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Split Rock Country Club
by David Krausse
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 792 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2002-02-23 |
19,014,622 bytes |
72 |
7129 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
split rock country club.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| cb14f013b0a14358a47c2d694dbfb529 |
a3d28521b919ee977899f0aba561b6aa |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by
Mike Nifong
March 2002
Course type: Split Rock is a fictional, woodland-style golf course. It appears that no pano has been used, the designer relying instead on the forest to provide the backdrop for this venue.
Historical perspective: Insofar as I have been able to determine, Split Rock is the first course David Krausse has submitted to the Links Corner. It has received little in the way of mention since its February 23, 2002, release, but the user review score has crept up to a single gold star on three reviews after holding a silver star after only two, so the third reviewer apparently liked it. There is no read-me file, so I am in no position to enlighten you on the history of how this course came into being.
What is included: Only a splash screen, and frankly, even at the small download size of 14MB, the absence of a cameo is a disappointment. Hole previews, on the other hand, were not expected, and their absence is not a substantial detriment in this case.
First impressions: From the tee on #1, you see about what you would expect to see in a course of this type and file size: the typical woodland course look, heavily forested, but with a reasonably generous fairway. There is no first cut, and there is not a very big margin of rough before you reach the tees. Nothing to get excited about, then, but nothing to make you groan yet either.
What comes next: If you play with the top camera on, as I generally do (and I always do when there are no hole previews), you will notice some mesh shadows in all the bunkers on the first hole. It will not take you too much longer to realize that this same situation inheres throughout the course, and that the bunkers look, if anything, even more shadowy from close up than they appear in the top cam. They also suffer from frequent sharp edges and occasional unrealistic slopes, and they really advertise David's inexperience with the subtleties of the APCD. This same inexperience can be seen in virtually all of the water edges as well - you just see two textures juxtaposed with no attempt to create any kind of transition.
There is also a great deal of repetitive planting evident (presumably how David got foresting this heavy in such a small file size), but it only becomes really distracting when you get close to the greens. Then you will often see many copies of the same tree in the same size, and any illusion that you are actually playing golf pretty much evaporates. The cart path also makes the wrong kind of impression, being a little more meandering than is either reasonable or prudent, and having the occasional tree springing up right in the middle (you can find similar trees popping out of the lake on #16, and the stream on #17).
On #9, a par-3, there is a large expanse of texture marked sandstone, followed by an area of rock that plays as a hazard. What they are doing there is a mystery to me. They add nothing visually (as a matter of fact, the sandstone appears to use horizontally a mapping intended to be applied vertically), and they are not even close to being in play. On the island fairway on #18, you will see some areas colored in the telltale red, indicating that no textures have been assigned.
If you can get past these obvious visual shortcomings, you will find that Split Rock actually plays more or less like a real golf course, albeit not a particularly interesting one. The whole course is relatively flat, which not only makes the substitution of foresting for a panorama work (with the exception of the occasional dynamic camera shot showing a blue band), but also means that there are none of the unrealistic elevations that one sometimes notes in debut designs. The hole layouts are actually reasonable, and the placement of bunkers and water hazards is such that they have to be taken into consideration, giving some risk/reward opportunities. Three of the par-5's are reachable from the back tees (all but #10), but usually not without some risk. On #7, you can cut the dogleg by going over the trees to your right, but if you don't cut enough of it your drive may roll through the fairway and down an ivy-covered bank that is marked hazard, and if you try to cut too much of it you might not make it over all the trees. And on #18, you will have to hit an island fairway, a prospect that is never risk-free.
Still, every hole offers a reasonable chance to better par, so you should score well if you hit your snap. Be forewarned, however, that the caddie will often attempt to hand you a club that is about one size too large for the task at hand.
The bottom line: This is pretty obviously a first course, lacking the finesse one hopes would accompany more experience with the APCD. The layout is not particularly original and does not present much of a challenge, but it also avoids the outrageous excess that sometimes plagues early design efforts. David needs to work on his edges and his planting, but I have certainly seen worse first (and second) tries. Still, there is no compelling reason to download it. Even at this file size, there are many better choices.
Course Statistics :
Par 72; 5 sets of tees; 7129 yards from back tees; holes are not handicapped. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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