| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1536 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2005-01-06 |
54,394,880 bytes |
71 |
6698 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
REAL |
PARKLAND |
Islantilla Green Course.CRZ.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| |
|
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
REVIEW BY JON WEINRIEB
From The Course Notes: This a real Spanish Golf course, situated in the province of Huelva, between the villages of Lepe and Isla Cristina, in the heart of Costa de la Luz, without a doubt the most important tourist destination in the province of Huelva. The golf club is placed in a privileged position amongst cliffs and a woodland of pine trees and incredible views on the sea.
The Basics: This is Victor Sevilla's first course for Links. It is a real course, designed in the early 90s by Enrique Canales and Luis Recasens and has played host to a number of European Tour events, including the 1993 PGA Spanish Championship 1993, the 1993 European Challenge Tour and the 1995 Turespaņa Masters Open of Andalucia 1995. The real course features three nines, making for three 18-hole layouts -- the Blue, Yellow and Green. Victor chose to recreate the Green course for Links 2003. The course measures 6,698 yards and plays to a par of 71.
The Course and APCD Technique:
The course opens with a couple of great splash screens from the real Islantilla course, displaying the drop-dead gorgeous views that players at the real course enjoy in this Spanish playground. One sports a shot of what I presume is the clubhouse featuring a striking clock-tower made from Spanish stucco or similar materials; the other a wonderful shot from atop a tee box in the hills. Unfortunately, the course fails to deliver even a fraction of the beauty that the real course appears to possess. The lack of elevations, sloppy planting and overall lack of attention to detail compel me to recommend against downloading this course.
Islantilla Green Course is a fairly short layout that runs through a wooded region of Spanish hills. Oddly enough, most of these hills are not included in the Links design. It is a curious choice to fail to elevate a real course that apparently relies on large, sweeping hills for its breathtaking views of the countryside and adjacent sea and likely relies on these elevations for much of its challenge. Although I confess never to having seen the real course, I believe the splash screens alone give away the true nature of what looks like a spectacular course. The Links version plays much flatter and probably much less exciting than the real life version. Several greens, for example, are dead flat.
The textures appear to be stock 2001 grasses and do little to spruce up an otherwise lacklustre effort. The planting is extremely repetitive, cuts into fairways where it should not and just does not reflect the true feeling of this Spanish beauty. The tee boxes appear to have been inserted from stock APCD shapes generated during the hole layout process, and the fairways and greens lack the undulations that I suspect are present on the real course. There is no seam blending and the bunker work needs significant improvement to mirror what appear to be dynamic and challenging hazards on the real thing. Sharp edges can also be found here and there. It also looks like Victor failed to map any of the faces, the result being striped fairways going every which way. There are no hole previews. Overall, the APCD technique is quite poor.
With some additional attention and practice, Victor could potentially turn this course into a very nice layout. Perhaps work on a fictional layout with focus on APCD technique would yield some better results. Instead of trying to create something that is perhaps a bit beyond his skill level at the moment, the designer could turn out some exciting and rewarding fictional work for the Links community, honing his skills for another go at the world of real golf courses.
Overall Impression & Recommendation: I cannot recommend this course. My suggestion for Victor is to get a hold of the abundant tutorials that designers have put together in an effort to refine his APCD skill before releasing another course. I would also suggest for next time a full round of beta testing to address the technical problems that he seems to be encountering.
|
This course is available as a FREE download.
|
|
Download course
|
Please support Links Corner
|
