The Fingers Escarpment (2020 CC Contest) - Now in 2K21

[coggin66]

This is my entry into the 2020 CC Design Contest being run by mayday_golf83 .

Background:
Over the millennia, nature has formed this remarkable landscape comprising four large fingers of land with deep canyons between them.  The eroded plateau sits 400 feet above the surrounding lakes and wilderness to form The Fingers Escarpment.

When the plateau first became accessible, loggers cleared many of the trees on the flatter areas of the escarpment.  However, before it could be completely cleared an enlightened golf fanatic realised that this was the perfect location for a wilderness resort with a spectacular golf course with breathtaking views.  And so The Fingers Escarpment golf course was born.

Course Details [Updated for 2K21 version]:
This boreal themed course aims to be a realistic course in a fantasy setting.  The statistics:

• Par = 70
• Length = Black Tees - 7,058yds; Green Tees - 6,369yds
• Tee Sets = Black & Green
• Pins = 4
• Default Time =  Early morning
• OB = Lots (potentially in play on 14 out of the 18 holes)  

Card: (PGA 2K21):



Card (TGC2019):


Suggested Conditions:
On first play, I recommend using the default conditions with winds up to Medium.  However, from testing, the course seems to handle any combination of time and weather so feel free to play as you please.  I do warn though that if you are having tempo issues and choose Very High winds, expect a challenging round.

Designer Notes:
There are more insights into how I took this course from sketch plans to final holes in my contest WIP thread that can be found here.

I will be putting some screenshots in the next post.

Thank you for reading and hopefully playing the course.  I welcome any feedback whether you are young or old; player or designer; novice or experienced; positive or negative.

Finally I'd like to thank everyone volunteering their time to run or judge this contest.  I don't envy your role with all the quality courses coming out from my fellow contestants.

[coggin66]

Please note that these shots are all taken from my original XB1 so they do not have great draw distances.  Also some of these shots were taken over the week prior to publish so there may be minor variations compared to the final published course.

Overview (showing 3 of the 4 fingers)


Hole 1: 



Hole 2:



Hole 3:



Hole 4:



Hole 5:



Hole 6:



Hole 7:



Hole 8:



Hole 9: [One of the signature holes - let the flyover play out for this one!]

[coggin66]

Hole 10 : [Let the flyover play out on this one too]



Hole 11:



Hole 12:



Hole 13:



Hole 14:



Hole 15:



Hole 16 [My favourite to play and yes those trees are meant to be in front of the green!]:



Hole 17 [Another signature hole - Let the flyover play out on this one too]:



Hole 18: [Another one that I recommend letting the flyover play out]



Enjoy!

[hallzballz6908]

Looks great man! Can’t wait to give it a run tonight!

[Deleted]

Great publish! I knew from the screenshots that I would enjoy the environment you created. I really like the rockwork and cliffs. My favorite holes were 1,2, 10, 16, and 18, but hole 16 was my favorite overall. I had to actually use the scout cam to see the waterfalls down in the ravine, but they were a pretty cool addition(albeit a little bit out of sight). Overall, well done!

[hallzballz6908]

Really liked your course! The thing I liked most was that even though it was a par 70, you still managed a very nice mix of par 3s, 4s, and 5s. The landscape was also very bold and interesting. Only thing I thought that could have used a little improvement was that the bunkers were a little boring shape-wise but that’s more of a personal preference thing. Good luck in the comp!

[coggin66]

Thanks for the plays and comments gents.

I understand the comments about the bunkers. My bunker work is average at best! They were originally planned to be waste like areas but I abandoned that idea due to object meter concerns. By then the shallow, flat style had grown on me so I stuck with it.

[coggin66]

I'm happy to announce that The Fingers Escarpment has been reviewed and approved to the TGC Tours course database as Tour Worthy (My Designer Listing)

[coggin66]

Upfront disclosure - This lengthy post is ultimately a slightly more thought provoking (controversial?) attempt to bump my course thread!

They say "Timing is Everything".  When I was ready to release this course last Wednesday evening (Australian time), I thought the timing was going to play to my advantage.  The early flush of Design Contests were passed and the late entry flush was still to come.  I thought I had a good enough course that I might get some interest and enough plays to get handicapped reasonably quickly.  However, I hadn't banked on the design god himself, Arctic Fury (AF), releasing his first course in months about 6 hours after mine.  I woke up on my Thursday morning to the realisation that mine might get overlooked for Carinthia Club, Austria (yes I've linked it in case you are the weird person who has come to my thread before AF's!)

Now I've been around here long enough to realise that an AF course release is our equivalent to an MCU movie release.  It will dominate the box office.  And for fun (or masochism), I have been monitoring the "opening weekend" performance.  This is largely the community response to a course before they get picked up for society schedules or put on tour.  So each morning I have checked the plays for The Fingers Escarpment against Carinthia Club.  Here are my findings:

Days after release	Fingers	Carinthia
1 day	27	258
2 days	46	910
3 days	66	2,182
4 days	70	3,109
5 days	130	4,041
6 days	182	4,983
Day 6 HB forum thread views	90	350
Day 6 TGCT forum thread views	241	902

I agree that Carinthia is very good ... but 25x better?  How does a lesser design mortal like myself get a taste of the ambrosia that the design gods are supping on when even the thread gets a quarter of the views?  Sidenote - The TGCT forum is getting 2-3x as many views as HB's which is more than a little revealing in itself!

Please note that this is not meant to be an AF bash.  He is one of my favourite designers too and he is a genius at using objects in the game and Carinthia is no different. He creates set-pieces around each hole that are amazing.  I love the holes on the plot, but I don't always get the plot as a whole.  Gratuitous plug for myself, I think my whole plot on Fingers works more realistically than Carinthia's whole plot.

I am grateful to the 181 other players that have played my course to date and even more so to those that have taken the time to post earlier in the thread.  Now, if just 5% of you that have played Carinthia could play mine, I can get handicapped!

"What's in a Name?" - As Willy said, that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.  However, in TGC design land, I think the other response is more appropriate i.e. it is Everything.  Just like timing!.

[mattyfromcanada]

I just gave this a play and I've gotta say, it's a fantastic course, and you're totally right to feel the way you do about the lack of attention its received so far.

I actually love the bunkers too, simple shapes in such a dramatic setting works really well.

All the holes play really well too. You can tell a lot of time was spent making sure the course played as good as it looked.

Hey fellow golfers, get out and play this one!!!

[jivesinator]

if the middle finger isn’t the toughest stretch I will be disappointed

[smudge22]

Played this on a society the other day.

It's a great environment and an enjoyable course. I liked it even though I hit it into the abyss a few times.

[coggin66]

Jun 17, 2020 9:02:17 GMT -5 smudge22 said:

Played this on a society the other day.

It's a great environment and an enjoyable course. I liked it even though I hit it into the abyss a few times.

Thanks. Those canyons can ruin a scorecard if you are not careful. On one playtest round in Very High winds with XB1 Masters that were having tempo issues, I sent 4 consecutive tee shots over the edge on the 6th!

Generally on those holes where driver is much more likely to get you into trouble (1st, 6th, 8th & 10th) I give you a wood and you can choose to get yourself into trouble.

[ezzinomilonga]

Very interesting concept and really a good work. I loved the par 3s, especially.

About your comparation work, i absolutely agree that the AF's course is not 25 times better than your, and i can also agree that sometimes the plot/playability of his courses is not at the same level of the graphic work.
But, above the fact that i don't think that his release affected so much your (or someone's else in particular) numbers, is pretty clear to me that AF reached a status such good that is senseless to use his course/numbers as a paragon term for anyone's course/numbers.
And this status is the result of years of hard work..such freaking good that his standard is always in any case stunning. People don't play so much his courses cause "his name", but cause they know they will plays a true piece of art, more than a golf course..and that they will be amazed everytime. And people loves to be amazed. Is a great thing, to have such an elite of great designers. It pushes and inspires to be always better. Even if sometimes the confrontation can be frustrating

Anyway..i sincerely believe you did a great job, no matters your numbers

Good luck for the contest!!

[coggin66]

Thanks everyone for the plays and comments.

I'm up to 241 plays so I'm closing in on getting this thing handicapped.  To try to tempt you to play, I've compiled a video of all the in-game flyovers.  I design and play on an original XB1 so excuse the production values.  I recorded it in 720p so it is not as crisp as something by jimgem or Avakrac.  It is also just in-game birdsong interspersed by commentator John.  Chillax and enjoy!