Aill Farraige GC WIP

[sandsaver01]

Aill Farraige Golf Club is my WIP for the Rookie Designers Challenge.  The name is Irish Gaelic for "Sea Cliff", and the course is a linksy style seaside track on the West coast of the Irish Republic (in my imagination that is)using the Highlands theme.  There is not a single tree on the course, but there are plenty of other things to worry about.  Although not completely finished, it is close to done and I will be publishing a Beta pretty soon.

The course plays at 7440 from the tips, with 3 tees and 4 pinsets.  I am showing some pictures here to perhaps pique your curiosity.

The par 5 #2 fairway from the tee




#2 looking toward green



The short par 4 #3



Downhill to the seaside holes; the Par 3 #4 from the elevated tee



#5 green



#6



Longish uphill par 3 #14, back up the cliffs for the last 4 holes



I welcome any comments or suggestions. AS I said, I will publish a beta shortly.

[sandsaver01]

Aill Farraige GC has been renamed as it's English translation, Sea Cliffs Golf Club beta. The gaelic name was just too difficult to pronounce. The course is now published under the Sea cliffs name and I would appreciate anyone giving it a try and commenting on anything that could be improved in the time available until the deadline for the Rookie Design challenge.

[ffrog]

Just played the beta from the back tees, pinset 4. left everything at default apart from the fairways which I set at medium to match the greens (don't know if your default is soft, or if it's the the usual highlands-bug that set it to soft on publishing).

Thought it generally looked good and played well, and I enjoyed my round. I noted down a few things that I would change if it was my course:

Regarding play-ability, there were a few landing areas that seemed very small (in particular the 7th - on that hole, I actually aimed straight at the green to land in the flat area of heavy rough, rather than go left to the small fairway landing area and probably finish in a bunker/rough with a longer approach).

There were also a couple of pin locations that were very tough: the 4th behind a hump, and the 16th on an upturned saucer.

Regarding aesthetics, there were some holes I think you could tweak to give a better view of the green from the tee, particularly the 4th and the 17th.

There were some beach areas where there was a strip of dirt between the sand and the water, would be good if you could get that transition looking more natural.

The 9th tee box needs to be flattened.

There was something that looked a bit odd on the sculpting of some of the bunkers, where the sand texture and grass texture were flat next to each other.

There were some lovely retaining walls out there, unfortunately some of them you wouldn't see in normal play (e.g. the 7th) - unfortunately, don't think there's much you can do about that.

My favorite hole was definitely the par 4 double-greened 17th. Drove the lower green but then had a tricky putt, felt really good. If you could lower the initial part of the fairway so you could see the green from the tee, it would be even more impressive.

[sandsaver01]

Sept 15, 2019 16:27:05 GMT -5 ffrog said:

Regarding aesthetics, there were some holes I think you could tweak to give a better view of the green from the tee, particularly the 4th and the 17th.

There were some beach areas where there was a strip of dirt between the sand and the water, would be good if you could get that transition looking more natural.

The 9th tee box needs to be flattened.

There was something that looked a bit odd on the sculpting of some of the bunkers, where the sand texture and grass texture were flat next to each other.

There were some lovely retaining walls out there, unfortunately some of them you wouldn't see in normal play (e.g. the 7th) - unfortunately, don't think there's much you can do about that.

My favorite hole was definitely the par 4 double-greened 17th. Drove the lower green but then had a tricky putt, felt really good. If you could lower the initial part of the fairway so you could see the green from the tee, it would be even more impressive.

Thanks for the input. Try as I might I cannot make the interface between the ocean and the sand eliminate the dirt strip - and I have tried! maybe it is linked to the Highlands theme?

I have already fixed the sightline issue on #4, and will ponder what to do with #17.Note added in edit. I have just tried any number of ways to make the lower green visible from the tee, and it cannot be done without totally ruining the hole imho. I know the judges are concerned with sightlines, but you can see the fairway landing area from the tee.

I will flatten the 9th, thought I had gotten them all flat.

I would like a little more detail on the sand/grass deal about the bunkers - there are an awful lot of bunkers to inspect. I do not remember an issue but will keep an eye out.

It is a shame about those retaining walls - no one will ever see them in play - but thanks for the shout-out, I really like the way they came out.

On 17 lower green, it is often better to not hit the green, especially if the pin is in the back - that hump makes the putt almost impossible. The best play is to hit the upper fairway and flop to the pin.

Thanks again for the playthrough and info.

[ffrog]

Sept 16, 2019 6:44:32 GMT -5 sandsaver01 said:

I would like a little more detail on the sand/grass deal about the bunkers - there are an awful lot of bunkers to inspect. I do not remember an issue but will keep an eye out.

You can probably ignore the thing about the bunkers - they just looked a bit different to the ones on my recent highlands course, which is why I noticed. The back left of the 3rd bunker on the right of the 1st fairway is an example - there is no lip or line between the sand and the grass texture. It looks different on my course because I had light rough around every bunker, which adds a dark line and a tiny lip between the sand and the light rough texture. Not suggesting you do that here as it would probably ruin the look.

[sandsaver01]

I had not paid any attention to that visual difference between rough/heavy rough around bunkers. I usually just do heavy rough around the bunkers unless I am going for a manicured look.