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Black Church
by Will Clark
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1097 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2002-09-20 |
21,007,987 bytes |
72 |
7435 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
MOUNTAIN |
Black Church.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 50681345fdb94a41b27257b58c11ab15 |
63ba2f73620cad6b4c04e79716e45f95 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Robert Rundel
October 2002
Well, here I am on the first tee at Black Church. This is the first course designed by Mr. Clark, so I look forward to seeing what he has created...but I'm also a bit apprehensive of a first effort. The first screenshot shows what I see. I am surrounded by flowers! They're very pretty, but it seems a bit overdone. Must be a nightmare for the groundskeepers, at least if this were a real course. The flowers extend well back under the trees, and I don't understand how they can possibly get enough light to blossom back there. There's no hole sign, and no cart path, except the white area connecting the three tee boxes. The tee boxes are elevated a bit above the surrounding ground, and are each encircled by a brown ring. Is this dirt? Or bark mulch? I'm not really sure. A close examination of the forest shows quite a few cloned trees, although the effect is not as obvious as it is when the trees are less dense. The panorama looks a lot like our old friend Whistler-I'll have to check this out on subsequent holes.
This is a 510 yard par 4, so I need a long drive. There are bunkers right and left, but a good drive will go past them. I hit it long but a little bit right-I get a nice kick off the side of the fairway and I'm in good position for the second shot (screenshot 2). There are more flowers under the trees along the fairway. My second shot is 195 yards, with the green 45 feet above me. I hit a big 2 iron onto the green. The dynamic camera gives me a spectacular view back up the fairway (screenshot 3). The green is pretty flat near the pin. I leave my putt short, but sink the tap-in for my par. Then I notice the bunker next to the green (screenshot 4). It has very steep and angular sides, and a rather flat bottom. The edge transitions are very sharp, not blended. It almost looks as if it were stamped out with a cookie cutter. It just doesn't look very natural to me.
I could go on to describe the rest of the holes, but it's not necessary, since we've seen on this one hole the main characteristics of this course, both good and bad. It's a very beautiful wooded mountain course, using the familiar Whistler panorama. The elevation changes are handled very well, with interesting undulations in the fairways. Flowers are the main decoration, and are often seen in the deep woods. All the tee boxes have the same brown ring around them. The greens are mostly rather flat, without too many challenges. The bunkers are nearly all the same steep-sided cookie cutter design. My favorite hole is the 9th, a long par 5, with a deep river gorge on the right (screenshot 5). There are lots of rocks along the river, but they're all exactly the same! With a little more effort, this would be quite an outstanding hole.
All in all, not bad for a first effort. A very beautiful setting, with some imaginative hole design. It's long, but not unfair. The main weakness to me is the bunker work. I hope Mr. Clark will look at a course like Pacific Breaks, to name one example, where the bunkers are quite a work of art, and seem to fit so naturally into the landscape. There are hardly any custom objects, with the notable exception of a nice clubhouse, no cart paths, no hole previews, and no hole handicaps. All of these items, to me, add greatly to my enjoyment of a course, and I miss them when they're not there.
Summary :
Details: Fictional heavily forested mountain course, par 72, 7191 yards, 6 par 3s, 6 par 4s, 6 par 5s, 5 tees per hole. Includes a very brief readme file, a cameo and splash screen with a stylized cross, no hole handicaps, no hole previews (except for a Course Introduction on the 1st hole), no hole signs, no cart path, but lots of flowers, Whistler panorama, 19 Meg download. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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