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Desert Lake Golfers Club
by Steve Mihelarakis
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1010 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2002-08-25 |
26,704,914 bytes |
72 |
6960 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
DESERT |
DesertLakeV2.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| fc81d089e2d1477ca469c9177fb44996 |
d67425e12094468607a03054802f5b48 |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Randy McMinn
September 2002
Taken from Designers' Read me Doc:
Thanks for taking the time to download my course. This is the second version and addresses some issues that came to light after the first version was released.
All of the bunkers on the course have been redone. This addresses the issue of some people not being able to get out of the bunkers once they got in them. It also fixed the problem with hitting a shot under the ground from in the bunker against the lip.
The fairway bunkers on the 7th hole were resized and moved to allow a little more landing room off of the tee for your driver.
The 17th hole fairway was made a little more narrow to make for a more challenging tee shot.
A tree was added to the 18th hole to make the decision to take the shortcut from off the tee a little more difficult and challenging.
I am not adding the hole descriptions in this readme so please take the time to check out the hole previews if you are new to the course. Each one gives a tip on the best way to play the hole.
Course Type: Desert Lakes is a fictional desert course
I'm a player/designer
Course Overview
Let me start by saying I only played Desert Lakes Version 1 only a few times and never experienced any of the problems that Steve enclosed in the above Read me.Doc....That's why I can't understand why Steve would re-released a Course that got a 90% rating from LinksCorner...My question to designer is : Why release a Version 2??
Appearance
Desert Lakes is perhaps the best display of desert planting I've ever seen.but I did get tired of seeing all the rather large rocks throughout the course...other than that planting was top notch.My personal opinion is that the course has a lot of unnecessary extrusion throughout the whole design..example are tee area and the rough outline throughout the course. I did expericence a couple of bad bounce off the extrusion during my 4 rounds .I especially enjoyed 3 of his 4 Par 3's and his undulating greens.
And lastly the extruded Tee box's with planking was overused way , way to much in this design..If the designer would have taken the time to put steps at each tee area leading to the cartpath, it would have really made the extruded Tee Area's look a lot more natural in it's desert setting.....
Playability
This design has a very good mix of reachable Par 5's and nice variety of dogleg/target golf on Par 4's and very well done par 3's...fairways where very adequent but very slender on certain holes..My favorite hole was #11..it's a reachable par 4 if u get the correct wind at your back ....and my least favorite hole was # 16 par 3...while the hole layout was great...the ugly sharp edges around the green looked very , very bad..something that should have been fixed or spotted during beta testing!
APCD
While I don't consider my an expert, I do have some knowledge of APCD..
I found numerous sharp edges throughout my several rounds at Desert Lakes...too many to name in the this review..Steve has great feel and artistry for undulating greens and bumpin fairways...great work in the certain aspects...but for future reference..he may wanna work on his bunker technique which I thought was very average..large extruded lips where quiet ugly and several of his bunker depth where just not realistic at times throughout the design..also most of the tee box's where extruded but sharpness never was turned to 0.leaving a very ugly edge on most tee boxes..The designers overall APCD are above average..but like most, he has a lot of room for improvement but he's great in certain aspects but poor in others.
Extra's
Included: Very nice hole previews, Custom sound, Cameo ,Splash ,Custom tee marker , Custom flag ,Cartpaths ,ballwashers, and hole handicaps
Not included: Recorded round< was in V1>, Hole signs, Crowds, or Tournament objects
Overall
While this course does have many APCD errors noticeable to those would design...most will go unnoticed by the average player in the Links Community
I enjoyed my several rounds at Desert Lakes and in my opinion it's one of the Top Ten desert courses ever created with Arnold Palmer Course Designer for the Links Community.
If u enjoyed Desert Courses then u would definitely wanna download Desert Lakes...it's well worth the time spent downloading this Course even for 56k guys.I look forward to Steve's next release...it's should be a great design!!!
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CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Fictional, desert course |
Location
TBC |
Conditions
TBC |
Concept 7/10
Desert Lake is huge and sprawling and slightly extravagant in everything it does. The terrific holes try hard to defy stereotypes, and for the large part succeed: the blow-away 18th isn't exactly credible but does provide a truly riveting conclusion to the round. Some of the course's little conceits, such as the wooden tee structures and the large rocks, really help its originality. The lack of location is somewhat un-nerving, though; it's difficult to really place yourself among the wide, monotonous stretches of desert. |
Appearance 6/10
The desert planting is among the best that I have seen, at odds somewhat with the extrusion marks that litter the course. The elevations are subtle enough to give a good view of the course, but there's not a massive amount to be seen outside of the lavish rocks and cacti. |
Playability 8/10
Desert courses are notoriously difficult to make diverting, but Desert Lake makes just about the best effort I have seen. There are an impressive collection of designs and hole lengths, and impressive green designs and other uses of elevations to keep a player thinking. There's good ambient sound and great repeat value, too, thanks to the desert regions not being restricted to purely out of bounds. |
Challenge 5/10
I don't feel that this course should be as easy as it comes across. It's certainly no mean feat to hit all the greens, although the Par 5 holes are short enough, largely, to try for in two. But the championship-style layouts may just be slightly misjudged, because the birdie putts just keep slipping in. |
Technical 6/10
Very much a mixed bag here. There's something quite low-resolution about the course and its surroundings, and the extrusion all looks a bit of a mess. The stock textures don't help. But there is some lovely work with the planting, and enough good ideas to make this course very much worthwhile. |
| Overall |
A solid desert course with pretensions towards bigger things than it can deliver. That's certainly not to say it shouldn't be worth your time. |
32/50 |
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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