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Crouching Beast (Forest)
by Mark Franzoia
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 634 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-10-31 |
33,872,034 bytes |
72 |
7971 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Crouching Beast (Forest Course).crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 95654320cdd411d5b8558894a06dbe3c |
ffb855dfe1920dfa9b0bf3559e9b5f30 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Mike Nifong
December 2001
Course type: This is a fictional course set in a pine forest that, for all practical purposes, also serves as the pano.
Historical perspective: As most regulars of this community will undoubtedly recognize, this course was the winner of Microsoft's Armchair Architect contest. That decision proved to be a controversial one, not in the least because the version initially made available for download had several greens on which the cup was not visible in the main view. That shortcoming (which, in all fairness, was at least as much the fault of the people who ran the contest as it was of the designer) was soon remedied by the release of a fixed version. This is the first course Mark has released to the Links Corner.
What is included: The customary cameo and splash screen are included. (This is a very minor point, but the splash screen strikes me as too busy, with several smaller views of the course overlaid around the edges of a larger picture in which your attention is unfortunately drawn to the golfer animation in the foreground rather than the vista itself. While no one would ever reject a course based on the splash screen, this one represents a lost opportunity to present the course at its best from the outset.) There are no hole previews and, to the best of my recollection, there is no read-me (the course has been on my HD for a while, but I print out all 'read-me's that contain more than mere acknowledgements, and I do not have one for this course).
First impressions: From the back tees of the elevated and stepped tee box, the view down this 477-yard par 4 dogleg left looks open and inviting. Large bunkers on either side of the landing area protect the fairway, but the space between them looks reassuringly generous. The textures, especially those in the immediate vicinity of the tee box, are very pleasing, although the deep grass texture seems a little too brown to blend harmoniously with the rest.
The forest itself bears comment. As one might expect, the predominant texture on the forest floor is pine needles, which is fine, but the primary under planting seems to be clumps of grass that would look a lot more comfortable on sand dunes; moreover, these clumps of grass are not relegated just to the border of the forest, but seem to extend throughout. If the purpose is to make the forest harder to play out of (although I never hit a ball into it), I suppose it works, but I have lived in the land of pine forests for most of my life, and this one looks like none that I have seen. The same is true of the trees themselves, which, with their uniform size, give the appearance they were all planted on the same day. These little deviations from reality would probably matter less if the forest did not figure so prominently in the view on each hole, but in context, I found them distracting.
What comes next: Well, while we are on the subject of appearance, a few things stand out. First are the extrusions, which mark the texture transitions around the tee boxes (not generally problematic, but some of them, at the 2nd hole, for example, look a bit ungainly) and those between the fairways and first cut and between the first cut and rough. Their potential for affecting shots has often been remarked upon in discussions of other courses, although I could not get these to misbehave even when I tried. But, at least as executed here, with no rounding, parts of the course, especially around the greens, looked like they were cut out of green felt and stacked on top of each other: not really unattractive, but not very realistic either. The water treatments were okay, but nothing special; the stream on the 18th hole was a bit disappointing.
Other visual anomalies, such as mesh shadows, were occasionally noticeable (and more prominently so, it seems, on the back 9), but not distracting. The most glaring error affects the rock face behind the 14th green, which looked like a checkerboard of alternating light and dark triangles superimposed on a brown rock texture. Since I am not a designer, I do not know what caused that effect, but I have never seen it before (and would be more than willing to forego seeing it in the future).
As I indicated earlier, this course has no pano to speak of. On the 2nd and 4th holes, there is a break in the trees behind the green that allows you to see a rather indistinct bluish horizon (water?). At least that is the case in the main view; the top camera shows forest there. Odd, but inconsequential.
Lest you think from the preceding comments that this course is (dare I say it?) sub par visually, let me assure you that that is not the case. It is for the most part quite handsome, and some holes are very attractive (the 3rd, 4th, 16th and 18th come to mind). What it lacks is that quality of utterly convincing reality that distinguishes the very best fictional courses.
And what about the play? It must be acknowledged at the outset that this course is unremittingly long - just less than 8000 yards from the back tees. The shortest par 3 is 221 yards, and only three of the par 4's are under 450 yards. What that means is that you will be using your long irons and fairway woods more than your short irons (and I don't know about you, but I am usually much better with the short irons). Because of the width of the landing areas, the profusion of bunkers (more than a dozen on some holes) will not affect you much off the tee - you can easily avoid them unless you miss your snap. The fairways are nicely contoured, with undulations that will give you variable lies, further increasing the odds that your long second shots will find the sand that is so prominently featured around the greens. (The bunkers are unremarkable in construction but play fairly.) Water appears on only five holes, but it affects play on four of them.
The thing that really separates the men from the boys here is the greens. In my notes, I described six of them as very tough, and only two as easy (the rest being average to tough). Slopes can be very severe, making it hard to get the ball close to the hole (or, sometimes, to keep it there). I think that it is conscious design rather than coincidence that the flattest greens can be found on the holes where water is the predominant hazard - this gives you a little more margin for error in your approach shots. But on the whole, you should not count on dropping a lot of long putts.
Considering that three of them are over 613 yards, you would probably expect that the par 5's are pretty much unreachable. Actually, because of a 41-yard elevation drop (which means that a driver hit 12/6 will net you 310-320 yards), you can get your second shot on the 647-yard 14th close enough to have a chip for eagle (and a really good shot at birdie, since this is a moderate green). On the other hand, because the green is so huge, you can easily reach it with your second shot on the 613-yard 4th, but then you will find yourself more than 80 feet away from and 7 feet below the hole. Unless you are an on-the-green chipper, you are much better off setting up a wedge shot to get close enough for a birdie - eagle is out of the question. But the best risk/reward hole is the 453-yard par 4 9th, with its dual fairway and island green. The safe route is to play your tee shot straight ahead, setting up about a 7I to the green. Or you can fade your tee shot over the trees to the right fairway to set up a LW to the green for a sure birdie - fade it too much and you wind up in a bunker or in the trees; fade it not enough and you are in the water. Great hole!
The bottom line: My impression is that most golfers here at Links Corner did not think this was the best course entered in the Armchair Architect contest. (My personal opinion, shared by many, is that Steve Pope's Prestige was actually the best of those courses.) But my impression is also that disagreement with the judges' choice tended to make some criticisms of this course more severe than it deserved. It was only a short while ago that any of us would have been thrilled to discover a course of this quality. That Mark Franzoia achieved this degree of success on his first attempt is impressive indeed, and I am certainly looking forward to his next offering. In the meantime, this course will not be suitable for all preferences or all styles of play, but I recommend that you give it a look. You just might find you like it better than you thought you would.
Course Statistics :
Par 72; 5 sets of tees; 7086 yards from back tees; holes are handicapped. |
This course is available as a FREE download.
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