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Burnt Pine at Sandestin SE
by Lacy Gearheart

Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 861
Release Date CRZ Filesize Par Course Length
2002-04-16  34,000,739  bytes 72  7099 yards
Type Style CRZ Filename
REAL  PARKLAND  Burnt Pine SE.crz 
Course ID Course Key
0077b7b7fadf41a49e21fc283861c630  7d3a6160acd5d1611c1cc2676756cf5f 

COURSE SCREENSHOTS

LINKS CORNER REVIEW

Reviewed by Chuck Clark May 2002

Background: I think that most of us are big fans of Lacy Gearheart's golf courses. He is one of the top designers out there, and would make anybody's top 10 list for sure. His last course, Copperhead at Old Works, was a beautiful and interesting course, to say the least. Burnt Pine is an upgrade (or version 2) of a course that Lacy released over a year ago. He, like all the rest of us, has learned a lot of new methods and means to make a course look beautiful in the APCD. These means are completely on display here with this new version. Here is some of what he said in the Read-Me included with the course:

"This is a total remake of the course I designed back in March of 2001. The original course was somewhat well received with only one main complaint. The extrusions that caused bad bounces were the main reason I decided to re-do this course. A few months back several people really asked that I think about re-issuing the course with Previews and a tourney option with objects and Spectators. These two main issues are why I decided to work on this course.

Once I got it back into the APCD, I soon realized that I did a very nasty job of elevations and meshwork. I spent over 1 week total just removing the extrusions along the rough and greens. I then spent the next two weeks cleaning up the mesh. I attempted to keep the elevations as they were until I realized they were not as good as I would like. So I started it all from a flat layout and basically started from scratch. While I was at it I decided to add the coastline of the Choctaw Bay. This is part of the course but never comes into play. I left it out on the original version since I was not really proficient enough with the APCD to make it look natural.

I elevated from ground zero and smoothed out the greens. half of the greens now have a good amount of undulations while the other half are generally smooth and level with just slight undulations. This at least makes it a bit more fair. As with the original version, the fairways are quiet vast and very easy to land on. This version has a slight narrowing on these fairways to make it a bit more challenging while keeping with the real course look. The course has a 2'' 1st cut of rough about 7-10 feet wide and a 6" deep rough main cut that plays as deep grass. The fairways are big enough that if you stray that far off target...you should be deeply penalized. The wind settings are doubled above the default setting to simulate the heavy gusts that are common among the Gulf Coast especially during the 6 month hurricane season. So if you select windy conditions...wind is what you will get.

The textures were completely remade with the originals only used as a base. Planting started from scratch with a totally new planting set. I decided to do this since I had learned so much about this area over the last year. Tourney objects and Hole previews were added just to bring the course up to date with today's standards. This time I also contracted the previews, cameo image , and splash screens out to graphics wizards that honestly do a much better job than I ever could."


Overall Impression: This is a beautiful golf course for Links2001. If you are a fan of real course renditions that look and play completely realistically, then this is a course for you. Everything about it is well done and beautiful to look at. The textures, planting and objects are all very good. There is nothing thrilling and outlandish here like some of our more famous Imaginary courses, but this course is so nice to look at and play that you really don't care.

Playability: This is one of the more playable and fun real courses available. I can't find one thing to carp about concerning playability. As with most real course renditions, this course can play a bit easy with benign conditions, but you can change that by dialing up the difficulty.

Shot Values: This course tests your game pretty good with the possible exception of big elevation changes. Like most courses in Florida, this course is pretty flat. Nothing wrong with that, that is just the way it is! There is lots of water, sand and forested areas if you stray off the fairways. But they all can be avoided with smart golf and prudent play.

Visuals: This course is beautiful. As you can see from the pictures, they don't come any prettier. If I found something to complain about here, I would have to have my head examined! I love the par three's on the back nine. The 12th is a pretty one-shoter over the corner of a large lake. The lake and bunkers are very intimidating and great to look at as well. The 14th is a longer par three over a swampy like area, with a pretty little wall fronting the green. Flowers and bushes are abundant here and add greatly to the environment.

Technique: The techniques used are absolutely flawless. There is not much else to say!

Summary: This is a gorgeous and fabulously done golf course. I heartily recommend it to everyone. It is one of the top courses available and you should download it now, if you haven't already.

Included/Not Included:

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

This course is available as a FREE download.


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