Old Wickham Heath (WCoD '22)

[cd06]

Simply gorgeous stuff here Ben. Loved 5 and 15 in particular, totally got the Addington vibes from the off. 15 almost had a reverse 16 at Addington feel in that it had the ravine on one side of the green and I felt excited and exhilarated playing it lol. Class course once again!

[Violinguy69]

Looks really beautiful.  Great work!

[talented_mr_yipley]

Delightful. Loved the sense of “place”. Routing was superb, but I think my favorite aspect was the tree planting — particularly on #2. Loved that green site and that air left between those tree trunks provided awesome depth.

Class.

[geordieboy85]

Lovely track as usual Ben, it's deceptively hard with no glaring danger, loved the 15th gave me 18th Strath vibes with the danger over the left, obviously found it !!!

Planting and course looked and played great, good job as always, best of luck defending the title

[mpad]

Just off the scale of any previous course in the game when it comes to look and feel and strategy.

[Demonondalinks]

Played this last night. A pure golf course, striking beauty. 

I've been to Pine Valley twice in New Jersey USA and if they had a sister course Old Wickham Heath could surely be it.

b101 which would be the toughest pin as I shot -10 on pin 1?  And it seemed like it could handle 187. Is that so?

Thanks for the great work!

[MEIKA94]

My buddies and I enjoyed a really competitive Fourball round at Old Wick' last night. We hit driver on all the par 4s and par 5s and were typically punished accordingly. Nice work making it irresistible to go for the green on Hole #5. 3/4 of us ended up in the shrubbery. Great course.

[jwtexan]

[WhatAboutAmeobi]

Another fantastic b101 course!

[lostsoulsforeva]

Absolute beauty of a course,with the usual clever strategy to go with it.Great job ben,best of luck in the comp.

[sandgroper]

Such a pretty place with the colour pops, giving it a very natural, immersive feel.
The plot looks great i.imgur.com/EipbkYe.jpg
Regal clubhouse i.imgur.com/3vUHgfJ.jpg with clever use of the windowing of the skyscrapers.
The transition shot off the first is great with the clubhouse in the background i.imgur.com/53ff7gB.jpg
The halfway house (after the 8th) to drop off and get a refreshment i.imgur.com/Bh86Io1.jpg
A big slow off the first gave me my first look at the lovely sculpting and colours in the bunker.
Tried to sling one in on the 6th and found out how short a big hook goes. Horrid lie with the 7th drive.
Huge red slow on 8 trying to take on he split fairway. Hit a beautiful approach shot into 9 but way over clubbed.
Again tempted by the split fairway on 10, I will never learn...
Got lucky on 11 with a good kick.
Figured if I go driver/driver on 5 I'll run through the slope and get near the green. My splash did everything but go in.
No room for error on 16. The drivable 17th was too tempting and nearly 3 putted it.
Wonderfully strong closing hole with the split fairway.
I really enjoyed my round and will go around again with the other pins.

[PithyDoctorG]

Since all the cool people seem to be posting playthroughs, thought I'd join in the fun. Great job, Ben. 

[b101]

Thanks all for the positive comments and glad you've enjoyed it! It was a real grind toward the end with the planting and every time I think I can't possibly take more time on a course, I seem to come up with a more intricate/stupid planting scheme. A few more specific comments:

Mar 1, 2022 7:49:44 GMT -5 Demonondalinks said:

Played this last night. A pure golf course, striking beauty. 

I've been to Pine Valley twice in New Jersey USA and if they had a sister course Old Wickham Heath could surely be it.

b101 which would be the toughest pin as I shot -10 on pin 1?  And it seemed like it could handle 187. Is that so?

Thanks for the great work!

Funny that you say that - the Addington's long par three 13th has been famously quoted as being the only long par three hole in the world worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Pine Valley's fifth. Not sure I quite agree with that, but there's certainly similarities between the two. The Addington was, at the time, extremely difficult, penal in spots and requires significant heroic carries. It really is one of a kind as a course and by a mile the most fun golf course I've ever played, even if there are one or two holes I might change (most notably the 1st). My plan was to try to mix that with some of the more sedate heathland courses and I ended up probably preferring the holes on the slightly flatter land.

In terms of difficulty, I don't go in for 'one difficult pinset' and instead try really hard to balance them so that you have a mix of front, back, left, right, red light, green light etc pins. One thing I love about heathland greens is the subtlety. Rather than tucking pins close to red slopes, you just get big slopes making up the greens with interesting borrows and contours around the edges to add interest. There's some bite in places, but from what I've seen, they've allowed a number of ways to play different holes rather than one prescribed way - something I've tried to develop a bit more. I think they should be fine to handle 187s due to not putting pins near big slopes, but I haven't tested them and can't vouch for it; it's more there for schedulers to look at if that's of interest.

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karma4u - love that picture. It's my favourite view on the course over my favourite hole on the property and I'm delighted you found it as well.

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yeltzman - you're not wrong. I've definitely gone too dark with lighting before now (particularly with ports from TGC2019), but was really happy with this one and the odd cloudy spells you get. 15 is a really tough hole in that sort of a wind - I far prefer it with wind off the right where it really makes you think about lie, wind etc and I've always found that Coore/Crenshaw template plays brilliantly when you don't feel you can get there in two, as it asks a really challenging question of where you feel comfortable laying up and what shot that will leave in. Comfortably the most natural site I've ever found for this hole as well - it was right there from the outset of the plot.

Also, totally agree on the heather/rendering. I've raised it so many times and really hope we see some progress on it in any future versions of the game.

[yeltzman]

It wasn't till i started designing a few Lidar's on my old Laptop i noticed how it looks on PC/laptop is not quite the same on Console, To me it even changes between PS and Xbox always seems darker on console, like i said it might be my TV or even colour setting its why to me don't like to comment to much about lighting because in the end its what's the designer prefer and of course easier to do decent lighting on fictional courses plus when you play with the aiming circle does not matter in the end, to me the aiming circle is too much of an aid.

Always been a Bugbear of mine since TGC1 the large grasses and stuff, I think 99% here understand why its used but to me who is not the best of player with there swing and ends up in it, it really spoils the experience. It's why i don't enjoy many fictional or especially Fantasy courses with my play just too offline to many times.

Back to the Course Would need to play the hole/course again in a different Wind and how you design you understand how a course design works playing in a different wind you should get a different experience every time, After 2 months without designing back tinkling again so won't be playing much, But again outstanding course but really you don't need anybody else to tell you that.

[hallzballz6908]

Stumbled upon this one completely by chance a few nights ago. Should have known it was yours as it’s one of the best strategic courses I’ve played in recent memory. Excellent hole designs as always and a truly wonderful environment. Congrats on the fine publish and of course thanks for all that you do for the community. You’re one of the pillars that keeps TGCTours and the design community standing strong!