SAHALEE

[Jimbo]

Mr. Brooks!!!

Mygawd man! When you said that you were working on Sahalee I didn't know that you were just about finished!!!

"Everybody heard there were a lot of trees... I don't think anybody imagined this many."
Justin Leonard, 1997 British Open champion, commenting on Sahalee during the 1998 PGA Championship

Here's a little suggestion for the third nine. Is it possible to show a little more "trunk" on the trees? Most of the trees are Douglas Fir with the needle branches about halfway up.
Just wondering...anyway I have some nit to pick...

[Jimbo]

BTW-interesting history to the course-Inglewood and Broadmoor are still operating!

[Pete]

Nice work John, need to play a few more rounds, many thanks

[ChuckH]

So far I think that this is really nice. A couple of observations on first glance. The clubhouse is really blurry. There probably should be a 3D clubhouse. I think the groundcover under all those pine trees should be a pine needles texture. Brown of some sort. It would help to give some color contrast as well as there is a lot of green.

[gene_golf]

I enjoyed playing this course in PGA Golf game before windows killed that and TW games on my computer. I have wondered why US Open or US PGA has not made return visit to this interesting course and came up with this in research. "After the success of the 1998 PGA Championship, Sahalee was selected in 1999 to host the championship again in 2010. That decision was reversed by the PGA of America in January 2005, when the 2010 event was abruptly moved to Whistling Straits in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which had recently hosted the very profitable 2004 edition and set new attendance records. The PGA of America stated that it was concerned about the possibility of reduced financial support in the Pacific Northwest." No wonder as "PGA made decision that gallery will be limited to 25,000 daily for the Aug. 13-16, 1998 event." Also the US Open and US PGA are known to rotate their major tournaments around the US, but playing the PGA in 1998 "will mark the return of one of golf's "majors" to the Northwest after more than 50 years. The 1944 PGA Championship was played at the Manito Golf and Country Club in Spokane and the 1946 PGA was played at the Portland Golf Club, where Ben Hogan won." I see that next year's US PGA tournament will be held at Southern Hills as that site has been moved up a few years to replace Trump venue. This year's US PGA is scheduled to be played at Kiawah Island where McIlroy played well there before. Because of the virus issue limiting spectators recently and probably for the forseeable future it would have been good to see US PGA to have been played at Sahalee next year instead and 25,000 daily spectators back in 1998 compared to recent tournaments played on the tour would make no difference since tournaments are paying out players mainly now by corporate sponsors and tv revenue with cost of spectator tickets being meaningless at this time.

Course played to a par 70 during 1998 PGA tournament with hole 2 playing at 507 yards and hole 11 playing at 546 yards as the only par 5's. After playing a round I noticed that trees are there just for looks and despite hitting decent drives found myself several times with blind shots and a blurry wall of trees in front of me in direction that needed to go. I took my chance and every time my shot went through blurry wall and wound up in good shape. One thing that remember about tournament was the 2 trees that fronted the 11th green forcing a second shot trying to reach green making a player proverbially thread the needle.

[Jimbo]

So far I think that this is really nice. A couple of observations on first glance. The clubhouse is really blurry. There probably should be a 3D clubhouse. I think the groundcover under all those pine trees should be a pine needles texture. Brown of some sort. It would help to give some color contrast as well as there is a lot of green.

I just visited the website again-the clubhouse shares space with the Sahalee Real Estate people!

[brooks2345]

Thanks for replies folks!

Yes, the Clubhouse is only 2D and from a very limited image - hence it's blurry. I really need a hi-spec mage.



I've been very kind on the beta, and made all the trees "pass through" so you can get to play the Course without too much frustration - this won't happen on the final!!!

The tree planting is basically using Links objects that are already available, and I would have liked a few more tree trunks - tried messing around in Photoshop but no decent images of Redwoods or Douglas Firs. If anyone knows of a web site with any, I'd be grateful.

Will make changes for final.

Meanwhile, the second part of the triumvirate (North/East) is on the drawing board...............

Cheers


John Brooks

[Jimbo]

But you have to admit that:

1. That was pretty picky! nad
2. I know my flora and fauna.

It's only about 2 hours from Vancouver Island to Seattle, as the crow flies.....unfortunalely we're not crows so it's several hours via boat and highway, assuming they open the border.
Let me guess-when you say that you're working on the third course that really means that you're posting it today, right? .

BTW I think I know why there are so many trees-the place has more expen$ive houses than a dog has fleas and they're all camouflaged!

The only buildings that you can see (and that JB has captured ) are utility buildings...but thanks for doing them!

[Jimbo]

It looks like Provisualizer is working again. When I do an overhead view it looks as if you've elected to treat holes 2-9 as being on three different peninsulas, separated by large o/o/b rather than plant houses in the open areas but I did notice that you've planted a nice row of expensive real estate close to the course . If you ever get tired of doing courses you have a great future in Links Real Estate! It just looks strange from the top. Is that your last word? Just wondering... (I think I know the answer, so there's no need to be nasty)

All kidding aside, it was a great touch-even if we never see them during a round! And it adds "context" to the course-it's in a wealthy suburb of Seattle and not out in the country.

And FYI, it's not unlike the layout of a certain club in Canada that shall remain nameless...

BTW, there's a bunker on the left side of the 6th fairway right across from the 3 on the right. That's the only real mistake on the south nine.

[brooks2345]

Hi Jimbo - Just to say that I usually cut out those bits of my links grid that don't contain golf holes - no point in planting these because you just aren't going to go there or play golf there. It also reduces file size considerably and speeds up loading.

Cheers

John Brooks