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Chateau Ste. Andre
by Andrew Cray
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1298 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2003-07-02 |
16,187,202 bytes |
72 |
7525 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
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IMAGINARY |
WOODLAND |
Chateau Ste. Andre.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Simon Kent July 2003
Designer: This course is the designer's first attempt at designing.
Playability: The first thing you'll notice is how unfair the greens are with the amount of dips and humps found in them, as even if you were skilful enough to get to the Par 5's in two shots, putting the ball in for an eagle would be absolutely amazing. When approaching the Hole 9 green I thought it was the biggest green I had ever seen with a maximum putt of a LW distance, but then Hole 18 completely blew me away, as the maximum putting distance was a SW distance close to the length that men run in the 100m at the Olympics. The only enjoyment I had was a 26m chip-in on Hole 13, but as I was down a steep incline, the golfer didn't see the shot and had no reaction to it anyway. Overall I finished with a -3 (69) with 71% Fairways and 50% Greens in Regulation, with a total of 26 Putts.
The Course: Chateau Ste. Andre has been classified by the designer as an imaginary course, while to me the course is more like an outlandish fictional design. Unfortunately the textures used, combined with the technical flaws, make the course look quite ugly, and the only thing that seemed remotely scenic at all, was the panorama used. The planting was acceptable, but the trees shrouded the golfer too much, especially on the Par 3's. The holes are quite long, with no short Par 3's, many long Par 4's, and only a couple of the Par 5's being reachable in two shots. Overall the hole designs are the only thing that makes this course anywhere near enjoyable.
Favourite Hole: Hole 6 (screenshot 2) was my favourite hole, as it was a challenging and well designed Par 5, but also because I thought it was quite funny how my ball bounced off the pine needles.
Technically: It's very hard not to be negative in this area, as there were countless technical flaws found around the course. All of these could have been corrected if the designer used such avenues as the Designer's Corner at the Links Corner Forums, and used beta testers for more opinions, as I see no harm in asking for help, as people are always friendly enough to give it. There was no seam blending between the fairway and rough had, as it had unclean lines and sharp angles, while on many holes, there were more than one type of texture used for the rough. The bunkers had extremely sharp edges and lips, while the greens had elevated humps and dips which lead to many unfair putts. Behind the 5th green my ball bounced up and down on the rough for about 10 seconds, and throughout the course, I counted more sharp edges and lines than I did curves, which made the course look very ugly. I originally thought this was a 2001 course, and when I later found out it was made using the APCD 1.5, I was shocked, as I would have expected much better textures and technical aspects for a 2003 course then what was found.
Other: There were only two tee's, but the weird part is that they were back and 'middle', something that is quite funny considering there can't be a middle with only two set's of tee's, and so there really should have been back and 'front' tee's. There was no cameo, handicaps, hole previews or tournament options. The splash screen was good, except that it had no reference to the course from what I've seen, as it's just a nice photo that's been put in their for the sake of it. Perhaps the designer could have actual used the building in the photo for the clubhouse in the course.
Download Value: The download is relatively small, but considering all the other courses you could get at this same size that are much better, I would not recommend this as a download. There is no read-me, just a short text file with limited information, and for the lack of enjoyment and scenery that the course offers, it will not remain on my hard drive, and not saved to CD.
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Course Statistics: Links 2003 Course, Par 72, Imaginary Woodland, 2 Tees, Distance: Back- 6871m, Middle- 6318m, Par 3's- 4, Par 4's- 10, Par 5's- 4. |
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