|
The Catwalk
by John Lopez
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1249 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2003-03-16 |
25,732,544 bytes |
72 |
6949 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
MOUNTAIN |
The Catwalk.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| b45692f476e446c98f5523493121ff86 |
403f28f974461feb84fa8138b7eb04ce |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Joe Turner `Loner'
March 2003
His zip file contained a read-me, recorded round, crz and a slide show in color of all the hole preview, quite attractive and a very novel idea. Here is a portion of his read-me.
The Catwalk is a fictional course based on a real place located in Glenwood, New Mexico, USA. The real Catwalk is a tourist attraction. People venture to Glenwood to visit this trail that follows the mountainside. The trails were originally created for nearby mining. At the end of the Catwalk trail, there is a waterfall that is shown in the splash screen of this course.
I wondered what it would be like if a golf course were incorporated into this beautiful attraction. There were several themes that I wanted to keep in the design of this course:
1. It needed to start off at the river where visitors would normally park (ground level). Notice the fisherman sitting in the boats in the water. The scenery here is river/desert terrain. Notice as the course goes, at higher elevations, the desert disappears just like it would in real life.
2. It must have a canyon. Inspired by many fantasy golf painting that are mostly found on restaurant walls, I wanted a course to exhibit the excitement of these canyons. Steel bridges are required to carry the golf carts across the canyon.
3. The waterfall would be recreated in the course.
4. Similarly to a ski lift, I wanted a restaurant (or club) at the turn. In this case, it is found before hole #9 - but close enough to the turn.
First let me make it clear that this is a 'fantasy' course. The tee boxes had a nice texture; the mowed fairways had a first cut. It then led into dirt (sand) and beyond that were a nice assortment of trees with bushes for an undergrowth. This will change as the course climbs into the mountains. The greens were checkerboard with a fringe. He used large fields of dirt, mud, gravel, sandstone, rock and maybe something that I missed interspersed throughout the first part of the course. At times he lined up the 5 sets of tees so it looked like 'landing lights' instead of staggering them, unfortunately they were bright in color also. Ah yes, Whistlers Mountain, enough said. The fairways were very large and you could haul off and belt the ball without too many problems. There weren't any bunkers on the fairways, none! The greens were very large and didn't have very imaginative shapes; they usually had a bunker or two, not too well made that seemed very harmless as long as you calculated the distances. The greens putting would be more medium in difficulty because of the slight slopes, without that and the unusual back nine I would have lost interest early. There are some water hazards but they seemed to be very avoidable. You'll find an unusual amount of objects on the course, signs, houses, fences, bridges and a windsock, a windsock?
Yes this is a mountainous course it not only shows in the design but in the elevations; by the way the caddie was excellent. On the back nine as the course goes from desert, trees and cactus into rock and water it has some beautiful but massive bridgework. The size of the bridges fit this course, on any other they would be out of place. No I'm not going to explain hole # 9 or # 10, check any screen shots. I enjoy a blind shot or two, he had more than that, I also enjoy gauging weather or not I can clear a tree with even a flop shot, unfortunately his trees seemed to be a little to high for the second shot forcing you to seek other means of 'getting around'.
Fantasy course can be unbelievably bad or they can be magnificent. On this course the front nine seemed to be too bland, not interesting looking and too easy to play. The back nine became the fantasy, huge canyons to cross, island greens that weren't across water but a very deep gorge. Was it playable, yes it was especially if you're a fan of this genre of course. The massive bridges the solid rock surroundings, interesting and quite different from the norm. If you're a fan of fantasy, download it. If your looking to try something different but not perfectly made, try it. If this course had been beta tested not only the very obvious errors in the APCD would have been caught but also the course would have been better off for it.
Reviewer Note
I am a player not a designer and therefore rate a course as a player for other players.
Summary :
Included: read-me, cameo, splash, custom flag, ball washers, crowd, cart path, bridges, buildings, carts, recorded round and hole previews, signs and numbers.
Not Included: custom tees.
Statistical Information: par 72, 6949y, 5 sets of tees, 4-3 pars, 10-4 pars, 4-5 pars. |
|
CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Imaginary, canyon course. |
Location
TBA |
Conditions
TBA |
Concept 8/10
The Catwalk is an imaginary course set amid some very real rockworks.
Plenty of old favourite tactics are brought into play, and at times the course
looks more like Wacky World than anything else. Some brilliant Stroke
Indexing means you start off gentle and easy, and as the course progresses
down the canyon, you hit the difficult holes. It's ambitious, and I love the
idea of trying to host a course in such inhospitable terrain; sadly it's a little
bit let down in the execution in that it expects a little bit too much of the
golfer. |
Appearance 2/10
Definitely fantastical in its creation, The Catwalk looks somewhat hurriedly put together after an immaculate opening trio of holes.
There are lots of sharp edges, nasty transitions and cloned planting, mostly thanks to the demands of the landscape. It's a real shame,
as the looks will inevitably turn players off an otherwise fun course. |
Playability 6/10
There's good playability value contained within the concept itself, but later on in the round you realise that The Catwalk is a one-trick
deal. It's very target-golf with little opportunity for risk reward, and a lot of frustration for the player. The novelty of the course won't
appeal to the real course fans at all, and will probably only have a limited lifetime for everyone else. |
Challenge 3/10
Much too hard. There are some massive water carries, with no drop zones, the rock hazards often trap balls when they shouldn't, and
the green gradients border on the obscene. It could be said that a fantasy course can get away with being ridiculously difficult, but one
day I'd like to see one that doesn't even try. |
Technical 4/10
The technical difficulties are many and fairly obvious: too many sharp edges around the hazards being the worst offender. But the
scope of a project like this is worthy of praise, in my opinion; more designers should have this sort of ambition, and show us what the
APCD is really capable of. |
| Overall |
Not as good as it might have been. A worthy idea going partly to waste through
some slapdash construction. |
23/50 |
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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