The Ranch Golf and Country Club
by Jack Stewart

Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1458 Release Date CRZ Filesize Par Course Length 2004-06-20  38,395,904  bytes 71  6523 yards Type Style CRZ Filename REAL  LINKS  The Ranch Golf and Country Club.crz  Course ID Course Key     COURSE SCREENSHOTS LINKS CORNER REVIEW Reviewed by: Big Three Designer Background: This is the first course released by Jack Stewart. From the Readme: In The Ranch Golf & Country Club, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the Canadian Tour was played from 1990 till 1996. Tod Power, Austurlia, Ian Hutchings, South Africa, Ray Freeman, US, Trevo Dodd, Namibia triumphed. Adrey Knoll placed second for twice. Mike Weir placed about sixth in 1996. Thanks, Designer, Jack Stewart Course Overview: The Ranch Golf and Country Club is a Par 71 of 6523 yards. It is a real course located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is a woodland course (although designated as a links course in the course list.) It has three Par 5's and four Par 3's. It uses the Rolling Hills pano and has 4 sets of tees. Layout/Playability: I have never seen or played this course in real life, so I had a check of The Ranch's website. It did not have very good pictures of the individual holes but it does appear that the designer has gotten the layout and routing of the course accurate. A check of the scorecard also indicates the yardage of the APCD design is 17 yards longer than the real course, although the majority of the holes are accurate on distance. There are a couple of holes that are off by 8 or 9 yards, making up the majority of the difference. That being said, I know that the way the APCD measures the yardage is a bit quirky and can be tough to work with. So, overall, the designer seems to have gotten the basics of the course quite well. This is a fairly short course and plays that way. All of the Par 5's are reachable, and in most rounds easily reachable. Surprisingly, none of the Par 4's are drivable, which one might expect on a course of this length. There are a few interesting holes. The 5th hole is a Par 4 that has a deep grass 'gorge' (as described on the website) that separates the fairway and the green. A full driver can be hit and stay short of the gorge, but one has to protect against over-swinging. Any front right pin locations give a further toughness to this hole as the edge of the gorge is just short of the green. Another fun hole is the 16th, a Par 4 with a 30 yard drop to a large fairway that ends at a lake about 275 yards out. With the wind at your back and the elevation drop, I found that a 5 wood was about all that could be used. The approach is played over the water that, from the fairway, really doesn't threaten but could be a problem from the rough. The 15th hole, a Par 4 dogleg that can be cut has a huge drop-off to the left of the green, bringing a challenge to the approach. Overall, the back 9 has more elevation to it. Water comes into play on several holes and at least into mind on several others. The fairways have some elevation work that presents some tricky lies. The elevation of many of the greens on this course is a problem, and I suspect not accurate. I had two putts of about less than 10 feet with over 30 inches of elevation. There is a back left pin location on the 5th hole that can be almost unplayable. Even with Moderate/Medium greens, an 8 foot putt would roll back to my feet or beyond if I didn't put it in the hole. Overall, there are some fun holes but there are times when some questionable elevation work in the APCD makes the playability of the course borderline (more on that below). Planting/Textures: The textures used are all stock from the APCD, but fit the pano and overall look of the course. The deep grass texture used is perhaps my least favorite MS texture, especially when it is used over large areas and not planted as it frequently is on this course. In general terms, the planting also fits the look of the course quite well. Mr. Stewart did a nice job of sprinkling buildings and a few extras around that show that he was really trying to make the course interesting to look at and capture the atmosphere of the real course. Unfortunately, the planting was not done well from a technical standpoint, even though the look itself was fine. A few examples are: On the 11th tee there are two sets of stairs - one which hovers above the ground that connect to nothing but air and a bench that is about 5 to 10 feet in the air. At least one other bench on the course is at a 45-degree angle with one side of the bench not touching the ground. Cloning of trees was another significant and frequent problem. There are numerous places throughout the course where the same tree is lined up one after another, or two different trees alternate places in a row. There are also a bunch of chickens(!) planted in the 10th fairway - which looks very weird but perhaps there are chickens on The Ranch. APCD: This is 2003 design using APCD 1.5, but that is in name only. There are none of the advanced techniques in evidence and the course looks like a 2001 design. The APCD workmanship on the course reflects about what one might expect from a first design. For example the fairways were not mapped and all pin locations are set to Moderate. There are some significant problems in the elevation work. Most of it is not very smooth and in quite a few places it is unnatural. Although I would suspect that the elevation work reflects that of the course in general terms, in probably is not quite accurate. Some of the hills and drop-offs are such that it is unlikely that an architect would actually build a course like that. The greens, many of which are much higher in the back than the front, are probably over-elevated in the same fashion. It is not uncommon to find putts of 15 to 25 feet with rather extreme elevations that are not in the form of a ridge or a level, but rather part of a continuous front to back climb. Although a few bunkers are the equivalent of the older MS designs, many of them are done very poorly in terms of both the smoothness and elevations. Numerous bunkers have one or more ridges within them and a few are on slopes that are at or near vertical. Extras: To his credit, Mr. Stewart has made custom tee markers but, unfortunately, they have a bright, yellowish looking grass as a base that do not come close to matching the tee box texture. There are a couple of nice photos of the real course that serve as splash screens and he also added a custom cameo. There are crowds and tournament objects planted. The designer did not include hole previews and there are a few holes where this is going to be a problem for some. As I mentioned, the designer did not use the advanced techniques available in APCD 1.5 and thus there is no seam blending on the course. The fairways lack a first cut. Summary: Mr. Stewart has done a creditable job for a first design. You can tell that he really put some effort into the course. There are definite signs of talent. His planting, though technically flawed, reflected a solid effort in getting a lot of the buildings, stairs, posts and other extras around the course into his design. His planting showed some promise as well. He is to be congratulated for tackling the tough task of learning the APCD. It appears that he has a knack for the vision of the design, but is lacking in the technical aspects of bringing that vision to full fruition. I would certainly encourage him to pursue future designs and would suggest that he spend some significant time looking at the many tutorials available, especially on bunkers and elevation work. He would also be well served to subject any future courses to some beta testing. Real course aficionados may want to grab this course, and it is a small download that some may find fun to play for a few rounds. Ultimately though, the APCD work is too flawed and inconsistent for most. I cannot recommend this course and will not be keeping it myself. This course is available as a FREE download. Download course Please support Links Corner