Being a new designer (with PGA2K21), and having had limited success at getting feedback when I have posted beta versions (I've had more success when I post a completed course, but then it's too late for that course, lol), I decided to take a look at yours. I played a round, which I recorded and will post. I also prepared a flyover which is posted below. I apologize for the jerkiness of the flyover.
Overall, I really like this course and I enjoyed my round; great textures and plants for this type of course, and you managed to work the ocean into some of your holes, so very scenic as well.
Some of the memorable features for me are:
1. You have good hole variation, so I never experienced that feeling we sometimes get when the holes are too much alike. Each hole is pretty distinct.
2. You made a creative use of some fairways by linking or combining them, and I thought you pulled it off very well.
3. With only two sets of tees at close to the same yardage, I was a little concerned that there would not be much difference in the playing experience from each set; but your placement of the tees was also very creative, so my worries appear to have been unfounded. I especially liked your tee placements on Hole 7, which make the hole seem like a different hole from one tee to the next.
4. The fairways are wide, but your placement of bunkers, bushes and deep grass was done so well that I still had to think about where to aim my tee shots, and you provided some options.
5. I saw a few template bunkers out there, but you mixed in some of your own creations. I particularly like the serpentine bunker on the right side of 17 green; very well done I thought.
6. You did a good job with contours and shaping of fairways and greens. The course looks very natural to me.
Some things I might change; not that you need be guided by any of these comments:
1. I saw a lot of what I will call "orphaned long white grass." I recognize it because I encountered the same result in my first course design. Autogenerated grass tends to land all over the course. You did a good job eliminating it from the playing areas, but I noticed quite a bit of this grass in small patches, sometimes very small patches with no other vegetation around. I don't think a ground crew would mow around small patches like this when all the grass around it is the regular cut for heavy rough. It would be too much work for something that is not all that aesthetic. I think long grass looks better when it is part of a large mass of long grass or, if placed in smaller groupings, it is combined with bushes and other plants. A ground crew would not be mowing under the bushes in most cases, so it is more believable. And a ground crew might also be keeping untouched a significant area of vegetation containing this grass for conservation or other reasons. But planting and unplanting is time-consuming and it is a pain, so I understand.
2. The tee box I played on Hole 8 looks a bit like an Indian burial mound; just kidding. But it is artificially high. Raising the tee boxes helps to avoid blindness on the tee shot, so I understand the desire to get some elevation in the teeing ground. I've done the same thing in some of my earlier designs. But I have since found that I can get a more natural look with an elevated tee box by making all the slopes leading up to the tee box more gradual, so the tee box looks more like a part of the natural landscape and not an upside-down cake. I did not notice this problem on your other holes which have elevated teeing areas (16 for example).
3. I don't mind bushes, plants, grasses, and vegetation near bunkers if the bunkers happen to be near areas of heavy vegetation. But I don't like bushes in bunkers; or bushes that hang over into bunkers. I think a golfer in real life would be upset if a bush interfered with his swing from a bunker. I see bushes in waste areas from time to time, but I try to keep them out of bunkers.
4. Having made this observation, I think you did a good job with bunker design. I found some of your fairway bunkers to be a bit too deep to my liking, but there are varying opinions on the depth of bunkers. A rule of thumb I follow is to try to leave the golfer with the ability to use any club in his bag to get out of a fairway bunker, even a driver. Being in a bunker and suffering a loss of distance is punishment enough; taking away longer clubs when needed the most adds insult to injury. So I generally save deep bunkers for locations where the golfer can hit a wedge or short iron and still make the green. But people disagree on this topic.
5. Aside from the orphaned long white grass, the only other plantings I did not like were on Hole 17. One was the bush/tree in the middle of the driving area on Hole 17 (because I landed directly behind it in the fairway with no shot at the green, lol). I know, it is not taboo to plant a tree in the fairway, and you provide ample fairway space on both sides of this tree. I just missed those areas with my drive, leaving me with a perfect lie in the middle of the fairway with no shot at the green. The other was the bushes or long grass (not sure which) in the bunker next to the green. They just look odd to me. Why would a ground crew leave a handful of small bushes in a bunker that otherwise is nowhere near this type of vegetation?
6. For the most part, I thought you did a good job with design strategy. Oh hole 18, consider lengthening the left fairway. If I understand your design strategy there, you can go left of the middle fairway bunkers, or you can go right. Going right is a longer shot and you must fly the first bunker or two. If the golfer pulls this shot off, it opens up the best angle to the green for the approach shot. But the golfer may also land in one of those mid-fairway bunkers, so there is a risk to gain this reward. That leaves the left fairway as presumably the safer option. A golfer does not have to carry any bunkers to reach the left fairway; so the risk of hitting a bunker is reduced, but the resulting angle to the green is worse. This strategy makes sense to me if the golfer can hit a drive about the same distance but suffer only a worse angle into the green. But the left fairway runs out around 290 yards. I hit through the left fairway even with a quartering wind against me. So the "safer shot" put me into heavy rough, which is a worse penalty than the bunkers. If I had to play it again, I would know to hit a fairway wood to the left fairway. But if I have to hit a fairway wood, I will lose about 40 yards. So I may decide that the "safe option" is no better than the "risk option." And I may decide to hit driver to the right fairway instead because both options are risky but at least I will have a better angle to the green from the right fairway if I can pull off that shot. In addition, you have placed the middle fairway bunkers in a diagonal that pinches the left fairway reducing the target the longer the drive; but a drive will never reach the pinching bunkers because the fairway runs out. I think the design strategy will be improved if you lengthen the left fairway there. But just my opinion.
My thoughts. Do what seems best to you. I think you did a great job with this course. Thanks for sharing it with this community.
