| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1521 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2004-12-11 |
40,194,048 bytes |
72 |
7290 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Lone Pines G&C.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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| COURSE NOTES |
This is our 4th course. It is a fictional woodlands course.
It measures 7351 yds long. The course is around 40 megs
in size. It has 10 par 4's, 4 par 3's and 4 par 5's.
We used all 2k3 textures and used seam-blending
in the sand traps. The bunker lips were created
with guides from several of the Links Corner
tutorials. The course has some lakes numerous traps
and greens with lots of slope. While there are some good elevations
care was taken not to exceed reality.
Hole preview tips are based on the back tees.
We hope you enjoy it as we try to improve.
thanks
Douglas and Karen Montgomery
dmontgom@infinet.com
montgodo@oplin.org |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
REVIEW BY JON WEINRIEB
From The Course Notes: This is are 4th course. It is a fictional woodlands course. It measures 7351 yds long. The course is around 40 megs in size. It has 10 par 4's, 4 par 3's and 4 par 5's. We used all 2k3 textures and used seam-blending in the sand traps. The bunker lips were created with guides from several of the Links Corner tutorials. The course has some lakes numerous traps and greens with lots of slope. While there are some good elevations care was taken not to exceed reality. Hole preview tips are based on the back tees. We hope you enjoy it as we try to improve. thanks
The Basics: As they say, this is Douglas & Karen Montgomery's 4th course for Links. They previously released The Dragon's Lair and Black Valley No. 2 for Links 2001 and Sugar Hills for Links 2003. This is a 2003 design. Lone Pines is a monstrous woodland-type course that measures over 7,700 yards and plays to a par of 72, despite their claim that it is only 7,351 yards long (just one of a host of problems with this course).
The Course: 'Lone Pines G&C' is a fairly straightforward layout that runs through a heavily wooded region of deciduous and pine trees. There are a number of straight holes but some nice doglegs are presented to the player, as well. A number of holes feature lakes and water-based hazards but, in general, there is not an overwhelming amount of trouble to be found. There is some pretty solid elevation change throughout the course but overall it is a fairly standard and unremarkable woodland layout with a few memorable holes. The textures appear to be stock and are ill-placed in many instances, creating a strange look to some holes and a lack of cohesion.
APCD Technique: Unfortunately, this course does not represent much of an improvement over Douglas's and Karen's previous efforts. The APCD technique is fairly poor, particularly for a fourth course. There are no custom textures, no planar mappings, repetitive planting and generally little regard for aesthetics. All shapes were just inserted with no mesh cleanup that I could discern. The little bit of seam blending is sloppy and includes no multiple mappings. The result is smudgy looking bunker lips (the only places I could really see any attempt made at seam blending were these lips). Sharp edges abound, tee boxes are poorly shaped, the hole routing is average, there is little to no bush or grass planting and the overall technique is rather disappointing. There the greens all more or less slope one way with no subtle undulation and the design gives off the impression that it was rushed. There are hole previews which are actually pretty good.
I think with some time and effort, Douglas and Karen could turn their interesting ideas into some decent courses. There are indeed some good hole designs and you can tell the creativity is there. But it has to start with attention to detail and technique. Tutorials and practice are essential.
Overall Impression & Recommendation: I cannot recommend this course to anyone. My suggestion for Douglas & Karen is to continue reviewing the numerous tutorials that designers have put together in an effort to hone their APCD skill before releasing another course. I would also suggest for next time a full round of beta testing to address the technical problems that they seem to be encountering.
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