Shadow Creek by Dan DeShaney Final Version
Posted: June 15th, 2025, 2:09 pm
Just uploaded Shadow Creek (Dan DeShaney's version) as a final, will update the post when it is available for download [update: the course is available here: https://linkscorner.org/courses/course.php?crz=2840] In the meantime, Im pasting the full ReadMe and some screenshots here below.
--Intro--
Dan DeShaney started this course around the beginning of 2022, and had it about 70% finished when he felt like he could no longer work on it, mostly due to health reasons. The course was passed on to me (Dan gave me free hands to do as I wished with it) and though I had difficulty dedicating all my time and energy into this course, compared to my own course projects, I have tried to do his Shadow Creek as much justice as I could manage. The course would undoubtedly have turned out better - at the very least more rich in details - if Dan had been able to finish it himself, given how wonderfully meticulous he always was with his courses, but I am personally satisfied and pleased with how it turned out.
Shadow Creek is an extraordinary course in Las Vegas, Nevada. Famous for hosting "The Match" in 2018 and 2024, the PGA Tour Event CJ Cup in 2020, for being ranked 24th in Golf Digest's top courses in America 2025, and for being one of the most expensive courses ever built in USA. An oasis of hills and lakes with pine trees and creeks was created out of nothing but flat and barren desertland, to frame the great layout designed by Tom Fazio.
--More about this APCD rendition--
Dan created the course's mesh based on a high density of elevation point readings from Google Earth, which had a high detail of elevations for this area, plus some extra attention given to critical areas like bunkers and such. Not as high detail as 2m or 3m DEM-Lidar, which seems to be the common standard nowadays, but not that far from it either, and certainly more detailed than most real courses made in the past. He made all the greens from 1-inch Strackaline charts, so those are very accurate.
Dan finished the course's mesh and basically all of the seamblending and texture mapping, but he struggled with health issues. During his work, he sent me some course versions now and then for safekeeping, in the hopes that the course could be finished even if he was not able to do it himself. I promised him that if he wouldn't be able to, I would finish it one day, or possibly find someone else to do it.
Sadly, eventually his health issues made it very difficult for him to sit down and work with APCD at any length at a time, and he didn't think he could work on it anymore. I always felt like I would have loved to see how the course would turn out if he himself would be able to finish it, another wonderful true DeShaney course, so I didn't want to give up hope of him making a recovery and returning to APCD. At one point, Sage offered to finish it, which both Dan and I thought was a good idea, but Sage ultimately decided to start anew with a LIDAR version. While I understand and respect that decision, it did make me rather sad that Dan's excellent version wouldn't see the light of day. When Sage ran into planting issues, I made the decision to try finish Dan's version, not only because I felt like I owed it to Dan, but mostly because I really wanted to see Dan's version finished, and to be able to play and enjoy it. A new LIDAR version was started, but it has not been finished at this point in time. That is the background to why there are two versions.
The panorama is made by Dan. He also chose most of the textures (I edited some).
All Scrub areas play like standard Rough. The planted grasses and bushes have a slight dampening effect on the ball if you hit them, but not that much.
--Acknowledgements--
Thank you to all the people who shared their APCD and Links resources, knowledge, help etc. with me and Dan in the past.
Thank you to all beta testers, particularly Ian Wells whose comments led to what I think are some nice improvements.
Thank you to anyone who reads this and plays this course. Thank you to Links Corner and all other active websites related to APCD and Links, for enabling the community to keep this game alive.
And finally, a big huge thank you to Dan DeShaney (Danny D on the Links Corner forums) - for being a wonderful APCD designer and friend, for creating most of this course rendition and for being one of the very few designers who gave their unfinished courses a chance to see the light of day through other people. I wish the best of health to you and to anyone else battling health issues.
/////////////////////
If anyone ever wants to make future updates to this course file, please make a proper attempt to contact me first (I think Dan would be ok with it, I tend to be ok with it, but I do prefer being given a chance to have a say about certain details, a chance to help, and a chance to quality check the results).
/////////////////////
I hope you enjoy Shadow Creek
Screenshots:
--Intro--
Dan DeShaney started this course around the beginning of 2022, and had it about 70% finished when he felt like he could no longer work on it, mostly due to health reasons. The course was passed on to me (Dan gave me free hands to do as I wished with it) and though I had difficulty dedicating all my time and energy into this course, compared to my own course projects, I have tried to do his Shadow Creek as much justice as I could manage. The course would undoubtedly have turned out better - at the very least more rich in details - if Dan had been able to finish it himself, given how wonderfully meticulous he always was with his courses, but I am personally satisfied and pleased with how it turned out.
Shadow Creek is an extraordinary course in Las Vegas, Nevada. Famous for hosting "The Match" in 2018 and 2024, the PGA Tour Event CJ Cup in 2020, for being ranked 24th in Golf Digest's top courses in America 2025, and for being one of the most expensive courses ever built in USA. An oasis of hills and lakes with pine trees and creeks was created out of nothing but flat and barren desertland, to frame the great layout designed by Tom Fazio.
--More about this APCD rendition--
Dan created the course's mesh based on a high density of elevation point readings from Google Earth, which had a high detail of elevations for this area, plus some extra attention given to critical areas like bunkers and such. Not as high detail as 2m or 3m DEM-Lidar, which seems to be the common standard nowadays, but not that far from it either, and certainly more detailed than most real courses made in the past. He made all the greens from 1-inch Strackaline charts, so those are very accurate.
Dan finished the course's mesh and basically all of the seamblending and texture mapping, but he struggled with health issues. During his work, he sent me some course versions now and then for safekeeping, in the hopes that the course could be finished even if he was not able to do it himself. I promised him that if he wouldn't be able to, I would finish it one day, or possibly find someone else to do it.
Sadly, eventually his health issues made it very difficult for him to sit down and work with APCD at any length at a time, and he didn't think he could work on it anymore. I always felt like I would have loved to see how the course would turn out if he himself would be able to finish it, another wonderful true DeShaney course, so I didn't want to give up hope of him making a recovery and returning to APCD. At one point, Sage offered to finish it, which both Dan and I thought was a good idea, but Sage ultimately decided to start anew with a LIDAR version. While I understand and respect that decision, it did make me rather sad that Dan's excellent version wouldn't see the light of day. When Sage ran into planting issues, I made the decision to try finish Dan's version, not only because I felt like I owed it to Dan, but mostly because I really wanted to see Dan's version finished, and to be able to play and enjoy it. A new LIDAR version was started, but it has not been finished at this point in time. That is the background to why there are two versions.
The panorama is made by Dan. He also chose most of the textures (I edited some).
All Scrub areas play like standard Rough. The planted grasses and bushes have a slight dampening effect on the ball if you hit them, but not that much.
--Acknowledgements--
Thank you to all the people who shared their APCD and Links resources, knowledge, help etc. with me and Dan in the past.
Thank you to all beta testers, particularly Ian Wells whose comments led to what I think are some nice improvements.
Thank you to anyone who reads this and plays this course. Thank you to Links Corner and all other active websites related to APCD and Links, for enabling the community to keep this game alive.
And finally, a big huge thank you to Dan DeShaney (Danny D on the Links Corner forums) - for being a wonderful APCD designer and friend, for creating most of this course rendition and for being one of the very few designers who gave their unfinished courses a chance to see the light of day through other people. I wish the best of health to you and to anyone else battling health issues.
/////////////////////
If anyone ever wants to make future updates to this course file, please make a proper attempt to contact me first (I think Dan would be ok with it, I tend to be ok with it, but I do prefer being given a chance to have a say about certain details, a chance to help, and a chance to quality check the results).
/////////////////////
I hope you enjoy Shadow Creek
Screenshots:
- 01.jpg (1.45 MiB) Viewed 117 times
- 02.jpg (1.15 MiB) Viewed 117 times
- 03.jpg (1.11 MiB) Viewed 117 times
- 04.jpg (1.41 MiB) Viewed 117 times
- 05.jpg (1.21 MiB) Viewed 117 times
- 06.jpg (1.33 MiB) Viewed 117 times
