5
 
 
  
1:44 PM, Monday, September 5th, 2016:
 
Feels like this entry should've been made weeks ago, not the DAY of the tournament, but after killing myself to complete the hole for "Geeking Out" and that fell through... I just took some time off. Then frantically finished some shit today and here we are. Introducing, Golf Hard:
 
 
So much anticipation for this hole for me. The moment I made the SuperTee in March I knew I had to make Hole 9 a Zero shot as well. What I did not realize was that Die Hard was a freaking 80s movie. So funny, I'm on Facebook and a friend (also GolfKon player, Stacey Ferguson) posted a picture of her new job at Fox Plaza (Nakatomi Tower from Die Hard) and it just hit me: Holy shit Die Hard is an 80s movie...
 
...and when you think of it, that really is stunning. It's so hard to explain to younger people just how revolutionary Die Hard was when it came out in 1988. It feels like a mid-90s film because it got copied like crazy the moment it hit. This is a movie that came out 2 years after Top Gun... yet it's a completely different era. Was my favorite movie for sooooooo long. Still love it. Having this as part of GolfKon feels more personal than, say Caddyshack, which just made logical sense. Happy about that...
 
The addition itself was pretty straight forward. The biggest issue being how exacting to make that tower. I wanted the scale proportional (1:100) but it was an awful catch 22: it would either be too damn tall or too puny. I ended up with a little compromise: it has the bulk to feel substantial, but it's not so tall that it dominates the area. It should technically be about a foot higher... but that was just too much. Keeping it the height, yet thinning out the middle to be the correct proportions just looked whimpy. It looked like I just tacked on this building onto the platform. This compromise looks correct for the course. Then of course came painting all those goddamn lines without the ability to use tape or a ruler. Oh fuck me. You can look at the construction entry for that.
 
So here we are. The day of the event. Unforutnately De'Voreaux Sefas White (actor who played Argyle) after originally being excited about coming out... sent me to his agent who ignored me and the charity video and that was the end of that.
 
<blink>
 
People choose the silliest bridges to burn, no? A professional "no" goes a loooooooooooooooong way. When you ghost people in this industry it is never forgotten. A tip of the hat to you, Mr. Agent.
 
Oh well. Had the charity and sponsor lined up, was ready to get the news/radio publicity going... annnnnnnnnnd buh-bye. Putting these things together are harder than you can believe sometimes.
 
BUT THE HOLE IS DONE. Now, a zero shot on hole 9? That is exciting to me. That will come up more than the SuperTee Hole 4. You will have no choice on the last hole if you're down two strokes. In fact, I'm pretty stunned that I may have figured out an entirely new concept in minigolf. To my knowledge it's never been done. Now, granted, it's because most courses don't have the space issue that I have, but it's baffling to me that the idea of a "choice" isn't a "thing" in minigolf because goodness is it a wonderful moment when someone takes that risk. I feel like it will become yet another part of GolfKon that keeps it original. It's the one thing that makes me slightly consider designing a real minigolf course with Zero Shots because nowhere else has it. Yes, I'm thinking of you, Andrew. ;-)
 
For the Labor Day Finals today, each player will have to do the two zero shots ONCE at some point during the 4 rounds. Obviously this is the only tournament I would do that for. In the match-play events you have to pick ONE zero shot to do in the 3 rounds of the bracket and for all other events you can skip them if you'd like. But as I said, if you're down two strokes going into the last hole? You have to attempt it. Pretty cool. I think it's harder to get on the green than Hole 4... but easier to get a Zero Shot (if that makes any sense). On the SuperTee once you get it on the green the ball is moving so fast your chance of it going in is absolutely luck. It has to ricochet in a crazy random sequence to slow down enough for it to go in... On Hole 9 however, if you DO get it on the green? It can ABSOLUTEY roll in because the speed to get it on is JUSST slow enough for it to be possible. Getting it on however is extremely difficult on your first try.
 
So, anyway, happy, excited - and now the tournament is about to start. GODDAMNIT I WANT TO WIN THIS SO BAD.
 
Ahem. Good luck everyone.
 
Adam