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Post by Leecey on Sept 8, 2020 7:30:45 GMT -5
Hi all I've entered the rookie design contest that's just stated running and before I got going with that entry I wanted to get something out that I've been working on in the old game to try and get some overall views from the community. I'm still debating whether to stick with a links theme for the contest or go for something that allows a greater degree of technical difficulty in terms of the use of the designer. Ambridge Heath is a relatively short linksy course which in still conditions should yield low scoring. I've had to change the layout of a number of the holes form the previous WIP because of the new swing mechanics and the increased prevalence of left/right misses now. As a result it's relatively easy off the tee but does require accurate approaches to greens heavily guarded by small but deep bunkers. Bunkers off the tee are designed to be penal and players can expect to reach for a relatively lofted club if they find one of them as opposed to just gunning for the green out of the sand from 180 yards. All of the par 5s are reachable depending on wind conditions and there's a mix of mid-distance 4s and a couple of reachable 4s. Unlike a traditional links, the run in to the clubhouse is designed to be relatively easy with the opportunity to pick up a couple of shots. I'd love to get any feedback at all fro the community in terms of general feel and playability as well as sculpting and layout. Thanks! Leecey
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Post by rhino4life on Sept 8, 2020 14:53:50 GMT -5
I am doing some play throughs for Friday and will add this to my list. Looks solid from what i seen on discord.
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Post by Leecey on Sept 9, 2020 3:28:25 GMT -5
I am doing some play throughs for Friday and will add this to my list. Looks solid from what i seen on discord. Thanks Rhino - any thoughts at all would be appreciated. Feedback from elsewhere is that dawn lighting hasn't quite worked (in hindsight I completely agree) so maybe changing from the default would be a good idea.
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Post by rhino4life on Sept 10, 2020 21:15:06 GMT -5
I played a few holes and liked the course from what I seen. I wanna come back it when I have more time (soon). I would of went with a different lighting but that is a personal thing. I will be back.
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Post by rhino4life on Sept 15, 2020 21:48:45 GMT -5
Finally played the hole course. This course was pretty good no matter how many designs you may have under your belt.
Pros - playability was really nice with the wide fairways and with most learning the swing methods. - i thought the greens were well done. Had some tricky areas here and there that would make it tough for errant shots to the green - the feel of the course was pure links. Good atmosphere. - some of the green side bunkers were well done sculpting wise.
Cons - i didnt care for the lighting as a whole as personal opinion. The sun was pretty low which made several holes really tough to see. When the heavy cloud cover set in it was almost too dark in some areas. The course looked the best it seemed going away from the sun and minimal clouds. - some of the bunkering i didnt agree with in terms of size and placement. I felt several bunkers particularly in the fairways were too small in comparison to how big your fairways were. There were a few bunkers that did not come into play much at all and looked odd being so far away from the action. These may of been for aesthetic purposes but some looked odd. I think the 18th hole stuck out with the bunkers on the left side of the green. Some were so far away from the green that it just didnt look right to me personally.
I enjoyed my round and the course and will likely use it on a friday night here in the upcoming weeks. All things considered you are way ahead of the game as a rookie designer in terms of putting together a solid course and things will improve as you learn the tools and learn from each design completed. Just personal thing is try to leave something behind that people will remember. A great opening and closing hole. A solid backdrop scenery that several holes possibly play into. Put some extra polish into your surroundings and not just the actual hole itself. Things like that. Looks forward to your next course and good luck in the rookie contest. Some unknowns have become big names in the design community from that contest in past years.
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Post by Leecey on Sept 17, 2020 4:53:53 GMT -5
Finally played the hole course. This course was pretty good no matter how many designs you may have under your belt. Pros - playability was really nice with the wide fairways and with most learning the swing methods. - i thought the greens were well done. Had some tricky areas here and there that would make it tough for errant shots to the green - the feel of the course was pure links. Good atmosphere. - some of the green side bunkers were well done sculpting wise. Cons - i didnt care for the lighting as a whole as personal opinion. The sun was pretty low which made several holes really tough to see. When the heavy cloud cover set in it was almost too dark in some areas. The course looked the best it seemed going away from the sun and minimal clouds. - some of the bunkering i didnt agree with in terms of size and placement. I felt several bunkers particularly in the fairways were too small in comparison to how big your fairways were. There were a few bunkers that did not come into play much at all and looked odd being so far away from the action. These may of been for aesthetic purposes but some looked odd. I think the 18th hole stuck out with the bunkers on the left side of the green. Some were so far away from the green that it just didnt look right to me personally. I enjoyed my round and the course and will likely use it on a friday night here in the upcoming weeks. All things considered you are way ahead of the game as a rookie designer in terms of putting together a solid course and things will improve as you learn the tools and learn from each design completed. Just personal thing is try to leave something behind that people will remember. A great opening and closing hole. A solid backdrop scenery that several holes possibly play into. Put some extra polish into your surroundings and not just the actual hole itself. Things like that. Looks forward to your next course and good luck in the rookie contest. Some unknowns have become big names in the design community from that contest in past years. Thanks for this David - really appreciate you taking the time to give the feedback. Completely agree on all of the points made - particularly on the lighting which in hindsight I just didn't get right at all. On the fairway bunkers, the plan was to have some fairly small pots with the ball funnelling into them from particularly areas but I don't think I got the fairway contours quite right in terms of feeding the roll into them on slight misses. Something that I want to explore on the next course I think as I do like the general rub of the green of links when it comes to the occasional unlucky bounce. Thanks again!
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Post by Violinguy69 on Sept 17, 2020 11:02:59 GMT -5
I gave it a play this morning (you can see it about 2/3 of the way through my latest Twitch stream). There is a lot to like about this course for sure. My main concern was the lighting. I agree with David that while the course looks pretty for pictures with the sun that low, it doesn't play as nicely. I couldn't really see the sculpting of the fairways at all. For an old man like me, it's tough enough to see anything. I think the course would look great if you just increased the inclination a few points and decreased the cloud coverage a little. I do like the look of the clouds, but when you have so little sun on the course to begin with, the clouds can really make it hard to see. The course itself plays fine. There's a good variety of holes and the greens are well done. Some of the bunkers could have used a little more attention with sculpting. You don't want it to look like you just plopped down a bunker for the fun of it. Some more attention to non-golf areas is needed also. The houses are a nice touch, but you need some trees and bushes around them or else they just look like afterthoughts. Links courses are the hardest to plant. They require the most objects, especially grass. Take a look at Whiskey Dunes for a beautifully planted links course. Or, if you are so inclined, Admiral's Run, my latest course. In the end, you've got the most important part of designing nailed - the golf course itself. If your course plays well, it doesn't matter if it isn't "pretty" or doesn't have eye candy. Anyone can plant flowers and make cities around a golf course. Not everyone can build a challenging and interesting layout.
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Post by rhino4life on Sept 17, 2020 13:26:50 GMT -5
Finally played the hole course. This course was pretty good no matter how many designs you may have under your belt. Pros - playability was really nice with the wide fairways and with most learning the swing methods. - i thought the greens were well done. Had some tricky areas here and there that would make it tough for errant shots to the green - the feel of the course was pure links. Good atmosphere. - some of the green side bunkers were well done sculpting wise. Cons - i didnt care for the lighting as a whole as personal opinion. The sun was pretty low which made several holes really tough to see. When the heavy cloud cover set in it was almost too dark in some areas. The course looked the best it seemed going away from the sun and minimal clouds. - some of the bunkering i didnt agree with in terms of size and placement. I felt several bunkers particularly in the fairways were too small in comparison to how big your fairways were. There were a few bunkers that did not come into play much at all and looked odd being so far away from the action. These may of been for aesthetic purposes but some looked odd. I think the 18th hole stuck out with the bunkers on the left side of the green. Some were so far away from the green that it just didnt look right to me personally. I enjoyed my round and the course and will likely use it on a friday night here in the upcoming weeks. All things considered you are way ahead of the game as a rookie designer in terms of putting together a solid course and things will improve as you learn the tools and learn from each design completed. Just personal thing is try to leave something behind that people will remember. A great opening and closing hole. A solid backdrop scenery that several holes possibly play into. Put some extra polish into your surroundings and not just the actual hole itself. Things like that. Looks forward to your next course and good luck in the rookie contest. Some unknowns have become big names in the design community from that contest in past years. Thanks for this David - really appreciate you taking the time to give the feedback. Completely agree on all of the points made - particularly on the lighting which in hindsight I just didn't get right at all. On the fairway bunkers, the plan was to have some fairly small pots with the ball funnelling into them from particularly areas but I don't think I got the fairway contours quite right in terms of feeding the roll into them on slight misses. Something that I want to explore on the next course I think as I do like the general rub of the green of links when it comes to the occasional unlucky bounce. Thanks again! I will use this course on a Friday night here in a few weeks or so because i certainly think its a challenging and fun course to play. I might tweak the lighting a little bit when we play because like Chuck said....we old farts have a difficult time seeing things. And I know within 2 or 3 holes Demonondalinks will bring up needing sunglasses.
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Post by Leecey on Sept 17, 2020 15:29:04 GMT -5
I gave it a play this morning (you can see it about 2/3 of the way through my latest Twitch stream). There is a lot to like about this course for sure. My main concern was the lighting. I agree with David that while the course looks pretty for pictures with the sun that low, it doesn't play as nicely. I couldn't really see the sculpting of the fairways at all. For an old man like me, it's tough enough to see anything. I think the course would look great if you just increased the inclination a few points and decreased the cloud coverage a little. I do like the look of the clouds, but when you have so little sun on the course to begin with, the clouds can really make it hard to see. The course itself plays fine. There's a good variety of holes and the greens are well done. Some of the bunkers could have used a little more attention with sculpting. You don't want it to look like you just plopped down a bunker for the fun of it. Some more attention to non-golf areas is needed also. The houses are a nice touch, but you need some trees and bushes around them or else they just look like afterthoughts. Links courses are the hardest to plant. They require the most objects, especially grass. Take a look at Whiskey Dunes for a beautifully planted links course. Or, if you are so inclined, Admiral's Run, my latest course. In the end, you've got the most important part of designing nailed - the golf course itself. If your course plays well, it doesn't matter if it isn't "pretty" or doesn't have eye candy. Anyone can plant flowers and make cities around a golf course. Not everyone can build a challenging and interesting layout.
Thanks Chuck - I'll definitely check out the Twitch stream! I'll check out Admiral's Run, for sure. I've been playing most of the Whiskey courses a fair bit since they came out and I'm just in complete awe of how they make the planting look so natural - I'm hoping I get there with practice!
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Post by Demonondalinks on Sept 17, 2020 15:34:00 GMT -5
Thanks for this David - really appreciate you taking the time to give the feedback. Completely agree on all of the points made - particularly on the lighting which in hindsight I just didn't get right at all. On the fairway bunkers, the plan was to have some fairly small pots with the ball funnelling into them from particularly areas but I don't think I got the fairway contours quite right in terms of feeding the roll into them on slight misses. Something that I want to explore on the next course I think as I do like the general rub of the green of links when it comes to the occasional unlucky bounce. Thanks again! I will use this course on a Friday night here in a few weeks or so because i certainly think its a challenging and fun course to play. I might tweak the lighting a little bit when we play because like Chuck said....we old farts have a difficult time seeing things. And I know within 2 or 3 holes Demonondalinks will bring up needing sunglasses. Lol, you're right I would. Anyway, lighting is much better this game. Hopefully the low sun will become a thing of the past.
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