That is less than the strong year of 2020 - not unexpected - but still more than 2019. Of course raw quantity isnt whats most important, and lately it has mostly been a reflection on how active Sage & John Brooks in particular have been
but it still often gives a good indication of the overall APCD activity. I felt like there was quite a dreary period of time somewhere in the first half of the year, where I was a bit worried it'd be a depressing year, but thankfully things picked up nicely again with some excellent additions! In this thread I want to celebrate my personal favourite courses of the year, and I also invite anyone else to post about theirs. I bet there are people who havent had time to check out all courses of the year, so this thread might serve as a good recommendation of courses for people to check out. I made a Course-of-the-Year thread last year, but no one seemed interested in the idea (until a month later, after I'd already given up on it), so I just made a post about my personal favourites instead (my post last year: viewtopic.php?p=8523#p8523 ) and so this year Im doing that from the beginning instead.
My definition is my overall favourite courses, which doesnt necessarily mean that courses not included here were not well-made in APCD, how the layout plays is a really big part of it for me. I also primarily only include courses that had their first full (or equivalent enough to full-) release during the year. Updates of past courses are no less important in my opinion and deserve to be celebrated too, but I put those in a separate category.
My favourite courses of 2021 (in no particular order, and as per my definition above):
St. George G&CC by Sage Vanni and Glenn Braden, aided by Leo Allen
Pasatiempo by Ian Wells
Sherwood CC by Sage Vanni, Glenn Braden and Leo Allen
Stone Bridge GC by Sage Vanni
Coeur D'Alene by Dan DeShaney
To all the above. Do check them out if you havent already!Honourable mention to Long River, and Desolate Dunes. Also Coyote Lakes (for people who dont mind one or two greens lacking any pin fully realistic/enjoyable on challenging green settings), and Jollyville (for people who dont mind courses being very short). All four by Sage Vanni.
I always avoid including my own courses, because that would feel too awkward, but for the purpose of course suggestions, I couldnt skip recommending checking out at least my Nine Bridges at Jeju Island
There are also two courses which are in a gray area over whether they should "qualify" or not, since most of their work was done over 10 years ago, and therefore sort of technically are updates (so in the end Im deciding to keep them out of my main Course-of-the-Year category). But they had their first official upload this year, and I think it would be nearly criminal to skip checking them out!
Waialae CC 2021 - by Tim Hagen
Kauri Cliffs HD - by Lindsay Addie and Pat Auge (and completed by me...)
My favourite Updates of the year:
Valderrama by Pete Massengill
TPC Deere Run by Glenn Braden
I also want to mention Lez Marwick's two updates, because even if those layouts were too unrealistic/unimmersive for my personal taste in courses, I bet people who dont mind that aspect will like them a lot.
Thank you so much for all the excellent additions this year everyone
there were a bunch of other good ones beyond those mentioned too.And my personal Course Of The Year 2021 award goes to......... Coeur D'Alene!
Pasatiempo a very worthy runner-up [Edit: One thing I did miss a bit this year, was how almost none my favourite additions to my course collection (including all releases) were courses with above average difficulty, and many were more than a little easy. Still, a pretty good year
]We have a few really good courses that might come out very soon too... I think 2022 will get off to a good start
but after all the begging then nitpicking I have to say St. George's as well.
