| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 527 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-08-18 |
46,581,987 bytes |
72 |
7264 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
PARKLAND |
oregon.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 26c229ea2e6942ce9f44561d12335234 |
e453f01fd8cb43c1ee359b4114826988 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Dave Campbell
Expectations: All I can remember about this course is the supposed phallic shaped bunker near the 1st green. Expecting a setting fitting the Northwest U.S.
First Impressions: Oregon Golf Club is the first of two designs submitted to the Links Corner by Yves and was posted on 8/18/01, his subsequent release being Belvedere Golf Club. This fictional parkland layout offers a unique two tee option setup, with the back tees measuring 7,264 yards. The panorama looks good and planting and hole design work well together. It is very playable and surprisingly good for a first design. Let's dig a bit deeper.
Playability: Oregon GC is constructed pretty well and Yves has put together a nice fictional layout. It really has a good flow to it and some very pretty holes. Good mix of hazards and the tree planting fits perfect. A few of the beginner errors pop up every now and then but overall a great effort. Some real nice looks from the top cam, dynamic cam and reverse cam angles too.
The tee boxes are stock in shape and the vistas you see are very nice. Many tees have nicely planted waste areas fronting them, as well as some ponds. There are a few tees with fairly heavy tree planting forcing you to drive through the chute. These also look nice and add a small element of difficulty. The fairways are pretty standard in width and Yves has varied the look in a good way. A mix of doglegs, swerves, straight and snaky looking fairways await your tee shots. The fairways exhibit some elevations and these too are done well. There is no 1st cut but the texture bordering all fairways is 'light rough', which is very easy to recover from. Some landing zones are tight being pinched by sand, water, or both.
The bunkers aren't bad for a first course, I've definitely seen worse. Not deep or intimidating you should be able to recover fairly easy. I noticed the occasional wavy sand surface, or funny shadow. Not enough to drag the course down too much. Placement is traditional and they come into play often. I won't talk in depth about the phallic shaped greenside bunker on the 1st hole. I'm not sure this was on purpose but I must admit that it has an unmistakable look.
Water is about on many holes in the form of ponds, creeks and lakes. Nothing too dangerous but some shots will require you to hit the snap or take a dive. The water all looks flat and reflective but lacks planting in my opinion. There is one great looking island green (the 5th), water near or flanking many greens and a nice creek the criss-crosses the last third of the par 5 7th hole.
The greens are of average size and are open targets if your drive finds the fairway. Believable elevations are present on all greens at the moderate pin settings, and a nice fringe texture surrounds each green. A round with only 26 putts says it all for me. The greens are fair and realistic.
This course is absolutely free of objects with the exception of a clubhouse type structure visible on the 18th tee. I'm not sure if more objects would be better or not. If you like the uncluttered, nature look then this course is for you.
Drawbacks: I've talked about some of the first course errors I noticed; fairway mesh shadows and some hard angled edges, mesh and wavy texture errors in the sand. I must say that they are not prevalent and doesn't affect the courses playability.
I mentioned the lack of planting around most of the water. There is a lack of ground level planting in general throughout the whole course. There are some waste areas fronting a few tee boxes and these were all planted nicely with small brush. I would have liked to see this continue into the rest of the areas of the course. The tree planting was great I thought with a good mix of tree types, and the forest texture areas around the fairway looked good. Just some extra ground level brush to fill in would have finished it in my opinion. Great planting job overall though.
Yves, what's with the tree overhanging the 11th tee box? I was able to shift left and tee off without an adjustment but it just didn't look and feel right to me. Once again, it doesn't affect playability but I could have done without that particular tree.
Best Hole: There are some good ones here, all are playable and fun. I love the par 3 5th hole island green, looks nice and realistic. I think I'll go for 550-yard par 5 7th hole. A nice waste are fronts the tee box and you'll be driving to a skinny fairway landing zone. Nail the drive and you can approach with your second but this has its dangers too. A creek goes back and forth across the fairway the last third of the hole and feeds a pond that sits left of the green. The above screenshot is of me setting up my approach to the 7th green. One of many nice holes on this course.
Test round stats: -4 66%FIR 66%GIR 26 putts. I left several putts short but online so I could have scored higher. I was putting with no grid as well.
Comparable courses: Federation G. & C.C. by Stuart Kahle, Pennington G.C. by Andy Trantner
Overall: As first courses go Oregon Country Club delivers quite nicely. A playable, varied and fun layout, with nice textures and planting and a decent job from the APCD standpoint. This makes we want to go download Belvedere Golf Club, which is Yves' latest release just to see how his technique has improved. I enjoyed my round on Oregon G.C. and will probably keep it on my drive, although it could become a casualty when the hard drive starts filling up. It's a big download too and that leaves me on the fence as to my recommendation for download. Hopefully I've given you enough to make an informed decision. Thanks for the design Yves, I enjoyed playing this course.
Course Info :
Cameo Screen? No
Splash Screen? Yes
Text file? Yes
Hole Previews? No
45mb
Reviewed November 2001 |
This course is available as a FREE download.
|
|
Download course
|
Please support Links Corner
|
