Felt will probably be the biggest and toughest course type as the quality of the lanes differs a lot. There a 32 lane types (should be 33 as #32 twin gates actually is two different lanes depending on where you put the openings) and as with the eternite lanes I removed some right away and divided the rest into groups.
I removed middle hill (#12), side hole in slope (#17) and ditch (#21). Middle hill is not interesting, side hole and ditch are normally bad.
I came up with a total of 7 groups for the felt lanes.
Group 1 is made up by straight shot flat lanes with green; single gate, double gate, boxes, optical illusion, lightning, cross, flat channel and twin gate. The twin gate here is like the one in MunktellArenan where the middle part is close to 5-10cm wide, also referred to as “goalie” in Sweden. Both single gate and double gate would be placed in the next group when they are in a hill. I would order the lanes like this: lightning, boxes, optical illusion, twin gate, single gate, double gate, flat channel and cross.
Group 2 is straight shot lanes in a hill with green; fishbone, bridge (not really in a hill, I know), channel and inclined hill with gate. The inclined hill with gate doesn’t necessarily require a straight shot, but I put it here anyway. The order would be fishbone, inclined hill with gate, channel and bridge.
Group 3 is the touch lanes where speed is priority; gentleman, örkelljunga, möllberg-cradle and mailbox.
Group 4 is touch lanes where direction is priority and where you can reduce the importance of speed with good ball choice; middle hole in slope, cradle, money box and mailbox with three entrances. You could make an argument that mailbox should be here also, but as direction has no importance for passing the obstacle I put it in the speed priority group.
Group 5 is simply made up by the ledges; German ledge and Swedish ledge. Both of course come with the version of having a plateau.
Group 6 consists of all angles; angle, prolonged angle and angle with detour.
Group 7 is the junk group. Lanes that could be used if they are exceptionally good, but almost always are not constant; side gate, twin gates (side gate version), hill with gate, vertical hole in slope and horseshoe.
A vast selection of lanes and my preference for nine lanes would be to use four-five lanes from groups 1 and 2, three-four lanes from groups 3 and 4 (mainly group 3) and one lane from groups 5 or 6.
So let’s see what some felt courses would look like in cup-format. I will go through MunktellArenan and Bad Münder and tell you what I think of each lane and see where I end up.
MunktellArenan
1. Side gates (group 7) – Not exceptionally good, in fact pretty bad even though a lot of aces are made. No.
2. Middle hole in slope (4) – Not constant enough to be used. No.
3. Inclined hill with gate (2) – Good lane. Yes
4. Small mailbox with three entrances (4) – Too easy. No
5. Boxes (1) – Good lane. Yes
6. Cradle (4) – The lane is good, but I would prefer not to use. Maybe
7. Gentleman (3) – Good and tough lane. Yes
8. Optical Illusion (1) – Not the best of straight lanes. No
9. Twin gate (1) – Good enough to be in the hunt. Maybe
10. Angle (6) – Too easy, but not constant enough. No
11. Channel (2) – Tough good lane. Yes
12. Fishbone (2) – Tough good lane. Yes
13. German ledge (5) – Good and constant. Yes
14. Mailbox with three entrances (4) – Tough, but not constant to be a perfect choice. Could be used though. Maybe
15. Money box (4) – Way too easy. No
16. Örkelljunga (3) – Good lane. Yes
17. Bridge (2) – Good lane with several options. Yes
18. Ace box – Not even close to be used. No
Let’s add it all up. From group 1 we have one Yes and one Maybe; in group 2 we have four Yes; Group 3 gives us two Yes; Group 4 only has two Maybes and finally group 5 has one Yes. In total that gives us 8 Yes and 2 Maybe. 5 of the 8 Yes are from groups 1 and 2 and since also one maybe is from that group we have to decide between lane 6, cradle and lane 14 mailbox, even though I would like to say that the Maybe-lane from group 1 (Twin gate) is the better choice. And since the mailbox isn’t constant and the cradle is, the cradle will be chosen.
Inclide hill with gate (lane 3), Boxes (5), Cradle (6), Gentleman (7), Channel (11), Fishbone (12), German ledge (13), Örkelljunga (16) and Bridge (17) will be the selection for MunktellArenan.
Bad Münder is next. Now this is six year’s ago and although I have a good memory when it comes to minigolf I won’t guarantee that my assessments will be accurate. Also the lanes could have been changed; I have no clue about that.
1. Single gate (1) – Good lane. Yes
2. Boxes (1) – Good lane. Yes
3. Double gate (1) – Good lane, but short. Too easy to hit the hole and jump out. No
4. Middle hole in slope (4) – As I remember not perfectly constant, but decent. Maybe.
5. Gentleman (3) – Tough, good lane. Yes
6. Optical illusion (1) – I think it was good. Maybe
7. Mailbox (3) – Constant and offers an offensive and a defensive choice. Yes
8. German ledge (5) – Good and very tough lane. Yes
9. Middle hill – No way.
10. Flat channel (1) – Not really group 1 as you play it off the board, but good lane. Yes
11. Örkelljunga (3) – Rather easy, but good enough. Yes
12. Bridge (2) – Good lane. Yes
13. Money box (4) – Too easy. No
14. Cradle (4) – Not that easy, but not very fun. No
15. Angle (6) – Very tough, but also perfectly constant lane. Yes
16. Side gate (7) – Horrible lane. No
17. Inclined hill with gate (2) – Both straight and board shot. Yes
18. Ace box – No way.
From group 1 we have three Yes and one Maybe; group 2 gives us two Yes, group 3 contributes with three Yes; group 4 with one Maybe; both groups 5 and 6 gives us one Yes each. With this we have 10 Yes and 2 Maybe. Since we have a flat channel played off the board I would like to choose five lanes from groups 1 and 2. With this reasoning it comes down to removing one lane of gentleman, Örkelljunga, angle, German ledge and mailbox. If I were to follow my guidelines I would remove the ledge or angle, but both are very good lanes, so I will remove Örkelljunga simply because it’s the easiest lane. That would leave me with only one true speed lane in Gentleman, which doesn’t feel very good. To make room for both the ledge and angle I will instead remove the bridge giving me less straight lanes, but since the course is not in a Nordic country, maybe it should be more technical instead of straight. The cup selection for Bad Münder would be like this: single gate (lane 1), boxes (2), gentleman (5), mailbox (7), German ledge (8), flat channel (10), Örkelljunga (11), angle (15) and inclined hill with gate (17).
I would like to believe that I have thought these selections processes through pretty good and hopefully some high up in the WMF could have a look and determine if this could be a better way to select lanes for the cup rounds. If some of you know of people in the WMF that doesn’t visit hear, please ask them to make an exception and visit here anyway just to get an idea for an alternative way to select the lanes.