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Post by Crazycanuck1985 on Feb 21, 2016 17:30:30 GMT -5
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Post by rod81simo on Feb 21, 2016 18:30:09 GMT -5
All great designers Andre, I'm sure this will get them a lot more plays, again thanks for taking the time to get these done each month, great idea!
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Post by scarpacci on Feb 22, 2016 20:00:58 GMT -5
Thanks for this canuck. It's amazing really that there are 3 designers on this list that I'm pretty sure I have never played one of their courses. That will soon change.
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Post by SAM on Feb 25, 2016 23:25:28 GMT -5
Thanks for the recognition Andre….. It’s been a long hard learning curve for me.
I love golf but never played it to any great standard in real life & grew up whacking a ball, unsuccessfully with a cheap set of clubs, round the often poorly kept municipal courses of Greater Manchester with friends or family.
I grew up watching players like Greg Norman, Nick Faldo & Seve Ballesteros on my TV screen but never really paid any attention to the golf courses they would grace.
I lost touch with the game in the late 90’s & would watch maybe the final day of a Masters or the closing rounds of The Ryder Cup.
I received the Steam version of “The Golf Club” as a 50th birthday gift from my grandson & was blown away with the game play, graphics & more importantly the wonderful Greg Norman Course Designer.
Like most (including some of the top designers) my first few creations were nothing short of cringeworthy & I wish (my God I wish) I could delete them from the games database.
My natural creative mind & sparse knowledge of what a real golf course should entail meant my first TGCTours submission (“Mulligan’s Cove”) was a fantasy links course that even had you playing 2 holes into & out of a huge cave.
Following a couple more fanciful designs I created what I believed was a realistic track (The Bell Tower) & eagerly awaited Andre’s “Crazy Canuck’s Video Review.” Sadly I was wrong & in his very tactful way during numerous private messages (some of which I’m not proud of) he made me see the errors of my ways.
I turned to a friend I’d made playing the game; DDawg aka BubbaSpieth & he was instrumental in changing my mindset of wowing people with fantasy to wowing them with reality & whilst we had our disagreements & eventually parted ways, I’ll always be in debt to him for forcing his knowledge of the game & more importantly its playability on me.
With this new thirst for realism I set about designing & entering “Roebuck Manor” in Tastegw’s (Jeremy Blaylock’s) next level designer competition on the HB Forums. I now consider that to be the turning point on my curve.
It was around this time that I befriended Pingzing2 (Stephen McIntyre) through the Steam chat facility & being around the same age, with the same sense of humor it wasn’t long before we were bouncing ideas off each other, swapping course files & playing turn based whilst Skyping across thousands of miles from England to his homeland – Australia.
With Pingzing’s help I produced Dovetail Park & my first approved submission that earned a tour stop, hosting the Lyoness Open on the Euro’s.
For me, there is nothing to top that rush you get when you read that “they” want to use your course for a venue.
That buzz, knowing hundreds of players across the globe will be teeing up at your creation. The feedback, the locker room banter & of course the recognition.
After a short break to recharge the batteries I gave Mulligan’s Cove a revamp & re-released it as the “Remastered” version followed by a couple of par 3 nine hole TGCTLive! competition entries which, whilst well received, were not really what the judges were looking for; Silkwater Caverns & Neun Loch at Hazelmount, both “too fanciful.”
That was it……. Now my motto was “Keep it real” & I worked hard on Grangethorpe Downs to give the player that feeling of being able to walk the course as if it were true to life. It worked & I had my 2nd tour worthy submission commissioned for a multi pin on the Web finals at the end of last season.
Recently I’ve done an authentic highlands theme named Crossblades Point & my hand was forced to produce a delta track as part of the latest TGCTLive contest from which I went on to publish the full 18 hole version of Jakarta Bay which made an appearance on the RRCC tour (week 16) at TGCTours.
There is one other friend I should mention who’s opinions I value highly & that’s my South African Steam buddy CrazyCroc (Marc Van Niekerk on the Web tour)….. he, like many, knows his stuff but doesn’t use the designer. He’s been very supportive of me in my long climb up the ladder & we’ve shared some great rounds in the game.
I’m flattered Andre has nominated me as “one to watch” & If “The Harlequin at Jesters Lake” turns out to be the making of me you can expect more of the same in the future.
Just one thing to note: I’ve kicked the username SMorris & now just go by my initials SAM.
Cheers all – happy golfing.
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Post by scampi00 on Feb 28, 2016 21:42:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the shout out Andre. Always trying to improve.
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