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Broken Arrow Championship Course (2003)
by Dominique Bois
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1593 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2005-06-18 |
82,829,641 bytes |
70 |
7063 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
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FICTIONAL |
PARKLAND |
BACC-2003.CRZ.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| a496a19d437b4c9791c0cf6e89371914 |
c3cda8bdffee65d197450fa95088f4e5 |
| COURSE NOTES |
| The adaptation for Links 2003 of my second design for Lins 2001. New textures, new planting, two new holes and a lot of cleaning. Very enjoyable with the Mod at no more than MM setting... |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by: Big Three
Designer Background: Dominique Bois is among the better known designers of Links Courses. His design career began with the Jack Nicklaus 6 golf game, and a few of his designs are remakes of his original JN6 courses. Broken Arrow Championship Course (2003) is the 7th design (5th course) released by Dominique. His previous courses have been Golf Club des Volcans, a 2K1 and 2K3 version of Bethpage Black, The Plantation, Royal Kurland, the original 2K1 design of Broken Arrow and now this 2K3 update of Broken Arrow. Dominique has garnered four Links Corner Recommended awards, including one for this update of Broken Arrow, and two prestigious Player's Choice awards for both his 2K1 and 2K3 designs of the Bethpage Black venue.
Course Overview: Broken Arrow Championship Course is a fictional parkland design, playing to a Par of 70 and 7063 yards (6459 meters) down to 5706 yards from 5 sets of tees. The course uses the Carolina pano.
Layout/Playability: Broken Arrow Championship Course is a rather extensive remake of Dominique's original design. If you liked the 2K1 version, fear not. This course retains the look, feel and basic design features of the original. If you were a bit put off by the difficulty of the first, you will find this version to be a gentler/kinder version with the greens being altered with the 1.06 Mod in mind. Despite that, this is still a stern test of golf and most shots will require a lot of thought and creativity. According to Dominique:
'The redesign consist in a severe mesh cleaning, elevation adaptations, complete replanting and two new holes. I trashed the old 10th and 11th to make a new par 5 10th and insert a par 3 between the old 16th and the 17th. So the old 12, 13, 15 and 16th became the 11,12,13,14 and 15th. Really, the old 11th seemed to me very fake. In fact, in the early design times, I had the idea of a hole parallel to the old 12th, and if you remember the old design, there's a place for the hole on the right. So I turned back to my first idea and built a hole in this open place. I had then to insert a par 3, and the only place I found was between the old 16th green and the 17th tees. A mid-length uphill hole, much easier than the old 10th. I really liked the old 10th, but it was impossible to keep it in the new routing.'
Occasionally you hear a course described as a real shot-makers course. That term would certainly apply to Broken Arrow. The main feature of the course is the rolling nature of the terrain. Off the tee, many of the holes play down to the fairway and then play uphill to the green. You will find very few shots that do not require some adjustment for elevation. The fairways will leave you with a variety of lies, keeping the player thinking at all times. For example, you may find an uphill approach shot from a downhill lie; a challenge even in Links. You will virtually never find yourself looking at the yardage of the approach shot and matching that to a club distance and firing away. Despite my description, all this plays very fair as long as you play careful and thoughtful golf. If you go out carelessly swinging away, look for a long day and a high score. The variety of elevations and lies are such that they provide thoughtful challenge while importantly avoiding the ridiculous or unfair. The nature of the terrain does create the occasional blind shot. This may be an issue for the no top view crowd, but excellent hole previews should overcome this.
The greens, although substantially toned down from the original, still give you much to think about. You also have to keep in mind that many greens are elevated, surrounded with a fringe run-off area that creates interesting chip shots if you miss. Most of the greens are on the medium to small side, with tiers and slopes that require being on the correct side of the pin. Careless placement of your approach shot can create some adventuresome putts.
Another feature common to Dominique's fictional designs that is present here is a variety of fairway shapes. Although a bit unconventional, it does not cross into the realm of fantasy or require trick-shot target practice. As with the rest of the design, it adds another layer of choice making in club selection and shot location.
The bunkers are a bit odd looking and may take some getting used to. They all feature a beige-looking dirt texture sidewall. The sidewalls are significantly slanted, and have 'green' properties assigned to them so that the ball will usually run off into the bunker sand. The look and style was part of the original and Dominique meant to keep that aspect of it. To be sure it is a different look and approach, but I found it to not be a distraction and does not detract from my overall fondness for the design.
All these features combine to give a great round of golf. This is one of those courses that has great replay value. The more you play the course the more you will learn the good, the not so good, and the downright bad areas to play your approach shot from. The fun factor here is very high.
My favorite hole is the 364 yard Par 4 17th hole. It has a downhill tee shot to a fairway that is 20 to 25 yards below the tee and is separated by cross-bunkers. The cross-bunkers fill an area between the 260-yard to 285-yard range. The choice is to lay-up short of the bunkers, giving yourself a longer but flatter approach shot, or go for a challenging drive over the bunkers, leaving a uphill wedge shot from a downhill lie. The green is only gently sloped, so a solid approach leaves a good birdie chance.
Planting/Textures: The planting and textures used on Broken Arrow are a significant upgrade and improvement over the original, creating a very realistic look. The fairways are surrounded by a first cut of rough, followed by heavy rough, all of which is plotted through and between areas of heavily planted deep rough. The green and brown mixture of tall grasses used in the deep rough areas is very well done and looks very natural. Off to the sides of the holes are thick wooded areas, which are nicely under planted. All of this combines to give a natural, attractive and realistic look to the entire course.
I do have a few minor issues here. First, the extrusions will show up as black lines in several places. The lower the resolution, the worse it looks. At the maximum in-game settings it isn't too bad, but at the lower resolutions it is quite distracting. For those of you who have the system and know how to force 1600 x 1200 resolution, it is recommended to avoid this problem. The use of unclear or non-descriptive texture names is one of my pet peeves. Until you play a few rounds, it is hard to know what to expect from lies named BA_Wrough and BA_Hrough. The sidewall in the bunker is the same texture as the cart path, although they both have the same name. So a lie on the cart path shows up as BA_bunkerwall; cloning it and renaming it Cart Path with free drop properties would have been a good choice.
APCD: Generally speaking, the APCD work here is done quite well. Seam blending is used sparingly and the course would have benefited from more of it. The seam between the heavy rough and the deep rough of the forested areas displays as 'None'. This should have been caught prior to release. The black line issue should have been addressed. Several complaints have been made about a stuttering or sticking mouse with this course. The sound loop causes this on some machines, including mine, although it doesn't interfere with my swing. There have been other courses that have this issue, and simply turning off ambient sounds gets around it. My guess is that none of the beta-testers experienced this or the offending sound would have been eliminated. Overall though, the course gets fairly high marks in this area.
Extras: Dominique has included an exceptional html presentation with the download. Extract it into a folder, and you will have a hole-by-hole presentation of the course, each hole complete with 3 screenshots, a top view style preview with important distances, a look at the slopes and shape of the green, and a nice description of and tips on how to play the hole. This is one of the finest documents of its type to be included with a course. Other expected extras with a course of this caliber are there; custom splash, flag, in game hole previews etc.
Mod Notes: As Dominique stated, the course was redone with the Mod in mind while maintaining the original character of the course. His suggestion is that you do not use anything more than M/M settings. My testing found it very playable at M/M, S/F and F/S. I did not try anything higher, as it is pretty obvious that you may find problems with some greens.
Summary: The fantastic challenge and playability of this course makes it one that I would heartily recommend. This course should provide a unique challenge every round. The course is very attractive visually as well. Although I gave this course a high ranking, I should note that it is in the lower part of that rank due to a few shortcomings, and may be a reason for a few to not care for the design. But for most, I think this will be a keeper. If replay value is a necessary quality in your courses, then Broken Arrow is a must.
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