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Stoney Run Golf Club
by Ed Balaun

Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 256
Release Date CRZ Filesize Par Course Length
2001-02-05  60,873,217  bytes 72  7141 yards
Type Style CRZ Filename
FICTIONAL  PARKLAND  STONEYRN4.crz 
Course ID Course Key
13f496fd1e8342dc98714bdcef6e6fd1  ffc19fabfbf0350626087cc763f82b97 

COURSE SCREENSHOTS

LINKS CORNER REVIEW

Reviewed by Pete Dixon

This fictional pine forest course with 'that' mountain backdrop weighs in at a whopping 54MB, so the question begs.. Does size matter?

Well there are nice, original splash screens to get you in the mood and the view from the first tee is impressive although I was a little disappointed with the finish on the tee, although this improved after this hole. The fairway and rough were both very nicely textured and had a very 'real' feel about it and the planting was pleasing to the eye, if the course was going to be able to keep up this standard then it was going to be an enjoyable 18 holes to play.

Well I wasn't disappointed, the fairways undulate well and the look of them really is first rate there is even a nice strip of semi-rough between the fairway and rough and this sits in very nicely.

The bunkers are well textured but are not the strongest feature of the course, they lack a little depth in places and the finish around the edges particularly on the seams between the sand and the grass are sharp, but they are well placed and likely to trap many shots over the course of a round.

The water has also been well used and enhances an already beautiful course, depth is good as is the finish and there is good reflection in the bright water.

The greens are in the same league as the rest of the grass areas in that it is very lifelike in appearance and there are some tough breaks to contend with but nothing too outlandish, the fringes and positioning of the greens are also well executed.

The planting around the course is just about perfect, it has obviously been meticulously planned and put into place and really adds to its finesse. As well as all the hazards were being placed in positions where you will have to take them into account before you decide how to play your shot.

There were some things that irked me; one was the man holding the scoreboard who kept appearing, by the end of the round I just wanted to push him into the lake!!! I have a feeling that I read on the boards that Ed didn't plan for him and some of the tourney objects to appear in practice mode but a fault in the designer has caused this and he couldn't rectify it.

Best Hole: Again a tough decision, but I am going to go for the par 4 10th which starts off on a really nicely laid out elevated tee with good planting, then your second shot is uphill to a raised green guarded by tough deep bunkers, once on the green depending on the pin position, should give you a chance of birdie, the attention to detail can be seen in the splashes of colour in the planting here, although that could be said of any of the holes.

Overall: A well designed course, although that mountain backdrop is there again, it is the texture of the grass and the excellent planting that raises this course into one of my top 10 so far, I am sure that these textures will be copied by many. Don't be put off by the large download, even if you only have a 56k modem like me, it is well worth the wait.

I look forward to Ed's next design, which if he tidies up the bunkers and gets a new panorama will be even better than this.

Links Corner Design Analysis

Stoney Run was one of those courses started that very nearly never saw the light of day, I'm glad to see it did surface. The course is made of a lot of custom textures, with some giving a feeling of less depth on lower spec machines. The naming of these textures within the course is open for question, such as MCFringe and Fairway2, but these don't spoil the game. The course is set out well, with testing lies on many fairways. Bunkers, are a little poor being simple extrusions with hard faces, but they work.

The things that I caught whilst playing are worth mentioning. The tree on the right of the 2nd green appears to be standing off the ground a few feet as I view it. There is also some pulled verts around the corner of the hole in the rough/pine needles. On the 4th some of the path slopes, and there appears to be a small pull visible in the fringe of the 5th green. The 6th hole bunker has a small texture bleed inside towards green. The 14th fairway is raised quite severely showing some pulls around the areas it meets the 1st cut. And without trying to sound too critical, the man holding the scorecard and a few other objects do seem to find there way into a line of shot, the 2nd green will cause serious trouble if you overshoot for this reason. I would like to comment upon the familiarity to a tutorial, the 17th hole seems. But, the main point of this course would have to be the file size, and as it stands over 50mb I did expect a little more.

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Lacy Gearheart's thoughts..

A long anticipated course that was well worth the wait. It was one of the first to feature the chequered mow lines on the fairways and set a new standard when it came to the planting of vegetation. A download is suggested.

Course Info :
Cameo Screen? Yes
Splash Screen? Yes
Text file?
Hole Previews?
59mb
Reviewed March 2001

This course is available as a FREE download.


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