| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 166 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-04-07 |
4,296,883 bytes |
72 |
6648 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Lion's Paw.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| c973fd4017e111d582e6444553540001 |
e3cbb87d09dda8c21f4deba4593ef0f4 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Dave Campbell
Expectations: Lions and all the 'big cats' intrigue me. My astrology sign is Leo so I have a good feeling about this course right from the beginning.
First Impressions: Lions Paw was made available on 4/7/01 and is the last of four courses posted to the Links Corner by Bud McNew. In order of release they are; Nine Bridges - beta, Duel and Coastal Dunes. His last three were all released within the same week. It is a fictional woodland course that measures 6,648 yards from the black tees and plays to a par 72. It is a miniscule download at 2.9 meg so I wasn't sure what to expect. I've been surprised by small downloads before.
The design and layout of this course is quite good. My test round was a -2 in the above conditions and with the exception of a couple of fades and draws needed, was a nice powerstroke course. A moderate to good clicker or PS'er will score big on this one. The par 4 2nd, 10th, 11th, 15th and 18th measure 316, 302, 384, 296 and 321 yards respectively. The par 3 16th was a very open 110 yards. In fact I birdied three of the last four holes and I feel like I should have birdied all four. There are tree plantings to influence shots and bunkers and water aplenty but all in all a course you can attack. It's best defense is the many sharp doglegged fairways, perhaps a few too many for my taste. Tree planting along the fairways will often keep you honest and make you think twice about trying to shortcut the dogleg.
The greens and fairways have very subtle to no elevation changes, which means you can always attack both approaches and putts. I only saw a few putts with a big break and had several very flat runs, some of considerable length. The tee boxes, 1st cut and rough all exhibited a nice looking extrusion. I know these aren't to everyone's liking but I've always though the effect was looked good. In one of my test rounds I had a 92% FIR, so the landing zones are generous for the most part.
The planting was well done, with the possible exception of overuse of the 'Harbour Town' moss tree. The planting of lilies in much of the water looked very realistic. Many little bushes and ground level type planting was evident as well. Some of the object I noticed included benches, waste cans, boats, cart paths, houses and a couple of bridges.
The traps were not spectacular, but not bad either. In particular I liked the dirt fringe around some of the bunkers, it really added some definition. I did notice that a fairway bunker on the 17th had that dirt skirt but it was a lighter color. Perhaps Bud was experimenting a bit with textures.
Drawbacks: I already touched on the overuse of the good old moss tree (see screenshot), not too extreme in excess, but noticeable. Reusing the same plantings may be how Bud kept the file size so small. I noticed a HUGE lily floating above the 11th fairway, and I mean HUGE. It was apparent from many other holes in the general vicinity and should have been caught in play/beta testing. In the screen render on the approach shot into the 1st green it looks like the boat is floating ever so slightly above the water.
I noticed any number of pulled vert, funny shadow mesh errors. Nothing too glaring but they were many in number and added up over the duration of the round. There are many sharp angled hard edges within view in many areas, edges of fairways and greens, bunkers, etc. (see screenshot of greenside bunker). Think this may be edges needing to be turned although I'm not sure. Again, none of these impair the golf experience and the course is very enjoyable and playable.
Best Hole: Many of the holes are good enough to go here but I love the par 4 13th. It's a dogleg right with the fairway split by a little creek. The green features a small round bunker in the middle of the green, a very pretty and fun hole to play. My screenshot shows a reverse cam view of my approach to the 13th green.
Comparable courses: Apache Ridge by Duane Rucker, Cooper Chapel by Paul Nicholson, TPC @ Rolling Hills by Bob Fornier
Overall: Lions Paw is very playable and easy to score upon woodland/parkland course. If not for the small but fairly numerous APCD errors I would have given it higher marks. Even so I would recommend everyone take a look at it, the file size means download times should be quick. My cable sucked it down in about 15 seconds flat. Hopefully the above screenshot gives you some idea of the feel of this track. Bud, I was very impressed with what you packed into such a small file. Thanks for your time and effort, I'll be looking for your designs in the future.
Course Info :
Cameo Screen? No
Splash Screen? No
Text file?
Hole Previews? No
3mb
Reviewed June 2001 |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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