Post by YouStayClassySanDiego on Oct 5, 2020 13:14:40 GMT -5
Figured I'd share progress here for any potential feedback. Plus, this way no one thinks I'm dropping out of the challenge! 
Background - Zanzibar GC is a course I created and designed back in the Links LS and Arnold Palmer Course Designer days. I decided to finally try out the designer after a few months and figured the Rookie Challenge seemed as good a place as any to get feedback and exposure for this course. Especially since there's not a huge amount of Links players around who'd remember it from back in the day. The design did get quite a few accolades, won an award and generated speculation that I was actually a Microsoft employee and not just some regular guy. (Albeit one with a background in architecture and engineering before changing to business admin in college) In any case, I went up into my attic the other day, checked the bin I thought I needed and sure enough, there was my graph pad with all the original hole and course layouts for Zanzibar, including overheads, yardages and elevations. Sometimes things that might be crap but you save anyways turn out not to be crap down the road. For PGA 2k21, the only real changes were to stretch it a bit from the tips due to the fact that in this game you can get a bit more distance (Especially if you're hitting the Big Bridgestone driver with fast swings!) and having to adjust to not being able to make actual vertical surfaces for things like retaining walls, etc. They really need to add that!
Course design and layout:
Zanzibar GC is set at the base of rolling foothills. Both nines start out at fairly low elevation, then climb to the far end of the property before returning back down the slope to the clubhouse. Three lakes and a creek connecting them all means that water is in play or close to in play on 10 or 11 of the 18 holes. Lots of elevation, but all of it realistic, make for a solid challenge. Greens are generous, but often tiered (Not crazy 4' tiers or anything like that, mostly 1.5-2.5' between tiers), which places premiums on approach shots. The shorter the 'normal' approach shot, the smaller the target is likely to be. Fairways are not quite so generous at times and put a premium on accuracy. As well, through no planning (Since I designed this years ago), this course isn't really all that great for the current 'play the fast' style. Too many times where you can't just aim left because of trees as well as too many holes that move to the right. Better learn how to hit perfects or a slight slow for this track! For now, there's the basic four sets of tees, but I really liked how Evangelist used tee sets to change a few locations each round, so I'm planning on adding two tournament sets that are largely combinations of blue and black with an occasional green yardage and angle thrown in.
I don't have a whole lot of screenshots here with me now, so I'll take some more tonight and post them up. In any case, I finished getting all holes down over the weekend, did initial contouring, placed pins and had my first full test round before bed. Felt decent with a -1 on low winds with 187 greens. Managed to chip in for eagle on the par 4, 415 yard 14th hole after deciding to see if I could reach - it's a downhill par 4 that calls for a 220 yard layup before turning hard left, crossing a deep barranca down to the green. Unless you try to drive it. Which means going right over said barranca and fading it around trees that block an easy direct approach. Surprise surprise, I pulled it off and made it to the fringe.
Also, side note, not sure why the yardages all show even for 16-18. Might be due to not saving before playing the first practice round? In any case, there are different yardages for those three holes across the four current tee sets.
Background - Zanzibar GC is a course I created and designed back in the Links LS and Arnold Palmer Course Designer days. I decided to finally try out the designer after a few months and figured the Rookie Challenge seemed as good a place as any to get feedback and exposure for this course. Especially since there's not a huge amount of Links players around who'd remember it from back in the day. The design did get quite a few accolades, won an award and generated speculation that I was actually a Microsoft employee and not just some regular guy. (Albeit one with a background in architecture and engineering before changing to business admin in college) In any case, I went up into my attic the other day, checked the bin I thought I needed and sure enough, there was my graph pad with all the original hole and course layouts for Zanzibar, including overheads, yardages and elevations. Sometimes things that might be crap but you save anyways turn out not to be crap down the road. For PGA 2k21, the only real changes were to stretch it a bit from the tips due to the fact that in this game you can get a bit more distance (Especially if you're hitting the Big Bridgestone driver with fast swings!) and having to adjust to not being able to make actual vertical surfaces for things like retaining walls, etc. They really need to add that!
Course design and layout:
Zanzibar GC is set at the base of rolling foothills. Both nines start out at fairly low elevation, then climb to the far end of the property before returning back down the slope to the clubhouse. Three lakes and a creek connecting them all means that water is in play or close to in play on 10 or 11 of the 18 holes. Lots of elevation, but all of it realistic, make for a solid challenge. Greens are generous, but often tiered (Not crazy 4' tiers or anything like that, mostly 1.5-2.5' between tiers), which places premiums on approach shots. The shorter the 'normal' approach shot, the smaller the target is likely to be. Fairways are not quite so generous at times and put a premium on accuracy. As well, through no planning (Since I designed this years ago), this course isn't really all that great for the current 'play the fast' style. Too many times where you can't just aim left because of trees as well as too many holes that move to the right. Better learn how to hit perfects or a slight slow for this track! For now, there's the basic four sets of tees, but I really liked how Evangelist used tee sets to change a few locations each round, so I'm planning on adding two tournament sets that are largely combinations of blue and black with an occasional green yardage and angle thrown in.
I don't have a whole lot of screenshots here with me now, so I'll take some more tonight and post them up. In any case, I finished getting all holes down over the weekend, did initial contouring, placed pins and had my first full test round before bed. Felt decent with a -1 on low winds with 187 greens. Managed to chip in for eagle on the par 4, 415 yard 14th hole after deciding to see if I could reach - it's a downhill par 4 that calls for a 220 yard layup before turning hard left, crossing a deep barranca down to the green. Unless you try to drive it. Which means going right over said barranca and fading it around trees that block an easy direct approach. Surprise surprise, I pulled it off and made it to the fringe.
Also, side note, not sure why the yardages all show even for 16-18. Might be due to not saving before playing the first practice round? In any case, there are different yardages for those three holes across the four current tee sets.
