Oasis Trails WIP

[sloppycm]

New to the forum so this will somewhat serve as an introduction.

Over the past year I've gotten the chance to play some of the best publicly accessible courses in the US, including Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run, Erin Hills, Streamsong, Tobacco Road, and Pine Needles. I knew playing these courses would be a ton of fun but I did not expect it would lead to me becoming addicted to golf course architecture. For better or worse, I probably spend the majority of my waking hours thinking about course design. I played PGA2k21 a solid amount since it was released but have gotten really into the course designer over the past couple months. 

My first attempt at a course was Essex County CC (Tour). It is a top 10 course in NJ designed by Tillinghast and Raynor/Banks. I've played the course countless times over the past 2 years as my roommate is a member. The club just recently hired Gil Hanse to restore/redesign it and I was able to get my hands on his drawings for the course. I used his drawings when creating the course and slightly adjusted hazards and tee boxes to fit the game. This course in game is definitely not perfect. I've learned a lot (watched every b101 and CrazyCanuck vid on YT) about bunkers, planting, and shaping in general since publishing the course and I'm planning on updating it in 2k23 before submitting to TGC.

With that being said, I'd like to introduce my 2nd course, Oasis Trails! The original idea for this course was to take 18 of my favorite holes I've played and use them as inspiration (similar to The Architects Golf Club in New Jersey). I initially tried to route the holes to match up with their real life hole number but some holes simply didn't fit well so I ended up swapping some and also making some custom holes using some of my favorite features. I also realized some of these holes have very different themes/styles so I decided to make it similar to Bandon Trails in that the trail takes you on a journey through different environments. In my case, any holes near the water have lush vegetation and the further away from the water, the more barren and dry the terrain gets, which lead me to name the course "Oasis Trails".

I'm going to wait until 2k23 releases to finish this up but felt it would be cool to get some eyes on it and potential feedback. Here are a couple screenshots (I design on Xbox and had to post screenshots to twitter so sorry if quality isn't great):




^Got my first and only real-life Ace on this biarritz beauty. Best template design. Not up for debate.













Hope you guys enjoy and I'm looking forward to being part of the community when 2k23 arrives!
Bonus points if you can identify the holes these are inspired by.

[paddyjk19]

I’d say the bottom two are whistling straits inspired, 6th (if that’s the snaking par 5) and then 17th the Par 3 with the big bunker front right with a kind of reverse Redan

[sloppycm]

Sept 26, 2022 10:34:54 GMT -5 paddyjk19 said:

I’d say the bottom two are whistling straits inspired, 6th (if that’s the snaking par 5) and then 17th the Par 3 with the big bunker front right with a kind of reverse Redan

Yup good eye. Loved the Snake hole even though I lost two balls on it. Obviously had to include the 17th. That bunker is so unique looking, seems tiny and easy to avoid yet my tee shot managed to find it. Had some difficulties sculpting the "spieth shot" area left of the green. Hoping i can get it a little more realistic in 2k23

[sandgroper]

Welcome along sloppycm. I bet there is a decent backstory on the name and avatar. ;-)
Why not publish it as ot-beta so you can get some feedback and then publish it for real in '23.

[paddyjk19]

Sept 26, 2022 11:16:10 GMT -5 sloppycm said:

Sept 26, 2022 10:34:54 GMT -5 paddyjk19 said:

I’d say the bottom two are whistling straits inspired, 6th (if that’s the snaking par 5) and then 17th the Par 3 with the big bunker front right with a kind of reverse Redan

Yup good eye. Loved the Snake hole even though I lost two balls on it. Obviously had to include the 17th. That bunker is so unique looking, seems tiny and easy to avoid yet my tee shot managed to find it. Had some difficulties sculpting the "spieth shot" area left of the green. Hoping i can get it a little more realistic in 2k23

I’d just use a retaining wall and then pull the terrain up right against it with the raise brush, should create enough slope angle to get up over it

[sloppycm]

Sept 26, 2022 20:57:47 GMT -5 sandgroper said:

Why not publish it as ot-beta so you can get some feedback and then publish it for real in '23.

True im sure that would help with feedback. Figured I would have to publish anyways to import it in the new game. I'll give it another playthrough tonight and update the thread when its live.

[sloppycm]

Sept 27, 2022 12:43:16 GMT -5 paddyjk19 said:

I’d just use a retaining wall and then pull the terrain up right against it with the raise brush, should create enough slope angle to get up over it

Appreciate the tip! Gave this a try and I like the way it turned out. I decided to leave the top of the wall partially exposed to somewhat imitate the railroad tie look.  Spent some time hitting shots from different spots on the slope and it plays pretty well. Going to go into more detail in '23 but it's good enough for the beta. 









Using this video of my dad's attempt at the shot for reference. Actually does a decent job of showing the slope:

[sandgroper]

Really lovely vibes coming off this. Second course? wow, you're on the right track!
Your chosen colours, look great and I like the darker colour of the sand. Lighting is really nice angle too.
One thing to watch is where the fairway meets the natural ground. An example is behind the 2nd green. If you spline in some heavy (or even some light) rough it will soften the look.
There were a couple of dead straight putts. Try to slope them all so none are standing still. (Some call them dead pills).
The humps in the fairways look a little "manufactured". Try to smooth them out a little more so they look more natural.
The third fairway is a little bit of a strange shape. Again you see the fairway meet the rocky ground.
No real bailout area on the 5th, so might as well hit driver. The rockwork looks great.
I like the variation of the 6th green.
The punchbowl green on 8 looks good from above. Open up the front to give it a view in?
16 and 17 the same length, and pretty much face the same way.

That 18th is a beast...

[sloppycm]

Oct 3, 2022 3:18:12 GMT -5 sandgroper said:

Really lovely vibes coming off this. Second course? wow, you're on the right track!
Your chosen colours, look great and I like the darker colour of the sand. Lighting is really nice angle too.
One thing to watch is where the fairway meets the natural ground. An example is behind the 2nd green. If you spline in some heavy (or even some light) rough it will soften the look.
There were a couple of dead straight putts. Try to slope them all so none are standing still. (Some call them dead pills).
The humps in the fairways look a little "manufactured". Try to smooth them out a little more so they look more natural.
The third fairway is a little bit of a strange shape. Again you see the fairway meet the rocky ground.
No real bailout area on the 5th, so might as well hit driver. The rockwork looks great.
I like the variation of the 6th green.
The punchbowl green on 8 looks good from above. Open up the front to give it a view in?
16 and 17 the same length, and pretty much face the same way.

That 18th is a beast...

Meant to update this thread when I published the beta but was running around getting ready for a wedding (Got to play Montauk Downs, very nice track). Thanks for the feedback and posting your gameplay. Was nice to watch someone else play it and the free cam footage is a cool bonus. Definitely going to touch up the edges of the fairways and greens when '23 releases. 

I agree with the hump in the fairways looking manufactured. Those holes are inspired by holes at Streamsong (pictured below) and I wanted the humps to give unexpected bounces on drives since they're all short par 4s. I originally had them smaller and more natural looking but they didn't really cause the ball to bounce the way I wanted so made them bigger. Gonna try smoothing them out but I'll probably rework the fairways/hazards on these holes (3rd and 5th as well) depending on driving distance in the new game. 



I see what you're saying about the front of the punchbowl green on 8 (Streamsong Black #9 - picture above right). That green in real life is similar to how I have it currently in that you cant see the green or pin at all but the original has a windmill behind it to aim at so I could definitely tweak my version a bit to fit the game. I'm thinking if I lowered it slightly and flattened the area in front to catch short shots it could play well.

Very good point about the 16th and 17th. Didn't even realize they were the same length. I'm going to move the tee back on 17 which should also bring the elevated front bunker into play more.

The 18th is definitely something. Kind of like a Frankenstein hole. Was originally inspired by the 18th at Erin Hills but I wanted to make it more challenging and memorable so I brought in a creek similar to the 18th on Straits. Also just a big fan of the Principal's Nose so threw it in there but think it's a good added challenge for the second shot.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[sloppycm]

For anyone else who wants to play / provide feedback, the beta is published as "OT-beta". Here is the scorecard (slightly quirky routing):



Have made some minor adjustments to the 17th tee length and fairway bumps on 1st, 2nd, & 8th since publishing.