Wellington Point
Designed by Gus Green
Reviewed by
Simon Kent
September 2003
Designer: This is Gus Green’s first course as a designer, but after extensive work on this course since the APCD 1.5 came out, Gus is in no way new to the designing world. After such a great first offering to the links community, it will be hard to live up to expectations with his next course, but due to Gus’s extraordinary commitment and effort that he puts into designing, I’m sure he’ll be able to deliver yet another outstanding effort.
Playability: By looking off in to the distance off the first tee, you are able to get a glance of what’s to come, and by the second hole (Screenshot 2), it is clear how well the course has been designed and that it was going to be challenging to play. As there was a good variation in the length of all the holes, there was always strong risk/reward situations, with the opportunity to grab a birdie on every hole. Hole 6 was a long and tough Par 5, but Hole 8 was exceptionally devious, as it looks innocent enough off the tee but with water behind, an accurate tee shot is a must to stay out of trouble. Hole 12 (Screenshot 4) was stunning to look at and to play, but in windy conditions, if you don’t hit enough club, the ball will bounce short and roll back, so it’s important to really analyse what distance you need to hit before hitting your tee shot. It’s important not to think that as the round finishes things will get easier, as if you do not hit a precise drive off the tee, there will always be trouble found in the bunkers or in the woods. Hole 11 does provide the opportunity to drive onto the green, but due to the length and variety in conditions, your tee shot will need to be precise to make it onto the green. In the end I shot an -11 (60, with 84% Fairways and 72% Greens in Regulation, and even though I only had 20 putts, I found the greens were challenging, and an easy putt was only going to happen with a shot landing right next to the pin.
The Course: As explained in the read-me,
“Wellington Point is a short, tight course located in a seaside location based on the sub-tropical East Coast of Australia.”
One of the first things you will notice when playing a round of golf at Wellington Point is the signature lighthouse on top of the cliffs (Screenshot 3). It is viewable on many holes and from different distances, and without a doubt was a perfect addition to the course skyline on the front 9. The bunker designs were quite unique, and considering that a lot of courses like to stick with using traditional shapes, it was a welcome change to see something different. The course is not just a continual hole by hole tropical course, with the back 9 being extremely different to the front 9, as you will find yourself moving from the tropics overlooking the ocean, into the woods with a mountain setting.
The course is full of masterful hole design and technical expertise, but it’s the professionalism with attention to detail that sets this course apart from the competition. If future links versions would add a walk through or explore feature that you could tour a course in a cart for instance, this would be a course I would like to explore, and to fully appreciate what I am talking about, I would recommend looking at this course in practice mode, and explore the outer areas in the woods and around the clubhouse. The flowers surrounding the 18th tee looked great and were a perfect way to finish off a round at Wellington Point
Favourite Hole: Hole 16 (Screenshot 5 and 6) was by far my favourite hole on the course, as it was challenging, and provided a great view of the clubhouse, but I specifically liked it, as it was remarkably similar to the panorama I saw when finishing my first ever round of golf. The course itself is exactly like the style of courses found where I live, and because it brought up the memories of my first ever round of golf at Mt. Coolum Golf Club, this hole and course will forever be a favourite of mine because of that.
Technically: All the textures used throughout seemed to match the style of the course perfectly, with nothing seeming to be out of place. It was hard to find any faults with the technical aspects of Wellington Point, as the designer used great high resolution textures, used seam blending exceptionally well, and made sure the planting was diverse and spread out. The lighthouse and cliff areas showed great attention to detail, and I’m sure also a lot of time to do properly, while the bunkers have technically been designed and constructed extremely well, with the choice of sand colour and the lips of each bunker being of an extremely high standard. As well as being great to look at, the mud walls along the creek on hole 15 were amazing, as they were blended very well with the other textures and really stood out to me, as great technical expertise. The bridges and cart path’s are great, and I truly imagine that if this course was real, the cart paths would have been exactly like that, as they matched the style of the course perfectly. One of the most outstanding features was how the water was made to break onto the beaches and rocks, as along with the choice of the ocean texture, this really made the course stand out to me as one of the best tropical courses ever designed for Links. The clubhouse area and surrounding road has been made very well, with the Australian flag and club logo being proudly shown (Screenshot 6), but only a thorough exploration in practice mode will show how well the clubhouse has actually been made.
Other: The course comes with two amazing splash screens, the usual cameo and even though the hole previews may look simple, they have been made well and provide great information for people who choose to play without the top view. The holes have been handicapped, while the high resolution mountain panorama that was used was a great choice for the background of the inland holes of the course. There are no tournament options, but I believe this was a good decision, as cameras, crowds and signs would have ruined the great look that this course already has. The zip file includes a read-me in both txt and pdf format, with the pdf document being of a professional quality.
Download Value: Wellington Point is in no way a small download, and unless your system is extremely powerful, rendering times will always be longer than other courses. However, for a first time design by Gus Green, this course has easily been rated as being in the top 25 courses ever designed for links, and because of that, size or rendering times should not be an issue. I admit, I did not download this course using my slow internet connection, as I was able to get somebody else with faster internet to download it for me, but I strongly recommend that for people with slow speed internet, take the time to download this course using a download resume program, and I promise you won’t be disappointed. This is a course that I will keep on my hard drive permanently, and even though a round takes longer than usual to play due to the rendering times, it is completely worth it.
Difficulty: Moderate
Designer: Gus Green
Review No: 19
Overall Rating: Top 10%
Reviewer: Simon Kent, Simon@linkscorner.com
(This review is based on the playability for users of Links Golf. It is only my opinion, but comes from a thorough analysis of the course. Disregarding my opinion, I know the difficulty involved in designing a course and I congratulate the designer on a job well done. My comments are objective, are based on a number of criteria, and any comments are from a players stand point and not from a designers).
Screenshots
Filesize - 81MB
Course Statistics: Links 2003 Course, Par 71, Fictional Tropical, 5 Tees, Distance: Back- 6275m, Forward- 5840m, Par 3’s-5, Par 4’s-9, Par 5’s- 4.
Round Statistics: Played- Back/B/M/M/Pro/Classic, -11 (60)
File Sizes: Zip- 82.8mb, Crz- 81.6mb, Sha- 9.13mb |
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