|
Torrey Pines South 2002
by Chuck Clark
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 980 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2002-07-18 |
29,519,322 bytes |
72 |
7607 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
|
REAL |
OCEAN |
Torrey South.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
| a138ef7bac6e4739952687754fe1bde6 |
1d77b3d91d158a9d21f0266dfe5aede7 |
|
LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by
Mike Nifong
August 2002
Course type: Torrey Pines South is a real golf course which (along with its sister North Course) 'sits atop a 300-foot bluff above the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, California. adjacent to Torrey Pines State Park.' While the original version of the South course, built by William Bell, has long been known to members of the Links community through the Access rendition, Chuck has given us a re-creation of the 'new' South Course, following its complete refurbishment by Rees Jones during July-November, 2001.
Historical perspective: Released to the Links Corner on July 18, 2002, Torrey Pines is Chuck's seventh course, following Rugged Coast (April 2001), Crocodile Falls (May 2001), Crowning Hills (August 2001), Box Canyon (October 2001), Bunker Hill (November 2001), and The Players 18 (April 2002). The five 2001 courses were all of very modest file size (7.9MB to 13.9MB); they received a consistent reception among the voters in the user reviews (all but Crowning Hills received two stars) and an increasingly favorable one among the official reviewers (rising from the upper 50's to the lower 80's). At the same time, it could be said with justification that Chuck's priorities during this phase were directed more towards the creation of courses that were fun to play than towards courses of great polish - he himself admitted that he was no Mike Jones.
The release of The Players 18, however, signalled the beginning of a new chapter in Chuck's designing career. For one thing, its file size was not so modest: at 31.3MB, it was nearly as large as his last three courses put together. More importantly, however, it was also much superior in both technical and artistic quality to any of his previous designs; this fact was reflected in both its 4-star user rating and his LC review score of 90 (I was the reviewer). Torrey Pines, Chuck's first attempt at a real course, continues in the tradition of The Players 18, but also represents another big step forward.
For what it is worth, all of Chuck's designs have spent some time on my HD, and five of them (all but Rugged Coast and Crowning Hills) remain.
What is included: In a package that, at 26.4MB, is just under the average APCD course size, Chuck has provided pretty much everything one could ask for. There is an entertaining read-me that provides a brief history of the course and the design project, along with some of Chuck's own insights, based on years of familiarity, into the 'personality' of Torrey Pines. The cameo is based on the course logo, and the splash screen (also provided as an image file, as are the front and back covers of the scorecard) is a map of the South Course layout. The very informative hole previews are taken directly from the yardage book. The tournament option effectively captures the major event feel. Finally, there is a recorded round to play against.
Technical merit:
This course is absolutely pristine. If there were any flaws, I did not find them (at least not on the course itself - there were some straight lines in the undeveloped section of the course plot, visible only in the top view, where the off-course buildings would go if they were included). I'll go a step further: with this course, Chuck joins the ranks of the acknowledged masters of the APCD - designers like Mike Jones and Guenter Kujat and Eddie Schmidt
Artistic achievement:
This is not your father's Torrey Pines. Although the redesign left the general shapes of the holes intact, the changes wrought effectively make this a completely new course. There are many new bunkers, especially along the fairways, and most of the pre-existing bunkers have been enlarged and reshaped. The back tees have been relocated, but much of the increased length is also due to the fact that all of the greens have been rebuilt, often closer to the canyons than before. In many places, the trees also seem to have been moved back from the fairways, opening the course up a bit and making the canyons seem closer. All of this has been magnificently captured in Chuck's re-creation. So magnificently, in fact, that despite all the changes in the layout, what you will be struck most by if you revisit the old Access/Microsoft version of Torrey Pines is how much more beautiful the new version is.
One factor that contributes substantially to the shocking disparity in attractiveness is the perfection of the textures chosen for the new course; not only are they markedly superior in appearance to those in the original, but they seem to capture the ambience of La Jolla every bit as effectively as those used by Eddie Schmidt captured that of the Monterey Peninsula in his Spyglass Hill (this despite the fact that Chuck used a generic ocean pano instead of the real La Jolla Cove).
The other area in which Chuck's course really surpasses its predecessor is in the planting. This is most striking in the canyons, which he renders with astonishing naturalness, but is evident throughout the course. True to the real Torrey Pines, there is not much underplanting (imagining how much better this will look with the return of shadows in Links 2003 is enough to make me drool), but the custom trees look just right from almost any angle - only if you find yourself close behind or next to one will you notice that the resolution is not quite as good as with the stock trees.
There was not a lot of water in the original Torrey Pines, and there is a little less in the new one: the pond (actually more of a wide stream) in front of the green on #11 has been replaced by a V-shaped asphalt trench with just a trickle across the bottom. But the pond in front of the green on #18 has never looked better.
In truth, about the only things Chuck did not give us that anyone could want were the buildings along #18, #9 and #10, and a custom pano (he explains why he did not do so in his read-me). If he were ever to go back and add them, I would probably have to bump the score on this part up to 98% or thereabouts.
Play value:
Of all the changes wrought on Torrey Pines South by its refurbishment, the one with the greatest potential effect on playability would seem to be its increased length. At 7607 yards from the back tees, some 618 yards longer than the original incarnation, it has become a very long course. Even the middle tees on the new course play almost 240 yards longer than the back tees of the old course, although that statement is a little misleading; with the exception of three holes (#9, #15 and #18, which together are 213 yards longer than their predecessors), the middle tees on the new course play very close to the distances of the original back tees. As a practical matter, however, I did not observe that lower scores were significantly easier to obtain from the middle tees, for myself or the computer players - the difference was, on average, less than one stroke per round.
Part of the reason that longer is not necessarily harder lies in the fact that many of the new fairway bunkers, which are perfectly placed for the middle tees, never come into play from the back. Chuck points out in his read-me that the back tee markers are normally not even placed on the course and suggests that the course is more fun and plays better from the middle (blue) tees. Having tried it both ways, I absolutely agree with him (and I always play from the back), although I did find some of the views marginally better from the back.
In terms of difficulty, I found Torrey Pines South to be about average under moderate conditions, and perhaps a little more difficult than average under extreme conditions. (It could have been a lot tougher than it is had Chuck opted for U.S. Open-style rough, but his decision to create the course as it actually is, rather than how it might be in 2008, was absolutely the right one.) I usually find my observations borne out fairly well by the computer players, but that turned out not to be the case here. Under b/m/m/m conditions, the foursome of Stadler, Clearwater, Weir and Garcia were a combined -32 (-5 to -10), hitting 69% of the fairways (64-85%) and 76% of the greens (66-83%); these figures are pretty close to what I expected. But under w/f/f/d conditions, they were a surprising -26 (-4 to -10), with not a single bogey, hitting 74% of the fairways (57-92%) and 67% of the greens (55-72%). Part of the discrepancy between expectations and results lay in the absolutely uncanny bunker play of the computer players - I don't know how often you get an eagle out of a greenside bunker (I cannot recall that I ever have), but it happened twice in this round.
Depending on the wind conditions and the tees from which you play, as many as three of the par-5's (#9 is always unreachable) or as few as one (#13) may be reachable in two. But that is all beside the point. Designers of real courses have no leeway in matters of this nature, and real courses this good are few and far between.
The bottom line: Outstanding. Essential. One of the 10 best real course re-creations in the APCD. Absolutely deserving of its 5-star user rating. Should be a part of everyone's permanent collection.
If it is not already part of your collection, what are you waiting for?
Course statistics: Par 72; 5 sets of tees; 7607 yards from back tees; holes are handicapped. |
|
CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Real, ocean course |
Location
TBA |
Conditions
TBA |
Concept 7/10
While it has many good points, the overwhelming impression presented
by Torrey Pines is of Pebble Beach's little brother. The coastline
doesn't have quite the same dramatic impact on the play, nor is the
more open style of the course quite as dynamic. That said, there are
many easily-engaging holes: the Par 5s in particular are well crafted;
and the course's re-working has given the course a brighter feel with
more facets of gameplay coming into action. |
Appearance 7/10
The re-working of the appearance is a triumph - the layout comes across as a lot less blocky than its prior incarnation, and the course
feels lifted by the small changes. The fact remains that the buildings and the low-res textures could easily have been updated, though. |
Playability 9/10
This is where the course has really come into its own. The layering of the rough has been superbly done, and the textures edited in a
subtle way in which Walnut Grove could only have hoped for. The improved Mod-friendliness gives the course much more shelf life
and makes a genuinely viable Open venue. |
Challenge 7/10
Length and the lateral elevations as you play across the cliffs make for a stern test still, even despite some impositions being removed.
The bunkering is still an effective hazard, and it's easy to see why this course has survived many incarnations of the Links genre, being
a genuine challenge in terms of layout and natural environment. |
Technical 7/10
There's still some age showing in the dull textures and some crammed shapes. But Torrey Pines, thanks to even a subtle upgrading, is
holding its own nicely. Best of all is to see the playability and green slopes brought up to modern expectations, affording the course fair
game on the harder conditions, as would befit an Open course. |
| Overall |
An inoffensive and consistently playable round of seaside golf. It might lack drama,
but it also lacks any obvious signs of poor quality. |
37/50 |
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course. |
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