Just played a round here...black tees, Pin 3, default settings.
Hole 1 - this is a bit of an odd design. The fairway is huge, but split with massive centerline bunkers. Going right leads to a super tiny, narrow landing zone, so going left is safe. The odd thing is, it doesn't seem you get much of an advantage going right anyway - a 300 yard drive left leaves you about 280 away, as does a 300 yard drive to the right. The green complex also looks a bit odd, with the huge fairway section left and beyond the green, and the extremely thin strip of fairway right of the green.
Hole 2 - the hill right of the tee box really made me feel squeezed in here. It was so open to the left, and then so blocked in on the right, it felt like the balance was off.
Hole 3 - this one's OK, but the "play straight off the tee, then aim 90-degrees to the green on approach" style of design isn't a personal favorite of mine.
Hole 4 - some odd routing here. You're essentially driving straight over the Hole 3 fairway. It's also essentially the same design as Hole 1 - a par-5 with a split fairway, huge sand bunkers in the middle of the fairway sections.
Hole 5 - planting blocks the view of the bunker from the tee of this par-3. Bunker scaling seems to be a bit off on the course...I think the greenside bunker here is larger than the green itself. There's also a lot of fairway to the right that never seems like it will be in play.
Hole 6 - the fairway bunkers here are really huge. Sculpting of the right fairway section is also a bit too bold, as I had a ball nearly roll backwards off the fairway from the middle of it due to the extreme grade of the terrain.
Hole 7 - This is OK, but again I feel bunker scaling is off. These greenside bunkers take up a ton of space. Combined with the very generous fairway all around this green, it makes the hole feel like the sizing of everything is disproportionate.
Hole 8 - I don't quite know why there's so much fairway to the right. No one is playing over there, hitting a 5-wood 250 yards, leaving themselves 210 in on a par-4 that's 356 yards long from tee to green. In fact, you're likely going for the green in one every time you tee off here. The holes are just taking up a ton of space for no real reason.
Hole 9 - another hill to the right of a tee box that kind of makes you feel claustrophobic. I hit a 318 yard tee shot...which rolled back 3 yards due to extreme sloping in the fairway...and I have no view of anything past 100 feet in front of me. There is unintentional blindness here, which is due to how extreme the slopes are. To have 232 left, in the middle of the fairway, and have zero idea of where to hit it unless you have scout cam on, is a bit much and would need some smoothing out to get to work better.
Hole 10 - this is probably my favorite hole on the course. But again, the greenside bunkers are huge. Also, just something I noticed...this is the 4th par-5 hole in the first 10 holes of the course. Not a major problem, but it's becoming repetitive to play the same type and length of hole for almost half of the course to this point.
Hole 11 - this one's OK. It is super wide open, and you'll likely never be in danger.
Hole 12 - the fairway starting just 70 yards from the back tee here feels a bit too close. The fence up near the putting surface is a bit in the way, also. My second shot was 82 yards from the hole, and the fence was blocking half the green. Granted, the ball likely won't hit the fence, but it's just very intrusive into the playing area and clutters everything up.
Hole 13 - this layout is similar to Hole 3. Hit straight, then turn 90 degrees left to hit an approach to the green.
Hole 14 - this one's fine. Some cool views as the ball was in flight.
Hole 15 - many of the par-4s on the course seem to have a similar fairway configuration...massive fairway to one side, bunkers at the bend in the fairway, and then fairway beyond the bunker that you could try to reach. Here, the left side of the fairway is reachable for me as the wind is helping. But the design makes it so it's all very wind-dependent. It's not really a decision the player makes...it's just doing what the conditions tell you to do.
Hole 16 - again, the fairway here on this par-5 is configured a bit strangely. Go right, and the fairway will run out. Go left, and there's a narrow landing zone with all kind of bunkers and a huge ravine (also, this ravine is not OB - seems it should be?). And also to the left, a tree is in the line, as my wind is blowing left to right at my back. So I hit a draw around the tree, the wind carries my ball a long way into the middle of the fairway, but it's so sloped downhill, that my drive ends up in heavy rough. I am 178 away, which makes this hole play very short, but I have a 70% lie. Still, with just an 8-iron, I'm on the green fringe in two. There also so, so much fairway left of the green here that's not really useable. There's just a lot going on...
Hole 17 - the fairway use again looks odd to me. The small, narrow bit to the left of the green and short of it doesn't do much and I don't quite get why it's there. And the bit to the right of the bunker is probably never in play either, unless a player hits a terrible tempo shot.
Hole 18 - one of the better holes on the course. Bunker sizing is again too large IMO, but the hole design itself is reasonable and the punchbowl green is nice.
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Overall - I know a lot of this sounded pretty harsh...but since your goal is Tour Worthy, these criticisms are directed toward that ambition. The standard of TW courses is quite high, and things like unnecessary blindness from the center of the fairway, scaling and sculpting of bunkers/terrain, and repeated hole layouts with minimal strategy are the kind of things that will make it hard to get past that line.
Also, some areas of planting were a bit odd - like there was just a couple bushes and clumps of grasses spread about, other than the trees. And some of the hill areas were basically bare. Since this is a beta, I'm not sure it's complete, but some spots need a bit of attention with planting, too.
This is a very functional golf course, and was fun to play. You clearly have a handle on how the designer works and how to craft a course. However, there are some things I feel would hold this back from being a TW course as it is.
Disclaimer...please keep in mind that I am not a reviewer. So my thoughts may differ from those who actually make the call on Approval, TW, etc.
