GlenMills Golf Club
by Jassi (ToppBanana) Harding

Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 620 Release Date CRZ Filesize Par Course Length 2001-10-27  25,019,937  bytes 71  6864 yards Type Style CRZ Filename REAL  PARKLAND  GlenMills Golf Club.crz  Course ID Course Key 54953365756c4f95bd91dbf3ff036004  8c438835f316fd8dff5fac3123db5548  COURSE SCREENSHOTS COURSE NOTES . LINKS CORNER REVIEW Reviewed by Mike Nifong January 2002 Course type: This is a real, parkland-style course situated in Glen Mills, PA. Historical perspective: This is the 15th of the 16 course designs (and redesigns) submitted to the Links Corner by Jassi Harding, having been released on October 27, 2001. At 24.3MB, the download file is about average for an APCD course. This is the fourth of Jassi's designs that I have played, and the third for which I have been assigned official reviewing duties, tying me with Dave Campbell (Bluesbro) as the most prolific reviewer (a distinction of enormous dubiousness) of our most prolific designer. At 3 stars, Glen Mills has the highest user review score of any of Jassi's courses, although that is based on only two responses. With others of his courses (e.g., Hartefeld National Fall and his recent collaboration with Keith Haney, Wrecking Crew), I have noticed that the user reviews start off at the 5-star level and then plummet rapidly as disinterested linksters download only to discover that they have been the victims of what we lawyers refer to as puffery. (At that point, the vast majority become uninterested linksters, but that's another story.) In this case, it appears that at least the version being considered here is an improvement over its earlier incarnation, which received the dreaded silver star. What is included: The read-me file contains Jassi's usual brief information on the location of the course and acknowledgements. The cameo is a bas-relief of the course logo, and the splash screen is derived from a photograph of the clubhouse area. Also included are .jpg files of the front and back of the scorecard. There are no hole previews. First impressions: As is often the case with Jassi's more recent designs, not bad. This is another very open course, colorful, and (at least superficially) rather pretty. The tree line, in particular, struck me as quite attractive. There was one annoyance, a syncopated cricket that begins his chirping as the first hole is rendering and continues until the redraw after your tee shot. What comes next: As is always the case with any of Jassi's designs, beauty is only skin deep. The more closely you examine things, the less likely you are to find them pleasing. The very same flaws that have haunted each of his previous efforts - angular shapes, poor mesh work, bad texture transitions, sloppy elevations, repetitive planting - are found in abundance here. The bunker work, although somewhat improved in the occasional individual bunker, remains appallingly below the current standard. Water treatments, never a strong point in any of his designs, continue to be poorly done, although the relative lack of water on this course (a small stream runs through most of the back nine but is never in play and rarely in view, and ponds on #10 and #16 are the only other water present) minimizes the problem. Once again, the water looks okay at a glance, but closer inspection reveals that there is nothing but surface - the top surface of the rock border surrounding each pond, the top surface of each island within those ponds, even the tops of the rocks bordering the supposedly running water in the stream, all are in precisely the same plane as the top surface of the water itself. It looks for all the world like a painting on the top surface of a plate of glass. Oh, and that cricket I mentioned on the first tee apparently followed me, since I heard the identical syncopated chirp on the second tee, and then again on the fairway on #3. After that, I thought I had lost him (or that the golfer ani finally had enough and stepped on him), but he showed up again on the tenth tee. As for the actual play of the Glen Mills course, it was (how should I put this?). uneventful. I would imagine that the actual golf course, like many similarly situated golf courses around the country, provides a pleasant and much-appreciated diversion for the members of the public who come to play it every weekend. Unfortunately, that is not a sufficient justification for recreating it for a computer golf sim. If you play pro click, you should consistently score in the mid-50's (on my initial play through, I shot a 56, and that was in breezy conditions with difficult pins). There is no risk, and there is precious little reward. This is probably the first course I ever played where I hoped I would not get a hole-in-one (and I came quite close on several occasions) because then I would have to keep the course on my HD to be able to replay the shot. Maybe it could be useful as a practice course for champ clickers or powerstrokers, but my guess is that those of you who play that way will already have better courses for that purpose. The bottom line: It occurred to me as I was playing this course in preparation for writing this review that I could just cobble together random sentences from my previous two ToppBanana reviews and no one would even notice. And then I began to wonder who reads these reviews anyway. Certainly not Jassi, or he would not keep essentially recreating the same course with the same shortcomings. Probably not anyone who has played more than one of his previous courses, since they would have given up on him long ago. But if you are still reading, then I presume it is because you want me to tell you something further. So here goes. There is no compelling reason to download this course unless you just want every one of them. If that's the case, this is still a free country, so be my guest. But as for me, I'll pass. And, since Jassi's courses are pretty much indistinguishable, I think their scores should be pretty much indistinguishable as well. Course Statistics : Par 72; 4 sets of tees; 6864 yards from back tees; holes not handicapped This course is available as a FREE download. Download course Please support Links Corner