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Tiger Island G.C. 2004
by Dave Everitt
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1449 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2004-05-30 |
51,855,352 bytes |
72 |
7305 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
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FICTIONAL |
TROPICAL |
tiger_isle2004.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by: Big Three
Designer Background: This is the fifth course released by Dave Everitt. His previous courses were Tiger Island Golf Course (2001), Lost Woods Golf Club - Texas, The Links at Parrot Landing, Possum Park Short Course and Flint Gardens Pro Course. This release is a re-design and remake of the 2001 version of Tiger Island that, according to Mr. Everitt, 'wasn't very pretty. It was my first attempt at the APCD and it showed.'
From the Readme: Tiger Island was located along the coast of eastern Costa Rica, and it was the playground of the rich and famous. In the summer of 2002 a horrible hurricane swept across the island, destroying the course, the hotel, and releasing the tigers back into the jungle. Tiger Island 2004 is a fictional course located in the mountainous tropics of Costa Rica. There's a wildlife preserve located within the boundaries of the course, inhabited mostly by bengal tigers being nursed back to health for release or for zoo exhibits.
Course Overview: Tiger Island G.C. is a Par 72 of 7305 yards with five Par 5's and five Par 3's. It is a Fictional Tropical design. There are 3 sets of tees. Mr. Everitt has done a very nice job of translating the concept described in the readme into his course design. The course looks and feels as if you are playing in a jungle on a mountainous island.
Playability/Layout: Unfortunately, the layout of this design is the biggest drawback. The hole design drifts towards fantasy, but it is the repetitive nature of the holes that is the problem. Most of the Par 4 and Par 5 holes consist of a fairway that ends about 290 to 325 yards from the tee, followed by a narrow neck of first cut that snakes along to the green. In only one case though did I feel like I couldn't hit a driver because of distance. In the few cases where the fairway continues to the green, the narrow snake pattern is also evident. At first the fairways seem to be a bit confining, but you quickly realize that the first cut, which can be very spacious in some cases, is actually set to fairway properties so the room to drive the ball is much more generous than it appears. The choice of first cut as fairway in this case seemed a bit odd.
The generous driving area is surrounded by a deep rough texture and being a jungle setting the planting can be thick and unforgiving. The trick to scoring well is to stay out of the deep rough because it can easily lead to double and triple bogeys that will ruin your round. The Par 5's, two of which are easily reachable, will provide most of the low scoring and the others can be reached under the right conditions if you can carry the hazards fronting the green. Even if you lay-up, you are left with a short wedge that you can get close to the flag.
Most of the greens are of average to above average difficulty. The exception is the 18th green, which has some unrealistic slopes in it. Be sure to carry the ball to or beyond the flag on most of the Par 5's as they have considerable back to front slopes that will send your ball back, well short of the pin. I found a few pins under difficult settings that were too close to a slope.
There is a stream that makes it's way throughout the course and several ponds and lakes as well, but for the most part they are not really in play. There are only minor elevation changes and the fairways provide a fair variety of lies.
Planting: It is in this area that Mr. Everitt is at his best. As with his previous course, Flint Gardens, Mr. Everitt demonstrates a real knack for planting both sounds and vegetation. The course looks and feels like a jungle course. The interesting custom pano fits very well with the planting and the colors used throughout the course. The planting is thick and realistic, with a mixture of palm trees, thick grasses and flowering plants. Cloning was minimal, and you had to be looking for it. Cloning was mostly with the palm trees which is hard to avoid because of the limited selection. There were a few instances of a large group of pink and white trees planted that did seem out of place for the setting. He added several custom sounds that help create the jungle atmosphere. You will hear many tropical/jungle birdcalls and various tiger roars and growls. All of these seem appropriate and at a reasonable and believable level. Another nice effect is that the bird sounds frequently have that hollow or echo sound to them that you hear in a jungle setting when the call is from a distance.
The textures, which are custom with the exception of the greens, contribute to the atmosphere of the course by using a rich green color. The deep rough texture was a bit too dark compared to the rest of the green colors used and showed considerable tiling, but this was minor especially since much of it is heavily planted. The sand and cart path seam blend textures could have been better as described below.
APCD: The APCD work is solid and above average. No flaws that would create any playability issues were found. Elevation and bunker work are smooth and there were no obvious pulled vertices. Extrusions were used around the tee without causing ugly black lines in the Top Cam. The course is seam blended. The textures used in the cart path and bunker blends could use some work. The textures used were a bit too irregular, making the blend look choppy and finger-like. The cart path, which was created totally by a blend, repeats too frequently and also had the 'finger' issue. The cart path properties are set to sand, so instead of a free drop you have to play a bunker shot. The tee markers are not set to match the scorecard so that, although you are playing from the back tees, the tee marker colors show as the Ladies Tees. Overall though, Mr. Everitt demonstrates a very good handle of the APCD.
Extras: In addition to the sounds and textures, there are a lot of custom 2D objects added. A custom pano, tigers, a futuristic looking hotel, and a few partially destroyed buildings that are remnants from the hurricane all contribute to the atmosphere matching the course concept. One oddity is that the hotel object had visible big red numbers of the date the photo was taken. You will not see this in your round, but in investigating the course in practice mode it was rather obvious. The course also has a nice Splash Screen and cameo. Custom hole signs at the tee with the course name and hole number were used as well as a custom flag. In keeping with the nature preserve concept explained above, the course does not have crowds or tournament objects.
One glaring omission in this category is Hole Previews. Although you can see your aiming marker in the fairway in most cases, the thick planting and curvy nature of the layout obscure the fairway bunkers and other hazards. Elite players or those who do not use the Top Cam will find this course extremely difficult to navigate.
Summary: Mr. Everitt has a great ability to create an atmosphere through a very good planting technique. More work on his layout concepts and some tightening up of his APCD work could lead to him moving up a notch or two in the designing world. I thank him for providing us this design and appreciate the amount of work and effort that goes into creating an APCD design.
Ultimately, this course is a 'tweener' for me. I cannot make a sweeping recommendation one-way or the other for Tiger Island. I will be burning it to CD for the artistic quality, but I will not be using it in my regular course rotation. I can't really recommend this course because of the lack of variety in the hole design. The lack of Hole Previews will be a significant problem for others. On the other hand, there is much to recommend this course; especially the planting, custom objects and sounds that bring the designer's concept to life. It was the amount of APCD and artistic effort involved and not the course itself that was enough to just get this course over the edge to get it the rating it received. Fans of the rare tropical course may want to check this one out. Elite players and those who do not use the Top Cam will probably want to stay clear of this one.
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