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Post by ErixonStone on Aug 13, 2019 22:58:01 GMT -5
gdog once called it "a triumph!" La Playa Vacia Golf Retreat is one of my oldest courses, released in June 2016. In spite of being released immediately after El Toro Golf Club, most of the work on the original course pre-dates the first HB Rookie Design Contest. I actually had done quite a bit of work on porting it to TGC2 - completing 17 holes of a renovation by the time TGC2019 was released. Due to the changes in how the designer handles splines, none of the completed work was up to the standards of a modern TGC course, so I scrapped the project. Now that my contest courses are complete, I am turning my focus back towards this project and have started from scratch. Note: the original release featured 3 sets of tees (only the Blues are playable; the other two sets are dummy tees). The new release will feature four sets of tees. Other note: The colors in TGC1 were much more vibrant. 1st hole: I widened the lay-up area of the fairway and increased its overall slope towards the lake. I connected the fairway to the green and removed some trees. I reshaped and re-contoured the green, and removed the bunker from the front-right. TGC1 TGC2019 2nd hole: I added fairway in front of the bushy area the guards the green and cleared a few of the trees from behind the hole. TGC1 TGC2019 3rd hole: I opened up the sightline on the left of the tee so that the entire hole is visible. I widened the lay-up area of the fairway (way to the right). I shrunk and elevated the green to create better sightlines. TGC1 TGC2019 More to come as I work through this project.
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Post by gdog on Aug 14, 2019 2:31:43 GMT -5
Hell yes. I love this course. Can't wait to give it a play.
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Post by jacobkessler on Aug 14, 2019 17:18:14 GMT -5
Ah, forgot about this one but it was one of my favorites back in TGC1. Can’t wait to play it!
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Post by DoubtfulObelisk on Aug 15, 2019 20:01:48 GMT -5
Looking very good, Patrick. I remember enjoying the course back in TGC1, so I'm interested to see how it'll look once you've renovated it. Hard to believe it's been over three years since the original release.
Speaking of courses published in June of 2016, I've been thinking of remastering Doubtful Dunes for this game. Any tips for this kind of process? Don't mean to derail the thread, but I am curious if there's anything you wish you had known before beginning work on this.
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Post by ErixonStone on Aug 23, 2019 22:08:51 GMT -5
Speaking of courses published in June of 2016, I've been thinking of remastering Doubtful Dunes for this game. Any tips for this kind of process? Don't mean to derail the thread, but I am curious if there's anything you wish you had known before beginning work on this. A few things to keep in mind: 1. The gameplay is totally different from TGC1. 2. Splines in TGC2019 are far superior to brushes, so be prepared to redo every fairway and every green. 3. The look and feel of the game is different. Trees don't look the same. The lighting is different. 4. Basic standards have been raised way past what they were 3 years ago. Basically, just about everything needs a touch-up, so the only remnants from the original course are your ideas and maybe a few landmarks.
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Post by ErixonStone on Sept 2, 2019 10:11:55 GMT -5
I had been making steady progress on this with some minor changes, but some of the middle holes required almost complete reconstruction. I'll get to those a little later, but for now, a few more photos of the progress. 4th hole: I opened up the tree line on the right side so long hitters don't have to clear trees and the bunkers to cut the corner. I widened the fairway to the left giving a much wider "safe" landing area, and I increased visibility from the tee. TGC1 TGC2019 5th hole: I removed the first fairway bunker, and the bunkers to the right of the fairway encroach on the fairway a little bit more. I removed the run-off behind the green and replaced that area with green surface. The green is now bordered by retaining wall instead of by plants and flowers. TGC1 TGC2019
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Post by ErixonStone on Sept 10, 2019 22:34:13 GMT -5
More photos of the in-progress renovation. I made some major changes on a couple of these, redoing bunkers, and even completely overhauling an entire hole. 6th hole: I increased the size of the green and its apron significantly. I combined the two front bunkers into a single one and removed some of the trees from the left side of the tee. TGC1 TGC2019 7th hole: I widened the fairway, removed the first fairway bunker, brought the edge of the playable area closer to the lake and removed the trees blocking the lakeside views. TGC1 TGC2019 8th hole: I pinched the fairway and redid the bunker at the corner of the fairway. I moved the tree line back to expose the foothills on the right side and widened the layup area short of the pond. I redid the entire green complex with a new green shape and a new front-left bunker. TGC1 TGC2019 9th hole: I completely redid the hole. I eliminated the zig-zag fairway and instead, built two bunkers on the left side of the fairway. The tee shot is still semi-blind, but gone is the bunker to the right that swallowed up good shots in the first iteration. I opened up the beach view a little bit on the right hand side, and increased the visual interest on the left by adding some jagged terrain. I eliminated the pond to the front-left of the green, and built an entirely new green complex with an S shaped green and a new bunker guarding the front-right. TGC1 TGC2019 10th hole: I made minor changes, just cleaning up the fairway and green, but this hole remains largely the same. TGC1 TGC2019
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