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Champion Lakes
by Jessica Morales

Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 912
Release Date CRZ Filesize Par Course Length
2002-05-19  16,759,753  bytes 72  7249 yards
Type Style CRZ Filename
IMAGINARY  PARKLAND  Champion Lakes.crz 
Course ID Course Key
c82846a129da49ebaeb8b60ba2216fe1  b071474cbb26d996fc4758a631f7eeea 

COURSE SCREENSHOTS

LINKS CORNER REVIEW

Reviewed by
Chuck Clark
June 2002

Background: This is the first golf course released to Links Corner by Ms. (?) Morales. The following information was contained in the read-me: 'This Course is rather unique in its design. All holes have water running across the fairways. OB is all red forest Land. This course is imaginary. This course was designed by Jessica Morales'. Well, I am not quite sure what to make of that; but it sounds kind of interesting. I am also interested to see another APCD course done by a female. It seems that almost all of our designers around here are males. Delinda Woods is the only other female designer I can remember, and she did a fantastic job, so hopefully Ms. Morales work is similar.

Overall Impression: This is a relatively flat course with lots of trees and water hazards (canals or streams, not sure which) running across almost every fairway. These canals are seemingly everywhere. The textures used are stock ones and the planting is both repetitive and inconsistent. What I mean by that is that the planting can be repetitive on a single hole and then completely change on the next one. In addition, many of the course shapes are stock ones as well, especially the tee boxes and greens. The layout is interesting, but the course is just too poorly done to really take too seriously.

Playability: This course is generally playable. It is fairly level, which includes the greens. The fairways are ok width-wise, with a few exceptions. The canals can mostly be avoided for the most part. The course is playable, but I guess it is a bit mundane. Making a course that is playable and exciting is a difficult thing to obtain. Unfortunately, this course fails on the exciting part.

Shot Values: Really not much to talk about here. You will have mostly flat lies into fairly flat greens. There are some interesting dog-legs and the canals to avoid, but that shouldn't give you too much trouble.

Visuals: As mentioned above, the planting was both repetitive and inconsistent. The same trees and flowers were used on some holes and then didn't make an appearance on the following hole. The planting was not badly done, but it was a bit weird at times. The canals were not well done at all. The water texture was not flattened, so it was not reflective in places. This made the water look like black ink in most spots. Since the water is an integral part of the course, this was a big detraction. Many of the holes were very similar as well. Almost all of the holes have the same look and feel.

Technique: Unfortunately, this course is poorly finished from a technical standpoint. There were many errors on display here including: bad shadows, sharp edges, textures that unnaturally merge and split apart (this happens when you insert shapes and don't fix the mesh afterward), floating objects, textures that were not coded right (grassy area that registers as water), un-flattened tee boxes (unused ones) and poorly done 3-D walls. I did like the planting at times though and the course did seem to fit the pano for the most part.

Summary: Although the layout was kind of intriguing and there are some interesting holes here and there, this course is just too poorly done to really recommend to anyone. Much more work is needed on the technical aspects of this course to fully achieve the intent of the design. Beta testing could have found many of these errors. The designer needs to ask for help and further develop her skills. In addition, the course did not really excite me. Many of the holes seemed just like the last ones. Basically there was one theme here and the designer stuck to it.

I am both a player and a designer. I review courses primarily from the standpoint of fun and playability. I appreciate courses that are beautiful to look at, but first and foremost I want a fun experience. I have spent many hours designing courses myself, so I understand the blood, sweat and tears that go into the design process. Any critical comments made here are meant to be constructive and helpful.

Included/Not Included:
Cameo: Yes
Splash Screen: Yes
Hole Previews: No
Tee Signs: No
Custom Tee Markers: No
Custom Flags: No
Read-Me: No
Handicaps: No
Custom or added Sounds: No?

This course is available as a FREE download.


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