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Sandanara Shores
by Dale Huber
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 830 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2002-03-24 |
19,365,679 bytes |
72 |
7163 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
OCEAN |
Sandanara.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| b103d46de0c943fea8fa772268330f73 |
6e4ca6e59c679803fd79b2bcba10031e |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Mike Nifong April 2002
Course type: Sandanara Shores is described by its designer as a fantasy course based loosely on a real course located in South Florida. For the most part, its flat, coastal terrain is in keeping with the specified location, although the planting is a bit incongruous, incorporating many cone-shaped evergreens of the spruce/hemlock/fir ilk, none of which are native to South Florida, along with the more usual longleaf pines, flowering dogwoods, and palmettos. I would probably classify it, however, as more fictional than fantasy. It appears that no pano was used, with the result that the well-known 'blue line' phenomenon is often visible, especially around the greens.
Historical perspective: Insofar as I can determine, Sandanara Shores is Dale Huber's first submission. It was released on March 24, 2002, too little fanfare and equally little acclaim, having achieved only silver-star status from a handful of user-reviewers.
What is included: About what you would expect given the 18.1MB download size: a very brief read-me, a colorful cameo shot of the clubhouse, and a splash screen incorporating three views of the course. There are no hole previews, but the openness of the course makes negotiating it relatively straightforward despite their absence, even if you choose not to use the top view.
First impressions: The view from the first tee is very open - almost treeless, with no under planting. The fairway is fairly generous in width, although there is no first cut. Not bad, but excessively plain. The same could be said of the unremarkable bunkers, which have the shallow, lipless look you may recall from the old Access courses circa 1998. In short, there is really nothing here to whet your appetite for the upcoming round.
What comes next: Actually, things get a little worse initially. The second tee features some pointless planting of bright red flowers that seem out of place, plus a view of a 'painted on' stream with an awkwardly styled bridge. And the row of identical houses down the left side of the fairway (I guess they are supposed to be condos) does not exactly convey an upscale feeling. Fortunately, however, the low point has been reached here on #2, and Sandanara Shores begins to take a turn for the better.
That is not to say that this course is a visual gem. There are a few bad mesh shadows, along with an occasional odd patchiness to some of the grass textures (check, for example, the tee box on #9), and the bridges tend to be rather poorly integrated, but at least the texture transitions are generally smooth, and sharp edges are kept to a minimum. The least successful aspect of the execution of this design is undoubtedly the (not infrequent) water treatment. In addition to the lack of depth and the complete absence of edge planting, the water textures are inconsistently applied, so that, for instance, on #4, the water texture to the right of the tee is totally different from that a little further out, and on #5, the stream running down the left side of the fairway has a textured surface for part of its distance and a reflective surface for the remainder, with a straight diagonal line of separation between the two. The planting, especially on the front nine, also leaves a lot to be desired, and there are some frustratingly obvious examples of cloned and excessively linear groups of trees.
Interestingly, the nature of the planting changes dramatically on the back nine. Where it was initially sparse and subdued, it now becomes more lush and colorful (and, it must be admitted, more attractive, if slightly over the top), almost giving the impression that the two nines come from different courses.
From a playability standpoint, the layout is fairly solid throughout, presumably a benefit of Dale's basing his design on a real course. With a few exceptions, the bunkers are not very large and not too difficult to avoid, although they can be brought into play when you try to cut the corners on some of the doglegs to set up short iron approach shots (#3, for example). The par-5's are all pretty much unreachable from the back tees, although #2 is a possibility with a favorable wind, but otherwise present little challenge; they all provide solid birdie chances. The par-3's are a little on the bland side except for #12, which slopes steeply away from the backside of the green to the water - you do not want to be long here! The par-4's offer the most successful combination of challenge and variety, but on the whole this is not a particularly difficult course, especially for pro clickers and/or under benign conditions. The greens are about average in difficulty, not flat, but not unfairly sloped either. They seem to be a little bit more challenging on the back nine, as do the holes in general.
The bottom line: A decent first effort that avoids unrealistic contrivance and provides a reasonable, if not particularly exciting or challenging, golf experience, but for which there is really no compelling reason to download. For a truly satisfying South Florida experience, you would be better advised to sample any of the delectable offerings from John 'Southfla' Andersen, but you already knew that.
Course Statistics :
Par 72; 4 sets of tees; 7163 yards from back tees; holes are handicapped. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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