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Pinewood Lakes
by Bill Bradley
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1370 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2003-11-28 |
54,520,016 bytes |
72 |
7185 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
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FICTIONAL |
MOUNTAIN |
Pinewood Lakes.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Designer: This is Bill Bradley's first course design, but with some interesting features found at Pinewood Lakes, it will be good to see more courses from this designer in the future.
Course: With many high elevation changes up and down throughout the course, and greens with some curve and slope to them, Pinewood Lakes is trickier that it would seem to the eye. Hole 3, a Par 4, was a hole that should have been made into a Par 5, as getting to the green comfortably in two shots for a chance birdie was quite hard, and when coming to Hole 5, the course began to stand out as being Imaginary, and not actually Fictional, as it has been classified as being. Golfers who enjoy realistic golf will have to compromise their natural game to efficiently play this course, as with greens and hole designs not being that of a traditional nature, without the crowds on the course, it would be hard to ever imagine the course being created in real life. Bunkers seemed to be just added on many holes for aesthetic value, and not actually placed to affect the golfer's shots, while it seemed that, for instance on the Par 3's, flowers were used to dress up some holes when the design was lacking. The Par 4's seemed to get repetitive, with the only let up being Hole 18, a drivable Par 4, and with all the Par 5's were long and difficult, it didn't allow the golfers to relax and get a comfortable birdie or attack for an eagle, so it would could have been better if the Par 5's had different designs, rather than all being the same, long and difficult.
Favourite Hole: With water surrounding both sides of the tees, a nice panorama in the background and a blind shot at the pin, Hole 16, a Par 3, was my favourite hole on the course (Screenshot 5).
Playability: Even though this course was classed as being Fictional, it plays as its Imaginary, so unless you are an extremely aggressive player, don't expect scores to be that low when playing a round here. Considering the difficultly of the Par 5's, and the fact that the design of many holes are quite challenging, eagles are a rarity, while Par can be considered as a good score. By playing safe, birdies can come, but if you plan to play the course in windy conditions, the water is going to hurt mistimed shots, and even though the fairways are wide, the greens are tight, so accuracy is a key over distance when playing at Pinewood Lakes.
AI Performance: The AI Golfer 'Simon' shot an E (72), with 50% Fairways and 38% Greens in Regulation, with a total of 22 putts.
Technically: The first thing I noticed was the fact that the course had cloned tree syndrome, and disregarding the fact this course is supposed to be set in a forest of Pine Trees, no designer should use the same height and type of tree right next to each other, as it just doesn't look natural, and even though it is called Pinewood Lakes, it doesn't mean that more of a variety of trees couldn't have been planted in and around the pine trees. The flowers also found planted next too many tee areas didn't look natural, as with them being perfectly bunched together, it actually made the course look quite unrealistic. Seam blending was used, most noticeable in the bunkers which were well done, however it wasn't used everywhere, such as around the water edges, but overall, the course was quite cleanly cut. The 3D work with the bridges and buildings was good, except for the fact that when the ball went into the objects, the ball became actually became stuck and unplayable. Beta testing was used with this course, however, in the future the designer needs to decide between making a course completely Fictional or Imaginary, and not a course that seems to be in the middle of those two style of designs.
Other: Pinewood Lakes comes with a Cameo, Custom Flags, Handicaps, Hole Previews and a Splash Screen, while it also includes many of the usual tournament options like camera stands, crowds and scoreboards. The tees are all relatively quite close to each other, so playing off the front tees won't be a big difference in distance, while even though there is a clubhouse on Hole 18, the way it has been placed in the surrounding area was quite weird.
Download Value: Not a small download at just over 48mb, Pinewood Lakes is larger in size than expected, especially considering the amount of courses that use more advanced APCD techniques and that are actually smaller in size. If you're interested in testing your game and trying a course from a first time designer, give this course a go, however, it won't be a course that will be staying on my hard drive.
Information:
Course Statistics:
2003 - Fictional Mountain - Par 72 - 3 Tees
7185yds (Back) - 6658yds (Forward)
Par 3's: 4 - Par 4's: 10 - Par 5's: 4
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