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Florida Palms
by Gary A Turner
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 708 |
| Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-12-27 |
34,887,432 bytes |
72 |
7555 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
TROPICAL |
floridapalms.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| cd6f5f026b0d4d8fbff47e8ffc7499d2 |
533859f650bf710d94964829e052ba87 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by
Mike Nifong
February 2002
Course type: Florida Palms is an inland, tropical-style course. Although it is described by its creator as a fantasy course, it seems to have more in common with what I consider to be fictional courses: it looks like it could be a real course, wholly appropriate in atmosphere to the inland Florida area that Gary was attempting to suggest.
Historical perspective: Released on December 27, 2001, this is Gary's second course; I am not familiar with his first course, Pine View, but it seems to have garnered more respect from the official reviewer than from the users who rated it. Florida Palms has been more kindly received by the players, thus far having achieved a user rating of two stars (60-69%), but I could not help but note that it received a very unfavorable mark from John Buessing in his PDF reviews. That fact was probably the main reason that I had not tried the course before now, and, once I was assigned this review, I was interested in seeing how closely we would agree.
What is included: There is a brief read-me in which Gary describes the course and his aims in creating it. The customary cameo and splash screen were both attractive. There are no hole previews, a little disappointing at this file size (33.1MB). Because the flag will rarely be visible except on the par-3's, use of the top cam is advisable (perhaps necessary).
First impressions: The first thing you are likely to notice from the tee on #1 is the planting - mostly bush palmettos and pines initially. The palmettos on the first tee have nice flower plantings at their bases. The textures for the fairways and greens seem to be the same ones used in the Woods' excellent AlabamA course, and they fit the location. Less successful is the choice of sand textures for the bunkers - the gray sand used doesn't exactly say Florida to me, and this is one course where the white sand would have looked more natural. The edges of the tee boxes and fairways are extruded; as usual, that causes some shadowing in the top cam, but here it also seems to emphasize some angularity in those texture boundaries. The hole itself is a dogleg right with a relatively wide fairway. A fade off the tee will set up your second shot nicely.
What comes next: In terms of appearance, if you like what you see on the first hole, you will like the course, as that style of planting and level of finish is maintained throughout. In addition to the bush palmettos and pines, you will see some other varieties of tree (notably, cabbage palmettos and willows), and the predominant style has a rather open fairway with dense planting when you reach the tree line. Ground level planting is excellent throughout. The bunkers are fine except for the sand color (and that is just a matter of personal taste). Water edge treatments are both varied and variable: sometimes lily pads or areas of reeds, sometimes just grass down to the waterline (the 'flooded' look). There are also some areas of exposed rock (which look good) and at least one use of wooden bulkheads (which looks less good). Overall, I would have to say that the course is both attractive and natural.
In terms of playability, the course starts off pretty consistently. The majority of the par-4's and par-5's are some variety of dogleg, usually with bunkers on both sides of the fairways near the bend. Often there is also a corresponding narrowing of the landing area - not exactly unfair, but often a little frustrating. As a pro clicker, I found more than my share of those bunkers. Powerstrokers (and that, incidentally, is the way John Buessing plays) may be even less enamoured. The greens are good - not contrived, but offering some challenge - although the texture makes the putting grid hard to read in the flatter part of the range. Neither of the par-5's on the front nine is reachable from the back tees, and the par-3's will require at least a 5W (perhaps a 3W if playing into the wind) through hole #11. You then have your first reachable par-5, and consequently your first real chance at something better than birdie. For the first twelve holes, then, Florida Palms offers good looks and good challenge, if it lacks a little in variety.
It is on #13 that things take a downhill turn. This is the hole referred to by JB as a 'TUPofC' (which, the best I can figure, means Tricked-Up Piece of Crap), and it features one of those narrow, sinuous fairways with water on both sides - the kind of hole you are not likely to see on a real course. For a pro clicker, the difficulty is not insurmountable, since you can clear that portion of the fairway unless playing into a stiff breeze, but for champ clickers and powerstrokers, this kind of hole design begins to approach the unforgivable. Things are not much better on #14, where the fairway splits into two narrow bands on either side of a large island of rough that contains several large bunkers. If you go left, then you will have to play a nearly blind approach shot over the trees; to go right, on the other hand, you will have to hit a big fade off the tee because of the trees down that side of the fairway. Again, a less than acceptable choice. Then comes #15, one of those over-500-yard par-4's that, as luck would have it, always seems to play into the wind. It seems to me that something is not right if I have to describe a par-4 as 'usually reachable in two from the back tees.'
If you can get past those three holes, the course settles down again, finishing with a reachable par-5, a par-3 that only requires about a 4I, and the second shortest par-4. But I suspect that JB will not be the only powerstroker who gives up on Florida Palms before then.
There is one other thing I want to mention. The first time I played this course, I got a Nested Exception Error on #15. When I restarted Links, I was able to finish #15, but I got the same error on my second shot on #16. This time, I got the same error each time I tried to restart. I eventually had to reboot. I never had the same problem again, and I am not sure the course is to blame, but I would point out that I have every MS course and about 240 APCD courses on my hard drive at the moment, I am running relatively high-end gear (1.7GHz P4, 512MB PC800 RDRAM, 64MB DDR GeForce3), and I have never seen this error before.
The bottom line: I liked this course more than John Buessing did, but that is largely a function of our different styles of play, and I can certainly see his point. This would be a much better course if Gary filled in one of the ponds on #13, widened the fairway(s) on #14, and shortened #15 by about 30 yards. As it is, it is worth a look for pro clickers, and possibly for champ clickers, but powerstrokers may be better advised to look elsewhere.
Course Statistics :
Par 72; 5 sets of tees; 7555 yards from back tees; holes are not handicapped. |
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