Grand Pinacle Valley Desert Course
by Ron Watson

Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1167 Release Date CRZ Filesize Par Course Length 2002-11-29  16,035,472  bytes 72  6792 yards Type Style CRZ Filename IMAGINARY  DESERT  pinacle2003.crz  Course ID Course Key 6ce15fcd3ec049f781a569fb07c7cd7f  85ce50c8887c1ea5fa34c2b03b218cc9  COURSE SCREENSHOTS LINKS CORNER REVIEW Reviewed by Mike Nifong December 2002 Course type: Grand Pinacle Valley, which is listed as an imaginary course, is a desert-area course that makes use of what appears to be the Mesa Roja pano. The designation as imaginary may at first seem arbitrary, since this course does not seem to possess any of those characteristics of the best imaginary courses (e.g., Rivendell, Midnight GC, Piazza Metallica), where a perfectly credible golf course is placed in an incredible (or at least unexpected) time or place. Here, the imaginary element appears to have more to do with the unlikeliness of this particular desert locale. Your round starts out with a lake and palm trees (presumably an oasis), then proceeds through saguaro desert to an area of brushy, Texas-like trees, through a lush green parkland setting before returning to the oasis - quite a lot of vegetal variety in 6800 yards of flat terrain. Historical perspective: GPV appears to be Ron's first course. Unfortunately, it comes unaccompanied by even the briefest of read-me files, so we are given no insight into how or why the course arrives as it is, or even whether the misspelling of 'pinnacle' was intentional. [First-time designers take note: especially when, as here, a course is not put up for beta testing, or introduced in the Preview section, or announced in the forums, failure to provide a useful read-me file foregoes a valuable opportunity to connect with your audience. Tell us your story - what inspired you to build your course, how it came into being, what you hoped to accomplish - and I think you will find that we are more likely to receive it in that light.] What is included: The course itself, a cameo, and a splash screen - that is it. No hole previews, no tournament option, and, as mentioned above, no read-me. The other side of that coin is the modest size of both the .crz and the .sha files, a consideration that is of little consequence to me but may matter to some of you. There are no obvious major flaws here. In fact, the usual first course bugaboos - mesh shadows, sharp edges and the like - are virtually absent. Still, the construction has sort of a cookie-cutter feel to it, as though it were just stuck together rather than built. There seems to have been no advantage taken of the APCD 1.5 advances - indeed, it looks like a 2001 course with shadows. This especially shows up as an unfortunate choice where starkly contrasting textures are juxtaposed (e.g., desert next to grass; some seam blending would have gone a long way toward softening the transitions and imparting a more natural look. I also noticed some tiling, particularly in the broader expanses of the desert texture. Construction of the bunkers also seems disappointingly rudimentary. Many of them are totally lipless (in the Access LinksLS tradition), and none of them seem to convincingly portray an actual sand-filled depression in either appearance or play characteristics. This is sort of an average for the (at least) two personalities of this Jekyll-and Hyde course. The desert areas are rather disappointing in several respects, the most important of which is the unfortunate choice of texture for the desert itself. Although it looks sufficiently desert-like in some views (surprisingly, the dynamic view is one of them), most of the time it appears blurred and two-dimensional, looking for the most part like some sort of brownish paving material. This situation is exacerbated by the decision to leave narrow strips of desert between areas of grass, especially near the beginning of the course, which look more like footpaths or sidewalks given the degree of texture contrast and the lack of any attempt at texture blending; these areas would have looked less artificial if they were all grass. The other major problem with the desert areas is the planting, or more specifically, the repetitive planting of too few individual specimens of saguaro. This is not too obvious when you are playing golf, but it becomes terribly apparent if you look at your surroundings. One nice touch in the desert areas, however, was the pinkish stone cart path, which contrasted pleasingly with the other textures. On the other hand, the further GPV removed itself from its desert surroundings, the more natural and attractive it looked. Both the brushy brown trees and the larger, greener trees were effectively planted, and the course became more interesting as they began to appear. As a matter of fact, they were used so much more effectively than the cactuses that I found myself wondering why Ron had chosen a desert setting in the first place (from the evidence here, he could create a dynamite Texas hill course in the Barton Creek mold). I did find the trees with Spanish moss a little unlikely in a desert locale, even for an imaginary course. Water is featured on nearly half the holes (every hole on the front nine save #2 and #3, but only on #16 on the back). A bit unusual for a desert course, perhaps, but at least it looks nice - never worse than okay, and on occasion (#8 and #16 come to mind) absolutely lovely. The water is given a slightly murky greenish hue that looks just right on the 'greener' holes. A couple of aesthetic quibbles. First, I never have much cared for the Mesa Roja pano, which is a little too cartoonish for my tastes in the photorealistic world of Links (the one DLunatic created for Redhawk Ranch at Monument Valley is far superior). Second, while I can live with the just-a-little-bit-too-green rough textures, the overly bright yellow green of the tee areas seems not to be a good match for either the setting or the other textures used. The main problem here is the lack of any real challenge. As long as you avoid the water, you should score quite well. You will certainly miss some fairways, especially in windy conditions, but the surrounding textures are decidedly non-punitive, and once you realize this it is a fairly simple matter to give the water hazards a wide berth. The bunkers offer little resistance either. With their lipless edges and shallow depth, they rarely held any ball that found them with any velocity; some approach shots rolled through green front bunkers as if they were fairways, not even slowing perceptibly during their passage. Consequently, the bunkers behind the greens were actually more likely to collect balls - those that had expended their energy in rolling all the way through the greens. GPV is an extremely flat course, even for a desert venue. The largest variation from tee to green is a 26.2-foot drop on #17. Elevation changes exceed ten feet on just two other holes (#13 and #15), and half of the holes have variations of 2.5 feet or less. As one might expect, this relative flatness extends to the fairways and - more significantly - to the greens. There is the occasional wrinkle (truly not much more than that) on the putting surface, but for the most part any green slopes are both gentle and uniform, a combination that makes for rather easy putting. Still, it would be wrong to surmise that there are no holes of interest here. In addition to the fact that two of the par-5's (#9 and #14) are not hard to reach in two, the front nine also features two (!) drivable par-4's in #2 and #6. #6 and #9 also share an additional feature that adds considerably to the risk/reward value: both have water behind the green, so you have to watch your adrenalin level, especially if you are playing RTS, to stay dry. As might be expected from the foregoing description, the computer foursome had little difficulty in mastering GPV. Under moderate (b/m/m/m) conditions, they were a combined -57 (-13 to -16), hitting 91% of the fairways and 94% of the greens; even under severe (w/f/f/d) conditions, they managed -48 (-11 to -13), hitting 85% of the fairways and 95%of the greens. These scores place GPV as the second easiest of the seventeen 2003 APCD courses released to date. The bottom line: Not a bad course, but not a course of any special distinction either. Since the APCD 1.5 advances are not utilized here, Grand Pinacle Valley is really no more than a Links 2001 course with shadows, and I can think of at least a half-dozen converted 2001 desert courses that will provide more long-term satisfaction. On the other hand, should Ron decide to try his hand at a different style of course, there is reason here to believe the effort would be very much worth our while. Course statistics: Par 72; 3 sets of tees (6792/6408/6066 yards); holes are not handicapped. This course is available as a FREE download. Download course Please support Links Corner