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Fagen's Forest
by Francois Cristallo
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1454 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2004-06-06 |
58,916,864 bytes |
70 |
6408 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Fagen'sForest.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| c3b8bc96f9ce4412b30363534831fec2 |
bb6762a8a308c45e9bd9c38e04da71f1 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by: Big Three
Designer Background: This is the sixth course released by Francois Cristallo. His previous releases were Waterworld (07/03), Arsonval Golf Club (08/03), Bellecombe Village - Course (09/03), Crystal Ball GC (10/03) and Ether Links @ Crozon Peninsula (03/04).
From the Readme: There is little written in the readme. Yet it contains a lot of information, the most significant being pin location pictures. This is only about the third release that I know of that has included pin sheets. These are nicely done in large detail and would be very helpful for those who enjoy using custom pin locations. By referring to these sheets, you would know exactly where each pin location is. The readme also includes a copy of the hole previews. If you are the type who doesn't usually look at the readme, take the time on this course.
Course Overview: Fagen's Forest is a Par 70 of 6408 yards and is designated as a woodland course. It has five Par 3's and three Par 5's. It uses the Rolling Hills pano and has 5 sets of tees. The course is named after Steely Dan member and songwriter Donald Fagen. As with his Ether Links course, Mr. Cristallo has named each hole for a Steely Dan and/or Donald Fagen song.
Layout/Playability: Fagen's Forest plays harder than the 6408 yards indicates. While the Par 3 / Par 5 imbalance contributes to the short yardage, it still is a short course. Yet Mr. Cristallo has designed a challenging course that is fun and requires thought from many of the tees. He has done this by creating a 'target golf' course in a creative kind of way. But don't confuse that with being a 'tricked-up' course; it is not. You won't find island fairways sitting in the middle of a sea of rough where every shot is dictated to you by the designer, but rather a series of holes where the use of bunkering, scrub-filled waste areas and water hazards create different areas of the same fairway. Each hole has a single continuous fairway, so from the tee you have to decide how much of a challenge you want to take on. On many holes you choose between a driver or shorter club, weighing the risk between the bunkers and hazards for a shorter approach or a safer shot from the tee and a longer approach. From several tees you'll need to hit a draw or fade at times in order to reach the best part of the fairway, or you can hit a shorter drive easily and take your approach shot from there. The best part of this design is that you as the golfer make the decision.
All three Par 5's are reachable, although the two on the back nine require a well-placed drive and some creativity on the approach. The 10th hole, a dogleg left around a section of forest, requires a drive that is long and right followed by some type of a draw to reach the green in two. A good drive to the left hand side of the fairway on the 16th hole leaves you an opportunity to hit a lofted 5W to 3W over the trees to reach the green with your second. Otherwise you will have to lay-up.
Even with the area concept, the fairways are quite generous. You shouldn't have too much trouble hitting most of them unless you hit a poor drive. There is not much elevation to the course, but the fairways do provide some minor lie issues to give you just a bit extra to consider on your approach. The fairways have a first cut, followed by a deep rough that adds to the toughness of the design if you start missing the fairways or trying for too much on your drive. The forested areas sit back from the fairway and do not interfere with play. It takes a bad drive to reach them, although on a few holes the design does dogleg around the forest.
The greens are my least favorite part of the design. The putting is a mix. Many holes feature a front half of the green that rises 3 to 5 feet to a fairly level back area. Be sure to take plenty of club to carry to most hole locations, and there are some holes where being pin high to the side of the pin is going to be a challenge putting. On the other hand, staying in the area above or below the pin will leave you with some fairly straight putts. Even many of the putts with elevation to them are still fairly straight. There are some greens that are pretty easy to putt overall, and most back ledge locations are fairly flat. Only the 15th hole is one that I would consider unfair depending where you are in relation to the flag. It has a large ridge running through it that is a bit on the extreme side. This course would have been better with a little more variety in the sloping of the green, with more undulations and less slope.
Planting/Textures: Mr. Cristallo has created a very nice looking course. The planting primarily consists of densely planted wooded areas, creating a look and atmosphere of isolation while playing most of the holes. The wooded areas feature the planting of tall, lodge-pole type trees that do not have growth on them until the mid to upper reaches. The wooded areas are surrounded by a nicely done wooden rail fence, which adds to the overall look, and also adds a bit of a rustic feel to the course. There is some light grass planting in the forested areas to add some depth. I really enjoy the look and feel of this course. Despite the density of the trees, apparent cloning was avoided.
The textures are all custom and well done. The colors used in the texture set are an excellent fit and contribute to the overall feeling. The transition of colors from texture to texture is matched very well. A few textures exhibit tiling in the Top Cam, although it is not apparent in any of the main views and does not affect play. The cart path is a grass/sand mix and looks very good, although it is located too close to the greens on some holes. The path gives the appearance of being worn into the ground. The waste areas (as I call them) play as a bunker shot and are planted with an assortment of scrub and bushes. The texture is named 'desert', and each waste area is surrounded by a transition texture of sand and grass called 'pre-desert'. I find the name a bit odd, as this is definitely not a desert setting. It has no impact on the game play however. Check out the concrete cap texture on top of the pond wall for an example of a Mr. Cristallo's nice texture work.
APCD: His APCD workmanship on the course is very well done. The only noticeable problem area is some texture stretching or mapping issues in a few places on the wall surrounding the water area between the 16th and 17th holes. The bunker work looks very good and realistic. The course is seam blended and this is done well. Although there is not a lot of elevation to the course, all elevation work is done smoothly. All in all, Mr. Cristallo does a very fine job of using the APCD.
Extras: The course has custom tee markers in the shape of large golf balls with the Fagen Forest emblem on them. The entire sound package is custom. The bird sounds are well done, but the frog sounds around the ponds were a problem for me. I found them to be too loud and too intense. The sound is made up of various types of frog calls. The sound plays for about 10 seconds, stops, and then starts again. It would have been better at a lower volume, and would have worked as individual sounds that would play sporadically. The course has two custom splash screens, a cameo, a custom flag, nicely done and informative hole previews and the previously mentioned readme. The course does not have crowds added, although it seems in keeping with the overall feeling of isolation.
Mr. Cristallo obviously enjoys the artistic creativity end of course design as much as designing the course itself. The download contained many examples of this. You will find a handful of custom shirts with the Fagen's Forest emblem on them if you like to customize your ani, copies of the custom texture files to use in your design, and the Adobe formatted (.pdf file) readme.
Summary: This is easily Francois' best effort. Mr. Cristallo may be on the verge of moving into the upper echelon of designers. One complaint about his previous designs was that he didn't beta test and/or that he solicited feedback then apparently ignored it. Not this time. He recruited help to beta test this course, ask for comments in the forum, listened, and incorporated some of the suggestions into the design. I still think that it could have benefited some from one last round of testing before release. That being said, this design should give you a fun and challenging round, and is a nice change of pace. It is the kind of course that you may never play the same way twice, so it should stay fresh. I would recommend this course for download and I think that many will find this one to be a keeper.
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CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Fictional, woodland course |
Location
TBC |
Conditions
TBC |
Concept 6/10
The woodland environment runs the risk of becoming repetitive, and
this is a trap that Fagen's Forest - somewhat uniquely - seems to have
both circumvented and fallen right into. The hole design sways slightly
too often towards the stereotypical, or at least heavily-influenced, but this
is moderated somewhat by some very atypical touches, including the
monstrous brick-walled water feature and some large, sprawling green
complexes which make 40-yard bunker escapes commonplace. The
little touches; the flags and tee markers add to the realism of the
course: something that, in fairness, has never been a strong suit for the designer. |
Appearance 7/10
The unorthodox texture choices are really quite joyful. The matted, dark greens won't be to everyone's tastes, but in my opinion, this is
a damn sight closer to what greens actually look like on the majority of courses. I also enjoyed the brashness of the central water
feature, and the estate-style fences housing playable woodland. It's unconventional, but certainly not unappealing to the eye. |
Playability 5/10
The peculiar melange of sound includes barrages of frogs and crickets at some potentially very off-putting times around the greens and
tees, which has to be a mark against. Elsewhere, the blind tee-shots and a slightly old-hat use of hole shapes and designs is unlikely
to hold the course in the memory for too long, although there is some repeat value in going back once you are familiar with the layout.
Better for tournament than casual play, this one. |
Challenge 7/10
The course plays way longer than its intended yardage, and making par will frequently be a struggle. The huge greenside bunkers will
swallow many an approach shot, and putting - while far from impossible - is often a challenge. You'll find scores tend well into the
seventies here. |
Technical 8/10
Largely, as one of Cristallo's most coherent and plausible courses, this earns its spurs. There's intelligent all-round use of the APCD to
be seen, and the focus has been on producing effective golf, rather than furnishing the surroundings. I'm unconvinced whether the
texture assignations are spot on, but there's very little to grab the eye in a negative way otherwise. I'm inclined to be generous. |
| Overall |
Distinctive use of textures is the key here. Without them we'd be looking at some
very peculiar forest golf. There's just enough here to keep the course alive. |
33/50 |
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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