FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- The editors at Links magazine and the course architects at Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associates have awarded college student Doug Wright top prize in the publication's first amateur course design contest.

Wright, 20, a civil engineering undergraduate at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., has already claimed a portion of his prize: He traveled in May to Franklin, Tenn., where he worked with architects Arthur Hills and senior partner Chris Wilczynski in fine-tuning, then breaking ground on his award-winning par 4.

Unveiled in the magazine's January/February 2008 issue, the LINKS Design Contest offered readers the chance to conceive the par-4 13th hole at Westhaven Golf Club, a Hills/Forrest design now under construction just south of Nashville and scheduled to open in 2009. Unlike some amateur architect competitions, the LINKS Design Contest offered its winner the ultimate prize: the chance to see his or her design fully realized, as a part of a top-quality, professionally designed golf course.

The editors at LINKS and the architects at Hills/Forrest chose Wright's design from 1,159 entries—received from 49 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Scotland. Wright's 447-yard, aborted double-fairway, hybrid dogleg right is featured in the magazine’s July/August 2008 issue, on newsstands now (www.linksmagazine.com/designcontest). In addition, the issue will showcase designs of the other two finalists: Darwin Webb of Issaquah, Wash., and Todd Bramwell of Raleigh, N.C.

“This whole experience has been really great, essentially a dream come true because I've always wanted to get into golf course architecture,” Wright said in early July, just before heading to Tennessee for a second site visit. “It was an honor to meet the architects and have them bounce their ideas off me, about my hole. It was really fun to be on site, to see it in person.

“It was a bit different than I had imagined,” Wright continued, noting that contest entrants were provided only a photograph of the 13th hole corridor, and a map showing its topography and physical parameters. “Until you're on the property, you can't get a sense for how dramatic the topographic changes are, how nice the flow and roll of the land is.”

Hills/Forrest is a firm renowned for its naturalist, classic design style, so it's not surprising that Wright's plan, the winning plan, involved little earth-moving. However, there are always adjustments to be made in the field, Wright learned.

“Originally the hole was going to be shorter, but during construction we found an old stone wall behind the tees. Its removal allowed us to stretch the hole a little further,” he explained, adding that they also found quite a bit of underlying rock beneath the proposed 13th green site. Hills, Wilczynski and Wright agreed to raise the green a few feet in order to avoid removing that rock, while still achieving the desired depth on the greenside bunkers.

“We all think Doug's hole is great, a neat design with some out-of-the-box thinking,” said Arthur Hills, founder and principal of Toledo, Ohio-based Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associates (www.arthurhills.com). “The split-fairway concept is something we hadn't used elsewhere at Westhaven, so it brought diversity to the routing. It was also clear he had really studied our plan for Westhaven: He didn't replicate any particular hole already on the plan. He also created a hole that relies on the strategic use of angles; he devised a hole where it matters which side of the fairway you choose. Those are things we value in course architecture, as a firm.”

Added Wilczynski: “We also appreciated the detail Doug provided in his plan. He showed grade changes and bunker depths, the undulations within the green surface. He really though it through. In terms of 'showmanship', there were other entries that were prettier in terms of presentation. But Doug very effectively communicated his ideas to us, via his design, and that's important. That's a big part of our job — communicating our design ideas not just to the client but to the contractors who will ultimately build the course.”

Amateur golf course design contests have a surprisingly long and portentous history. In 1914 Dr. Alister Mackenzie won a Country Life magazine competition that solicited par-4 designs for Lido Golf Club, a C.B. Macdonald/Seth Raynor project on Long Island. Mackenzie's entry become Lido's 18th hole and launched his feted career.

“Although the business of golf architecture has changed since the Country Life competition, it is the inspiration and template for the LINKS Design Contest, which is open to amateur designers around the country,” explained LINKS editor Hunki Yun.

“There have been other armchair architect contests over the years, but the winners never got to see their designs turned into reality. In our book, this would never do. Our contest is a throwback to the Golden Age of amateur design contests: The winning design will get built the way Mackenzie's did, and we can only wish Doug the same sort of success in the future.”

About LINKS Magazine
Based in Hilton Head Island, S.C., LINKS Magazine is a 300,000-circulation golf lifestyle publication that caters to avid, affluent golfers. It is published seven times a year, and has one annual publication: Premier Properties Guide. LINKS (www.linksmagazine.com) has won numerous accolades for its design and writing, including awards from the prestigious Golf Writers Association of America.

About Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates
Toledo, Ohio-based AHSF is one of golf’s most active and cosmopolitan course design firms, with a portfolio including some 200 original designs and 130 renovations on four continents (www.arthurhills.com). In addition to its projects in the U.S. and Mexico, AHSF has flourished abroad with design projects currently underway in Sweden, Portugal, Norway, Morocco, Russia, Belize, Costa Rica, Canada and the Caribbean.

About Westhaven GC
Westhaven Golf Club is a private, championship 18-hole golf course, in Franklin, Tennessee, from land developer Southern Land Company. The name derives from the adjacent upscale community, Westhaven, from which the 200 acres best suited to golf were chosen from its original 1,500. As a “core” course, none of the homes will line the course; this allows members to enjoy the true golfing experience in a completely natural setting. For more information, call 615-778-3231, or visit www.golfwesthaven.com, where several videos document Hills/Forrest’s design and construction efforts.

Contact: Hal Phillips
Mandarin Media/US
207-926-3700
hphillips@mandarinmedia.net