect and from the game a tee shot view, approach shot views, green view with all possible pins displayed, green view with grid or in contrast [some way of showing the contours on your green], and a reverse view from behind the green.
How do I post a screen shot with all pins on it?
You can either place flag objects in the architect where the pin locations are or you can paste a picture of a flag in the spots where the pins are on your screenshot.
Who can vote?
Everyone is encouraged to vote. You do not have to be participating in the contest to vote. You don't even need to know the first thing about design. All you need is an opinion on which holes you like best.
How do I vote?
You can vote any time after the voting thread is started until the posted ending date. Just post your vote in that thread. You must give the following points out in your vote:
3 Points for first place.
2 Points for second place.
1 Point for third place.
What happens if there is a tie at the top?
I believe the tie breakers go like this. The first item that breaks a tie is the winner.
Person with the fewest winning holes already.
A revote with each person voting for one of the tied holes.
We're not really sure, we just hope it doesn't get this far.
I say if it's still a tie then we play a match play round on all completed holes so far. How cool would that be? :-)
Does second place get anything?
DanO gets a big kiss from his sister whenever he finishes second but other then that no. As the saying goes, second place is the first loser.
Is anyone keeping track of voting from previous holes?
Well, I'm glad you asked. As a matter of fact I am. You can see the stats sheet for the voting results of all holes in the voting thread after voting has completed on each hole.
What happens if I win?
Well then you've already done better then I have. ;-) The winner must zip and upload his/her arch file to Linda. This is done the same way as when you upload a course to the CC. E-mail her to let her know you've done so and she will e-mail you the link for the plot. The winner is then responsible for posting all of the threads for the next hole.
What?!? How do I do that? [Winner posting threads for the next hole]
For the first thread you must put the link to the plot up and set a date for when entries must be in by (usually 1-2 weeks). You can also make any profound comments you may have about the next hole and use a clever title if you want but these are not required. :-)
For the voting thread you must post who entered, how many entries there were and when voting ends (usually 2-3 days). It is also preferred, but not required, that a few screenshots including all of the overheads are posted to help remind us what each hole was like.
What if I am unable to post the thread(s) because my dog chewed through my keyboard wire? [or you're going to be gone]
Just let us know and someone else will take over those duties.
I have a question that isn't posted here. What do I do?
Ask it in one of the threads for the contest. We won't bite too hard. I'll try to remember to add it to the FAQ too.
