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Dayton Public Links
by Mike Schmidt
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 76 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2001-04-12 |
15,429,934 bytes |
72 |
6987 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
FICTIONAL |
WOODLAND |
Dayton_Public_Links.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| 85e63a222ed411d599bc444553540000 |
c6aa59ed15a5a86e4e671fa5a94904d3 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by Mick Lenton June 2001
Thoughts from the 1st: This looks a nicely laid out course. A lot of use has been made of colour in the shape of flowers, even round the front of the tees. The trees look nicely done too.
So I am standing on the big, square first tee, waiting for the bell to ring and then I will be on my way. Right, a par 5 to start with. Doesn't look TOO strenuous though. Here we go!
The Course: As I have said this par 72 fictional course, that sounds like it should be a real one, starts with a reasonably gentle par 5 with a dogleg to the left. This course does contain a lot of doglegs, some of them very slight though, just enough to make you think where you are going to place your drive.
This is Mike's first course put up to us and I am quite impressed. For example, on the 1st, a well placed drive to a quite wide fairway, providing you miss the small bunker on the corner of the dogleg, should leave you a reasonably simple fairway wood to the green that is guarded in front by a circle of rough instead of the obligatory bunker. In fact bunkers do not play a huge part in this tightly wooded course, which is not a bad thing.
The planting uses a mixture of deciduous trees, pines, and bushes, with a lot of flowers. There is maybe too many of single types of trees in some places but it doesn't stand out too badly. There is no real under planting, but in a lot of places this is masked by the bushes and flowers.
Standard textures are used. The tees run straight into the rough which does cause some sharp edges on the elevated ones as there are no protective verts. There are three tee positions, Back Middle and Forward. We REALLY must remember the ladies!!!
There are some inconsistencies with the fairways. Some have no edge and if on some of those holes where the fairway meets the green it carries round as a fringe. On some however the stock fringe has been used and I have to say again this is not a texture to be used for fairway edging unless it is cloned and given different properties such as rough. The thing is this standard texture has been set up to act in a certain way in Links and if nothing else it can produce some odd speech announcements. So if you MUST use the fringe texture to get the effect you want you must clone it and give it different properties.
The fairway stripes have not been mapped and therefore all run in the same direction. A small job that can make quite a bit of difference.
As I mentioned above, doglegs are used frequently, sometimes double doglegs. Most are quite gentle though and have been used to make you think about where to place your drive and par 5's to make your 2nd shot a bit more difficult. The 11th is a good example of this as a difficult fairway wood over quite high trees can get you on in 2. Sometimes you do come upon a tree though that behaves like a brick wall. Whether this is caused by the problem that has been found using custom objects and not giving them the correct properties before planting, I don't know. It can cause a problem on a couple of the tight drives.
Mike has used the planting of trees well, to force you into either shaping your shot, or playing maybe not quite where you want to.
The stock 'off silver' sand has been used for the bunkers some of which are fairly stock shape, but quite a few have been shaped nicely and all of them have been finished off nice and simply and they don't look too bad at all. Just a bit of stretching occasionally on the higher banks.
The greens are mostly simple shapes either surrounded by a ring of fairway or fringe. They are quite gently contoured and most putts will have gentle break, with the occasional more severe one. There is a very bad edge on the 3rd that should have been picked up and fixed. Rapped knuckles for that one!!! I also have to admit that I personally like to see designers be a bit more adventurous with the green shapes.
As for the 4 lakes on the course, 2 have been finished off with just a grass edge which looks fine. The other two have been given a vertical stone edge. The problem is that the stone has not been mapped and of course we have those, IMO, horrible vertical lines.
In general though, for a first course, a well constructed effort.
Playability: A nice course with a balance of fairly easy holes, to one's that demand very accurate or manufactured drives and shots. There are both roomy and tight holes, some straightaway with fairly easy shots and then there are those doglegs, that can give you a lot to think about.
Gentle greens give you a good chance of scoring well.
A couple of the par 5's, the 1st and 5th are good eagle chances. The 11th has a chance if you risk that shot over the trees, but I doubt anyone will reach the 15th.
Overall a nice course to play.
Good Points: A nice variety of hole. Nice planting. Great playability. Excellent 1st course.
Bad Points: The sharp tee edges and the very occasional bad edge. Those 2 badly finished Lakes. That tree rebound problem which is not really the designer's fault.
Favourite Hole: The difficult par 4, 4th the narrow fairway of which winds through the trees, requiring an accurate drive to keep you on the fairway.
Least Favourite Hole: I had to search really hard here and have plumped for the par 3, 2nd if only because it is probably the least challenging hole
Final thoughts: For a first course this is excellent. My designer's eye saw very few errors and my limited player's skills were put to the test.
Have a look at this one. It may not be a very original design but it plays really well and may be a keeper for some.
Well done Mike.
Filesize 14MB
Course Info :
Splash Screen? Yes
Cameo Screen? Yes
Custom Flag? No
Custom Tee Markers? No
Hole Previews? No
Readme file? No
Par - 72 6987yds |
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