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Post by plawlor15 on Mar 29, 2021 11:26:04 GMT -5
Hi all, I'm closing in on the completion of my third course, Balley Marrey, a fantasy course set along the east coast of Scotland in the ancient town of Balley Marrey, which is Scottish Gaelic for “seaside town”. The course is a links style and features three distinct areas as the layout transitions from the middle of town, out to the sandy coastline, and then into the forests at the foot of the highlands. Holes 1, 2, 3, 17, and 18 play alongside the streets and buildings of the old town. Holes 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, and 14 play amongst the coastline dunes. Holes 7, 8, 9, and 10 wind there way through the trees at the base of the Scottish Highlands. Course: BM-OLD-BETA Yardage: 7,432 The course is best played with an early and foggy morning tee time, firm fairways, and a brisk southerly wind. Beware that this is an ancient links layout, so expect a few quirks along the way, including blind approaches and carries over out of bounds areas. Looking for some feedback on the BETA, so would appreciate a few playthroughs if you have the time. It is nearly complete, but I've spent the past month on the aesthetics, so am looking for some feedback on its playability. Here are a few photos. The Clubhouse: Approach into 5th: Par 3 6th and 12th: 8th and 10th Fairways: 8th Green and Drivable 9th: 11th Green hiding in the dunes: 14th Green: Right of 15th: Behind 17th Tee: 18th Hole: Thank you! Peter
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irwinm2006
Weekend Golfer
Posts: 118
TGCT Name: Eric Fletcher
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Post by irwinm2006 on Apr 1, 2021 12:59:48 GMT -5
I'll try to give it a playthrough tonight!
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Post by plawlor15 on Apr 1, 2021 14:59:00 GMT -5
I'll try to give it a playthrough tonight! That would be great. Thank you. I am especially interested in greens you think need some work. In my latest testing, I noticed a few areas where the break is a little funky and unnatural, so planning to fix some up a bit already. Peter
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irwinm2006
Weekend Golfer
Posts: 118
TGCT Name: Eric Fletcher
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Post by irwinm2006 on Apr 2, 2021 7:26:03 GMT -5
I'll try to give it a playthrough tonight! That would be great. Thank you. I am especially interested in greens you think need some work. In my latest testing, I noticed a few areas where the break is a little funky and unnatural, so planning to fix some up a bit already. Peter HI Peter, Played through a few times last night, really like the course overall! I'll caveat this by saying I am not a great player so I found the course pretty difficult . I also have not upgraded my clubs much yet, but wanted to play from the back tees as I know that is where most players will play it. I played from the second tees up the last time through and I think that is actually more my speed, at least I scored better. Re: the greens, I didn't notice any rolls on the greens that I would call unnatural. I thought the greens rolled pretty well overall some big tiers and a couple double breakers but they seemed fine to me. I was looking at the pin placements and while some were on slopes I didn't think they were tricked up or unfair placements. I thought there were a couple tough greens to hit and hold based on some of the slopes but I'll say that could have been due to the clubs I was using were likely more mid- and long-ish based on where my driver was getting me. I made a couple notes while playing: - Number 3 (par 3) was hard to hold with the front to back slope, I hit what I thought was a pretty good shot and it ran all the way through to the back rough. Again, this may be that I was using a longer club than most, and I probably should have landed it short and run it up since the pin was front mid. I'm thinking this may have been your intention with the hole and I did play it better in subsequent plays so not sure if I would change anything, just a note I made while playing.
- I like the design on 10 a lot but I thought the grassy cliff to the right of the green looked a little severe, I was thinking you could probably moderate that a bit to make it look less sharply raised but still have what you were going for there. Love the hole tho, the fairway landing area is really well done with most shots funneling into the flat area if you aren't just blasting away with driver.
- 14 is a great hole but has a really tough approach, the green is pretty shallow and there isn't a lot of room to run shots up with the steep false front on the left and the mounding in front. On my third play through I had a good wind and was able to hit a big cut and it held the green but it was really tough to get the ball close there (altho again it may be combination of my lack of skill and hitting in a longer club than most). Was thinking it might help if you smoothed out the apron a little to give players a chance to bump and run it on to the far left pin.
I really liked the 17th (homage to the Road Hole, good stuff), and following that up with a (almost, for me) drivable 18th with the town and the clubhouse in the background.
All in all I really enjoyed the course, the planting and the environment with the town and the ship at dock was a great touch. The planting was really good, and the course looks awesome, you chose great lighting as well. The fescue look is really well done and framed the holes well, and I think you struck a good balance around giving enough rough along the playable area but still had a lot of the fescue and heavily planted areas in play for wayward shots. Great job, looking forward to the final publish!
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Post by plawlor15 on Apr 2, 2021 9:55:00 GMT -5
Thanks. Really appreciate you taking the time to provide that feedback. Your points on 3 and 14 confirm something I was considering myself, so thanks for reassuring me that changes are necessary. I'm going to widen the runup area on 3, as that's the only way to reach the front pin. And I'm going to flatten the apron on 14 as you suggest. I've already tweaked the 10th green -- brought up the drop-off on the right about 50%. You're right, not nearly as nasty, but provides the same effect.
I'm going to try and get the final release out this weekend.
Thanks again.
Peter
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irwinm2006
Weekend Golfer
Posts: 118
TGCT Name: Eric Fletcher
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Post by irwinm2006 on Apr 2, 2021 12:12:20 GMT -5
Thanks. Really appreciate you taking the time to provide that feedback. Your points on 3 and 14 confirm something I was considering myself, so thanks for reassuring me that changes are necessary. I'm going to widen the runup area on 3, as that's the only way to reach the front pin. And I'm going to flatten the apron on 14 as you suggest. I've already tweaked the 10th green -- brought up the drop-off on the right about 50%. You're right, not nearly as nasty, but provides the same effect. I'm going to try and get the final release out this weekend. Thanks again. Peter No problem at all, really enjoyed playing the course, looking forward to putting this on my regular rota. Best, Eric
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2021 20:57:01 GMT -5
G'day mate. I'm playing it now from the tips, with default everything else. It's given me wind 14mph to the east
I'm a mediocre player, and I've just taken the step up to master settings so it could be interesting. Here's some thoughts as I go. (Turns out this was a round where if you were playing in real life you'd stop keeping score after about 6 holes).
Hole 1 - tee area looks great. Could you put something on the left to make that field look more interesting? Incredibly large green. Planting looks nice. The dunes look really nice, it's hard to get the proportions right but yours look spot on.
2 - nice risk reward hole, but maybe too much room out to the right? And where does that river go? I see that it's supposed to disappear into a drain under the town, but I don't think that element works particularly well.
3 bunkers are cool. I had a strong wind behind and there's no possible way to stop the ball on that front section.
4 I do dig the stripy bunker motif you seem to be going with. Good hole. You could either spline that bunker near the green to get fairway all the way to the edge, or you should put in more rough around it. That narrow strip that the game gives you for bunker brushes doesn't look great in my opinion.
6 very minor thing but the green grass near the beach looks quite different to the golden grass on the dunes. Maybe mix some gold ggrass through the green stuff, especially where they meet. The steps, walkway and path off the back of the green are well done. Unfortunately I assume for that grass at the back of the green to be big enough to see from the tee it needs to be huge. Which is fine, except you've got a direction sign there, which is out of proportion and makes the grass look comically big. I'd ditch the sign - it's not needed anyway as there's nowhere else to go.
7 solid bunkering. I love a good shared fairway. Of course I hit it into the patch of rough in the middle. Greenside bunkering might need a little work, they just look a little flat.
8 those circle bunkers are handy but maybe some variety in the bunkering here? Nice green, with the three guard bunkers on the slope in front.
9 popped it in the bunker left, which will be a popular spot. I like the hole but that pin location on the right is a little unfair. Can a ball putted from above and stay on the green?
10 once I figured out where the hole is, and with the wind behind, I hit straight towards the green just to see what happened. I'm sure you've tested it and know how that ended up. Next time I'll play the hole properly, it's an unusual design with the big v shaped dogleg down then up. I'm interested to see how that works.
11 decided to go with an 8 iron for my second to leave a full 100 yard shot in, which is not a bad thing by any means with regards to hole design. Nice looking hole
12 nice par 3. Good look at the steps and walkway from earlier, and a lovely view of the course looking back towards town when the ball is in the air.
13 the beach / dunes need planting out behind the green. Actually the beach needs work in general.
14 not sure about the green here, too hidden? The fishing port looks great.
15 minor thing but if you're looking to cut the corner here you're playing right over a tee box, which would be a touch dangerous. Both rows of cross bunkers are good, plant them out with some grass / fescue stuff and again consider different shapes.
16 - a touch long,especially considering its uphill? I managed to get a driver to 13 feet so it's doable, but just as a personal preference I don't like a par three like that.
17 - nice one going over the corner of the town. I think there's too much room in the landing area to the left when you cut the corner with driver. There's one bit of floating wall / post just short of the green.
18 Lovely looking hole, town is well constructed. A touch of St Andrews 18th here, with that big depression that everyone will find.
All in all it's a nice track which could do with a little more polish. Especially the bunkers could be improved with some different shapes and some planting and sculpting work. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with them, they're just a little uninspiring. Planting, sculpting and the general feel / ambiance was lovely. Maybe it could be toughened up by some more difficulty / decisions to make off the tee. Most drives were a little straight-forward. Maybe smaller greens?
I like it, thanks for designing it. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.
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Post by plawlor15 on Apr 3, 2021 8:20:31 GMT -5
Thanks for playing. I have released the final version, so if you have the time, would appreciate you giving it a go to see the changes that were made. Here's the thread: tgctours.proboards.com/thread/27892/balley-marrey-oldA few of the items you raised were addressed in the final version. These two come to mind specifically: - The runup to 3 has been flattened, lengthened, and widened, so now it is very possible to find those front pins.
- Altered 9 green so the tiering isn't quite so dramatic
Thanks again. Peter
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2021 8:50:09 GMT -5
Good job Peter, I've just played the final version and it's heaps of fun. Lovely course.
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Post by plawlor15 on Apr 3, 2021 9:11:09 GMT -5
Good job Peter, I've just played the final version and it's heaps of fun. Lovely course. Thanks. Much appreciated! Peter
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