Discussion: course setting around major feature

First time course setter here. I've got a park map with a large lake/pond in the middle of it and I'm not sure how I can set a course that gives competitors a choice of more than one route.

In some places the space between the lake and edge of the map are very narrow so you could really only place the controls in a line following a track and even placing controls off the track wouldn't see competitors taking many steps away from it, or having to choose an approach. There is also a very full river through the map with only one bridge over it so again, if I set controls on both sides all competitors will have to go the same way over (unless they prefer to swim).

Can anyone suggest any approach to setting a course in an area like this that could result in a challenging and interesting course? Thanks!

Floating controls. Better yet, submerged controls.

a big hole in the middle of a map is an ideal opportunity for making route choice problems. Put in one or two legs that go across the middle of the lake (with lots of little legs in between, to give the competitors as little chance to plan ahead as possible). It can be hard getting the balance between the left or right options spot on, but if you do (or get it close) you're guaranteed lots of post race discussion! If tRicky wants to take the red-line route he's welcome to it!

Similar to something I've puzzled over: a long narrow area such as we have on the riverbanks in the urban area here. Will never offer rural type challenges, but possibly dummy controls, maybe with a penalty for clipping wrong ones. Or, missing controls, so that you have to be quite sure before carrying on.

You could add to the challenge by omitting some or all of the trails. We do this for advanced runners at a park on San Francisco Bay that is built up from a landfill. You would want to leave on the bridge though.

We had an event here once where the tracks were omitted from the map to increase the navigation challenge but then we were told to stick to the tracks where possible. It was counterproductive.

When you have limited route options, focus on other things, like technical difficulty. Look for legs that are as interesting as you can get, and then link them together with legs that are less interesting.

Scroll right down to the bottom of page to view score and line courses set in a small area which is basically parkland with a lake in suburban Melbourne.

Any chance you could post a copy of the map? That would result in some more specific tips

It's in the link.

Thanks everyone, this has given me some ideas on how I can put the courses together using the lake in some longer legs. It was really helpful to see the map - sort of pulled together the ideas already mentioned.

@tRicky - Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was asking bsight for the map, not simmo