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Wyntoon Club
by Mark Franzoia
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1162 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2002-11-18 |
78,479,449 bytes |
73 |
7763 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Wyntoon Club.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 332e1d0f45c240ebb690b66dc0ddc3b4 |
c73fb7c89a978d8859483bd7822c5084 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Mike Nifong
November 2002
Course type: Wyntoon Club is a fictional Monterey Peninsula-style course that Mark describes as an 'incarnation of Cypress-[P]ebble-[S]panish-[S]pyglass-[P]oppy-Point Golf Courses, and a lot of my own imagination.' It makes use of virtually every type of terrain you would find in that area, resulting in a course that may be too varied to exist in real life, but at the same time always looks as if it could actually be there. The panorama is a Links 2003 all-ocean pano.
Historical perspective: Mark has not exactly been a prolific designer. Wyntoon is only his second course (although the first, Crouching Beast (Forest), was released in two 2001 versions and one 2003 version), coming just over a year after his initial effort. Originally released as an open beta in August 2002, Wyntoon was released in its initial 'final' version on November 8, withdrawn shortly thereafter to correct an anomaly in the ocean textures, and released in its current version on November 18, 2002.
In what I assume to be nothing more than a curious coincidence, I am the only official reviewer at this site who has thus far been assigned one of Mark's courses: I was the official reviewer for both the 2001 and 2003 versions of CBF. [I am not complaining, but you have to think Mark must be wondering what he has done to deserve this.] If you have not read those reviews, you might find that they provide some additional insight, but the good news is that each of his releases has constituted a significant improvement over its predecessor.
What is included: The read-me file contains an exceptionally thorough hole-by-hole guide to the course that includes strategies for tee and approach shots and notes on green slopes; presumably written at least in part by beta tester (and designer and Links Corner reviewer) Mat Leclair, it is useful enough to almost (but not quite) make me forgive Mark for - once again - failing to include hole previews. [He explained in a Review Corner post that he decided to forego them because of his concern over the file size, but, in my opinion, such an omission should never happen with a course of this quality.] The cameo is excellent, and the splash screen, featuring the club house that Mark built from the terrain, is also very good, although I would have probably preferred one of the many picture postcard views this course affords. There is no tournament option. [Crowds were planted on #2 only, and they look very impressive there, but Mark decided to abandon that approach, again because of concern over file size.]
If you are getting the impression that Mark was overly concerned about file size, his bold-face note in the read-me to the effect that this course 'still loads faster and renders faster than Mike Jones' wonderful Pacific Breaks' provides further evidence to that effect, and strikes me as needlessly defensive. The decision to include additional glowing comments from Mat also strikes a bit of an unnecessary and self-congratulatory note, even though I find myself in agreement with most of what he has to say. To paraphrase that voice that spoke to Kevin Costner in an Iowa cornfield, 'If you build it well enough, they will come.'
Actually, he did build it well enough. If not quite up to the standard of, say, Spyglass Hill or the Augusta National Par 3 Course, Wyntoon is very close to that mark. You are not likely to find anything that looks less than perfect unless you utilize the dynamic camera view (which, for an increasing number of us, is only available in replay), and I found nothing that adversely affected play. If I have a criticism of Mark's technique, it would be that, as was the case with the 2003 version of CBF, the APCD 1.5 advances are not utilized - no seam blending, for example - with the result that Wyntoon really looks like a 2001 course with shadows. Not, as Jerry Seinfeld would say, that there's anything wrong with that. Many people prefer extrusions to seam blending, and Mark makes about as good a case for them here as could be made. But I did think that the areas where white-sand bunkers were adjacent to grayer-sand dunes really called out for texture blending: the use of a darker lip just looks unnatural, as if the dunes were made of some more rigid material than sand. [In fairness to Mark, he has explained that he did not make use of texture blending because he was already so far along when APCD 1.5 came out that it would have been impractical to go back and rework it. Furthermore, this is largely a matter of aesthetics, and your tastes may not agree with mine.]
Let me put it this way. I probably took about thirty screenshots of this course during my evaluation rounds, knowing that I would only be submitting six. Just getting down to the dozen 'finalists' was a difficult proposition. And while the final six were chosen to represent the tremendous visual range of this course, there were at least a dozen others that looked every bit as good. This course is flat out gorgeous - I cannot imagine that anyone would not have it in his top ten in that category.
There are any number of reasons for this. The textures are uniformly well chosen, both individually and as they work together. The planting is so absolutely perfect that I cannot see how it could be improved - Mark even got rid of those clumps of grass I complained about in the forest areas of CBF and replaced them with a much more natural looking variety. Cart paths (and walking paths) - missing from CBF, have been added, and they are both thoughtfully laid out and appealingly natural in appearance. The ocean areas are very effectively realized - tide lines in the sand, foaming surf, etc. But I think the real key here is the synchronicity of all the individual elements that Mark has brought into play: the whole is very much larger than the sum of its parts.
The abandoned experiment with the crowds on #2 is successful enough to make one wonder what might have been, but in the final analysis this is a course that was made to be played in its natural state - just you against the course. Once again, Mark seems to have made the best choice, whatever his reason. [Indeed, it is only on the absence of hole previews and texture blending that he can be faulted at all.]
I also want to mention the ocean sounds (a subject that does not exactly fit in this category, but does not really fit anywhere else either): they seem to be absolutely perfect for the ocean you see - not too loud, not too soft; they are just right. A small detail, to be sure, but another example of how well everything here works together.
Wyntoon pretty much speaks for itself on this count. If it had nothing else to commend it other than its beauty, it would probably still be worth a download.
While you can get some idea of how much you might like this course from your reaction to Crouching Beast (Forest), it would be a considerable oversimplification to suggest that if you like one, you will also like the other. Just as the two courses share much in appearance - at least with respect to the highland pine forest holes - they present a similar degree of challenge overall. But there are some significant differences in the way they achieve that challenge. Wyntoon strikes me as providing considerably more difficulty off the tee. In addition to Mark's trademark profusion of multi-lobed bunkers, it also threatens you with other varieties of sand: the dunes that occupy the landward side of the ocean holes, and the beach that lies at the base of the cliffs on the ocean side of those same holes - features that will be with you pretty much constantly from your approach shot on #3 until your tee shot on #15. The fairways along the ocean holes also seem considerably narrower than they did in CBF (although this could be an optical illusion caused by the fact that they are bordered by the more highly contrasting sand textures), and even more extensive use is made of elevation changes and fairway slopes. This means that you will have some chances to hit some of your drives well over 300 yards (both #1 and #3 come to mind), but you also have to be mindful of the slopes that can keep your ball running right through the fairways into the rough.
A greater degree of difficulty off the tee is somewhat compensated for by the milder greens. This is not to say that any of them are easy - the three-tiered monster on #18 is one of the most difficult I have encountered unless you keep the ball directly below the hole - but, especially when compared to the greens on CBF, they seem somewhat more moderate. Other than on #18, three-putts should be rare (but what a great finishing hole for a tournament - multiple-stroke swings could easily occur!). And even slightly easier greens are welcome here, because your approach shots will likely feature those sloping lies and tricky elevation changes that make club selection difficult (the caddy missed his guess on more than one occasion, and in both directions) and present a real challenge to PowerStrokers and RTS players (like me), for whom a few mph of CHS can make all the difference between a great shot and a disaster.
From my point of view, then, Wyntoon presents a better-balanced challenge than CBF. But you will definitely want to check out the read-me file's hole descriptions to help you plan your shot placement for maximum effectiveness. This is also a course on which not all obstacles will be visible from the tees, so the absence of hole previews makes the use of the top view advisable.
You may have noticed that, as was the case with CBF, Mark has placed the ladies' tees at the back. The more I think about it, the better I like this decision: since most of us have our players set up to default to the back tees (does anybody use the ladies' tees?), this puts us in the more appropriate starting position on what is already a pretty long course, but then allows an adjustment in either direction to change the challenge presented.
Another feature carried over from CBF is the use of multiple greens - Mark refers to them as 'green complexes' - on some holes. While the concept is not unique to Mark's designs, I do not recall having seen it previously used as extensively as it is here: four holes (#2, #3, #10 and #15) employ alternate greens, and #15 has two fairways as well, making it, in essence, two different holes (of which you get to play only one per round) that share a common tee. However you feel about the concept, there is no denying that, as applied here, it enhances the variety.
Wyntoon features five par-5's, three of which (#6, #15 and #18) were reachable from the back tees by this RTS Champ player; #3 may also be reachable depending on wind conditions and which green is utilized, but it always seemed a little too risky for me.
The computer foursome scored a little less well than usual under b/m/m/m conditions, shooting a combined -44 (-10 to -13), but they were able to hit 98% of the fairways and 90% of the greens in regulation, which would suggest that most of their problems (if you could say that anyone with those scores on this course had a problem) came in the putting department. Under w/f/f/d conditions, they were a combined -36 (-8 to -10), which is about average for those conditions on 2003 courses thus far; the same could be said of their fairway (90%) and green (73%) averages.
The bottom line: The second great Links 2003 course (following München Nord - Eichenried). An improvement on Mark's very good first course in every respect, Wyntoon is lovely to look at and challenging to play - PS and RTS players will have to scramble, but it is quite a ride.
Course Statistics :
Course statistics: Par 73; 5 sets of tees (7763/7519/7225/6954/7980 yards); holes are handicapped. |
|
CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Fictional, dunes course |
Location
Modelled after the Californian coast. |
Conditions
Slowest greens only, but windy conditions add a frisson of interest. |
Concept 9/10
Stunningly beautiful in its use of elevations and colours, Wyntoon traipses across sand dunes and ocean beaches. Hole design is florid (a
little too much so in the case of the bunkers, which smack of overkill, particularly on a sand-based course) and the set-up is unashamedly
for challenging golf, particularly greenside. The sheer joie de vivre with which this totally immersive environment has been brought to life,
though, is more than a match for any doubting players. It'll be unlikely that you can play this course with any seriousness, especially given
the lack of previews, but it simply must be experienced. |
Appearance 8/10
Some amazing views are to be had on virtually every hole, and the majority have elevated tees in order to show off the splendour even
better. The coastline and rockwork is extremely skilful, and there is no little attention to detail in the grasses and bunkers. Sadly, on
one or two occasions, the view is marred by some obvious clones (with one particular tall tree being noticeably intrusive), and the
extrusions spoil more than one hole. |
Playability 10/10
eer joy, especially when played without the pressure of stiff greens. Each hole is designed for maximum risk-reward: there
are often alternative routes, and occasionally alternative greens. The fairways are more open than they first appear, and judicious
texture application means that escapes from the rough are possible. The effrontery of the design means you're more likely than not to go
right round in a sense of wonder. |
Challenge 5/10
Some unfriendly greens will not help many players. Indeed, the elevations have been ramped up to something not short of unfair, and
on many greens putts of over 10 feet will be extremely lucky to go in. Combine this with the frequent deep bunkers, massive Par 5s, and
testing tee shots, and you really get the impression that this course bites back. With any luck, you'll be having enough fun not to notice
your plus-six round. |
Technical 5/10
A little construction on the bunker lips is necessary: they fold way too much. Some pruning of the clones would be good, too. And the
greens are lacking in elevational subtlety and are distinctly unfriendly to the Mod player. The extrusion marks are a significant obstacle.
With so many technical imperfections, it's really quite impressive how amazing this course is! |
| Overall |
A hugely impressive course with just about as many stunning views as can be
crammed into 18 holes. Daunting, but thoroughly immersive. |
37/50 |
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course. |
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