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Cedar Ridge Golf Club
by Kurt Schoenberg
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1345 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2003-07-23 |
103,000,000 bytes |
72 |
7005 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
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FICTIONAL |
MOUNTAIN |
Cedar Ridge Golf Club.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Designer: The designer has previously designed seven courses, but has never made them public. InterGolf Company mentions that its largest previous project was a,
'Fictional three course resort complex situated in the middle of a large city, called Midtown Golf Resort and Country Club.'
It was stated as including championship, community and links style courses, while a 2003 version of this course is scheduled for release in early 2004. This is the designer's first public release, coinciding with that of Superior Shores Golf Resort. More information about Kurt Schoenberg and InterGolf Company can be found at http://www.intergolfco.com/contact.htm.
Course: Home of the 'InterGolf Classic', Cedar Ridge Golf Club is noted as being a,
'Fictional course modeled after the rolling hills and ridges commonly seen in the Midwestern portion of the U.S.'
With many great hole designs, and bunkers placed defensively to scare any golfer, the elevated course with its undulated greens will offer many golfers a firm challenge. The forest areas look good, but in many instances had instances of cloned trees. Off the tee, it is visible that the holes are very open, and even when hitting a wild drive, the rough and lack of hazards such as thick forests and lakes allow the golfer to recover quite easily. On the front 9 holes of this course, the hole designs seemed quite good, but as the round went on, the long Par 4's, and very similar designed holes with a curve going to the left or right, got quite repetitive. As the course is quite flat, the panorama is not very visible, but could have been better with some more unique hole designs, elevation changes, and possibly even a mountain panorama. The signature holes run along a high ridge from holes 14 to 16, and lead right into the 18th hole (Screenshot 5), which really was designed very well, and in a tournament situation, could lead to a great climax. The course would have been much better if the designer had used more creative designs like the 18th hole, and added important little extras like a proper clubhouse.
Favourite Hole: My favourite hole was definitely 17 (Screenshot 4), as it certainly was the most scenic looking hole of the course, and in windy conditions, will test any golfer's ability to come up with the goods in the home stretch.
Playability: One of the great things I instantly noticed was the difference between the distances in the tees, and depending on which tees you decide to play off, the playability aspects of the course could change rapidly. The Par 3's, even though designed to implement hazards like water and blind spots, are target holes, and certainly allow the golfer to attack off the tee (Screenshot 3). The Par 4's are all quite long, and in many cases, if the golfer hits in to the rough, making the green in two shots becomes very hard (Screenshot 1). Although the greens do have some slope and curve to them, a careful putter will be able to make the birdie putts, but with some very large greens on some holes (Screenshot 2), it is imperative to hit the ball as close as you can to the pin. Eagles will be a rarity on this course, as there are no drivable Par 4's, and with all of the Par 5's being challenging risk/reward holes, any golfer walking away from a hole with an eagle should be pleased with themselves.
AI Performance: The AI Golfer 'Simon' shot a -11 (61), with 71% Fairways and 88% Greens in Regulation, with a total of 24 putts.
Difficulty Index: 0.95
Technically: Unfortunately the first negative feature technically in this course is something I have not come across before, and even though the designer has promised to correct this error in a future release, it was hard not to notice while playing, and certainly something that a beta tester would have found if this course was properly tested before release. The problem is when putting, even if you hit the putt right, you can hear it drop and the commentators congratulate you, while on the screen the ball is laying there right next to the cup. This didn't occur on every hole, but was a disappointment to see, especially in a P2P release. Extrusions between textures like the rough/fairway and fringe/green were evident everywhere (Screenshot 1), while the textures used seemed to be all stock ones. Seam blending was not used at all, while the lips of bunkers were dirt banks, and it seemed the only custom feature was a scoreboard on Hole 17, which when I clicked on, crashed the game to the desktop. Overall, if the designer had read more tutorials on the APCD and used beta testers, the course could have been much better.
Other: The zip file didn't have a read-me, which all courses should come with, and rather had an assortment of pictures, including hole previews, the course logo, and splash screen. The hole previews, although not of a high quality, provide a good description and top view of the hole for people who like to play with no top cam. The tournament objects and crowds were good, but in many cases, it seemed that a lot of these objects were put there for no reason, with for instance, a seating stand (with no people on it), placed right next to the tee area. Custom objects included the flag, tee markers, and what seemed like a custom scoreboard on the 17th hole.
When a course is released as a P2P, it immediately draws comparisons to that of all previous P2P releases, and in this case, there is no comparison. The designer has certainly shown that he has put a lot of effort into this course, but compared to the advanced techniques shown in other P2P releases, and in many free releases for that matter, it is not of the same quality. I would put this down to a lack of involvement with the Links community, as through the use of tutorials, help from other designers, and beta testers, this course could have been much better.
Download Value: At 97mb, Cedar Ridge Golf Club is a very large download, and well out of the range of the majority of dial-up users, but for people with fast internet and a few spare dollars, this may be worth getting, just so you can truly have a complete collection of courses.
Information:
Course Statistics:
2003 - Fictional Woodland - Par 72 - 5 Tees
6999yds (Back) - 6515yds (Forward)
Par 3's: 4 - Par 4's: 10 - Par 5's: 4
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