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TPC @ River Highlands
by Chas Demster

Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 842
Release Date CRZ Filesize Par Course Length
2002-04-02  28,902,526  bytes 70  6820 yards
Type Style CRZ Filename
REAL  PARKLAND  TPC @ River Highlands.crz 
Course ID Course Key
7f4772a1465d11d69d64ecde273ae509  e246311813af44d2edf76019b825d7a2 

COURSE SCREENSHOTS

LINKS CORNER REVIEW

Reviewed by Chuck Clark April 2002

Background: This is the fifth course released to Links Corner by Mr. Dempster, although technically, this course is an upgraded version of one of his earlier efforts called LPC at The Highlands. This is a real course used by the PGA Tour for the Canon Greater Hartford Open. It is a course that has been changed and rechanged many times in real life, so it is fitting that Mr. Dempster has chosen to do the same thing. Here is what he says in the read-me:

"Yes this is my second edition for this course with LPC @ The Highlands being the original. After seeing comments about the color of the water that I used well I figured that I should make a second version for this great course. I also decided that it was best to go ahead and use the real name so people would recognize it from the course list. I will list all of the changes that I made to this course plus give everyone a hole-by- hole description. Remember I have never stepped foot on this course so all of work was done from seeing the PGA Tour website and from seeing this great course on television. One thing I could not figure out is the computer scoreboards. They always faced the opposite direction when they were correct in the course designer. I hope you will enjoy this version a lot better. WOW I am still learning something new about this course designer all of the time. "

As we all are Mr. Dempster.

Overall Impression: This is a good solid real course design effort. There isn't any frills or fluff here, just golf. What I mean by that is that the non-golfing areas aren't really finished completely or realistically. There isn't any roads and fire hydrants and fences (etc, etc, etc). The golf course itself is finished rather nicely, so that is what we will focus on. Mr. Dempster has done a good job (I think) of recreating a real couse without going overboard. I don't really know if the design is completely true to the actual course, so I won't play "real course police" here and second guess the details. I do know it looks a lot like the course I have seen on TV many times and I enjoyed playing it. Like a lot of real course renditions, it plays a bit easy, at least until you get to the last few water holes. The planting, textures and APCD work are nothing you're ever gonna forget Mike Jones over, but they are all solid nonetheless. If you like to play Virtual tours on real PGA Tour courses, then this course is just for you. The defending champion this year is Phil Mickleson, so see if you can beat him this year in the Canon GHO!

Playability: This course is like a lot of real courses, very playable and sometimes a bit easy. But that is what you expect from a course like this. It is a good solid challenge for champ level players and a lot of fun for everyone else. My only real issue here was a couple of pins which were quite near some edges, but they weren't as bad as some courses I have played.

Shot Values: Well, there is not much going on here, until you get to the last four holes. The fifteenth is that really fun drivable par 4, with the lake left of the green. It is a great risk-reward hole and really gets you nervous if you decide to go for the green. The sixteenth is a pretty par 3, which plays completely over water. Don't be short or your ball will find a watery grave; probably right next to mine! The seventeenth is another great water hole. The drive must be placed in a narrow fairway between the lake on the right and some bunkers and a hillside on the left. The pros always struggle with this hole and so did I. If you are protecting a one shot lead, it is pretty easy to bail out to the left. But that leaves you with a dicey second shot over water. This is a really fun three hole set.

Visuals: Well, if this course fails in any way, this would be it. The planting is ok, but not really special. The textures used are generally uninspiring and didn't really stand out. The background was uneventful. There are many houses lining this course and they became pretty redundant at times. It looked like about 5 different house objects were used (I could be wrong about this) so you keep seeing the same ones over and over. The course itself was nicely done though, so none of these issues are that important.

Technique: The techniques used here were pretty good. There were a few small things that I noticed, but nothing really glaring. All in all, I thought the course was very well done.

Summary: This is a good real course rendition of a PGA Tour course. I recommend it to people who like to play virtual tours on real tournament courses. The course is not the most inspiring of venues, but not everywhere can be Cypress Point. I really enjoyed playing the final four holes, especially after watching those on TV many times before. This course will never make you forget Augusta or Spyglass as real course recreations, but all in all it's not bad either.

Included/Not Included:

Cameo: Yes
Splash Screen: Yes
Hole Previews: No
Tee Signs: No
Custom Tee Markers: Yes
Custom Flags: No
Read-Me: Yes
Handicaps: Yes
Custom or added Sounds: No

This course is available as a FREE download.


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