| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1574 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2005-04-22 |
77,631,488 bytes |
72 |
7238 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
MOUNTAIN |
Blue Rock Ridge.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Chris Gormley
Background Info:
This is the 3rd Course released by Neal with the others being Hackers Heaven and Hackers Heaven II. Blue Rock Ridge is a Fictional Mountain Course. It has been awhile since Neal has released a course(almost 3 years) so I am really looking forward to reviewing Blue Rock Ridge. Here is a little bit from the readme:
Welcome to Blue Rock Ridge. This is my third design following the much hailed Hackers Heaven
1 and 2.lol.
Unfortunately I did not learn seam-blending techniques until the course was near completion and so It will not be present in this design.
Blue Rock Ridge is a fictional design set somewhere in the foothills of South Carolina. I believe I have designed 18 unique holes that I hope you will find challenging and most of all FUN.
The course is designed to be played with the MOD on F/F or M/F settings but should play well on lower settings.
About halfway through the design I met Colin Man (aka..Tubbs,Kingtubby,Scientist,ect..) who began to chop at my design with unbridled fervor, thus I have since called him Da Butcher. Without his experienced and professional LINKS knowledge this course would not have been playable. His patience and even psychological prodding spurred me to capabilities I never thought I had.
I would also like to thank Links Corner and all the people in the Designers forum who have given there time to provide all the answers needed to design a course. Thanks to APCD-COURSES and Eddie Schmidt for providing the barns used on the course. Thanks to Art for his wonderful book and the textures. Thanks to some great testers.Arsam, David Hillengrath (Scorpion), Tressie (Krafty-Host), Robie Cole, Sue B, and the Members of the OLD Fekkers Club who hopefully will chose Blue Rock Ridge as their home course.
Thanks, and I hope you enjoy Blue Rock Ridge.
Neal (noputt) Parnell
Overall Impressions:
Blue Rock Ridge is a course that has a little bit of everything, and this is not necessarily a bad thing either. Nothing is done to an extreme which is a credit to the designer as this is a common fault among new designers. Overall the course is very open and spacious. It gives a player the impression that this is a 'grip it and rip it' course but this is far from the truth. There are trees, bunkers and water hazards to trouble a player at every turn. Neal had done a good job with these but I do have to mention that I feel that a couple of hole designs do dictate to a player what club they should use. This only occurred in a few spots where placement of water and trees hindered a player from approaching the green from certain spots on the fairway. Other than these few spots the player is free to challenge the course and go for that big shot to try and score well on the hole, there is plenty risk/reward especially on the front 9 holes.
The fairways are constructed pretty well and are contoured well also. A little more tweaking is needed in a few spots though as a few of the contours could stand to be 'smoothed' out a bit. There are a lot of good ideas going on here all throughout the design in regards to the fairway construction, with a little more experience with the APCD Neal will fix these minor issues I am sure.
The greens are large and spacious, but this does not mean they will be easy to score on. Most are contoured very well and will challenge the best of players, but there were a few that had some greens that had some pretty tough slopes that a few people will view as unfair. But for the most part I thought the greens were done pretty well although I would not want to play it with the 1.06 MOD on Firm/Fast conditions.
The best parts of the design IMHO are the hazards. The bunkers are created pretty well and placed to challenge the player at every point throughout the round. Just when you think you have placed your drive perfectly and are ready to make an easy approach to a green for a birdie there stands a bunker in your path to worry you. The water hazards are also placed well throughout the course and add to the risk/reward that the hole designs offer. I would have liked to have seen the water areas 'finished off' more with banks and planting but they are fine they way they are right now.
The hardest part of a design is the planting of the course and this is probably the biggest thing that Neal has to improve on IMHO. But as he does more designing this aspect of designing will get better. There were a few cloned trees throughout the course but they were not real obvious unless you were really looking for them. The underplanting was pretty good but the planting of the trees seemed haphazard at times. Planting trees in this manner, although unorthodox at times, did create a nice atmosphere for the course. The planting challenged the player without being unfair, I commend Neal for this.
Closing comments: Overall this is a very pretty enjoyable course to play. There are the usual 'new designer flaws' that we see on a lot of courses but these will work themselves out as Neal gains more experience with the APCD. There were a lot of good ideas all throughout the course but there were some places where the design could have used a little more refinement but this will get better as Neal keeps designing. I hope that Neal keeps designing and working to perfect his techniques as he has shown that he has some good ideas and the ability to put them all together into a design.
"I am writing this review from the viewpoint of not only a player but as a Tour Director. Although I am not a designer I understand the work that goes into a design as I have beta tested many courses and my review is simply how I as a player/Tour Director would view this course."
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