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Post by theduke21 on Feb 4, 2020 8:13:18 GMT -5
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Post by theduke21 on Feb 5, 2020 7:41:23 GMT -5
A little more info on this track.
Tentative name is The Club at Stillwater. As I’m going right now, I see Oklahoma with this plot and setting. Something within the realm of a Southern Hills look. That course just screams major golf competition to me and I’ve always loved the look of it. With that being said, I’m not completely set on the countryside browning all around the place that would be more suited in Texas or Oklahoma. So a move up north through Missouri (Bellerive setting) toward Illinois (Olympia Fields, Medinah) isn’t out of the picture.
Either way, I’ve started expanding out from the first few pictures near the clubhouse and toward the lake and laid down some turf. Really loving the strategy and oak tree lined fairways so far. Planting ideas are still in the air but you can see of now I’m going with very covered tree bases with high grass around it.
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Post by theduke21 on Apr 20, 2020 22:17:11 GMT -5
Been a loooong time since I made an update on this one. But I've got 16 holes done, so I'm on pace for a comfortable publish.
It's been a hot and cold process, which is rare for me. Usually if I like it, I push through extremely quick, or I hate it and delete.
Countryside has always given me issues. I've probably started 10 on this theme and never published a single one. I love it for links style, yet I love the tree selection. The biggest issue for me is the surroundings. I usually route my course and then go in with the clear trees tool and clear everything on and right next to the course. Then I turn up trees meter to max to give a natural surrounding with auto gen trees. With countryside you just get a few trees and thousands of bushes. Looks rubbish. And with this being a very tightly routed course, it gave me a tooooon of dead space around the course that looked bad. I went in and made a lot of this space a lake since it made sense with my name, and today I finally planted hundreds of trees all around the perimeter to fill the space. Looks much better but still a lot of work to do with planting. I stopped individually planting holes after around the 5th hole. So after I finish the last two holes in the next couple of days, I'll have about a week to finish planting which should be sufficient.
As for the course itself, I really like the way it plays. It's definitely not my usual style, as I generally like big courses with big, tiered greens. But this is my first course in a very long time that actually has a ton of trees right on the course and pretty small greens. And the greens that aren't small or very tiered with tucked pins. Width will still matter in terms of getting the best angles into the tucked pins, and 3 of the 4 par 5's as well as a drivable par 4 will require you to work the ball in a certain direction around trees to get home safely. It was strange for me, because I have a hatred for trees in play usually, but I'm coming back to the thought that using trees in risk/reward spots on par 5's or drivable par 4's is actually pretty fun and strategic as long as the safe play is still there. It's mainly trees killing any angles or width on regular par 4's from the fairway that irks me, and I avoided that obviously.
Should be a tough course. Running at 7530 yards (7490 true yardage). The best scores will come from those that play at the right side of the hole and consistently leave putts within 20 feet for birdie. Attacking right at them will leave you in some really bad spots, and every green has safe spots that will always give you par or better.
That's what I focused on here. If you're taking high-risk shots, I don't want to leave you a 5 yard chip if you miss. I want to leave you in the heavy rough with a tough up and down. But if you're playing the smart shot, I want you to have a manageable putt that you can make or easily 2-putt. Nothing is more frustrating than hitting the right shot and still rolling 50 feet away, and it's a mistake I've carelessly made in the past when designing courses.
I'll probably get some pictures up later but it's hard to imagine PS4 pictures do much for the imagination.
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Post by theduke21 on Apr 21, 2020 0:00:30 GMT -5
Here's a short little video with some hole previews, as I feel like they at least do a bit better than just PS4 screen captures. Quality is still awful but oh well. Reminder that the course is probably 20% planted and still has a ton of trees to add. This was made before a lot of tree planting I just finished. Most of the trees planted now are the ones placed for framing and I still need to fill out the rest. Just two more holes to finish and I can get to working on that for the next 9 days as well as a little micro sculpting between holes and figuring out what I want to do with most of the brown. Thankfully the big part of the golf itself is almost finished. I imagine I'll be a final day publish.
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Post by theduke21 on Apr 29, 2020 16:42:40 GMT -5
One hole left to plant.
I imagine I'll do a littler tinkering, but I'd expect to publish this thing tonight around 10 or 11 eastern.
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