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Post by sandsaver01 on Feb 18, 2020 14:28:08 GMT -5
Sand Hills Golf Club This course in Mullen, Nebraska in consistently ranked very high by most course review sites. Top 100 Golf Courses rank it #6 in North America and #10 worldwide. Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw in 1995 on 8000 acres of rolling sand hills, it is a private course only open for 4 months out of the year. There are basically no plants on or around the course other than native grasses. The Lidar data I used to build this TGC2019 RCR is excellent. Scott Doyley had already traced all the golf features in OSM. There were very few artifacts, and little smoothing on greens and fairways was required. A few things you should know about this course as built by me: 1. You will notice no clubhouse, parking lot, roads, or driving range on the plot. This is because all of these are at least 750 yards away from the course. The only visible buildings are a combo starters shack/snack bar called Ben's Porch, and a couple of restrooms. 2. All the cart paths are sand, so I had to use bunker splines to emulate them and tried to flatten and smooth as best I could - please do not be too nit-picky. If you give this a play, you should set the wind to no less than "Moderate". Wind is such a feature of play here, and comes from every direction, that the head pro adjusts the handicap slope and rating depending on the wind. A few pictures for flavor below: The first green, big false front so don't be short! One of the many penal bunkers on the course Course overview from back nine A nice short par 4, but you better not miss left! Please give it a try, set the wind at medium or high for authenticity (or V high if you are a masochist )
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Post by theduke21 on Feb 19, 2020 3:27:09 GMT -5
Awesome course. I've read tons on this course so I was excited to play it. Did high winds and had a blast. Greens were great and I loved how much angles played a factor on the approaches. Happy to have this in the game now.
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Post by DoubtfulObelisk on Feb 20, 2020 1:01:48 GMT -5
Wow. Just wow. Sand Hills is such a phenomenal course, and you did a great job of bringing it to life in this game. I've been a huge fan of the course ever since I discovered it about 5 years ago, and the experience is beyond what I would've imagined. The way C&C use the terrain in so many interesting ways, especially to create some fascinating tee shot options, is absolutely world-class. I will be back here again and again.
I do have one small question, though: what was the reason for not utilizing the back tee on 5? Is it one the club abandoned for some reason (I'd assume player safety if so, since drives must go directly over the 4th green from there)? Even if it's not used in real life, I would've liked to have the option to play from there, since the change in angle should make that drive more difficult and strategic than it is from the tees on the left. That's an extremely minor complaint from me, though -- the rest is spot-on, as far as I can tell.
Get out there and play this course, people! You won't regret it.
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Post by sandsaver01 on Feb 20, 2020 8:31:24 GMT -5
Wow. Just wow. Sand Hills is such a phenomenal course, and you did a great job of bringing it to life in this game. I've been a huge fan of the course ever since I discovered it about 5 years ago, and the experience is beyond what I would've imagined. The way C&C use the terrain in so many interesting ways, especially to create some fascinating tee shot options, is absolutely world-class. I will be back here again and again. I do have one small question, though: what was the reason for not utilizing the back tee on 5? Is it one the club abandoned for some reason (I'd assume player safety if so, since drives must go directly over the 4th green from there)? Even if it's not used in real life, I would've liked to have the option to play from there, since the change in angle should make that drive more difficult and strategic than it is from the tees on the left. That's an extremely minor complaint from me, though -- the rest is spot-on, as far as I can tell. Get out there and play this course, people! You won't regret it. I don't know the reason IRL Griffin, but the reason I didn't use it is because I took the yardages from the latest scorecard and that tee did not match the listed yardage. It is probably a good guess about the danger from that tee, but it could be it is just a spare for when the superintendent takes the regular one out of service.
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rich68
Weekend Golfer
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Posts: 135
TGCT Name: Rich68--
Tour: Challenge Circuit
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Post by rich68 on Feb 20, 2020 8:47:47 GMT -5
Looks great. Going to play a round today.
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rednu
Weekend Golfer
Hacking my way through the CC-D ranks
Posts: 127
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Post by rednu on Feb 20, 2020 16:43:27 GMT -5
I am so glad to see this course here. As a Nebraska boy, Sand Hills was all you'd hear about in the state when it came to golf. This was a great add to the game and has been a blast to play, even with the wind cranked up. Props for designing it!!
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wmr5277
Amateur Golfer
Posts: 226
TGCT Name: Vitaly Potapenko
Tour: PGA
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Post by wmr5277 on Feb 23, 2020 20:01:35 GMT -5
This course was fantastic!
Thanks for taking the time to make it.
Certainly deserves more plays and then some as I consider it to be one of the best 'lidars' I have played.
I thought the green complexes were superb.
I thought it was the kind of course that could take very high winds and not be unfair whatsoever.
5 stars for sure! Here is my play-through.....
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Post by sandsaver01 on Feb 24, 2020 9:17:18 GMT -5
This course was fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to make it. Certainly deserves more plays and then some as I consider it to be one of the best 'lidars' I have played. I thought the green complexes were superb. I thought it was the kind of course that could take very high winds and not be unfair whatsoever. 5 stars for sure Thanks for the playthrough and the kind words Vitaly! Shooting -16 in V high winds is not too shabby, nice playing.
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scoll3
Amateur Golfer
Posts: 180
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Post by scoll3 on Feb 25, 2020 18:57:16 GMT -5
Finally got around to playing this one, and I truly loved it. You've done the best you could do on this course, and frankly I'm not sure how it could be better! This course checks all the boxes in terms of a polished LiDAR course, and it helps that it is such an incredible place to play in real life! The course is seamlessly routed throughout the hills, and the variety of hole after hole makes it so enjoyable.
Fantastic job, thank you so much for contributing courses like this to this community... looking forward to playing the Old Town beta when I have a chance!
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Post by jwfickett on Feb 25, 2020 20:38:25 GMT -5
Very much enjoyed my loop around this course. Favorited to return. Also had an ace. If i can figure out how to post the video, I'll edit.
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Post by sandsaver01 on Mar 10, 2020 8:24:54 GMT -5
Just a notice that I have published Sand Hills Golf Club (Tour). To make it more attractive for TGCTour play, two par fives were lengthened by about 40-50 yards, and #14, a shortish par five was changed to a par four. With these changes the course is now a 7120 yard Par 70. Due to the changes, this version of the course cannot be considered an RCR.
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Post by Doyley on Mar 31, 2020 20:09:24 GMT -5
This popped up on my twitter feed if you want to play along with it
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