The graphics for the sand is out of this world and I almost felt like taking off my shoes before stepping in the bunkers to hit the ball. It must be very relaxing too because, despite playing the entire course in just 25 minutes, I was hitting some of the fastest drives, not of the last few days, but of my entire career (192-3kmh ~ 120 mph!! in RTS!).
Fairways are narrow, traps and roughs are strategically placed to un-welcome you! But hitting from rough and sand is not the end of the world as they are quite forgiving. What is much less forgiving is the greens. I played the course in M/F and the ball was traveling pretty faast! Some of the greens are particularly big too and it is better to chip or, if one does not want to chip 20-30 yards on greens; just play the ball a bit shorter or longer and then chip from the fringes, the roughs or the sand bunkers. If you have F greens, try being a bit shorter rather than longer as the balls will roll.
Quite enjoyable, both in terms of play-ability and landscape. Not really a difficult course, unless one chooses, I assume Fc/Fc settings for the greens. As the greens have hardly any flat spot on them, be prepared to run after your balls! I did not see/encounter any obvious out of bounds. There is some water, but it does not look particularly threatening.
UPDATE
Playing in Mc/Mc setting is a different issue! The beauty of the landscape and the pleasure to play on this course remain, but the greens play a bit too fast for my personal taste. I ended up with a +2 after I was punished on holes 11-12-13 with a bogey, Yes, 3 in a row. Basically, some of the holes have no flat spots to start with, but while the gradient looks very mild, it plays much steeper than it looks. From the replay, I could see my balls landing on the fringe or just on the green and traveling all across it to the other side. Putting from 5-6 meters or more is quite challenging and you have 3 choices: 1) you hole the ball (that is the best way as always), 2) you play it safe and go short of the hole (there are no other ways "to park the balls" around the hole; 3) you go for the hole but if something does not pane out as planned you can count on ending up almost as far as you started from, just downhill this time. Also, the color of the greens make it particularly hard to see the grid lines to understand the fine topography of the greens. This confirms my impressions above when already playing in M/F I noticed the greens are fast. in Mc/Mc the speed is heightened considerably. But, ultimately it is the lack of significant flat sections on greens that make putting really challenging.
I think I am at a point that, if nobody told me, I would attribute the course to Sage Vanni or others just based on the topography of the greens. And the speed of the balls. I really think that Sage Vanni's greens are among the fastest I played.
