I Keep Falling Short

[fergdawg]

Hi all! This is more of a request for advice and criticism than a "tip or trick." I've now submitted a few courses to the page and I feel like each one is getting much better than the previous ones. Recently, I released Moynihan Lake Preserve, which was a renovation of my World Cup of design entry from 2022. I'm very happy that my last 4 courses have all gotten quick approvals, but I'm wondering what I am still getting wrong that's holding me back from the elusive TW status.

The next 2 courses I'm working on currently are real bangers, and my goal is to have one or other or both be TW, so I need some solid critiques to get me there. If someone, or a few people, can play Moynihan and tell me what I could have improved upon in that design, I'd be ever so grateful! I think I need specific course-directed feedback, because watching the videos, I feel like I have most of the technique down.

Any and all help is appreciated! Cheers!

[b101]

The honest answer is that you need to keep working at it and it will likely be all aspects needing a bit of improvement rather than one specific thing. With all designers, you think you can't do much better than the current project, then look back at it in a few years and realise it was actually way worse than where you are now. Key thing is to keep pushing and really take your time. I put together the below - worth a read if you haven't already as it's your exact question:

tgctours.proboards.com/thread/33512/improve-guide

[trailducker]

I loaded this up and just from the first tee I can see why this is approved. The strategy of hole 1 itself is in the approved category. I have a back wind meaning my driver would go into the bunker on the safe approach. The approach that gives you the angle is so comically skinny it's not really an option unless you have Plat level accuracy. I see what you are trying to do but you need to think how about how people will play the hole multiple ways. Right now there's two options and both aren't great. Flying around the Sculpting into the water is pretty rough especially the higher the surrounding land goes. There's a hole away from the club house that wraps around the lake and that sculpting looks very video game-y. You can tell you did this with one big brush mostly so the land looks stretched and plastic. It doesn't help you just have the rough uniformly going down into the water. Making something look more natural means roughing it up a bit. There would be jagged edges along the water and erosion spots but on here everything looks rounded. The lack of planting along the water doesn't help highlight that. The Planting itself is pretty rudimentary and looks very placed rather then grown, if that makes sense. Planting in this game is definitely an art. I would start with looking at courses by MattF who makes more minimal planting look realistic and "lived in" as a start before you start looking at the more overgrown planting of b101 or Golfwolf. Looking at the first green the sculpting on the tier is way too stark. Doesn't look like a natural like a green contour in this location should look. I would assume throughput the course you also probably had green contours in a vacuum to the land surrounding them. You have to integrate your greens (both shape and contours) in with the land surrounding them for them to not feel artificial. Obviously, some human touch is required but it should always have a purpose and always done in a way it respects the landscape it lives in. Last your transition from the fairway to the green surface is not done well. I didn't have a lot of time but was able to see all of this from the first tee and flying around a bit, so I bet playing these issues arise more times. I hope that all helps.

[fergdawg]

Feb 7, 2024 11:00:12 GMT -5 trailducker said:

I loaded this up and just from the first tee I can see why this is approved. The strategy of hole 1 itself is in the approved category. I have a back wind meaning my driver would go into the bunker on the safe approach. The approach that gives you the angle is so comically skinny it's not really an option unless you have Plat level accuracy. I see what you are trying to do but you need to think how about how people will play the hole multiple ways. Right now there's two options and both aren't great. Flying around the Sculpting into the water is pretty rough especially the higher the surrounding land goes. There's a hole away from the club house that wraps around the lake and that sculpting looks very video game-y. You can tell you did this with one big brush mostly so the land looks stretched and plastic. It doesn't help you just have the rough uniformly going down into the water. Making something look more natural means roughing it up a bit. There would be jagged edges along the water and erosion spots but on here everything looks rounded. The lack of planting along the water doesn't help highlight that. The Planting itself is pretty rudimentary and looks very placed rather then grown, if that makes sense. Planting in this game is definitely an art. I would start with looking at courses by MattF who makes more minimal planting look realistic and "lived in" as a start before you start looking at the more overgrown planting of b101 or Golfwolf. Looking at the first green the sculpting on the tier is way too stark. Doesn't look like a natural like a green contour in this location should look. I would assume throughput the course you also probably had green contours in a vacuum to the land surrounding them. You have to integrate your greens (both shape and contours) in with the land surrounding them for them to not feel artificial. Obviously, some human touch is required but it should always have a purpose and always done in a way it respects the landscape it lives in. Last your transition from the fairway to the green surface is not done well. I didn't have a lot of time but was able to see all of this from the first tee and flying around a bit, so I bet playing these issues arise more times. I hope that all helps.

Yes, this is great! Thanks so much trailducker!!

[fergdawg]

Yeah, I really hated that 1st hole! I couldn't get it to work, and it sucks because it's the first so it's the one everyone plays regardless.

I'll also agree I didn't do much around the water. Meter issues ... anyhoo, this is all super helpful, so thank you for your input.