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Oakland Hills North
by Steve Avery

Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1491
Release Date CRZ Filesize Par Course Length
2004-09-12  52,506,624  bytes 70  6671 yards
Type Style CRZ Filename
REAL  PARKLAND  ohillsnorth ver2_2003.crz 
Course ID Course Key
   

COURSE SCREENSHOTS

COURSE NOTES
This APCD design is a recreation of the North Course at Oakland Hills Country Club located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan USA.

The course was designed by Donald Ross in 1924 and was redesigned by Robert Trent Jones in 1969. Originally the course was laid out over the rolling hills of Michigan farmland but is now surrounded by a Detroit suburb. The course plays 6660 yards par 70.

The opening rounds of the 2002 US Amateur Championship were held on the North Course. After the first two days of stroke play the leader was at 5 under par 135. The final two days of match play were held on the
Championship South Course at Oakland Hills CC.

This APCD design would not have come to life if not for the efforts of Jimmy Trawets who felt that the North Course would be a great course for Microsoft Links. JT posted in the Links Forum looking for a designer to do his home course and it sounded like a good match for me because I wanted to test my APCD skills by doing a �real� course but lacked the inside info to accurately finish one off.

I used terraserver to find the hole layout and elevations and JT provided pictures and descriptions of each hole. Every couple of weeks I would send him the .crz file to play and he would send back a list of alterations needed. This went on for nearly six months. The course has turned out pretty well I think and I hope you enjoy your time playing it.

Steve Avery

LINKS CORNER REVIEW

Reviewed by: Big Three

Designer Background: This is the third course released by Steve Avery. His previous releases have been Oakland Hills North (version 1) and Twin Rivers Golf Club. Mr. Avery is now three for three, having received the Links Corner Recommended award for each of his releases.

From the Readme: This APCD design is a recreation of the North Course at Oakland Hills Country Club located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan USA.

The course was designed by Donald Ross in 1924 and was redesigned by Robert Trent Jones in 1969. Originally the course was laid out over the rolling hills of Michigan farmland but is now surrounded by a Detroit suburb. The course plays 6660 yards par 70.

The opening rounds of the 2002 US Amateur Championship were held on the North Course. After the first two days of stroke play the leader was at 5 under par 135. The final two days of match play were held on the Championship South Course at Oakland Hills CC.

This APCD design would not have come to life if not for the efforts of Jimmy Trawets who felt that the North Course would be a great course for Microsoft Links. JT posted in the Links Forum looking for a designer to do his home course and it sounded like a good match for me because I wanted to test my APCD skills by doing a 'real' course but lacked the inside info to accurately finish one off.

I used terraserver to find the hole layout and elevations and JT provided pictures and descriptions of each hole. Every couple of weeks I would send him the .crz file to play and he would send back a list of alterations needed. This went on for nearly six months. The course has turned out pretty well I think and I hope you enjoy your time playing it.

Steve Avery

any comments or suggestions welcomed
email to: sxavery@comcast.net


Course Overview: Oakland Hills Country Club - North Course is a Real / Parkland recreation of a Donald Ross design. It is a Par 70 of 6660 yards, with two Par 5's. Although not as famous and well known as the South Course, a venue for many majors, the North Course was used for the first two rounds of the U.S. Amateur in 2002. This design is an update of Mr. Avery's original version.

Layout/Playability: Oakland Hills North is an excellent recreation of the real course located in the suburbs north of Detroit, MI. Although I have never played the course myself, by all appearances Steve has done an accurate rendition of this course for Links.

Don't be fooled by the apparent shortness of this course. There is plenty here to make this a tough challenge to play. Of the two Par 5's, only the 12th is reachable in two if you are willing to risk the water surrounding three sides of the green. The 5th is over 610 yards, and it is doubtful that you can ever reach it. The course has a liberal amount of trees, although fairly open close to the fairway. Several holes have slight to moderate doglegs, and poor placement of a drive will leave you with trees to consider on your approach shot. Drifting into the rough will almost always find a tree to consider. The rough is another factor in how this course plays. The medium width fairways are surrounded by a first cut of rough that leads to deep rough. The deep rough texture is labelled as rough, but it plays as deep stuff, making hitting the fairway a must to score well here. You may find that a 3 wood is a good choice from several tees, since playing from the deep rough, with trees that may require you to hit the ball over or around, is not a fun proposition.

The other factor in the toughness of Oakland Hills North is the greens. You will find very few putts that do not have some sort of bend or roll to them. Donald Ross was a master at creating difficult greens, and Mr. Avery has done an excellent job of capturing the subtleties of a Ross green. Far from being unfair, the greens are loaded with lots of rolls and swales, so don't expect to consistently sink 6 to 10 footers to save par here. Staying in the fairway and getting to the green in two is essential on this course.

Water is in play on 4 holes, including two of the Par 3s. Houses line several holes, with out of bounds in reach of a loose drive, although there is little chance that a slight miss will end up OB. As expected in a Donald Ross design, strategically located bunkers need to be considered on most drives and approaches.

My favorite hole is easily the Par 5 12th. At 528 yards, it is reachable in most cases. But the green is surrounded on three sides with a pond, with a little bail out room in the form of a bunker on the left side between the green and the water, making for an excellent risk/reward hole. This is followed by the 164 yard Par 3 13th, which features water along the entire left side of the green. These two holes come at a time when, shortly after the turn, you can make a move for a good finish or blow your scorecard up by putting some shots in the water. All in all, I find this course to be an excellent combination of fun and challenging play.

Planting/Textures: The planting here is a perfect match for the course, judging by pictures I have seen. There is a good mix of trees, pines and evergreens, making the course look quite realistic. The textures are a good combination of colors, lending a nice rich green hue to the appearance. The colors all flow together well, making for realistic looking transitions from one texture to the next. One thing to note is that you will not find under-planting, which is in keeping with the real design. The course looks as nice as it plays.

APCD: The word that comes to mind for Oakland Hills North is 'crisp'. Everything looks very well kept, thus indicating an excellent use of the APCD. There are no obvious flaws, and everywhere you look the work is very well executed. The bunkers have the clean, crisp look; nothing on the course looks out of place . all around a very well done job by Mr. Avery.

Extras: All the extras that would be expected in a course of this caliber are there. The custom splash screen is a nice in game view from behind the 12th green. Also included are a custom flag and cameo, and informative hole previews with important yardage noted. For those who prefer the tournament feel, crowds and a fine selection of tournament objects (including some custom work) are included. The course boundaries are liberally sprinkled with custom 2D houses, and some custom trees are in the planting. Seam blending has been added in this version and is well done. Rounding out the package is the use of custom sounds throughout the course. The sounds are at an appropriate volume level, and used the right amount of time so as to add to the realism without becoming a distraction. My favorite is the distinctive call of a mourning dove on the 14th tee.

Summary: With this update of Oakland Hills North, Mr. Avery continues his history of producing high quality work. For real course junkies, this course is a must have. For everyone else, I would recommend this design without hesitation. Oakland Hills North is a quality product that delivers a fun and challenging round, and plays tough unlike some real course designs. As noted in his readme, Mr. Avery put a lot of work in getting this course right and by all appearances he nailed it. The design produces a round of golf that looks, feels and plays like the real thing. The download comes in at just under 50 MB, so it is not too much of a strain for those on dial-up. If you have not downloaded this design yet, do yourself a favor and get it.

CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg)

Description
Real, estate course
Location
Michigan
Conditions
M*/M* is playable with care.
Concept  6/10
The little brother to the South course, really in every sense, the North course is not without its tricks and turns, but otherwise plays as a fairly standard club course. If the fairways were wider and the deep rough less intimidating then there might be little to redeem this course. The conversion is functional but almost outstandingly plain. It stand as a reasonably convincing round, but no more.
Appearance  4/10
To be honest, the design of the North course looks a little too functional and not refined enough. There are none of the little touches incorporated which make many courses so realistic and a pleasure to look at; the planting for instance, seems hurried and the minimum necessary. The lack of the custom objects found on the South confirms that this course seems to have been rushed out a little too quickly.
Playability  6/10
While the course doesn't exactly go all-out on novelties, there is more than enough to keep the player interested in the form of subtle use of elevations and some realistic demands from the tee. The variety of hole lengths is a definite plus, but the unconvincing locality an undeniable minus.
Challenge  7/10
For a second-choice course, this is tough. The rough areas have been put together without imaginations, and the rough texture has properties assigned to it that will punish your ball when you miss the landing areas. Most greens are raised and heavily bunkered; thankfully the putting gradients are pretty gentle. Despite some underwork, this course can be a bit of a beast.
Technical  5/10
My problem here is not with APCD competence - we know Steve Avery is a first-class designer. It's more with the undeniable aura of hurriedness surrounding the course, which really dispels the joy of playing golf and frankly hasn't dated at all well. More care and attention would turn this into a course worthy of serious attention rather than an occasional round with one eye on the TV.
Overall A little too rushed. Perfectly practical but not really any polish. 28/50
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course.

USER RATINGS

 Votes cast
Ace24 %12
Eagle54 %27
Birdie18 %9
Par4 %2
Bogey or worse0 %0

The User Course Reviews and polls have been removed from the forum due to the low numbers of members. The information above is presented merely for historical interest.

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