Oak Quarry

[migolfer]

Did anyone else notice that your drives on holes 15 and 18 won't go any further than 100 yards or so? I was playing a practice round, if that matters. Maybe the tee markers are partially buried so the ball doesn't tee up?

This is another beautiful golf course rendition for Links. Thank you all for the recent additions in 2024. Adelade is going to have a field day in his annual best-of list for this year.

[pmgolf]

I got 276 yds with my first attempt on #15 (my avg is 275 to 280 - RTS). On #18 I got 269, but the landing area is 15 feet higher. Did you use Taylormade woods?

Pete

[sagevanni]

I have no problems on either hole on my comp..................

Sage.....

[migolfer]

Tried again and had to problems off the tee. No idea why that happened, glad it wasn't the course in any way.

[Ian Wells]

Sage,
I thoroughly enjoyed playing Oak Quarry.
I loved the shape and textures of the hill sides and the rock faces.
As is usual with Dan's panoramas it was perfect, and Ron's planting is spot on.
I played the course using pin 3 (Links) and must say that if those are the easy ones I dread what the difficult pins play like.

On hole 15 between the green bunker and the green there is a tiny section of fairway texture that has the wrong mapping.

Thank you for this course.

Ian

[sagevanni]

Thanks Ian and everyone so far for your comments.
I fixed the issue on 15.
I want to thank Danny D. and Ron Weel for their awesome work helping me with the course.
Happy to finally being in the final stages.

Sage.....

[pmgolf]

I played the course using pin 3 (Links) and must say that if those are the easy ones I dread what the difficult pins play like.
Ian

I did the pins, Ian, and with the new LIDAR surfaces there are some new, reality-based considerations to take into account. On 90+% of the greens, six reasonably level surfaces scattered across the greens do not exist on many courses. So what should I do about the "easy" pins? I tried only placing them in reasonably level areas, but when I went back to review the pin selections, all the "easy" pins were clustered in tight little knots in one area of each green. And not necessarily a good area. Example: How about all six easy pins being located in a 6' X 9' space inside the first 10' of the front of the green, and each of those pins are 3' away from the next "easy" pin?

I knew there would be complaints about the "easy" pins being compressed so tightly together, but they did look strange like that. My only choice was to spread them out some. I made a decision to spread-out those "easy" pins by around 3' each to make them cover a larger area. So now they were close to the reasonably level area, but the area was now larger. The areas themselves were in less difficult areas (no large slopes).

With many of the greens I had a heck of a time finding 6 "moderate" pin positions, so I had to settle for slightly less difficult than a "difficult"pin. So what should I do? Level-out (ie. slightly flatten) some of the pin positions? But then, why are we working with a LIDAR-enhanced image? Why do we need to make the pins easier? Players are shooting scores in the 50's (and 40's) now. Bad rounds for most players are still in the 60's. Should steps be taken for players who so rarely play that they can't handle even "moderate" pins. Wouldn't it make more sense for those players to either practice and build their skills, or lower their scoring expectations because of their lack of play.

I do still have several of the older pre-pinned versions of the course, and you are most welcome to see if you can do better than I did. It would save me two weeks of work if you could. The only caveat is that you can't change the elevations of any verts.

Pete

[sagevanni]

Just some info..................
I have to say that I NEVER move any original verts from the data I get from Linkster. I add verts to get things done but never move those either. They are what they are.
I am working on Arrowhead and I might move some of the verts because the DEM data can't do rock overhangs.
Other than that particular case I never move verts.
The green slopes are what they are. I never mess with them.

Sage.....

[Ian Wells]

Pete,

you are most welcome to see if you can do better than I did.

My comment was not meant as a criticism, it was supposed to be light hearted. I should have added a

I am sorry if my comment upset you.

Ian

[MrT]

I played the course using pin 3 (Links) and must say that if those are the easy ones I dread what the difficult pins play like.
Ian

I did the pins, Ian, and with the new LIDAR surfaces there are some new, reality-based considerations to take into account. On 90+% of the greens, six reasonably level surfaces scattered across the greens do not exist on many courses. So what should I do about the "easy" pins? I tried only placing them in reasonably level areas, but when I went back to review the pin selections, all the "easy" pins were clustered in tight little knots in one area of each green. And not necessarily a good area. Example: How about all six easy pins being located in a 6' X 9' space inside the first 10' of the front of the green, and each of those pins are 3' away from the next "easy" pin?

I knew there would be complaints about the "easy" pins being compressed so tightly together, but they did look strange like that. My only choice was to spread them out some. I made a decision to spread-out those "easy" pins by around 3' each to make them cover a larger area. So now they were close to the reasonably level area, but the area was now larger. The areas themselves were in less difficult areas (no large slopes).

With many of the greens I had a heck of a time finding 6 "moderate" pin positions, so I had to settle for slightly less difficult than a "difficult"pin. So what should I do? Level-out (ie. slightly flatten) some of the pin positions? But then, why are we working with a LIDAR-enhanced image? Why do we need to make the pins easier? Players are shooting scores in the 50's (and 40's) now. Bad rounds for most players are still in the 60's. Should steps be taken for players who so rarely play that they can't handle even "moderate" pins. Wouldn't it make more sense for those players to either practice and build their skills, or lower their scoring expectations because of their lack of play.

I do still have several of the older pre-pinned versions of the course, and you are most welcome to see if you can do better than I did. It would save me two weeks of work if you could. The only caveat is that you can't change the elevations of any verts.

Pete

I only play this game in F/F* (any course) and I found Oak Quarry very reasonable in terms of pin placements. Sure, I only played 3 games, but I found the pin placements correctly challenging in the sense that sometimes one has to decide whether to try to go for the hole or play it safely and get an extra shot. For me that is more than agreeable, in fact it is enjoyable.

While I am not a hardcore player, seasoned by 20+ years of gaming, I am truly enjoying the LIDAR thing because, yes, sometimes greens are tough, but I no longer get to see situations where putts come back to you and then some which was obviously absurd or holes placed on slopes that on a ski slope would probably be labeled blue runs. Anything that keeps a very good game around -5 or -6 is exactly what I was hoping for. Unfortunately, many courses made some time ago, do not always work well with F/F* settings, but the batch of most recent LIDAR-aided courses are a godsend for me. Thank you for the course and thank you for the pin placements.