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Padre Island Golf Resort
by Mark Bradley
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1371 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2003-11-29 |
18,163,932 bytes |
73 |
5400 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
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FICTIONAL |
PARKLAND |
Padre Island Golf Resort_locked.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Designer: Padre Island Golf Resort is Mark Bradley's first design using the APCD, and although it is not a real course, the designer has tried to emulate the feeling that you would get when spending time at a real location called Padre Island. For a first design, the course is challenging, but at the same time allows the golfer to relax, and with some interesting hole designs, the designers next course should be quite intriguing.
Course: Although the course was meant to be based on a real area south of San Antonio, Texas, many of the hole designs seemed to be somewhat Imaginary in nature, but thankfully due to the planting, the feeling of realism won over in the end, but just. There were not many elevation changes in the course, and due to a scarce amount of bunkers, including none on many holes, it seemed that some of the hole designs could have been much better than they were, with Hole 15 being an example. Cloned trees didn't seem to be an issue anywhere, but it did seem as there were repetitions in hole designs, as the blind doglegs seemed to be used over and over with many of the Par 4's, while even though this course is noted as being set next to the ocean, white sand would have seemed more realistic for the holes on the back nine which used sand instead of rough next to the fairway (Screenshot 5).
Favourite Hole: My favourite hole on the course was Hole 8 (Screenshot 4), as even though it was quite an unrealistic design, it provided some great scenery off the tee with the lighthouse hovering in the background, and provided me with a great challenge, as I needed to carefully analyse my distances to ensure a safe shot to the green.
Playability: Even though this course has been classed as Fictional Parkland, many of the hole designs could be seen as Imaginary in nature, and because of that, any golfer's round at this course could turn out to be quite challenging. The Par 3's are quite long (Screenshot 3), and with many of the Par 4's being blind doglegs, drives off the tee are going to have to be relatively accurate. Holes 4 and 13, both Par 4's, allow the golfer to attempt a drive at the green, but with trees in the way on Hole 4, and a large sailing boat blocking the view on Hole 13, the risk/reward factor is exceptionally high. With many holes being reasonably wide and open, the course doesn't look as hard as it is, but with Par 5's as long as Hole 18, a staggering 748yds, Eagle's are going to hard to come by. Overall, the greens are where the birdies will come from, and by not going for too many risky shots and keeping things simple, the low scores on this course will come.
Technically: Even though this course was made for 2003, it seemed that there weren't many modern APCD techniques used, as there was no seam blending, none of the bunkers really had lips (Screenshot 2), and as there was no shorelines for where the water met with the land, the lines where the textures met needed to be cleaned up. A real shortcoming that was missed was the fact that the Junior Tees were longer than the ones at the Back, which when checked on the scorecard, also lead me to see that many holes had no distances listed at all, and after the 18 holes were completed, due to that, no statistics were kept for the round. The real downside to the course though was the overtly large 2D objects imported into the course, and from Hole 16 onwards, they were beyond the point of being believable (Screenshot 5), and even though the designer has stated that friends beta tested the course, it would do no harm if in the future, the course was more thoroughly tested, as I felt the designer has the potential to release courses much better than this.
Other: One of the most disappointing aspects of this course, and with many others, is that there was no Cameo, Handicaps, Hole Previews or a Splash Screen, and when waiting for the course to load, it doesn't allow the golfer to look forward to playing the course, but rather makes people dread what lies ahead, and because of that, it is important that for future courses, that at least a Cameo and Splash Screen are included. Custom objects found on the course included benches, bins, bridges, chickens (Screenshot 1), and numerous 2D imported objects like houses and sailing boats, but considering the enormous size of the objects compared to that of the golfer, they should have been smaller, or left out all together.
Download Value: At just under 15mb, this course is in no way a large download, and if you don't mind checking out first time attempts from new designers, or come from the Padre Island region from which this course was based on, I would check it out. With the course not featuring any quality APCD techniques, extras like Hole Previews or a Splash Screen, and only a read-me in the zip file, it won't be staying on my hard drive, but will be burnt to CD.
Information:
Course Statistics:
2003 - Fictional Parkland - Par 72 - 5 Tees
5400yds (Back) - 6745yds (Forward)
Par 3's: 4 - Par 4's: 9 - Par 5's: 5
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