BETA Course - Request Feedback

[waldo]

Hey all,

Hoping for some early feedback on a course I’ve been working on and just published a test for. Course is under BETA YN and any thoughts would be much appreciated.

The layout of the course is complete and some holes are more fully complete than others (planting, trees, rough etc.) So much of the plot is very bare.

The course is set in Canada and my goal is creating a tour worthy course while still having fun with the layout and overall design without it being too fantasy like.

Hope you enjoy and any feedback would be very much appreciated!

All the best,
Waldo

[waldo]

Also the Black tees will probably be the only flat ones lol that’s what I’ve been play testing from

[sroel908]

Played from the black tees, default conditions, pin 2.

Hole 1 takes you downhill over 100 feet from tee to green. Hole 2 takes you downhill from tee to green almost 80 feet. Hole 3 is downhill 20 feet. Hole 4 isn't really too dramatic, but then Hole 5 is downhill 35 feet again. Hole 6 goes up 12 feet, but then Hole 7 drops 54 feet. Hole 8 goes down 50 more feet. And then, all of a sudden, Hole 9 takes you uphill 105 feet.

But then Hole 10 goes downhill 113 feet again. Some small elevations on Holes 11 and 12, but then we go downhill 109 feet on Hole 13. Hole 14's down another 30 feet. And while Holes 15 and 16 go 20-some feet uphill each, Hole 17 drops another 10, and Hole 18 finishes with another whopper that takes you downhill over 130 feet.

While there are a couple holes with uphill elevations, most of the course is dramatically downhill. I get that it is kind of fitting of the environment, but it seems very artificial at times to be playing these types of steep holes in only one direction for the most part. The course has 5 holes with 100+ foot elevation changes (4 of them are downhill), and another 3 or 4 that go down 50-80 feet. It ends up feeling quite a bit like a more wild fantasy course.

Hole 2 has odd sculpting in front of the green. Shots hit to the fairway in front of the green get pushed away by the mound that's right where the green opens. I might sculpt that mound a bit more so that the kicker slope might have drives end up on the green.

Hole 3...I might remove that donut-shaped bunker, or reconfigure it a bit. It kind of looked odd to me, personally, and didn't sit in the land naturally.

I like the look and design of Hole 4. I don't know how I feel about the rock that's just a couple feet away from the green, which would definitely be in play.

The slope of Hole 6's fairway is steep, especially beyond the right side fairway bunker. I hit a drive over the bunker in hopes of cutting the corner, but it's so sloped, that my shot ran off into heavy rough. Might tame that slope a bit. The sculpting around the bunker at the entry of the green is a little wild, too. Could use just a little smoothing.

Hole 8 is the second drivable par-4 on the front 9. Not a huge deal, but might be the max.

After most of the greens up until now having fairly natural and muted slopes, Hole 9's green has two massive and aggressive red sloped areas. If you find the wrong tier, putting will be super difficult. And if you find the tier in the back when the pin would be on the front, you'd have no way of stopping the ball from running off the green if you miss a putt. These greens are also at default speeds, which are 138...I am not sure how much these greens could be sped up when there's already this kind of red in play.

Hole 15 as a par-5 felt a bit off to me. It's only 504 yards here, and will never really keep anyone from going for it in two in any conditions. The quite small green also has a massive bit of red in the middle again...I don't know if any speeds above these defaults could ever be used with this much red already present.

Hole 17 felt like a previous par-3 on the course...I recall a hole with the same kind of design, with a bunker in front of the green where you'd potentially try to run one up, a downhill elevation, and some Redan properties to it. It's not a bad hole, it just felt like it was already done before on this course.

Not gonna lie...Hole 18 is kind of odd and not my favorite. The fairway is aggressively tilted right to left, and that slope runs right into houses/buildings on the left side. The buildings feel like they are right in the line of play, to be honest, and it makes the hole feel awkward. The huge drop in elevation does lead to a nice view from the fairway, but everything here feels overdone. I had a 204 yard second shot into the green, but it was 75 feet downhill and I was standing on a red sloped, downhill foot lie.

I think some ideas and work here are nice, and the planting that's done in front of Hole 16's green (I think it was 16...the one with the rocky area in front of the green) is cool...but there's a bit too much "over the top" going on, IMO. The sculpting is a bit dramatic at times, the use of tilted fairways repeats quite a bit, the massive downhill elevation change is a bit overdone. The course has a solid foundation...it may just need some of the ideas to be reined in and toned down a little bit.

I hope this helps!

[waldo]

Sroel,

Thank you as always! You’ve always been a massive help with my other courses and many others! Thank you for taking the time to play and hopefully you don’t get tired of telling me to calm down my sculpting and elevation haha. Tried to hopefully get a mix in there with uphill holes compared to my last rocky, hilly plot but the downhills certainly win still. I’ll try my best to tone down.

Appreciate all your help as always! Hope you enjoyed!

Waldo

[waldo]

Hey all!

I've posted my final beta before I plan on publishing, it's under BETA YN2. I feel like I've made a lot of improvements thanks to sroel. I've been flattening out a lot of the elevation and have changed some tees and greens. Just missing some planting in spots and I'm sure not all the tee boxes are flat but the course is almost there! 

Hoping that this is tour worthy! Please let me know what you guys think!

Thanks!
Waldo

Here are some pics

[greenlightning]

I thought it pretty decent. Like you said it needs more planting but the course from the back is a decent challenge. Not bad looking at all. Not a big fan of the new rocks formations all over the place but they don't look too bad. Good job overall not unfair.

[waldo]

Thanks! Appreciate you giving it a go!