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RockCreek
by Steve Mihelarakis
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 611 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-10-17 |
33,524,967 bytes |
72 |
7266 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
MOUNTAIN |
RockCreek.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| b477be40c33f11d59f1ea599da29f153 |
7e365aa96f097e08eb9512f55a8292fc |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Mike Nifong
January 2002
Course type: This is a fictional course set in an area that I would describe as a mountain valley. The pano used is Whistler, and frankly, I have seen it look better. It seems a bit too bluish in tone to blend well with the colors selected for the course itself.
Historical perspective: This is the first APCD course created by Steve Mihelarakis. Released on October 17, 2001, it garnered a fairly respectable two stars (60-69%) from the six voters who responded in the user review section. At 31.5MB, the download file size falls into that area between average and large-file courses: not huge, but big enough to make anyone with a 56K connection think carefully about what it may have to offer.
What is included: The whole package. The read-me file contains excellent notes on the challenges offered by each hole, and these serve as a useful supplement to the attractive but minimally informative hole previews. The cameo and splash screen, both derived from screenshots of the course, are adequate but not especially inviting.
First impressions: The first impression that you will have of this course is its openness - almost like a meadow. The generous fairway is relatively flat from the upward-sloping rough on the left to the downward-sloping rough on the right, although it does slope a bit toward the hole; the configuration makes your driver a less than optimal choice for your tee shot, as your ball may roll off the end of the fairway into the rough that separates it from the green. The hole plays into a rounded clearing in the forest (which is attractively planted and not overdone in the under planting, which allows you to play your ball out of it). A sea of deep grass that really looks like it is 10' or so high encircles the tee area and part of the fairway, although there is a generous collar of rough. (Unlike the forest, by the way, the deep grass texture is essentially unplayable: if you hit into it, take a drop.) You may also notice that there is no cart path (an amenity I expect in fictional courses).
What comes next: For the most part, these first impressions are borne out through the rest of the course. The planting is consistent and tasteful (with the exception of a particularly garish striped bed of grass-like plants to the left of the tee area on #9). The bunkers are generally well done, with a nice small lip, although there was the occasional hint of a V-shaped bottom. The mesh work is pretty good - the only really obvious shadow I saw was in the bunker on #5. But there were also a couple of areas where the execution was disappointing. The first of these is what I refer to as the 'tablecloth effect', by which I mean that the boundary between two textures corresponds exactly with a sharp change in slope, giving an appearance similar to that of a cloth draped over the top of a round table; some of the more obvious examples can be seen on #4 (both first cut to rough and fringe to rough), #6 (fringe to rough), and #18 (fringe to rough). Not only does this make the course look less realistic, but it can also make the ball bounce in an unrealistic manner.
A more significant failing, however, especially for a course that features lots of water and calls itself Rock Creek, is the disappointing and variable treatment given to the edges of the lakes and streams that appear. On #6, for instance, there are a couple of areas of mud flat that look like what you might find if the level of the lake were below normal. An interesting idea, and well executed in part. The problem is that, water having the physical characteristics that it does, its level will drop the same amount at every point in a particular impoundment; yet here we have areas contiguous to the mud where the grass goes all the way to the water's surface (indeed, this flooded look is the usual treatment), and that just cannot happen in real life. Real life, by the way, is what the water seems to lack: with the exception of one small pond, which is planted rather ineffectively, there are no plants at the edge of the water, making it look sterile and unnatural. Rock Creek itself looks more like a drainage canal than a natural stream; rather than a bed of smaller rocks rounded by the passage of water over the years, or a stream that has cut its way through a rocky substrate, what we have is a mud-banked ditch with a few medium-sized irregular-shaped rocks sitting in the middle as if someone had thrown them in there.
But then there are those greens. I would have to say that I have enjoyed the greens on few courses more than these. They are not flat - rather they are a good variety of domes and ridges and slopes and tiers - but they seem not at all contrived, and they play wonderfully. In one round, I sank twelve birdie putts and one eagle putt, ranging in length from just under a foot to just over 47'; in another round, I had eight putts rim out. What I always had, however, was the sense that if I read the green right and hit the ball cleanly it was going in the hole. You can't ask much more than that from a green.
In terms of playability (other than putting), the course was rather average. All of the par-5's are reachable from the back tees unless you have unfavorable wind conditions, in which case you will probably want to lay up on #8, where the green is on a peninsula (one of the tougher greens, too). The only par-4 that may be reachable is #10, but it will surely tempt you to try it; from the back tees, it is a very low percentage shot. Probably the best risk/reward hole is #18, which has the option of playing your tee shot to a very narrow island fairway; hit it and you will have a good shot at an eagle, miss it and you are looking at bogey.
The bottom line: Something of a mixed bag, then. There are probably a dozen or so really outstanding courses of approximately this file size, all of which should command a higher priority than this one. But if you already have those, and if you have the room, this is by no means a bad course. I will keep it just for the greens, which seem to get the balance between challenging and fair just about perfect. For the rest of you, let's just say 'somewhat recommended,' or perhaps 'recommended with reservations.' .
Course Statistics :
Par 72; 4 sets of tees; 7266 yards from back tees; holes are handicapped |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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