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Darwin Point
by Shawn Kobold and Lez Marwick Note: This course contains 1024x1024 textures and can only be played in version 1.07 or later of Links 2003
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 2095 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2012-09-14 |
61,349,888 bytes |
72 |
7634 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
MOUNTAIN |
DarwinPoint.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| f27851c2aacb487ab5fb96d38d09160e |
5ea414d54972a87ab10d924b861b916c |
| COURSE NOTES |
Darwin Point by Shawn Kobold and Lez Marwick
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Shawn Kobold wrote:
"The original concept of this course was to have a course designed to attract attention to a camping resort near the fictional Woodland Lake set in the coastal mountain ranges of Southern California. This course would be set in a heavily wooded lakeside location. The visuals and acousitics of the course would be designed to mimick summer at the Lake Nacamiento Resort, where I in real life would go for summer vacations in my childhood. This project proved to be too much work for me but I liked the layout enough where I uploaded the
unfinished course as Woodland Lake, hoping players would enjoy playing the good albeit unfinished layout or that a designer would finish the course to their desire."
Lez Marwick wrote:
"After updating a couple of 2001 courses, I had found it quite an enjoyable change to work on other people's courses, but as I had felt duty bound to keep as close as possible to the designer's original design, I had also found it a little restricting. This project was an
ideal opportunity to expand on this concept, as the designer had given full permision to make any changes in design or style that I wanted. Actually, I really liked the layout of this course, so in the end, I made very few changes to the physical design. This meant that I could just concentrate on my own artistic interpretation of the course. I began by making a suitable panorama, and then let the style develop from there. I always like to get the panorama in as early as possible on a course, as I like to consider the whole plot as a real
place when planting and texturing."
As this course was an 'evolution' from Shawn's ideas to my own, I decided to name the course after Charles Darwin. I have no particular geographical location in mind for this course, but the photos used to make up the panorama are from Argentina.
The textures used are a combination of my own, and some great textures by McCoist, which I have modified to my own needs.
Much thanks, as always, go to my beta testers - Mike, and Shez.
All pins are the original ones planted by Shawn, although a couple of green slopes were reduced.
NOTE: Darwin Point relies on long draw distances to display correctly, so make sure your graphics slider is set on full in the game. |
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CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Fictional, mountain course |
Location
Based on a real landscape in California. |
Conditions
Playable on F*/F*. |
Concept 8/10
A combination of Shawn's clean-cut visuals and Lez's imaginative course architecture results in a very fine creation here. You can almost taste the pine-fresh air such is the environmental realism, and the course is a delight, with many picture-perfect holes, including a treacherous island green 12th. There is something of an over-bunkering problem, with many sand traps that are unnecessary, and the course would be just as impressive without many of them. |
Appearance 9/10
Delightful grass textures, dotted with wildflowers, definitely take the prize here. There are plenty of other visual delights, though, from the sprawling bunkers to a castle-like clubhouse, although the pine trees do feel a bit random in the efforts to minimise clones. The panorama is a huge presence and inevitably feels a little out-of-place at times. |
Playability 10/10
An absolute delight, all the way around, and the opportunity to enjoy the views and hit some bold shots overcomes the slightly surreal feel to some holes and regular visits to the sand. Both designers have a track record of delightful and impulsive fictional courses, and this is right up there with the best of them. |
Challenge 7/10
Opening with a handful of bogies didn't inspire a lot of confidence, and its largely the unnecessary presence of the sand that acts as a deterrent - in one case a completely fairway-crossing sand trap which is a bit of a groaner these days. It's never unfairly difficult, but it could still be a great challenge relying wholly on the natural elevations and cleverly-designed greens. |
Technical 10/10
No complaints here, and great testament to the whole that is created when designers share work. |
| Overall |
Outstanding mountain-side atmosphere and plenty of golfing values. A firmer footing in reality would make this an absolute delight. |
44/50 |
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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