|
Golf Club des Volcans
by Dominique Bois
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 117 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-05-14 |
16,478,012 bytes |
72 |
7157 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
REAL |
PARKLAND |
GCVolcans.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| a44cc60048ab11d581ba882493e27d70 |
48b9c2a224c5b0327b1ca52d762e798e |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by James Wood
Course History:
At the beginning of the 80's some golfers feeling too tight on the 9th hole course of Charade decided to create a great 18 holes course at the edges of Clermont-Ferrand. They elected a place just under the volcanoes, symbols of the region. The course winds its fairways between birches and pinewoods. Broom and heather add wonderful colours when blooming and some tough lies for the errant players.
This course features wide fairways and large greens. Not a drop of water comes into play; therefore the standard amateur has great difficulties to score at his handicap. Length, well placed trees and deceiving bunkers offer a great challenge. Notice the very large greens where you need to aim at the pin or you will be faced with monster putts especially on the common green of the 9th and 18th which sizes 1500 mē!
The course host one of the main events of the European Challenge Tour: the Open des Volcans. The pros struggle with the course at the beginning of July and the victory is often about -10 to -15. That means the course is not a monster for the pros, but an errant shot landing in the birches can result with a heavy card. This course rewards the accurate golfer and the wise putter.
This description comes from the read.me file included with the course and the file also includes descriptions of each hole and many pictures.
First Impressions:
Very open style golf course with few obstacles in your path. The fairways are very wide and the greens are large. There is a good amount of break on many of the putts but the greens are very fair. Very few of the holes have any bunkers in the fairways and only a couple of holes require a draw off of the tee box. The tee textures used are speckled with yellow and there is no first cut and no fringes on the greens. The bunkers are of the orange sand variety. They have been extruded but the texture has not mapped and the edges have not been turned. This is really unfortunate because other than this minor flaw this course is extremely well done in every other way. The pine forests have excellent under planting, the custom panorama looks good, the objects while minimal were well chosen, and there are no bad edges or other errors evident.
The designer explains his use of textures on the course in his included read.me file an excerpt of that file appears below:
'You will notice that there are not too much textures (tee, fairway, green, rough and heavy rough). In fact it fits to the real course, there is no real fringe, and in some places, no real tees (they just look as the fairway). The fairway and rough are rather close and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between both, but that also fits the real course settings. The textures can seem to be very yellow/green and intense, but then again, I wish them as that to give a shiny day look at this course.'
Strategy:
A good day on the greens here will yield a very good score. The par 3's can play very long from the back tees. Very little trouble on the drives and no water at all on the course leave the course wide open for any type of player including the Power Stoker. The par 5's have been described here and this was taken (with a little editing) from the read.me file included with the course:
Hole #2 : par 5
A huge fairway awaits your drive, but the green is uneasy to get in two. This is anyway one of the birdie holes of the course. The back tees make this hole very long.
Hole #6 : par 5
This hole is longer than it seems with an uphill second shot. The green is strongly protected to the right and have some complex slopes. The tee shot must avoid the driver or hook it around the dogleg. A controlled 3 wood is far better and lets you a good shot for a green in two.
Hole #14 : par 5
This hole is downhill all the way. The drive goes down from the upper level to a rather wide fairway, but beware the trees on the right. You can make the green in two with again a downhill second shot . A good chance at eagle here and a true birdie par 5. Once again, avoid the woods.
Hole #16 : par 5
This again is a very long par 5 going smoothly downhill. A good drive must cut over the bunch of trees on the left. Beware not to be too long, the heater is punishing. The second shot must manage the two pines in the middle of the fairway. The green sloping to back and left is huge and can leave very long putts.
Favorite Hole:
Hole #8 is a par 3 measuring 226 yards from the back tees and plays slightly uphill. This may be the most difficult tee shot on the course. Your shot has to clear a large bunker that fronts the green and the yardage makes it a very tricky tee shot.
Overall:
This is a very nicely done course with the exception of the aforementioned bunkers. This is a good course to score on and it has a nice look to it. The fact that it is from a part of the world you may never get to see really makes it that much better. I can definitely recommend this course to anyone.
Course Info :
Cameo Screen? Yes
Splash Screen? Yes
Text file?
Hole Previews?
19mb
Reviewed May 2001 |
|
CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Real, parkland course. |
Location
TBC |
Conditions
TBC |
Concept 7/10
Not the crazy tropical isle that you might be expecting, Des Volcans is a real course nestling amid several extinct volcanoes in the heart of France. It's an engaging course with several subtly understated holes - the Par 3s in particular use the forest hazards very entertainingly - and a real atmosphere and sense of environment. Just when you think you've seen it all, the course hits you with a great closing stretch, and what might have been mediocre becomes a memorable round. |
Appearance 4/10
The yellow-green, almost lurid, textures are a novel touch and work surprisingly well. The laid-back planting isn't quite as good: there are a number of clones and too many huge expanses of nothing. The occasional mapping problem and some hard lines aren't beneficial either. The weak link is here. |
Playability 7/10
Part of the appeal of Des Volcans is that each hole offers a straightforward challenge: there are few hidden traps, no inconvenient water hazards, and you are very much at the mercy of your own game. No, it'll never be on a par with the famous courses or the great fantasy courses, but it's a round that will never drive you to boredom; there's a surprising amount going on here. |
Challenge 5/10
Suffers from real-course syndrome in that it's just too easy. We should be grateful for the reasonable greens; perhaps less so for some extensive flat regions that don't really press your approach shots. The hazarding is restrained, with a reliance on the course's natural features providing the obstacle to your game; perhaps there are not quite enough of said features. |
Technical 6/10
Hints of the things to come from Dominique Bois are present here. The brave custom textures work well, although some of the extrusion and elevation work shows signs of ham-handedness. Today's Beta testers would help clear out the planting clones and bunker problems and we'd be left with an original and different course re-creation. |
| Overall |
Not good-looking, although you suspect the full-size model is the same. Plays enthusiastically and is worth sticking with for the oddball Par 3s. |
29/50 |
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course. |
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