Post by mayday_golf83 on Sept 4, 2017 9:49:26 GMT -5
I've made my way through all 28 courses, filled out my bracket (details here: Summer Showdown 2017 Bracket Challenge) so now time to make my predictions.
Final Four: Sleeping Giant, Bearded Pelican, Dusty Lion, Burrowing Owl
Championship: Bearded Pelican def. Dusty Lion
My top 10 overall (excluding my own):
1, Bearded Pelican. Instant classic by ErixonStone . Captivating landscape, modern links feel and user-friendly setup. No need to over-elaborate. Just go play.
2, Sleeping Giant. staypuft39 shows how much he learned from and contributed to Turo Wero with this stunning follow up, which is reminiscent of the collab he and Reeb did. Mineshaft entrance to the clubhouse behind 9 maybe the single most clever extra feature among the contest courses.
3, Dusty Lion. mrooola delivers the best collection of par 3s I've played in quite some time. Perhaps a few too many short par 4s, but stunning landscape and fun track to play.
4, Burrowing Owl. Crazycanuck1985 makes desert theme pop, which isn't easy to do but we've come to expect from him. Solid play, but felt a little flat in parts by his standards. Also, use of a couple of stock shapes became a little too repetitive IMHO.
5, Kenzatillie. mrvinegar206 melds the concepts of two classic era designers well in this gem, making you feel like the two actually collaborated to design this beauty. Felt a lot like a CLV "inspired by" design. Lacks some of the bling of the top 4, but a gorgeous course all the same.
6, Tomahawque Valley. Got a new nickname for rhino4life : "Canuck Jr." On the first tee at Tomahawque, I felt like I was playing one of Andre's courses and the views the rest of the way didn't disappoint. There's some Canucked greens on this one, however, that don't quite fall in line with a CC-level course.
7, Stagfall. titaneddie and I have similar styles, I feel, and this is his most refined work to date. The areas he planted really make the Autumn theme pop. Would have liked to have seen it in a few more areas, though, to kick it up a notch.
8, Petrichor. I've had a love/hate relationship with several pablo courses, but this one checks off a lot of the right boxes. Has a nice Western European feel to it and the atmospheric conditions help create a real immersive environment. Playability falls much more in line with a CC course than some of Pablo's previous works. Overall solid effort.
9, Pewter Dunes. Two guys named Matt. Possibly two epic seaside courses battling in the round of 16 over in the Mackenzie. Very lovely course by mattf27 but felt the looks and playability weren't quite as refined StayPuft's.
10, Columbia Pines. jacobkessler took a big leap forward in this one and it'd be a toss up between he and Rhino (with Titan a close 3rd) if we did a vote for the contest's most improved designer. Classic mideastern US feel you could tell was inspired by the courses local to Jacob. Wasn't crazy about the holes near the residential areas, though. Would have liked to see something to differentiate betwee what's course property and what's some guy's backyard.
For the record, I feel there's very little separating No. 5 and No. 20 in this contest, which speaks to the overall quality of work. Between that and the low number of DNFs we had, I'd say this is easily the most competitive and most successful of the three TCGT design contests I've been a part of. That's a compliment to the game, and the design community as a whole. Kudos to all and good luck as we begin to hear the opinions of the ones who will decide this contest -- the judges.
Final Four: Sleeping Giant, Bearded Pelican, Dusty Lion, Burrowing Owl
Championship: Bearded Pelican def. Dusty Lion
My top 10 overall (excluding my own):
1, Bearded Pelican. Instant classic by ErixonStone . Captivating landscape, modern links feel and user-friendly setup. No need to over-elaborate. Just go play.
2, Sleeping Giant. staypuft39 shows how much he learned from and contributed to Turo Wero with this stunning follow up, which is reminiscent of the collab he and Reeb did. Mineshaft entrance to the clubhouse behind 9 maybe the single most clever extra feature among the contest courses.
3, Dusty Lion. mrooola delivers the best collection of par 3s I've played in quite some time. Perhaps a few too many short par 4s, but stunning landscape and fun track to play.
4, Burrowing Owl. Crazycanuck1985 makes desert theme pop, which isn't easy to do but we've come to expect from him. Solid play, but felt a little flat in parts by his standards. Also, use of a couple of stock shapes became a little too repetitive IMHO.
5, Kenzatillie. mrvinegar206 melds the concepts of two classic era designers well in this gem, making you feel like the two actually collaborated to design this beauty. Felt a lot like a CLV "inspired by" design. Lacks some of the bling of the top 4, but a gorgeous course all the same.
6, Tomahawque Valley. Got a new nickname for rhino4life : "Canuck Jr." On the first tee at Tomahawque, I felt like I was playing one of Andre's courses and the views the rest of the way didn't disappoint. There's some Canucked greens on this one, however, that don't quite fall in line with a CC-level course.
7, Stagfall. titaneddie and I have similar styles, I feel, and this is his most refined work to date. The areas he planted really make the Autumn theme pop. Would have liked to have seen it in a few more areas, though, to kick it up a notch.
8, Petrichor. I've had a love/hate relationship with several pablo courses, but this one checks off a lot of the right boxes. Has a nice Western European feel to it and the atmospheric conditions help create a real immersive environment. Playability falls much more in line with a CC course than some of Pablo's previous works. Overall solid effort.
9, Pewter Dunes. Two guys named Matt. Possibly two epic seaside courses battling in the round of 16 over in the Mackenzie. Very lovely course by mattf27 but felt the looks and playability weren't quite as refined StayPuft's.
10, Columbia Pines. jacobkessler took a big leap forward in this one and it'd be a toss up between he and Rhino (with Titan a close 3rd) if we did a vote for the contest's most improved designer. Classic mideastern US feel you could tell was inspired by the courses local to Jacob. Wasn't crazy about the holes near the residential areas, though. Would have liked to see something to differentiate betwee what's course property and what's some guy's backyard.
For the record, I feel there's very little separating No. 5 and No. 20 in this contest, which speaks to the overall quality of work. Between that and the low number of DNFs we had, I'd say this is easily the most competitive and most successful of the three TCGT design contests I've been a part of. That's a compliment to the game, and the design community as a whole. Kudos to all and good luck as we begin to hear the opinions of the ones who will decide this contest -- the judges.
