Situated in a high mountain valley at the very crossroads
of all Middle Earth, the Elven sanctuary Rivendell has been offering repose for
weary travelers for over 5000 years. To the south lie the snowcapped peaks of
the Misty Mountains. To the north lies the Goblin mountain kingdom of Mt.
Gundabad. To the west lie the fertile
valleys of Arnor and Eriador. To the east lie the burnt and barren lands
leading to Mordor and the fires of Mt. Doom.
Hole #1: Along the Watchtower
Background:
Your round at Rivendell begins and ends just outside the
castle wall. As you stand at the tee
before you lies Mt. Gundabad, the Goblin kingdom. From the depths of this mountain have been quarried the stones
used to build the wall along which this hole runs.
Tips
for playing the hole:
Rivendell Golf Links starts in intimidating fashion, with
one of the most difficult shots you will have to play all day. You must hit the ball far enough to get
around the turret, but your landing area narrows considerably the further you
go. A ball hit too perfect will catch a
deep bunker. Aim to the right side of
the fairway and try to draw the shot around the turret.
Your second shot has a number of options to it. There are three landing areas on this side
of the lake. A perfect tee shot
followed by a perfect 5-wood should put you at the end of the fairway where the
green opens up nicely. Only a perfect
tee shot and a fine following wind will allow you to reach the green in two.
Hole #2: The Moat
Background:
Perched on a tiny finger of rock which extends out into the
moat, the second hole is the longest of Rivendell’s Par-3s. In the inlet here docks the moat ferryboat
which tours the lake every other hour.
You can get magnificent views of Rivendell Castle from this green.
Tips
for playing the hole:
The hole plays fairly straightforward unless the pin is set
back left. If so, you have a very
dangerous shot with water left and a bunker right. You should play to the center of the green, don’t worry about
birdie, and just try to put well and walk way with a par.
Hole #3: Into the Hills
Background:
After crossing the moat one last time, the links head
inland and upward into the mountains.
Here is the home of the ferryman and watcher of the lake.
Tips
for playing the hole:
Although long, your tee shot here is not dangerous unless
there is a strong headwind. The fairway
bunkers don’t come much into play either, unless you have the wind strongly at
your back.
Your second shot is to a three-tiered green wrapped completely
by shallow trap. Allow an extra club or
two to get up the hill and over the front of the trap. The trap is deepest in the front; you are
better off playing from the back.
Hole #4: Entrance to Moria
Background:
Through a narrow canyon into a arid cul-de-sac you will
find the Rivendell entrance to Moria.
This is also the south-eastern border of Rivendell. Here the lush vegetation gives way to the
arid lands that lead to Mordor.
After the defeat of the Dark Lord, the Orcs retreated to
the dark depths of this ancient Dwarf kingdom.
Today they still rule over Moria and make a meager existence charging
travelers a fee to cross under the Misty Mountains. Also, they sell golf balls that have been retrieved from Moria
Creek, which pours forth from a fissure in the mountain and runs down to the
left side of the hole.
WARNING:
If you hit a golf ball over by the Orc Guards, do not try to retrieve it. If an Orc approaches trying to sell you golf
balls, we suggest you do not haggle over price, pay them what they want and
continue playing.
Tips
for playing the hole:
Your risks on the tee shot are two-fold. If you hit too far, you may drop into the
fairway bunker or worse, into Moria Creek.
If you don’t hit it straight, you may bounce of the rock faces and not
be far enough to get around the elbow.
A good tee shot should allow you a good view and approach
to a comfortably large green with mild undulations. Just keep you shot away from Moria creek on the left.
Hole #5: Moria Creek
Background:
The canyon narrows here considerably and the 5th
green is literally etched into the rock walls along the bank of Moria
Creek. The green is watched over by an
ancient demon, older even than the elves who created Rivendell. The elves call her “Sue” and no one is exactly
sure why. Also living on or near this
hole is an odd little creature known only as “The Gollum” He can sometimes be seen catching fish and
retrieving golf balls from Moria Creek, which he delivers to the Orcs who repay
him with some small disgusting little creatures from Moria which Gollum
considers a delicacy.
Tips
for playing the hole:
Keep you tee shot left.
You can bounce of the wall which towers over the left side of the green
but a shot to the right will fall into the creek. The green has three tiers from front left to back right. The green is too small to aim for anything,
just try getting it on and then concentrate of putting.
Hole #6: Wizard’s Home
Background:
Back toward Rivendell Castle, the land once again blossoms
with the spirit of the elves who inhabit this secluded paradise. An eccentric old wizard lives here just off
the tee box. Some say he was once a
great and powerful wizard who played a major role in the defeat of Sauron, the
Dark Lord. Today, in retirement, he
amuses himself by occasionally turning a tee shot in to a bird or a flash of
fireworks. If this happens, feel free
to tee up again without penalty.
You will get a magnificent view of Rivendell Castle from
the 6th green.
Tips
for playing the hole:
You need to hit it as far as possible to get far up the
hill so you can see your approach to the green. There is a hidden bunker along the right but a long tee shot
should clear it.
The second shot generally not difficult except for the fact
that you are usually hitting off a slope too an obstructed green lying at the
bottom of a long slope. The green is
perched on the edge of a cliff so don’t hit it too far. Fortunately, the green is wide and mild and
you can generally shoot for the pin.
Hole #7: The Shire
Background:
There lives at Rivendell a small community of Hobbits. A
shy, quiet folk they are, and they have settled in a secluded cul-de-sac off
the 7th green. You probably won't see them much, but you can admire their
small, tidy, earthen homes. Don't get too caught up trying to catch a glipse of
a Hobbitt; try to stay focused on missing all of the 10 deep bunkers which
guard this green.
Tips
for playing the hole:
Fade your tee shot around the trees but be careful, the
fairway narrows at the landing area.
Aim your second shot for the center of the green. There are traps up both the left and right
side of the green. The green is large
and deep however so you can stop on it.
Hole #8: Moria Creek Falls
Background:
Crossing by tunnel under the ridge above the Shire, you
find yourself once again along the banks of Moria Creek which has now grown to
a modest river. This is the eastern
border of Rivendell. The hole crosses
Moria Creek twice here and ends spectacularly perched amidst Moria Creek
Falls. Although the pool by the upper
falls looks temptingly refreshing, do not try cool off in these waters; they
did begin in the evil depths of Moria.
Look east from the green for a spectacular view of the Lower Falls,
which fall into Rivendell Canyon here.
In the distance you can see the burnt and twisted lands of Mordor,
dominated by the smoking summit of Mt. Doom
Tips
for playing the hole:
The tee shot is pretty wide open. Your biggest risk is hitting long and left and having the ball
roll long into the weeds. You second
shot is generally off a downslope across the river. If you find yourself in the deep rough or weeds, you probably
should play a recovery shot back onto the fairway rather than try to cross the
pool. Go ahead and shoot for the
pin. Since the green undulates a bit,
it is best to be as close to the pin as possible.
Hole #9: Rivendell Canyon
Background:
This is Rivendell Canyon.
The 9th hole has been carved into the side of the canyon by
the skilled stone crafters of the dwarven guilds. The holes crosses the canyon three times. A great view of
Rivendell Falls can be had at the 2nd Bridge where the roar of the
falls thunders in your ears.
Tips
for playing the hole:
Aim you tee shot just to the right of the first bridge and
fade your shot down the fairway. A shot
hit long and straight will end up behind the first ridge and you will have a
hard time advancing the ball from there.
A perfect tee shot leaves you multiple options for your 2nd. Only the bravest of heart will try to cross
the canyon since you are likely to have a sloping lie. Mere mortals may want to play a long iron
or fairway wood to the landing area in front of the canyon bridge. The green opens up nicely from there.
Hole #10: Rivendell Point
Background:
The confluence of Rivendell Canyon, Upper Rivendell Canyon,
and Bruinen Canyon is known as Rivendell Point. Glaciations and erosion carved the knob on which sits the 10th
green, which has been fortified by skilled stone work. Stop and enjoy the view from the center of
the bridge span.
Before teeing off the 11th, you may find
refreshments and restrooms at the small, dwarf run, snack bar.
Tips
for playing the hole:
This is a 2-tiered green with a sizeable gradient between
them. Though the green is large, make
all effort to place your tee shot on the same tier as the pin placement.
Hole #11 Arwen Spring Falls
Background:
High in the mountains above this hole lies Arwen Spring,
named for the Elven beauty whose blessing purifies the water which issues forth
from the spring and pours down the mountainside via 3 waterfalls here at the 11th
hole. Though these waters run clear and
pure, there is still a penalty when your ball lands within them.
Tips
for playing the hole:
You have three options on your tee shot. Those with testicular fortitude may play to
the small patch of fairway on the right.
From there to the green is a sand wedge or so and a possible
birdie. The rest of us usually play a
driver to the upper section left of the falls leaving a long iron, which should
be played further left than it looks, to the green. Short hitters can lay up into the lower section of fairway but it
leaves quite a long shot up to the green.
The green slopes severely from back to front.
Hole #12 The Gorge
Background:
The Links run along Upper Rivendell Canyon before turning
inland here. Rivendell Creek cuts a
deep gorge here so please be careful when walking near the edge.
Tips
for playing the hole:
You need to drive it straight and long enough to get around
the corner. If you accidentally pull
it, you will bounce of the wall and have a difficult 2nd shot. There is a bail out area to the right but
hitting up to the green from there is difficult as the grass grows deep.
The green is small with 3 tiers and is guarded left front
and back right. Also, the gorge creeps
up closely behind the green so be careful not to shoot long.
Hole #13 Canyon Overlook
Background:
This long Par 5 climbs over the ridge and drops back down
to the edge of Rivendell Canyon, offering a great view of Rivendell Point. There is a small herd of mountain goats that
have made a home here on the rocky outcrops.
Tips
for playing the hole:
Your tee shot is wide open and the hole is really long so
go ahead and smack a driver with all you got.
Over the ridge the fairway funnels down to the green so you can smack
your second as well. The only danger
is losing one right and ending up in the flower garden. You still probably can’t reach in two, but
two well hit shots should leave you a short chip to the pin. Everything slopes down to the cliff edge so
land your approach way right, near the fence and let the ball bounce toward the
pin.
Hole #14 Eowyn’s Water Temple
Background:
In honor of the beautiful Elven Princess Eowyn, a temple
has been erected around the 14th green. The statue of the water nymph, made of pure gold adorned with
emeralds and other precious gems, is said to take it’s likeness from the
Princess herself.
Tips
for playing the hole:
This is the shortest and last of Rivendell’s Par-3s. This is pure target golf. The green is fashioned into three target
areas and one should strive to land the ball in the same area as the pin.
Hole #15 The Reservoir
Background:
Constructed by dwarves many
centuries ago, the Reservoir provides this elven sanctuary with clean water.
The watershed has been declared a protected habitat so please don't litter, and
for god's sake, don't pee in the lake. Be careful while crossing the dam. The
lake waters are dangerous near the dam and it's a hundred feet down the
backside.
Tips
for playing the hole:
Play a straight, long 3-Wood straight down the
fairway. A driver will be too long
unless you use it to go over Aragorn Rock, which is risky as the fairway
narrows on the far side. The green
slopes left to right so keep your approach left and let if fall toward the
hole.
Hole #16 Tower of Isengard
Background:
The Tower of Isengard was the principal residence of an
evil wizard name Saruman, who used Isengard as a breeding ground for the evil
creatures who served the Dark Lord, Sauron.
After the defeat of Sauron and Saruman, the good men of Gondor would not
allow such an evil structure to remain near their lands. The elves, however, felt that the evil of Saruman
was not intrinsic to the stones themselves.
With the assistance of many men and dwarves, the Tower of Isengard was
dis-assembled and brought to Rivendell.
Here it has risen again and serves as the western lookout over Arnor and
Eriador. It is said the most
far-sighted of elves can see the ocean from its rampart.
Tips
for playing the hole:
If the wind is behind you, you can rip one over the center
of the large fairway trap. Otherwise
play your tee shot over the left corner.
You can also lay up in the lower part of the fairway along the
left. You second shot is very difficult
as the fairway narrows considerably along the gorge and you cannot see over the
rise. As there is a large landing area
just over the rise, you may want to lay up with an 8-iron and play your 3rd
shot long to the green. On your
approach be mindful of the gorge on the right and long.
The green is very small and protected by a trap on the left
Hole #17 The Dragon’s Lair
Background:
Rivendell is home to Smaug, one of the last Great
Dragons. Smaug has settled in a
secluded grotto that makes up the 17th Hole. As dragons are
nocturnal, Smaug sleeps the whole day, hunting for food only at night. He is therefore, not to be feared by the
casual golfer. He sleeps deep such that
not even the stray golf ball to the head wakes him. DO NOT be tempted to retrieve your ball, however, should you hit
it over by Smaug. He rouses quickly if
he smells easy prey.
Tips
for playing the hole:
The easy tee shot is to hit it straight down the
fairway. This however will leave a
blind shot to the green that is difficult to judge due to the elevation drop
into the grotto. The more daring drive
is over the trees to the right and down onto the grotto floor section of the
fairway. From there it is an easy pin
to target. The green is large and the
flattest on the course.
Hole #18 Rivendell Castle
Background:
You have come full circle on your links tour of
Rivendell. The Castle rises high again
before you as you complete the final hole.
Lord Elrond thanks you for playing the Links and wishes you well on your
journeys ahead. You are welcome and
encouraged to return soon.
Tips
for playing the hole:
A drive along the left over the trees will leave you a
5-Iron to the green, but you may get caught up in the trees. A more conservation tee shot should be a
3-Wood down the fairway but this can lead to a more difficult and longer second
shot. Unless you are lying in the
fairway, you may want to consider laying up this side of the moat. Even laying up can be fraught with peril, as
there is a large trap to mind.
Designer Notes
I began this epic project in May of 2000 and cannot fathom
a guess as to how many hours I have put into it. 100? 300? Maybe even
500. This is easily the single largest
personal/hobby project I have ever worked on.
Aside from the course design itself, I spend dozens and dozens of hours
searching the internet for objects to put into the course: custom textures, 2d
Objects, and pictures of mountains to stitch together into the panorama.
My philosophy in creating Rivendell was as follows:
1)
Explore
the limits of the APCD
2)
Get
whacky with all kinds of fun stuff to look at as you play.
3)
But
make sure you still have a golf course that is believable and has been crafted
to the highest standards.
I hope that you agree that I have indeed succeeded in these
goals.
Credits
I guess I need to thank the good people on the internet,
especially those 3D artists from whom I have appropriated most of the custom 2D
objects. There are galleries and
galleries of 3D art and I have perused them all so I do not know where any of
the individual images came from or who created them. Also, I need to thank those kind souls how put up libraries of
free textures. I could not have pulled
this off without those custom rock textures, the textures used on the castle
and walls, etc. Lastly, I want to thank
those people who put their vacation pictures on the net so that I might create
that panorama. Also, the mountain goats
came from some guy’s vacation photos, lol.
I’d like to thank my beta testers:
Ross Holton, John Pineda, Andew Jones, and especially Chris
Perry who identified what was causing the graphic problem on hole #1.
Here are some special notes on design aspects of the course
itself.
Please
hold off reading this section until after you have played the course as I would
like you to be surprised at some of the things you will see and the surprise
will be spoiled if you read this first.
Panorama – The panorama is stitched together from 20 or
more source photos. The directory to
where I save possible samples contains over 100 pictures and takes up 300MB of
space. If you look at the ridge behind
Rivendell Castle when viewed from the 6th green, that snowy ridge
line alone is made from 4 completely different photos found on the net. Mordor is made from pictures that I took
while on vacation in Zion National Park last summer.
Moria – My original thought was to have the view into Moria
be part of the panorama. I realized
this would be a problem since you would also see it from other holes on the
course. So instead I built a big cave
which expands as it deepens and put a movie screen on the back wall onto which
I project the image (using texture mapping) of the castle with the tower flames
burning in the dark. I’m very proud to
be the first designer to put Orcs into a golf course. Orcs!! Orcs on the Golf Course!!!
Waterfalls – I believe I have 6 or 7 different waterfall textures on the
course. The waterfalls are built by
texture mapping onto a flat surface and then closing the rock textures on
either side in until they just brush up against the water.
Bridges – The bridges are made by creating a vertically
flat surface and then extruding horizontally in sections. It is actually a quick and easy way to
create them that does not involve the difficult task of deleting and creating
faces.
Rivendell Canyon – If you view the mesh in the APCD, you
will see that I basically created a series of concentric terrains, like a topo
map, each ring having a different texture.
That way I could manipulate vertically in layers. I think there were
more than 10 rings from the valley floor to the top of the ridge. After I was
sure I had a canyon terrain that I liked, I then “painted” the surface using
various mapped rock textures. I had to
vary the textures used since one texture quickly looks tediously repeating on
such large surfaces.
Rivendell Castle – You might think such a large complex of
structures took a long time to build, but Rivendell Castle went up very
quickly. Each of the 4 towers was
raised and painted in one evening. The
interconnecting bridges were built on the 5th evening. The hardest thing was simply coming up with
a design. I had originally used a 2D
image that I was unhappy with. While
searching for a better 2D castle picture, I came across a 3D artist vision of
Rivendell that I really liked, but couldn’t use due to the rendering
angle. But it gave me the idea of how
it should look and building it from there was pretty easy.
Eowyn’s Water Temple – This entire hole is really just a
lark. I thought of the idea of having
“water traps” instead of sand traps and then I came across the perfect mermaid
statue to throw on a pedestal. The
empty pool really was just an experiment to see if it would be feasible to
build a mini-golf course. It worked,
it’s funny, so I kept it. And, yes, I
know sometimes the ball gets stuck in the pipe, and sometimes the pipe does not
register as a “hazard” I don’t know
why.
Sue – Sue is another lark.
Totally unplanned. One night it
just popped into my head, “Boy would it be cool to have a fossil embedded in
one of the rock walls.” Took me 3
nights to find an usabe/appropriate picture of a fossil.
Dragon’s Lair – Okay this is the one hole that really
stretches goal #3 as stated above. I
had wanted to create a grotto of limestone caves with stalagmites and
stalgtites all over the place. I’ll
admit it didn’t really come out great.
But I love my dragon and his snoring.
Regards,
Eric Hruby
“Roob”
erh10@roob.net