"Signature Hole" golfscapes for Ernie Els Design

About a year and a half ago I was contacted by Phil Cotton, a business manager for professional golfer Ernie Els. I think most golf fans know that the South African Mr. Els, AKA: "The Big Easy," is the winner of 4 Major Championship victories, as well as a recent World Golf Hall of Fame inductee. Phil and I discussed possibilities of me creating a series of original golf art images for a number of Els projects, one of which being "signature hole" golfscapes to be used to advertise a number of golf courses around the world designed by Ernie Els Design.

About a month ago this "signature hole" project finally became a reality... and so once the contract was resolved, and the specific golf courses and their corresponding "signature holes" were established, I was off and running with the first image.

The Wentworth Club outside of London, England was my first subject. Their venerable West Course was originally designed by Harry S. Colt back in the 1920's, and then redesigned/modified by Ernie Els and his design company in 2008-2011. I had my choice of depicting one of several different signature holes from the course, but I selected the 18th hole because I thought it to be a beautiful looking golfscape, plus it was the hole that had undergone the most significant design changes, and also because its redesign had been the most controversial. Mr. Els took a lot of criticism over his redesign of this specific 18th hole. Apparently it had been a relatively short par 5 which yielded quite a few eagles and near certain birdies for the the top professionals. Then, Mr. Els transformed it into a longer par 5 with a smallish green protected by a new devilish lateral water hazard that fits tightly along the entire length of the left side of the green, making players think more than twice about going for the green in 2 shots... In other words, it stirred up the hornet's nest of player opinion, I guess especially with those who had previously enjoyed unmolested eagles.


I have never played the hole personally... but have seen the hole in championship play on television, and the redesigned hole indeed makes for very exciting action. If a player (with the length and confidence) hits and holds the green in just 2 shots, it is indeed a very, very good shot that could possibly be then rewarded with a rare eagle. And the option of laying up requires executing a crisp, very accurate wedge 3rd shot, navigating the creek which tightly skirts the green, especially if the flagpin is set on the left side. To me it seemed like a design improvement befitting an 18th hole for a course staging professional championship caliber events.

Putting the hole's "playability" issue aside.... from my visual aesthetic viewpoint (comparing the old 18th hole photos to the newly redesigned 18th hole), I far prefer the look of the new 18th hole based on a purely sculptural characteristics. Put another way, if the 18th hole still looked the way it did before the redesign by Els and company, I probably would not have chosen it to be the subject of my "signature hole" art image. The creek that splits the fairway then glides alongside the green gives the hole better visual definition and character.

sketch of 18th hole at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

Seen above is my early preliminary rough sketch of the 18th hole... created with pastel, crayon, and gouache. Ideally I would prefer to be on-site to make sketches and take my own reference photos, but in the case of this project I had to work from photos supplied to me by Ernie Els Design.

painting of 18th hole at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

Here is my finished painting of the 18th hole (with the distinctive clubhouse building seen in the far background up on the hill beyond the green). The final completed painting was created with pastel, crayon, and gouache on Arches 260lb hot press paper, with composited layering done in Photoshop. The "story" I envisioned in my head while executing the art was that it is the last light of the day as you play the 18th hole, and it had been a gray, drizzly afternoon and finally the blue sky appears in patches. 

close-up of painting of 18th hole at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

A closer view of the green area... you can see how dangerously close the lateral water hazard fits against the green. In this painting I particularly like how I painted the background bank of trees in a loose impressionistic manner. By depicting mere suggestions of trees without much detail at all, it allows the specific detailing of the green, flagstick and the hazard's wooden piling just in front of the green to focus the viewer's attention there. 

Shown above are three under-painting "stage" views of the painting image in progress....
1: pastel roughing out the shapes of the fairway and tree masses. 2: painting a layer on top with gouache to better define areas and tones. 3: beginning to sharpen the  areas and shapes with more detail. 

drawing of 18th green at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

Above is a second art image I created also of the 18th green at Wentworth, seen from a rear/side angle looking back down the 18th fairway. I purposely executed the drawing in deep browns, blacks and rose color, all to heighten the danger of the lurking water hazard. I also chose this angle so the viewer could really see just how steep the embankment down into the water hazard truly is.

drawing of 18th green at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

Above is a closer view of the 18th green drawing.

There are other "signature hole" art images from the Ernie Els Design project still to come, so check back again in a month or so. The next hole I will be creating an art image of -is on the opposite side of the planet from Wentworth!


Visit SASgolf.com to see all my golf art prints available, however the Wentworth signature hole art images are not available in a limited edtion golf art print, well, not yet anyway...