I have perused the existing comments, but I might have missed someone already having said this. Anyway, in case no one has, let me say this: There’s an added layer of elegance in the puzzle. There are so many O’s in straight lines as the ball caroms around to get from tee to cup, but there isn’t a single other O anywhere but in that long path. Very cool!
@Steve L thanks for sharing that great observation! What a delight of a puzzle.
Love the animation! Quite the hole in one too, even for minigolf.
Can I just say, I'm still smiling and I finished the puzzle ten minutes ago. This is the kind of puzzle that keeps me addicted to crosswords, and fascinated by constructors' creativity and skill. A real feat of construction! And that's, erm, putting it mildly. I don't play golf, and whatever I know, I learned here. And so, when I saw the CUP (which I didn't even know went by that name), I thought uh-oh. But pretty soon, I was wanting to know what it was all about, and, inch by inch and word by word, was rewarded for peeling the layers. It turned out to be an immensely satisfying solve, and the animation added even more joy to it. Kudos to Mr. Newton, Joel Fagliano, and the editorial and graphics team. (Still smiling.) Thank you, Mr. Newton, and congratulations on your first Monday xword. ITSDOPE!
@sotto voce Prepare to be bored: There’s actually a plastic or pvc cup inside the hole on each green. When I was on a greens crew as a teenager, one of our first jobs in the early a.m. was to move each hole on each green, to keep the course interesting and shift the wear and tear around the green. First, you would use a simple tool to extract the cup from the existing hole. Then, you use another tool to cut out a new hole, like extracting a cylindrical soil core sample the exact same circumference and depth as the old hole. You drop the cylinder of soil with its turf top into the old hole, drop the cup into the new hole, and then place the flag in the center hole of the cup. Believe it our not, there is some thought into where you cut a hole. It can’t be too close to the apron or the old hole, can’t be on a ridiculously difficult slope, or in a ridiculously easy gully. Regardless of how careful you are in choosing a given day’s cup placement, there will be members who complain that the day’s configuration was too difficult, and others who will complain that it was too easy. It reminds me of something else, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…
I have rarely if ever enjoyed a Monday puzzle so much. Although it was a breeze of ease, it was somehow tasty all the same. I mean even before the theme, it was just somehow fluid... some Monday puzzles somehow satisfy despite not having "difficulty", and this was like that. Like one of those pleasant tunes that's simple but somehow puts your mind at ease, as you nod with pleasure at its almost Taoist 'yes'ness. Plus a few little morsels, tidbits of whimsical crunch, like "Addictive thing in one's pocket" (PHONE), "Site for skeletons" (CLOSET), a cute PuzzPair as Lewis would call it of AQUA and AQUI (and ACOW?), and this is all even before counting the theme! For some reason my app didn't do the animation, which I didn't realize it was s'posed to do, but I supplied the sound effects: as I looked for the O's I went "deedle-deedle-leedle-leedle-deedle-deedle-deedle leedle-deedle-deedle-dooooo" as my finger traced its path. It's lovely to have a light meal like a Monday puzzle be so delectable. Thank you, Jeremy Newton! No wonder they named the international metric unit of force after you!
Hole-y moly. That's one of the best Mondays I've ever seen. It was a delight to solve and the amount of skill that went into constructing it is mind-boggling. And a bonus point for "That's Putting It Nicely." A . Bravo!
I've never golfed before, but I could take a swing at it. (A little birdie told me that one.)
@Mike I don't golf...I prefer to putter around with flowers and feed the birdies.
@Mike That one left me a little green around the gills. Wood you tee another one up for us in Eagle? If you get an online gimme, is it an EMUlligan?
@Mike Iron a club if you sink you wood care to join. Duffers game can be challenge but you could master it, Tiger!
My five favorite clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Where F comes before E? (3) 2. One who can't handle their moonshine well? (8) 3. Evidence of a past personal connection? (5) 4. One with a short term in office? (6) 5. Pop back and forth? (3) CAR WEREWOLF NAVEL INTERN DAD
@Lewis When looking at the fuel gauge, and reading from left to right as we do here, the E usually comes before F, eh? E ' I ' I ' I ' F I guess it depends on whether you look at it as Word or Representation. (Apologies to Schopenhauer.)
I'm rarely impressed by a puzzle's construction but damn, this was really impressive. Chapeau bas!
Not only a great theme, a theme that spanned the entire puzzle! Excellent, excellent job
I just had to pop in and say how much I appreciated the work that obviously went into the construction of this puzzle. The animation at the conclusion was the icing on the cake. Jeremy Newton absolutely nailed this shot - hole in one indeed ⛳️. Favorite Monday puzzle since I started solving regularly about 3 years ago.
@Jacqui J I feel like this is going to be one crossword people remember--like "remember that one puzzle with the hole in one from a few years ago?"
I didn’t notice all the Os while solving, so when the bonus graphic appeared upon completion I said to myself “O wow!”. Congratulations, Jeremy. You really aced it! .....
@Anita Me too, exactly. I’m now slack-jawed in wonder.
Jeremy has an artistic background, having attended a magnet high school for the visual arts, the Art Institute of Dallas, and then an N.Y.U. grad program in code-driven art installations. Two thirds of his 27 NYT puzzles have fallen on Sundays, and most of them involve visual elements. He also incorporates those elements in his 15 x 15 puzzles, such as his terrific WORK/LIFE puzzle (March 9, 2017). His puzzles are technically superb, today’s no exception. It’s already been mentioned that there are no O’s in the grid aside from the golf ball’s bath (Hi, @Steve L!), and that the path travels through all three words of HOLE INONE SHOT. But also, I love that the path that the golf ball takes is perfectly symmetrical! In addition, the cluing kept my brain engaged, even on Easy Monday. Several times I filled in an answer only to have to erase it and put in another. That rarely happens to me on a Monday, and I love it! Lovely serendipities as well. How the theme of O’s is echoed by OWE. Three palindromes (LOL, AMA, URU). How TEE and CUP together make “teacup” – it’s a silly coincidence, I know, but I love silly coincidences like this! Anyway, Jeremy, you are a standout constructor in all aspects of puzzle-making, as today’s puzzle exhibits. Bravo, sir, and thank you for a puzzle that soared through my happy zone!
In paragraph three, "bath", of course, should be "path". Oops, and I'm sorry! Et tu, emu.
A cute little puzzle that didn't raise any flags
Was going through this one quickly trying to keep my Monday solve under time and completely missed the lovely O detail until after the animation appeared. I don’t normally comment, but this was such a wonderful achievement of a puzzle that it deserves the recognition.
Have completed the puzzle every day in 2024 but always have to do an answer check. Today was the very first day I ever did it all on my own and got my first streak star! Feeling proud.
@Shannabanana Congratulations! Amazing work :)
I’m really pleased that everyone loved this incredible Monday puzzle as much as I did. To create a Monday puzzle as interesting as this is and keep it quite easy to solve takes a lot of effort I’m sure, so many thanks, Jeremy.
Just want to lends my voice this is really is this the best Monday puzzle I can remember. Believe me this is a feat to create and still keep all the fill straightforward. I can’t even imagine
OMG OMG OMG! What brilliant construction and wonderful animation. Thought this was much tougher than a usual Monday, but the downs were a breeze and the payoff well worth it. Thanks for pushing the envelope on my expectations.
Clever and fun! Excellent Monday level, with a neat bit of intricate design and an extra reward upon completion. Very enjoyable!
OMG if you zoom in on the finished puzzle, just make it big, and watch the animation the ball is not plain yellow. It has little dots on it, like a golfball!
@Ann I think they're called "dimples." But yes, that's pretty cool. Thanks for mentioning it.
@Ann and much thanks to you, I now know that you can zoom in on the grid! I've been squinting at my phone all this time (especially on Sundays). Can't believe I didn't try that before.
@Ann Wow, nice pickup. I don’t think anyone has mentioned the dimples yet and it’s after 5 PM EST. Almost an Easter Egg as I certainly cannot appreciate them at all without the zoom. A really nice job today all the way around! — — — — — — — —
I cannot remember a better Monday puzzle. Delightful.
@Rob I completely agree. Super fun and love the post solve extra!
@Rob Neither do I. Of course, these days I can’t remember a grocery list longer than two items. (Yesterday, at my wife’s behest, I ordered a bottle of Prevagen for her mother from Amazon. When it got here, I yelled to her, as we had a house full of company, your package is here. She shouted at me, what package? I said, you know, the pills. She looked at me as if to say, what pills? Situational irony at its best.)
@Rob @Steve L I completely agree, this was the perfect Monday. Monday of the year for sure, perhaps Monday of the decade. So we have a family laugh at one particular Prevagen commercial. I don’t know if it’s common knowledge outside the medical community, but the white coats worn have a particular significance. Most med schools in recent years hold a “white coat ceremony” for new med students to don one for the first time. For the idea, see: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/2pmnaewa" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/2pmnaewa</a> The coats the medical students put on are “short”. They continue to wear these short coats throughout med school and the PG-Y 1 “internship”. After that year they become “residents” and usually are allowed to change to “long” white coats. It’s a way for the savvy to recognize on sight inexperienced, likely less knowledgeable colleagues. In this particular TV ad the pharmacist comes out in a short coat which looks so silly for any medical professional watching. A real hoot, IMHO. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/2ezzvh7e" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/2ezzvh7e</a>
Holey cow, not a lie when I say I am impressed. A grid that's late week worthy made with a bag of Monday clues—that could not have been easy, and the playful rolling shot at the finale was a tribute to the constructor and to the players as well. I was not expecting such a fun puzzle this evening and was delighted by the one you made for us, Jeremy Newton. (Do you by any chance know Rory McIlroy?—He had a great game today, too!)
Terrific Monday debut, Jeremy! LOADS OF FUN. After all those Sundays, a Friday and a Saturday for the cycle. (After solving on my stone tablet, I read about the animation and "re-solved" online to see it.)
Super fun. Exactly what a Monday (and most crosswords) should be. No real trivia to look up. Answers make sense without making you say "Come on". Plus there was enough crosses that even for the stranger ones it was still doable. Loved it.
I thought the switch up on the gimme clues made this more fun. I had to get through all of the crosses before committing to certain answers. Took longer than my typical Monday. But, Dawg, that was a good mental workout for a Monday puzzle.
Blown away to see the OOOOOs at the end line up. What a clever theme and amazing execution.
This was pretty amazing! It seems so smooth and effortless but must have been a real challenge to put together and make it work. Plus, making it a Monday puzzle is a stroke of genius in helping starting solvers to see what fun lies ahead!
Coolest execution of a theme ever! And on a Monday, no less, which must be even more constraining. I’m impressed!
I started off just puttering around this puzzle, but certainly got into the swing of things as I maneuvered my way through the grid. I would certainly have to say that while I would say that this was definitely on a par with some of the better puzzles I've seen, I'd have to rate this as at least an eagle as well as a hole in one. Thanks for the golf lesson, Jeremy, and thanks for not throwing in any hazards.
I didn't notice all the Os when I was solving it, so I was quite surprised to see the cool animation after I solved it. This is SO clever! I hope we see a lot more from Jeremy Newton!
@Joan I’m right with you! This one is better solved electronically for the big finish.
I'll join the chorus (daddy sings bass). This was an amazing and very enjoyable Monday puzzle. Can't even imagine what it must have taken to put this together with all those O's in that pattern. My solve was just a bit on the slow side for a Monday, but that just added to the enjoyment. Stumbled across a couple of quite remarkable puzzles today. I'll put those in replies. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: First puzzle was a Thursday from August 23, 2018 by Kyle Dolan. I'm sure I'd done that one but had completely forgotten it. Anyway... ... the 'reveal' clue/answer in that one was: "Common farming technique ... or a hint to solving this puzzle :" CROPROTATION And then there were three rebus squares - CORN, RICE and RYE, and what happened is that each of the 'theme' answers actually turned the corner at those spots. Little bit hard to describe, but as one example - 7d (as entered) was HOT(CORN)WALL and it was crossed by 20a, which was DUCHESSOF(CORN)ER. So if you 'turned the corner' at the rebus you ended up with DUCHESSOF(CORN)WALL and HOT(CORN)ER. The other pairs of crosses were: 3d - ELECT(RICE)RANGE crossing 28a - P(RICE)ELS So with the corner turn you got: ELECTRICEELS PRICERANGE and 25d - BETTER(RYE)DITOR crossing 46a - STO(RYE)T And with the corner turn you got: BETTERYET and STORYEDITOR Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/23/2018&g=7&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/23/2018&g=7&d=D</a> One more puzzle find in another reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta I always sang it as, "Mama sings bass; Daddy sings tenor," just for a little fun... I guess we Paper and Pen People miss out on graphics... (So, they can afford those programmers, but not copy editors?) I had fun trying to imagine how the ball would carom off those spots for 90-degree turns FOUR times! Was it a ramp or something?
Thanks Jeremy for my 1st "hole in one" in about 65 years of golf futility.
This was lots of fun. It’s very common in structuring crosswords to see a regressive diagonal, a natural consequence of English letter patterns TA… TA… TA… that kind of thing. I’m pretty keyed in to that when it appears in a puzzle, and it is the basis of this clever puzzle. One of many jobs I did to pay for college was working at the largest Putt-Putt Golf place in the world, the midnight shift (it was open 24 hours, 364 days a year). So I also appreciated the mini-golf angle. As others have already said, it’s rare for a Monday to pop. This was a memorable example.
@David Connell I'm guessing that there's some interesting people who show up to play miniature golf at 2AM. I'm also guessing that some of them have some interesting substances in their bodies.
Now THIS was a perfect puzzle. Clever idea, satisfying execution. Well done!!
My goodness, what a clever theme. I noted the many Os, but only got the trick after completing. Very, very impressed. Well done sir.
There’ a real buzz in the comments about this amazing puzzle. Everyone’s on a Monday high, constructor included. Must be all that artificial grass. (a slam dunk, for sure)
This golf theme brings memories of my father on the links, where he cursed and spit, and often whacked his club against a tree after a bad shot. Hole after hole his anger would flare, his face redden, his arms flail. Then, as he was walking to the car afterward, he would be beaming. “Best time ever,” he would exclaim, and he meant it. Et tu, emu.
Super fun to see a puzzle with this creativity appear as a Monday. It's inspiring to see the care that went into this -- I notice that there aren't any other O's in the grid except for the pathway bouncing around. This certainly required a lot of work to build. Loved it!
Fun one today, great theme design. I always appreciate when a constructor can pull off something clever in the puzzle layout without making it feel awkward to solve.
Brilliant! The animation was a perfect finish. Loved it!
Loved this puzzle! Super cute in the app.
This was a sprightly puzzle, made more fun by the clever animation at the finish. And TIL that mini golf, like its progenitor, originated in Scotland.
I agree 100% with so many others; this was great fun and really impressive! Thank you!
This is the most fun and creative Monday crossword puzzle I can remember. I am not a native English speaker, so I am not familiar with slang either new or old but the cross fill was helpful enough to find the answers. I also appreciate the little animation at the end. Thank you
Par-fect puzzle - and on a Monday! Love the theme, visual, and the animation. Bravo!
Like everyone else, I loved this puzzle. I’m still smiling, and shaking my head in awe at the effort it took to construct it. Hands down the best Monday ever that I’ve done, and one of the best, period. Bravo! Encore, encore!
That was a fun reveal. I hope everyone has Show Overlays turned on in their Settings. Also, just my personal opinion, but I think the animation looks better in dark mode. Finally, if you are a paper solver only and want an idea of how the puzzle looks online, here's the link to the solved puzzle at xwordinfo.com. It's not quite the same, but close enough. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/13/2024" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/13/2024</a>
What an amazing puzzle today. Never seen a crossword mix media elements like that. Very very fun solve. Wonderful job y'all 💪
Loved solving it and loved the animation at the end…such a fun finish! Thanks to all involved- the puzzle creator and the tech team too!