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Sherwood River
by Kristoffer Selberg
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1311 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2003-07-16 |
50,795,088 bytes |
72 |
7037 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
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FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Sherwood River.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Designer: With his course portfolio including Royal Thoroughfare (LCR), Selto Beach Club FE (Top 25%), Training Course (Top 50%), and his latest course after Sherwood River, the acclaimed Te lhi O Te Rangi (LCR), Kristoffer Selberg's work is certainly well known, and with his courses generally being around or over 50mb, his work has always been of a high quality, something that has remained clear with this P2P release.
Course: As stated by the designer, Sherwood River is,
'Set in the outskirts of the Sherwood Forest, and the course runs along the famous Sherwood River with its turns and twists making some of the holes rather intimidating.'
From the first tee, the course doesn't seem as it is going to be too hard, but steadily, as the round goes on, the trees will start to creep in, and the water will rise up (Screenshot 3), forcing the golfer to quickly change how they intended to approach playing the round of golf at this course. Even though there are not many bunkers found on the course, the water, which was nearly on every hole, does not allow the golfer to stop concentrating, as with slight elevation changes, and deceptively scenic holes, the challenge of this course is quite hard. In the end, the course has been designed very well, and the only let down would possibly be Hole 18, which could have been swapped with one of the courses signature Par 5's to make way for a grandstand finish to any golfer's round.
Favourite Hole: With stunning beauty, and challenging curves, the Par 5, Hole 15 was certainly my favourite hole on the course (Screenshot 6), and along with a majestic bridge, the graceful design will either lead you away happy with a birdie or better, or completely miserable with a bogie or worse. Depending on how you play the hole, what is recorded on the scorecard after the completion of this hole could make or break your round.
Playability: The course design is certainly very challenging, and even with accurate tee shots, and great iron play, birdies are never guarantee, as even with short putts, complacency should never creep into any golfer's minds, as the curves in the greens can be very misleading, and birdie putts can quickly turn into putts for bogey or worse. The Par 3's seem to be straight forward (Screenshot 2 and 5), but with defensively placed bunkers, the beauty is rather misleading. The Par 4's provide the only rest you'll get in the round (Screenshot 1, 3 and 7), but with tempting holes like Hole 9 (Screenshot 4), which is drivable off the tee (only with an extremely accurate drive), there aren't many simple holes on the course that allow the golfer to relax. The Par 5's are generally reachable in two shots, but with water just waiting to swallow any inaccurate tee shots, there is a severe risk/reward factor on each of the Par 5's. As the water is in play on most holes, it is wise not to expect a low score when playing with high winds, as in hard conditions, this course can become very difficult to successfully play.
Technically: The textures chosen for this course were perfect, as nothing seemed out of place, and along with the seam blending found on every hole, the course was technically quite good. The Bridges and Cart Paths stood out as some outstanding technical work, and even though the course overall shows good APCD techniques, as shown with the designers latest work, the course could have been much better. On Hole 4 for example, at the waters edge, it seemed as if the water was actually overlapping the rough texture, as the rough was actually visible underneath the waters edge, which was quite weird. The courses main feature was obviously the river, which was done very well, but it seemed as if the planting was too minimal, as I was expecting more planting around the rivers edge, and near the greens. This course is obviously meant to be in a natural setting, so with no clubhouse included, that was understandable, but after seeing a flag pole behind the 18th green (Screenshot 7), even when playing with no tournament objects, the natural atmosphere seemed to disappear. Sherwood River was well done, but as shown with the designers latest course, Te lhi O Te Rangi, the APCD techniques used could have been of a higher standard, which in the end, will only help to spur on the designer to create higher quality courses in the future.
Other: With the zip file only containing the course file and a short read-me, the course and the extras found in it were going to have to be of a good quality, and in this case, that turned out to be the case. The splash screen and cameo were good, but the hole previews, with their overview of the hole, were of a professional standard, and along with custom flags and tournaments objects, the extras included with this course were quite good. However, this course stands apart from many others due to the outstanding bridges found around the course, and combined with the scenic water features, the bridges really added another element to this course, to make it that one bit better. The only thing I would have recommended would have been a longer read-me to communicate more with the people downloading the course, and more additions to the zip file.
Download Value: At just under 44mb, Sherwood River is not a small download, but as it has been released as a P2P, it is understandable that with advanced APCD techniques being implemented throughout the course, that it would be larger than many other courses. The sheer beauty of this course is certainly the main feature of the course design, and if you are a fan of the designer's other work, I would certainly recommend this course to download. However, if you choose not to purchase this course, there is no need to despair, as Te lhi O Te Rangi, quite a similar course in many regards, will still allow you to truly value the designer's skill using the APCD.
Information:
Course Statistics:
2003 - Fictional Woodland - Par 72 - 2 Tees
7037yds (Back) - 6648yds (Middle)
Par 3's: 5 - Par 4's: 8 - Par 5's: 5
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