Spring Hill Golf Club - Final

[Weeler]

Hopefully this will be the start of a thread posting comments on the Final release of this course. Ian, this is yet another superb entry in your roster of LINKS designs. I'm curious as to how you chose this wonderful , laid back, but fun to play and view course. Since you're an avid fan of Tom Fazio's designs, did you just do a query into all of his work and make a choice ? If so, you chose well.

Next, I appreciate your willingness to "dial back " the color intensity of some of the surfaces. I, personally, think it looks fine now, and more
natural. Speaking of natural, the planting set you've used is awesome. Especially some of the trees. They are SO realistic, and the planting is very well done ! May I ask where those trees came from ?

I also enjoyed the look of those sort of "marshy" grassy areas used on hole 10, and others. It breaks things up, and looks great. Another nice touch is adding the patrons socializing on the clubhouse patio ( ala Crooked Stick ), all that's missing is some umbrella tables. Maybe this will become sort of a trademark for you whenever clubhouses are involved. Another reason that I,personally, enjoyed playing it is that I live in the neighboring state of Wisconsin, and this course has a very "homey" feel and look to it.

As I said earlier, I think this another excellent course rendition. Thanks for your work and attention to detail.

Regards............Ron Weel

[Pete]

Have to agree with Weeler a superb job Ian many thanks indeed

[chad]

Yes, amazing work on this course

[Ian Wells]

Gentlemen,
I am pleased that you enjoy the course. It was a pleasure to build.

Ron, I find selecting a course to build very difficult. The main consideration for me is that I like the course visually, (which is the reason I have never built a links type course.) I am a big fan of courses designed by Mr. Fazio, more so the early ones, therefore I do look at his courses when I research my new project. My selection is also dependent on the quality of the Google Earth images, the courses website and the amount of photos I can find on the internet. The other major requirement is Linkster providing an accurate DEM. (How did we produce courses before Linkster? )

The majority of objects I used were purchased from Vishopper.com, a site recommended to me by Danny D. (I bought 150 items during 2023). I also used trees from the upload that Daniel made available.

If I keep building I may, one day, get the colours correct.



Ian

[pmgolf]

Ian, thanks for mentioning Vishopper. I found one called Shutterstock.com but I find it pretty difficult to come up with search criteria that will provide what I need. (If anyone knows of any other sites for textures and objects, please let us know.) It would help if I had just a slight bit of the artistic ability you and Weeler have, but all I can hope for is to accidentally get something right.

I, too, am a big fan of Fazio. His courses were always among my favorites to play when I played golf IRL. One excellent course he did that was part of Links is Barton Creek in Texas. Unfortunately, no one has re-done it for Links. I enjoyed playing it so much that I considered trying to do it for Links, but I don't think my skills are up to the task.

s1_1309.jpg (14.21 KiB) Viewed 6985 times

Spring Hill is a beauty! An excellent example of your ever improving skills. I'll be including it every year on the list of courses used for World Tour Tournaments. It's newly released, but it belongs with the other great courses! Great work!

Pete

[ChuckH]

Ian, thanks for mentioning Vishopper. I found one called Shutterstock.com but I find it pretty difficult to come up with search criteria that will provide what I need. (If anyone knows of any other sites for textures and objects, please let us know.) It would help if I had just a slight bit of the artistic ability you and Weeler have, but all I can hope for is to accidentally get something right.

I, too, am a big fan of Fazio. His courses were always among my favorites to play when I played golf IRL. One excellent course he did that was part of Links is Barton Creek in Texas. Unfortunately, no one has re-done it for Links. I enjoyed playing it so much that I considered trying to do it for Links, but I don't think my skills are up to the task.

s1_1309.jpg

Spring Hill is a beauty! An excellent example of your ever improving skills. I'll be including it every year on the list of courses used for World Tour Tournaments. It's newly released, but it belongs with the other great courses! Great work!

Pete

Pete. Do you have the latest version of Barton called Barton Creek Fazio Foothills (2003)? You probably do but it is a nice update by Microsoft.
Chuck

[Adelade]

(If anyone knows of any other sites for textures and objects, please let us know.)

I think it has been 4 years since the last time I went looking on the internet for objects more than just the occasional one, so the other guys probably have much better recommendations, but one site I found some nice 2D objects for grasses was at https://www.pngegg.com/ . You will see a lot of cartoon-ish images there but you can find a good bunch of photorealistic ones too. They are free, they are already cut out with transparent backgrounds (just re-save them as 32-bit TGA with any TGA-compatible image editor - perhaps crop/re-size if needed), easy to download - no signup required - and no limit to how many downloads either I dont think (at least there wasnt back then).

Back when I was making my first few courses, I made a lot of objects by cutting them out from images by myself, which can be a lot of work depending on the quality of the images and types of backgrounds (and how much of a perfectionist you are...), but I got really burnt out from it and try to avoid it as much as possible nowadays, so all the designers that share objects (and sites) is truly a very wonderful thing, thank you again to everyone who has shared.

Oh and a tip - if you have difficulty finding a certain type of tree or flower or so, one thing that has helped me a few times: look up its Latin name and do a search for that too.

[Ian Wells]

Pete,
Thanks for your comments they are very much appreciated.
I haven't looked at Barton Creek yet, but I will certainly consider it when I look for my next project. (Built in 1999 it's in the middle of his career.)

As for the 2D images I think Colin has it pretty much covered with his latest post, viewtopic.php?t=2394

Ian

[guitarget2019]

Well done, Ian. Really reminds me of the hilly courses of upstate NY I used to play.

[Ian Wells]

Guitarget2019,
Thank you, I am happy that it brings back nice memories for you.
Actually, while test playing the course, it gave me a good memory. I made a hole in one on the 11th . (I have never had a hole in one in real life and it is many years since I had one in Links, and never on a course I built.)
Thanks again.
Ian