|
Scirocco Golf Club
by Paul Woodbury
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 242 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-05-01 |
24,662,494 bytes |
72 |
6781 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
DESERT |
Scirocco Golf Club.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 602d46dbc103491d8535f25db7aa04e9 |
df004572dc742bc414152a9085b83cbd |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Lacy Gearheart
First Impression: This is Paul's second design that I am aware of. It is a beautiful fictional desert course that plays 6781 yards from the tips. This is one of the most challenging courses I have played, but I shot my best score ever in Powerstroke (-1). Normally I shoot in the lower 80s, but I had a very rare good day. Most of the fairways are very narrow and thin out just in the perfect landing zones. Every shot off the tee makes you seriously consider strategy and club selection. If you are not perfect on your snap...you will surely find either a small water hazard, beautifully sculpted bunkers, or the desert rock. The latter of the three is by far the worst to play from. The unlimited amount of brush causes many blocked shots and you are almost better off using a LW to escape or just drop with a penalty. In many cases if you go for the green from this area....you will find yourself in even more trouble.
The course is not that long but many of the par 5s cant be reached in two shot due to perfectly placed hazards. You can risk it...but it is not advised because you will most likely fail. The tee boxes are perfectly positioned to give you the ultimate view of the fairway, but also offer a very dangerous ultimatum if you are not perfect off the tee. The bunkers are not too deep, but are often lowered in a way that any ball close will certainly fall onto the "Beach front property".
Almost every aspect of this design is excellent. The textures are perfect for the surroundings, the planting was dense and well placed to cause havoc for many shots. The greens were nicely undulated offering a decent challenge if you were close, but a tough chance at birdie if you were more than 15 feet away. Just about everything was perfect and this will certainly be a clickers course. PS players will like this very much also, but will not score too well unles you are proficient in EVERY aspect of the game.
Custom amenities: Custom textures were very good and with the addition of a great custom panorama...this course really sticks out from any other of its type. Small buildings, ballwashers, and carts were seen on many holes and it made you feel as if you were on a real course.
Greens: Very nicely sculpted and offered a good challenge and required a great approach shot in order to score well. Several had many levels and choosing the area to land your ball was obviously a very important factor in putting well.
Fairways: They were very narrow and uniquely shaped. A first cut of rough was added and it looked great. The difficulty of the desert terrain was made up for by the designer choosing to use standard rough properties rather than deep grass. With the fairways being so narrow.. this proved to be the most fair move by the designer.
Tee Boxes: Very nicely crafted and slighlty elevated to give you the best view of the fairways. I could almost feel the sun beating down on me.
Bunkers and Water Hazards: They were well shaped and lowered and extruded to give that added feel of depth . Many of the ponds featured sunken grass that looked great and natural. They tended to be right where you would prefer to hit you approach shot. This definitely made you think about the risk/reward factor of going for the pin.
Planting: This was exceptionally done. Many may say it was overplanted for a desert course, but I think it was a good idea seeing that the desert texture used has never looked that good. The designer may have done this just to hide it a bit. There were a few instances of rocks and shrubs growing on the side of large mounds that were vertical, but they were not the norm and this area of the design was top notch.
Best Hole: Oh my god......I can't choose. Every hole was nice looking and very challenging. I finally decided to pick the 171 yard par 3 #9 hole. It was a lovely par three that featured one of the few ponds. The green was in the perfect position to challenge every golfer. The many bunkers that circled the greed just made it even more difficult.
Overall: An excellent fictional desert course that has set a new standard for desert courses . The planting, textures, and strategic hole layouts make this a MUST download and a long time resident on your hard drive. Great Job "Woodrow"....wanna make a pano for my new course?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Gormley's thoughts..
Overall: Scirocco is a very lush course that is laid out very nicely. Not a scorer's course as it is not an easy one compared to others released lately. This in no way brings the course down as it is pretty fair to all players. There is plenty of risk/reward throughout the entire course and sometimes the longest shot is not always the best also. The greens are well contoured and shaped. Only a couple would be really difficult in Fast/Firm conditions. There are a couple of tight fairways in the landing zones but for the most part there are safe spots on all fairways. The fairways shapes and placement of hazards always keep a player thinking about shot selection. Like I mentioned above the driver is not always the best bet off of the tee. The bunkers and water hazards are very well done and placed strategically throughout the course. Very nice course to look at and play.
Course Info :
Cameo Screen? Yes
Splash Screen? Yes
Text file? Yes
Hole Previews?
27mb
Reviewed May 2001 |
|
CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Imaginary, desert course |
Location
Arizona |
Conditions
S*/S* is the only sane option. |
Concept 3/10
An exercise in golfing futility, Scirocco is a punishing desert course, not so much through length nor hazarding as by keeping the golfer
in the dark pretty much all the way around. It's difficult to consider this course to be merely fictional, with the packed desert zones and
unrelenting target golf, plus some very un-desertlike water hazards thrown in for good measure. One wonders whether the objective of
APCD is to provide a good round of golf, or to impose a designer's whims and constrictions onto an unsuspecting golfer. |
Appearance 5/10
The extravagant range of shrub and rock planting does indeed look impressive, until you realise its use is to mask the low-res and
blurry desert texture. Customisation is widespread and attractive, though; the textures match together superbly without the fairway
standing out in sharp relief like so many others, and the washed-out panorama is surprisingly suitable. But it's all a bit of a jumbled
mess, to be honest. |
Playability 1/10
Woeful. Blind tee shots on virtually every hole, even the shortest of Par 3s, and trees planted smack-bang in the line of play. Some Par
5s have double blind shots, doubly unforgiveable, especially without hole previews. Every thing is there to be avoided, rather than as
part of the landscape, and it's painful, painful work. |
Challenge 4/10
There will be many shots dropped to the nasty tiered greens and more to the uncharitable water hazards. Thankfully, the desert is all
playable - heaven alone knows how many shots would be dropped were it OB. Luckily, with six Par 3s and six Par 5s, many will see
an opportunity or two to gain back some of those strokes. You'd never place this course in the category of 'fair', though. |
Technical 5/10
Certainly, there are many APCD punches being pulled here. The designer's keen eye for challenging golf and object placement are very
much to the fore; probably, though, rather more to the fore than many players would like. There's room for improvement in the texture
choices and mapping and the colour set also. |
| Overall |
In-your-face to the point of insubordinance, Scirocco is a desert course not to be
tangled with. Literally. |
18/50 |
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.
|
|
Download course
|
Please support Links Corner
|
|
|
