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Post by trailducker on Nov 12, 2023 19:19:58 GMT -5
Welcome to Stono Beach Club, my entry in the 2023 Major Course Design Competition. Located on Kiawah Island in South Carolina and inspired by Pete Dye's Ocean Course, Stono Beach is meant to be a test of accuracy and distance control while braving the violent winds the island is known for. The course is not long but often times having the longest driver can become a detriment as many of the prefered locations are pockets requireing taking some off a full driver or resorting to pulling out a wood instead. Driver is never fully taken out of hand, but often strictly going for as far as you can bash it leads to more problems on the approach. I am very comfortable saying the difficulty level here is about middle of the pack in this competition. My view was prioirty #1 is to make the best course design wise and #2 was to give it some teeth without hurting the design. Anytime I considered ramping up some of the difficulty on a particular shot, I weighed if it was at the detriment of the course design and if I was just adding difficulty for the sake of making it difficult; which I consciously chose to avoid. There is a memeber's version published with softer conditions, more on that below. Conditions:Being the location it is, the winds are meant to be played on mostly High but there is still challange on all wind speeds. Northwest is the prevailing Wind direction, but again all wind directions work. White Tees are considered the pirmary tees for the competition so please I ask whatever Round conditions you may chose to adopt please start with the White Tees on first play. Please judge off the White Tees as the holes were deisgned from thsoe locations and the Blue Tees are for a change in angle to add variety across four rounds. Round/Pin | Tee | Wind Strength | Wind Direction | Green Speed | Time of Day | Weather | 1 | White | High | North | Default | Default | Default | 2 | Blue | Medium | West | Very Fast | Noon | Light Clouds | 3 | Blue | Very High | Southeast | Fast | Dawn | Default | 4 | White | High | Northwest | Default | Default | Clear |
* Change Greens and Fairways to Very Firm all roundsMember's Version:As stated above there is a member's version for those wanting a more relaxed feel. The differences on the Members Version are as follows: - Tournmanet Objects and Crowds are deleted.
- First Cut added around Fairways, also along Waste Bunkers bordering Fairways (I wanted them to be Light Rough on both versions but it's too sticky and stops too many balls rolling into the sand on the Major version)
- Some Pin positions moved into more centralized positions
- Greens published on 139 vs the 169 speed on the Major version
- Rather then Two Tees of the same distance there are Three non-monipulated Tee sets.
- Hole 6 is changed from a long Par 4 to a short Par 5, making it a Par 72 vs Par 71.
Thank You mattf27 & TannerBronson for running this contest! Thank You Everyone and have fun!
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strangi17
Amateur Golfer
Posts: 155
TGCT Name: Ben Strang
Tour: Kinetic
Member is Online
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Post by strangi17 on Nov 13, 2023 21:50:49 GMT -5
Lovely environment here, and I enjoy the thought you put into the strategy. The old partial driver didn't trouble me too much given I don't have the big stick as such, but could see how it would play out. Certainly on the easier end of the Major courses, but it was a really nice round of golf.
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Post by trailducker on Nov 13, 2023 22:56:37 GMT -5
Lovely environment here, and I enjoy the thought you put into the strategy. The old partial driver didn't trouble me too much given I don't have the big stick as such, but could see how it would play out. Certainly on the easier end of the Major courses, but it was a really nice round of golf. Thanks Ben for the Playthrough! You defintely picked up a lot of what I was doing organically and played pretty smartly throughout. You also did get a few fortunate bounces (I don't know HOW that ball stayed up on Hole 3) but you played it all very well. I kind of designed this plot similar to how the Ocean Course was in real life on a flat plot so a lot of the large ridges you noticed and wondered if they were intentioanl were added deliberately so I'm glad you saw the reason but they blended enough you weren't sure how man made they were. I terms of my greens I suck at putting, absolutely shat at it. I used to just say "everyone is better putters then me they can play this better" and then was always surpised how difficult my courses came out. So I have learned more how to make playable greens and spent a lot of times limiting roll outs I felt was unfair here, which might actually hurt me in the competition hahahaha. Also yeah, meter is maxed out. There's large flat waste bunkers on teh real life Ocean Course but maybe not QUITE this big, but I did max out the meter here as well. Thanks so much for the playthrough!
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Post by sroel908 on Nov 13, 2023 23:15:44 GMT -5
Always a sucker for a Kiawah-style course, as I have been fortunate enough to visit the island a couple times. Although I've never actually played the Ocean Course, I have putted on the practice green; they don't charge you $600 to do that...yet.
Anyway, played Round 4 conditions.
Think you got the vibe down pretty well here. The large sandy areas did make sense, but the way the game displays the bunker texture when used in huge swaths does end up looking odd. I can relate, as I made a Kiawah-inspired course myself for National Treasure a while back and did basically the same thing you did here.
Hole 5 was a little bit strange, as I don't know when you don't go for it - although I understand its inspiration. And some of the tourney object placement felt really tight on the teeing areas and took away a bit of the scenery. A couple of the other par-4s also played about the same distance - there were at least 3-4 holes that were somewhere between 460-480 yards long and seemed to have similar approaches into them.
I am sure others will make more aggressive comments about this, but I do believe the retaining walls were a tad overdone, too - although this again is due to how they work in-game and not the work you did. And I would echo the comment from strangi above that this was fairly easy compared to others in the contest.
That said, I definitely enjoyed the round here and think I will be hitting up the Members version quite a bit, as I like the course without the tourney objects a bit better. The environment here is great, and there are some really cool concepts and designs incorporated in the layout.
Very well done, and good luck in the contest!
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Post by trailducker on Nov 14, 2023 0:40:52 GMT -5
Always a sucker for a Kiawah-style course, as I have been fortunate enough to visit the island a couple times. Although I've never actually played the Ocean Course, I have putted on the practice green; they don't charge you $600 to do that...yet. Anyway, played Round 4 conditions. Think you got the vibe down pretty well here. The large sandy areas did make sense, but the way the game displays the bunker texture when used in huge swaths does end up looking odd. I can relate, as I made a Kiawah-inspired course myself for National Treasure a while back and did basically the same thing you did here. Hole 5 was a little bit strange, as I don't know when you don't go for it - although I understand its inspiration. And some of the tourney object placement felt really tight on the teeing areas and took away a bit of the scenery. A couple of the other par-4s also played about the same distance - there were at least 3-4 holes that were somewhere between 460-480 yards long and seemed to have similar approaches into them. I am sure others will make more aggressive comments about this, but I do believe the retaining walls were a tad overdone, too - although this again is due to how they work in-game and not the work you did. And I would echo the comment from strangi above that this was fairly easy compared to others in the contest. That said, I definitely enjoyed the round here and think I will be hitting up the Members version quite a bit, as I like the course without the tourney objects a bit better. The environment here is great, and there are some really cool concepts and designs incorporated in the layout. Very well done, and good luck in the contest! Thanks Steve! I always love you detailed reviews! It's awesome to hear you feel I got the enviornment nailed as someone who have been on the grounds. I defintelly fired up Loggerhead a couple times to see how you interpreted the location. With Hole 5 The Green is almost impossible to hold unless you're able to slam your drive into the front bank, I even tried Slinging a sharpe fade around the tree into the hill side and only managed once to hold the green. Honetsly the most sensible way is take an iron and hug the trap before the tree and you have a full wedge into the green. I went with the retaining walls strictly because it's a Dye inspired course. If the game allowed I would have went single but of course as we all know thats not possible cleanly and didn't want the large horizontal shelf of stacking 3 walls so I went with the Tilted Bridge look. It's only on three holes total and I busted my ass getting the land to mary up to as best I could, They are a bit clunky but when you go that route they have to be a bit. I did have to add some trees around a few of the tees to eliminate some alternative routes which did make the tees a little more enclosed then I wanted. (5 included because people could play to the 15th green, which is almost impossible to hold but still something judges could mark down if I didn't elminate it). Thanks again for the play through and I hope you enjoy the Members version!
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Post by sandgroper on Nov 14, 2023 2:22:43 GMT -5
Ripper course. I was a big fan of the retaining walls and thought you pulled it off well. Couldn't quite hold onto par, when I found the water coming down the stretch.
PS: Best trailer I've seen!
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Post by trailducker on Nov 14, 2023 10:15:17 GMT -5
Ripper course. I was a big fan of the retaining walls and thought you pulled it off well. Couldn't quite hold onto par, when I found the water coming down the stretch. PS: Best trailer I've seen! Always love your playthroughs. I love trying to play Hole 5 that way but never end up with a result that good as you got haha Thanks as always for the entertaining showcase!
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Post by greenlightning on Nov 14, 2023 16:57:26 GMT -5
Nice job on this one. Like you said the difficulty is not as high as some in the competition but it was a lot of fun to play. Attractive course captured the area it was set in quite well.
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Post by sroel908 on Nov 15, 2023 0:40:46 GMT -5
Just wanted to drop back in to let you know how much I appreciate that you did a Members version of this course. I love the wide open views across the plot, and the environment feels completely spot on. The attention to detail is great, as well.
I find myself really enjoying it more and more with each play, and I look forward to coming back again soon.
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Post by geordieboy85 on Nov 15, 2023 1:45:20 GMT -5
Played the Major pin 3 set up, cracking course Tyson, looks and plays great just feel the winds are too strong for this wind set up, beach looks class, very nice job.
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Post by trailducker on Nov 16, 2023 0:17:56 GMT -5
greenlightning Thank You for the kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed! sroel908 Thanks so much again! Yeah I really enjoyed how this one came out, I actually designed it in the Members settings and them ramped it up. Felt more realistic but probably is why overall it came out a bit easier. BUT, that just means you are forced to take on the better angles to really go for birdies to keep up, where Stillwater birdies are rare so you can lay off some holes and still be in the hunt. Well at least that's what I'm telling myself anyway to justify it! HA Again the fact you have been on the grounds and say I nailed the enviornment is so rewarding to hear! geordieboy85 Thank You! Yeah I wanted to have one of round 2/3 to have 155 Greens with Very High Winds and the other round to have 186 Greens with Medium Winds. Round three I chose the VH winds with the complete opposite wind direction as the other rounds which I thought was a nice change of pace. But yes it makes some of the Longer holes (3, 6 and 11) play even longer, but then also helps out Holes 4, 15 and 16 a lot as well as the longer Par 3's (2 and 17) a bit, and the greens are more friendly. So there's gives and takes. Thank You and Glad you enjoyed it!
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Post by Australian on Nov 18, 2023 4:39:55 GMT -5
Thought this one was a banger. Loved how massive it was! Complimented beautifully by precision of angles and distances. And care around the greens. So many possibilities. Tonnes of playability in various conditions. Nailed the environment too. Lots of cool planting. And I really admired the beach work. All the best in the competition dude.
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Post by trailducker on Nov 19, 2023 12:36:23 GMT -5
Thought this one was a banger. Loved how massive it was! Complimented beautifully by precision of angles and distances. And care around the greens. So many possibilities. Tonnes of playability in various conditions. Nailed the environment too. Lots of cool planting. And I really admired the beach work. All the best in the competition dude. Thank You my Aussie brother! Glad you enjoyed it! You nailed what I was going for. Width for everyone and playable in different conditions and difficulty levels but precision required when you’re trying to go LOW. This maybe wasn’t the contest to provide so much forgiveness and par golf routes but IDGAF this came out how I like it. Thanks for he kind words!
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Post by HoneyBadgerHacker on Nov 21, 2023 18:03:12 GMT -5
Just got around to playing it. Played a few holes right after publish and ain’t gonna lie quit because my timing was way off and couldn’t enjoy it if it wasn’t. First hole thought I was in for another punch in the nuts with the green flowing into the sand. That’s my only complaint but in fairness it’s a major after all. Planting was great and environment atmosphere was excellent. Thought the holes played and looked Better as the round progressed. Good luck in the contest!
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Post by trailducker on Nov 22, 2023 17:02:01 GMT -5
Just got around to playing it. Played a few holes right after publish and ain’t gonna lie quit because my timing was way off and couldn’t enjoy it if it wasn’t. First hole thought I was in for another punch in the nuts with the green flowing into the sand. That’s my only complaint but in fairness it’s a major after all. Planting was great and environment atmosphere was excellent. Thought the holes played and looked Better as the round progressed. Good luck in the contest! Thanks Eric so much! It was fun to see the different takes on the same indpiration we both took. Appriciate the kind words!
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