crio
Caddy
Posts: 61
TGCT Name: Rio Sewell
Tour: Platinum
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Post by crio on Jan 20, 2022 12:16:48 GMT -5
Welcome to Hartwells Park! Built in a beautiful valley tucked away from the bustling city, this public golf course is open to anyone, whether you're a businessman working on Main St, a tradesman working on Valley Rd, or a farmer on the outskirts of the city, you're sure to have a great day away from work.
The course is set in the Northeast US (New York State) in a fictional college town/city. I was going for a late summer/early fall feeling for the course, where the trees haven't quite changed yet, but the ground is a bit softer and it's gotten to that nice comfortable temperature on most days. Greens run at 175 and the course is in great shape for the club championship.
Don't let the gentle start fool you, you'll need to be precise to score well here with uncomfortable angles and deceptive greens making this course in to a real test for any golfer. Hole 8:  Hole 18:  Hole 3:  Hole 12:  Hole 15:  Hole 16:  P.S. I just published the course on PC this morning (Jan 20), so it's not available on PS4 yet (not sure about XBOX). I'll update this post once I see it's up on PS4. Edit: Showing up on PS4 now!
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blindwolfgolf
Amateur Golfer
PGA2k23 Courses: Baiting Hollow Dunes, Ballycraic (Major), Wicker Club
Posts: 191
Tour: Challenge Circuit
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Post by blindwolfgolf on Jan 20, 2022 16:51:13 GMT -5
Cool course man. Just played it. I think the environment on the outskirts is really neat with the city and the farms. One thing I think might make this course pop a little more is planting on the inland holes. The holes by the river and near town looked great and I think the holes with just trees on them could use some grasses or underbrush to help blend the look throughout. I think the green slopes were pretty good and made sense. One other thing I’d add is moving some of the trees a little bit further away from fairway. With the wind I had I ended up hitting a few and think it felt a little tight in places. Overall had a nice round, and good luck in the comp!
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crio
Caddy
Posts: 61
TGCT Name: Rio Sewell
Tour: Platinum
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Post by crio on Jan 20, 2022 17:51:38 GMT -5
Cool course man. Just played it. I think the environment on the outskirts is really neat with the city and the farms. One thing I think might make this course pop a little more is planting on the inland holes. The holes by the river and near town looked great and I think the holes with just trees on them could use some grasses or underbrush to help blend the look throughout. I think the green slopes were pretty good and made sense. One other thing I’d add is moving some of the trees a little bit further away from fairway. With the wind I had I ended up hitting a few and think it felt a little tight in places. Overall had a nice round, and good luck in the comp! Appreciate the play through. I did have some grasses on some of the emptier holes but decided to remove them as they felt a bit messy and detracted rather than added to the look, but I think I could've definitely done something with some of those holes though, and maybe a different style of planting closer to the holes would've made more sense, thanks for the advice! |
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Post by MicFoley on Jan 21, 2022 2:13:40 GMT -5
I enjoyed the full pin set play of the course starting with default 2nd pin set, then I cranked it up with firm fairways, very soft + very Fast greens on 1st pin set. A solid entertaining playing course.
There are few difficult shots on the course, and plenty of options for ground game play. More minimal planting made the 1st few holes feel empty, but the rolling hills, forests, and beautifully crafted backdrops really start to kick in.
Soft fairways, with very firm + slow greens on 3rd pin set, was a fun target condition to play in. 4th pin set with Very Fast NW Winds Very fast and Very Firm green and fairways made the course from an easy under par to a struggle for par on my last day.
The only thing that I would change for play is the 13th hole. It could have fairway up to and around 1 side of the green or have some bunkers around it. I sometimes like trees tighter to the fairway as a vertical hazard condition, but it can make narrower fairways without narrowing the fairway, and it can force the player into a shot shape which will dictate shot options. The empty areas in the 1st third of the course can be mitigated with tighter routing, closer trees, or be filled in with bushes/ sunken trees, something that does not distract or sway from the rest of the look of the course.
Overall good stuff, and good work.
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Post by trailducker on Jan 21, 2022 11:13:36 GMT -5
There's some nice tings tried on this corse. The City, The rock wall out of logs are cool. This has a muni feel for sure. There's some sclaing with fairway widths that could have been wider and some more startegy off the tee for the player to decide. Good job overall!
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Post by geordieboy85 on Feb 1, 2022 8:37:47 GMT -5
God job, them fairways were tight for a zig zagger like me, could have been a bit wider in spots. Think everyone is trying the AF log stone trick now.
Not a fan of the red and white flags for obvious personal reasons, best of luck in the comp
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Post by Avakrac on Feb 5, 2022 8:51:40 GMT -5
Gday dude,
I enjoyed the round I had on your course, It is a nice relaxing course to hit.
Good luck in the contest 👍
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Lifeonaboard
Amateur Golfer
Posts: 250
TGCT Name: Jaron Pauls
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Post by Lifeonaboard on Feb 10, 2022 1:45:43 GMT -5
Played this yesterday on stream, was an enjoyable peaceful round for sure.
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crio
Caddy
Posts: 61
TGCT Name: Rio Sewell
Tour: Platinum
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Post by crio on Feb 11, 2022 14:22:15 GMT -5
Played this yesterday on stream, was an enjoyable peaceful round for sure. Lots of great feedback, tons of great points that I agree with for sure, super useful and will definitely help me in the future with future courses I make! Appreciate the time you took to play it! Tons of subtleties that I learned from watching the play through, I especially liked your ideas of the light shafts on 15 to highlight the pins/bunkers while still keeping the trees there (I put the trees there to give cover/safety to the teebox adjacent but really interesting to play with the idea of finding a way to still light the green well). I also agree with a lot of your proposed changes like the extra fairway on the 2 shorter par 3s. I really love your way of explaining the potential improvements and why they would improve it, I found it really helpful! |
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Post by weirsy2003 on Feb 12, 2022 1:27:38 GMT -5
Going through the rookie courses slowly and just gave this a play. I agree with a lot of the comments said so far and found the course somewhat inconsistent throughout although it improved as I went along. The fairway and bunker sizing could do with some work as others have said. The background environment work is really well done but the on course environment was definitely lacking particularly on some holes. I can't remember if it was Hole 3 or 4 that really struggled with this but it was a relatively short par 4 with no bunkers, hazards or terrain that fell a bit flat. The greens were quite well done though and offered some good strategy on how to play approach shots. Once I hit around Hole 8 or so (other than the trees suddenly getting very close to the fairway at this point) I noticed a dramatic improvement. The back 9 was more enjoyable as the holes more interesting than the front . If you compared Hole 18 to that Hole 3 or 4 the difference is really night and day. I'm curious whether the course was designed in order from 1-18? Anyway, good luck in the contest and keep on designing!
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crio
Caddy
Posts: 61
TGCT Name: Rio Sewell
Tour: Platinum
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Post by crio on Feb 12, 2022 12:56:01 GMT -5
Going through the rookie courses slowly and just gave this a play. I agree with a lot of the comments said so far and found the course somewhat inconsistent throughout although it improved as I went along. The fairway and bunker sizing could do with some work as others have said. The background environment work is really well done but the on course environment was definitely lacking particularly on some holes. I can't remember if it was Hole 3 or 4 that really struggled with this but it was a relatively short par 4 with no bunkers, hazards or terrain that fell a bit flat. The greens were quite well done though and offered some good strategy on how to play approach shots. Once I hit around Hole 8 or so (other than the trees suddenly getting very close to the fairway at this point) I noticed a dramatic improvement. The back 9 was more enjoyable as the holes more interesting than the front . If you compared Hole 18 to that Hole 3 or 4 the difference is really night and day. I'm curious whether the course was designed in order from 1-18? Anyway, good luck in the contest and keep on designing! Thanks for the reply and the review/feedback! Really appreciate it! I actually designed from 18 backwards, which would explain the back 9 being better than the front as I sort of ran out of ideas near the end of designing. In hindsight I could've routed the front 9 differently to get more interesting shots near the river on the front. I've definitely learned a lot from all the feedback everyone has given so far! P.S. I love your forum name! |
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Post by weirsy2003 on Feb 12, 2022 13:49:54 GMT -5
Going through the rookie courses slowly and just gave this a play. I agree with a lot of the comments said so far and found the course somewhat inconsistent throughout although it improved as I went along. The fairway and bunker sizing could do with some work as others have said. The background environment work is really well done but the on course environment was definitely lacking particularly on some holes. I can't remember if it was Hole 3 or 4 that really struggled with this but it was a relatively short par 4 with no bunkers, hazards or terrain that fell a bit flat. The greens were quite well done though and offered some good strategy on how to play approach shots. Once I hit around Hole 8 or so (other than the trees suddenly getting very close to the fairway at this point) I noticed a dramatic improvement. The back 9 was more enjoyable as the holes more interesting than the front . If you compared Hole 18 to that Hole 3 or 4 the difference is really night and day. I'm curious whether the course was designed in order from 1-18? Anyway, good luck in the contest and keep on designing! Thanks for the reply and the review/feedback! Really appreciate it! I actually designed from 18 backwards, which would explain the back 9 being better than the front as I sort of ran out of ideas near the end of designing. In hindsight I could've routed the front 9 differently to get more interesting shots near the river on the front. I've definitely learned a lot from all the feedback everyone has given so far! P.S. I love your forum name! Very interesting strategy to design backwards! Running out of ideas is totally understandable especially when designing under a timeline. You're the first person to ever comment on my forum name so I'm happy someone gets it! |
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Post by sandgroper on Feb 14, 2022 0:47:58 GMT -5
Really lovely parkland course set on the edge of the city. The city skyscrapers give it a great feel.
My round got off to a flyer with three birdies early.
You could bring the trees in a little to create a more cosy atmosphere. The fairway edges and greens feel a little vacant. Especially the bunker-less third.
Then the back 9 things tighten up considerable. I though the dogleg was a little tight on 10 so I took a shortcut.
I have no idea what happened to my approach on 17 with a 3 o'clock red-slow coming in.
Enjoyed my round and lovely course.
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