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Wilderness Trail Golf Course
by Scott Rine
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1202 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2003-01-13 |
5,377,374 bytes |
76 |
8338 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Wilderness trail Golf Course.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 4185796bae6b49bda2e2b1ac79513b31 |
3d75c98d6f7ad6f5c6bfbbb3d575e463 |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Robert Rundel
February 2003
Wilderness Trail GC is another first design from a new designer to Links Corner, Scott Rine. Although this course should be noted for its highly imaginative design, it has a number of problems in both the technical design and the golfing experience. There is no readme file, but the course is listed in the Links Corner database as Fictional. In my opinion, this course is Imaginary, perhaps even Wildly Imaginary. For example, screenshot 1 shows a 30 foot mound in the fairway on the 2nd hole. Screenshot 2 shows the par 5 13th hole, played along a series of connected islands. And screenshot 3 shows the 7th green, with a 50 foot elevation change from one side to the other. I doubt that such features exist on any real course anywhere. I am not against Imaginary courses. I love a good fantasy course, like Rivendell or Piazza Metallica. But this is not a very good Imaginary course.
The first major problem with Wilderness Trail is cloned trees. They show up over and over again on every hole. Screenshot 4 shows a view from the 1st tee. A row of identical trees borders the left side of the fairway, marching into the distance, and another grove of identical trees appears to the right of the tee area. It's hard to imagine that Mr. Rine used more than about four trees for the entire course. No wonder it's such a small download. And these identical trees look quite deciduous to me, although all the trees in the panorama are evergreens.
It is also has a rather unorthodox layout. There is only one par 3 hole, the 8th, five par 5 holes, and 12 par 4 holes for a par of 76, with a total length of well over 8000 yards. The par 4 holes are all between about 410 yards and 450 yards, making for a distinct lack of hole variety.
Many holes are tricked up with unusual features, which border on unfair. Most of the fairways have large undulations, mounds, and valleys, producing some really nasty lies for the second shot (screenshot 1). Mr. Rine is extremely fond of placing bunkers right in the middle of the fairway, around the normal landing area for tee shots. A normal good straight drive is severely punished by these bunkers. In some cases, where water borders the hole as well, the landing area for a 270 yard drive is less than ten yards wide (screenshot 5). There are a number of blind shots, some of them over water. The 18th hole is a par 5 with a double right-angle dogleg, bordered by thick tall trees, with 3 bunkers in the middle of the fairway, is a real nightmare to play. The greens range from difficult to extraordinarily difficult, even with pin positions set to Easy or Moderate (screenshot 3).
Technically, the APCD work has some problems, beyond the huge number of duplicated trees. Sharp angles are common (look at the mound in screenshot 2, for example). All of the places where land and water come together have sharp vertical transitions, as if the land were simply extruded vertically out of the water (screenshots 2 and 5). The bunkers are a little better than other first designs I have reviewed, but the sand texture, up close, starts to resemble gravel (screenshot 6).
I can find no evidence that Wilderness Trail was ever submitted to Links Corner for beta testing. The only mention of this course in the Links Corner Forum is its announcement by Mr. Rine. It would have benefited greatly from testing.
In conclusion, this course is just not ready for prime time. The extreme duplication of trees, the artificial difficulties of most of the holes, and the technical errors are really not acceptable at a time that some really outstanding courses are being created by many designers. Not recommended, even at under 5 Megs.
Summary :
Details: Imaginary woodland 18-hole course, par 76, 8388 yards, 1 par 3, 12 par 4s, 5 par 5s, 3 tees per hole. No readme file, a cameo with a flag, and a splash screen with a course picture of many cloned trees, no hole handicaps, no hole previews, no hole signs, no cart path, no custom objects of any kind. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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