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Post by theclv24 on Apr 20, 2021 10:06:01 GMT -5
What a depressing round 
Oh, I guess I should specify? It never dawned on me to imagine what would happen if Crystal Downs had gotten the land against the bluff, instead of homeowners. Now that I've seen that imagined, I see that CDCC would easily be a consensus top 5 in the country. Dang it... oh well.
That was a fun trip seeing a familiar course in a new light.
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Post by PithyDoctorG on Apr 20, 2021 11:26:26 GMT -5
There's some stuff here I really liked! The wide fringe trick definitely increased the ground game options. I did find myself hitting driver on pretty much every hole that wasn't a par three though, so I probably missed the strategic element to this course (I think you might have restrained yourself a little too much with the bunker count, but that might just be the style  ). Also, I was really confused by the width of the light rough - I felt it was a little too wide in spots, but again, it could have been the land movement that pushed you to do that. I can't remember any of the holes except from 15 playing down to the oceanside, but I probably need to give it another play. Since I'm not massively educated on golf course architecture, I think I may have missed a few things here that others have spotted, but personally I didn't find a ton of strategy (or at least haven't found it yet). But I still enjoyed my round here, and land movement was fantastic. Good luck! I would watch Mayday's playthrough (posted in this thread). He caught on to pretty much everything I was trying to do. I think oftentimes we think of strategy as putting a bunker or similar hazard down as a giant neon sign that says "hit it close to here to claim your reward!" Indeed, there are a few holes were I did this, like 1, 14, and 18. There are others like 2, 4, 12, and 13 where I relied more on land movement to enforce strategy and you need to carefully decide where you'd like to play your second shot from. For example, on 4, beyond about 260 yards the fairway gets a bit narrower and slopes hard left to right. If you hit it down there, you have a blind pitch from an awkward angle from an uneven lie. Your other option is to lay back to the top of the hill so you have a level lie and (if you play down the left) a better angle with a 7 or 8 iron. I essentially wanted you to think about what distance, angle, and lie you wanted for your second shot, and plan accordingly. Sometimes that might mean taking less than driver, and it rewards folks who think their way around (as shown by mayday_golf83 with his nice -10!). I could have tried cramming as many holes along the lake shore as I possibly could, but those weren't the types of holes I was interested in designing, so I limited it to just a couple and tried my best to tie the multiple environments together. The lake was meant more as a backdrop. The large swaths of light rough was chiefly an aesthetic choice, as this was the look I was going for (only autumn):  Just feels more realistic, in that the irrigation would go a little bit beyond the fairway edges, making the rough closer to the fairways greener. I also like how it works playability-wise, given how common I expected it to be for people to have balls bounce off the canted fairways into the rough. The greens have lots of slope and fall-off areas, and those become more in play given the lie% uncertainty. Thanks for the comments, as I always enjoy dialogue about design principles. |
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Post by cd06 on Apr 20, 2021 12:34:02 GMT -5
Turns out I just needed to go in with a more open mind - the strategy I didn't find on my first go I found on the latest round. I remember asking myself over and over again, "which angle is best to approach this pin?" and "does the camber here help me get at this pin?" The greensites really grew on me as well, as did the environment. And given the amount of camber on the fairways, the light rough made a lot more sense second go. I think holes 4, 5 and 9 were my favourites in the end. Great course Dan - good luck! |
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Post by cd06 on Jul 13, 2021 8:10:03 GMT -5
Bump. Don't think any course in the game has grown on me more than this one.
If you haven't already, go play this right now.
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Post by trip4563 on Jul 13, 2021 8:19:03 GMT -5
Top 10 course for me, so fun and immersive
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Post by b101 on Aug 3, 2022 6:05:36 GMT -5
A bump for the nerds.
In all seriousness, this is awesome. The sign of a great course is where you find yourself discovering new subtleties to the course on multiple plays - that’s never more the case than here.
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Post by sandgroper on Jun 19, 2023 19:40:00 GMT -5
Tons of fun for the whole family!
Good elevation changes and some exciting greens that you need to be in the right place to take advantage of.
11 got my vote as the signature hole.
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). Also, I was really confused by the width of the light rough - I felt it was a little too wide in spots, but again, it could have been the land movement that pushed you to do that. I can't remember any of the holes except from 15 playing down to the oceanside, but I probably need to give it another play. Since I'm not massively educated on golf course architecture, I think I may have missed a few things here that others have spotted, but personally I didn't find a ton of strategy (or at least haven't found it yet). But I still enjoyed my round here, and land movement was fantastic. Good luck! 
