| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1546 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2005-02-15 |
54,706,176 bytes |
72 |
7276 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Birkenhead Park_locked.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
REVIEW BY JON WEINRIEB
From the Course Notes: This is my Third course, it is named after my Fathers old cricket team he played for and not a real course. Birkenhead is a suburb in the county of Merseyside, across the river Mersey from Liverpool. I have attempted seam blending for this course and I hope you like the results from it as much as I enjoyed designing it. As I said it is a fictional course set in a woodland area playing 7276 yards from the back tees and 5886 yards from the ladies tees. I have used textures from another course for mine, I hope you like them. I have not got hole previews as I have not yet leant how to do them, I am hoping to have them for my fourth course. A lot of thanks must go to Robert Hurst for his continuing support through this design, also to scott (BTG_Cryon) for his testing of this course. I hope you all like it as I think it has improved greatly from my past two courses. Can you please send me some feedback as this will help me in future designs to brianrjameson@aol.com Thank you all and have fun on this course.
The Basics: As Mr. Jameson indicates, this is his third course for Links 2003. His prior work includes Dellemere Forest Golf Resort and Staffordshire Lakes Country Club. Neither received favorable reviews but this effort marks some overall improvement, revealing greater APCD skill and a better understanding of the principles underpinning good golf course architecture. The 68 MB zip file includes 2 splash screens, a shadow file, a readme and a series of course screenshots. Birkenhead is a fictional course set in a moderately wooded region that gives off a parkland atmosphere.
The Course:
Although Birkenhead Park Golf Club is listed as a 'woodland' course, I would characterize it more as a parkland-style track -- running through a moderately dense grouping of deciduous trees and heavy grassy areas, giving off the feeling that there are a group of footballers just off in the distance. Water comes into play on some holes and although there is a nice variety of doglegs, some elevation work would add a lot to this layout and take it to another level. It is a bit staid in its present state.
I unfortunately did not find myself remembering many of the holes on this course. Again, although elevation changes would go a long way toward remedying this problem, a larger issue, perhaps, is the repetitive nature of the hole designs themselves. Not only do they just look alike but they play alike. All non-par-3 holes feature the same style of broken fairways and small landing areas surrounded by fairly severe sand traps. I quickly tired of playing out to these generic landing areas, trying to avoid the surrounding bunkers. It would have been nice to see some greater variety consistent with the theme Mr. Jameson was trying to create. Extended fairways with some shape to them would go a long way to improving the shot values -- of which there is little. I could see that some players might not mind the repetition but I found it somewhat boring and uninspiring.
The bunkers, as alluded to, are also somewhat of a problem. Although they are fairly well done and not technically problematic or ugly, they are rather unrealistic. Deep and featuring massive lips, the high sides could never support the weight of the dirt and sand clinging to them in real life. Perhaps some sod-walled bunkers would have served this course better if the designer wished to make them so penal. As they are, however, they are merely strange looking and something you just don't find on a real golf course.
APCD Technique:
From a technical standpoint, Mr. Jameson treats us to some significant improvement over his prior courses. Although it is far from perfect, the course is indeed quite playable and does not contain many glaring errors. The main problems, from an APCD standpoint, include a lack of dynamic under-planting that leaves vast open spaces on blurry, awkward rock faces strewn about the course. The grass and flower planting all around is ok but quite repetitive and lacks the necessary variety to be credible. Most of the yellow and orange flowers on the course are the same height and call for greater mixture. The textures are nice standing alone but could be colored a bit better to match one another.
A more significant texture issue crops up most prominently on the tee boxes. The edges of the tee boxes are extruded and the textures bleed out of the extremely sharp and unrealistic extrusions. This is a simple technique to get right and I would encourage Mr. Jameson to consult some seam blending tutorials or seek help in the forums in order to learn how to properly apply these blends to vertically extruded faces.
Overall Impression & Recommendation: Although this course is far from a must download, it is not a bad effort and has some enjoyable holes. I would probably steer clear of it if you only have dial-up but, assuming a fast connection and a little free time, I think some folks might enjoy it. It is not a bad course. I think the Links community can look forward to some continued improvement from Mr. Jameson and perhaps some really fine work in the future. I wish him well.
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