|
Barrington Hills
by DeLinda Wood
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 32 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-03-26 |
40,642,839 bytes |
72 |
6952 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Barringt.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| d575c161222b11d5b14200a0c9d85ca4 |
6e62e792e9f3a3f09b590ba72f21c8d6 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Dave Campbell
Expectations: Upon original download I suspected I might not like this course. There had been mixed comments in the review forum, mainly about the textures.
First Impressions: Barrington Hills is Delinda Wood's second APCD offering and was posted at the Links Corner on 3/27/01. It's a fictional woodland design loosely based on Robert Trent Jones Jr's Southern Highlands and is a par 72 that plays 6,952 from the back tees. Her first design was Maple Valley and is a course I still play. Any apprehensions I may have had were laid to rest on the first tee. This course is simply stunning in every way. As much as I looked I could not find one error.
The aforementioned texture issue is actually one of the many strong points in this course. They are different looking to be sure with a blend of light and dark that I found very appealing from the start. This may be subject to personal taste and hopefully the screenshot provided will give you some idea. The texture issue aside this course has so many good things to offer.
Let me first talk about the sand. There are two distinct sand types, what I call natural looking 'beige' colored and the standard 'white' raked looking texture. The bunkers are woven amongst each other in a mixture of playing hazard and beauty. Many of the beige colored traps have huge boulders in them, which is what makes me think of them as natural. It seems as if they have always been there and the course was built around them. There are boulders and other rock formations scattered throughout the course but not to the point of being overdone. Greenside bunkers are strategically placed near almost every green.
The planting on this course is spectacular. Stands of trees placed to ever so slightly influence your tee shot. The reed like planting along the lake banks is very realistic. All areas seemed to have varied foliage that looks very natural. The best part was the ground and under planting, WOW. I can think of two tee boxes (the 6th and the 15th) that I just sat in my chair and stared for a minute or two. A mixture of purple and white foliage that is very lush and colorful. Strong planting under stands of trees and in the forest areas as well.
There is definitely a water presence on this course in varying shapes and sizes but it does not dominate the landscape. Small ponds in front of or along side many greens. Water down the right side of two fairways that come to mind. One nice looking lake that runs along the right side of the 4th hole all the way to the green.
The whole course flows nicely as you would expect being that its inspiration is a RTJ Jr. design. I couldn't find one hole to complain about other than the double bogie I took on 17 but it's not the designer's fault that I hit it in the water. It looks wonderful in the top cam as well.
Drawbacks: Only two things to mention. On one of the land plot border holes the dynamic cam shot showed the panorama base, then empty space below. Since patch 1.20 was released after this course offering you can't fault the designer or beta testers on this, since shots now are viewed from much higher angles.
Render times between shots were sometimes as much as 4 - 5 seconds. This did not affect my round and I mention it only because I noticed it a few times. My machine specs are mentioned at the beginning of the review so you should have some gauge as to whether this could be a problem for you.
Best Hole: Every hole was good but two stand out in my mind. Both the 6th and the 16th holes have very distinctive looks. Personally, the 16th is my favorite. It's a split fairway par 4 and looks stunning from the tee and plays much tougher than it's 410 yards.
Comparable courses: Gator Lakes and Foxfire C.C. by Lacy Gearheart, Firefighter Memorial by Steve Pope, Driftwood G.C. by Mike Jones
Overall: I believe this course got lost a bit in the flood of great courses released by many big name designers, and by the sheer volume in numbers of designs themselves. In my opinion this course is designed and crafted as well as any APCD offering to date. It is an absolute must have for anyone's Links collection. I always loved this course from the very first time I teed it up. It surprised me when I looked at it again from a reviewer's perspective how many little things I had missed before, particularly the planting. I probably don't need to say this but 'download strongly recommended'.
-------------------------
Pete Dixon's thoughts..
Linda is obviously the nice, talented one out of the James/Linda Wood partnership (aka married!!), Barrington Hills is the first course I have reviewed that has been designed by a woman (reviewed some designed by some old women!! - Joke!!).
The course itself is a beautiful woodland setting with wide fairways, lots, and I mean lots, of bunkers, large lakes and some testing greens. Custom textures abound and there is an unusual pale semi - rough, which divides the fairway from the rough.
Planting is of a high standard and the course has been well thought and laid out, you feel as if you are playing a real course rather than a fictional one.
I have to say I didn't think the way the different types of surface met, fairway, semi - rough and rough was as flowing as it could have been, I also thought that the bunkers were just slightly not as good as they could have been and for some reason this is the slowest rendering course I have played.
Overall: A very nice course, worthy of a download and to be part of your collection, but for me the course lacked a certain flow because of the points raised above, not quite a classic but very good.
Course Info :
Splash Screen? Yes
Cameo Screen? Yes
Text file? No
Hole Previews? No
39mb
Reviewed April 2001 |
|
CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Fictional, parkland course |
Location
TBC |
Conditions
TBC |
Concept 8/10
There are some very promising ideas here. Sprawling fairways give a variety of options, greens are steep and well-protected, and the large stones that dot the fairway add a realistic but unusual and different touch. The course as a whole, then, is quite realistic, perhaps something crying out to be a future Open course. |
Appearance 5/10
There are certain issues that grate on the visual senses with this course. First is the first-cut rough, which is picked out in a lurid and inappropriate stock texture. Without any seam blends around the fairways, it looks exceedingly artificial and takes the edge off the otherwise visual appeal. My second problem is the gradients. At times the course (not just the playing area, but those 'unused' areas too) seems way too flat, but on other holes, the land is too sharply, and clearly artificially pitched. While the lovely-to-look-at rocks and great planting provide some alternative, they don't fully cover up these flaws. |
Playability 8/10
This is a very playable course. Every hole provides alternatives, and most of the Par 5s are reachable in two, with some element of risk. Only the occasional 'easy' approach shot lets the course down, and after the lengthy finishing hole, I'm all ready to tee off again from the first. Great stuff! |
Challenge 5/10
Sadly, despite the stiff greens, I found this course a little easy. My score of 8-under was mainly due to easy approach shots and the ability to make most of the Par 5s in two. The water rarely came into play, and the attractive bunkers were shallow and - on the whole - easy to escape. It was a shame that the trademark rocks didn't play a more active part, rather than just being scenery. |
Technical 7/10
Considering the age of this course, the technical work isn't too bad. The scenery is carefully grafted and looks excellent; the rocks are of different sizes but all well scaled. What this course lacks is attention to detail on elevations, and some carefully applied texture blends around the edge of fairways. Then it would be something to take genuine pride in. |
| Overall |
A very competent effort, with excellent attention to detail and a real grasp of how to create a realistic and beautiful environment. A little too easy and missing some fine tuning with the APCD, but very playable for all that. |
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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