Chicago GC 2021 Available

Announce and discuss forthcoming and recent course releases or request beta help from members.
User avatar
Adelade
Posts: 1346
Joined: August 27th, 2019, 10:24 am

Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by Adelade »

I've been working on an update of Sage's Chicago GC and made the final save today (Oct 7th). I was going to upload it but I see that course uploads are disabled for staff holidays for two weeks. Well, Im making it available for y'all here until I can officially upload it anyways. Unless some significant problem is encountered by someone in the next couple weeks, the later upload will be the same exact version as this one. Download link at the bottom of this message. [Edit: official upload now available at https://linkscorner.org/courses/course.php?crz=2679 ]

Real Course - 103 MB - 6950 yards - par 70

Pasting most of the Readme here too:

Sage kindly gave me permission to update this course and also his blessing for me to do whatever I wanted with it. I liked most things about the original version, so I never wanted to change too much and have kept things as faithful to it as I could, while still achieving my goals. The reason I wanted to update this course was mainly because it was quite short, and previously the furthest tees were about 300 yards shorter than the furthest tees in real life. I also wanted to improve on the previously simplistic greenslopes, especially since this course is known for having some very characteristic greens. Most of the work on this update really went into those greenslopes, I ended up spending even more time on them than I had intended (and even more so than on Royal St. George's) so I believe they're quite accurate. Hole previews was another thing I wanted to add, but I ended up doing a bunch of minor edits as well, a full list of changes can be viewed further below.

Chicago GC became the first American 18-hole golf course in 1983 [Edit: Typo, meant to say 1893]. It was designed by Charles Blair Macdonald, and in 1923 his protégé Seth Raynor assisted in remodelling it. It is an open farmland course which includes many versions of the classic template holes that they both are famous for, and is often pointed to as one of the best examples of how even relatively flat and uninteresting pieces of land can be turned into great and interesting golf courses. After some tougher first few holes, it mostly plays fairly short and easy compared to many of the modern PGA courses, but still isn't a pushover thanks to many challenging green complexes. Another very characteristic feature are Raynor's sharp angled green shapes.


Screenshot intermission:

H4.jpg
H4.jpg (355.53 KiB) Viewed 3359 times
H8.jpg
H8.jpg (347.74 KiB) Viewed 3358 times
H10.jpg
H10.jpg (417.9 KiB) Viewed 3358 times
H12 A.jpg
H12 A.jpg (437.9 KiB) Viewed 3358 times
H12 B.jpg
H12 B.jpg (364.99 KiB) Viewed 3358 times

I recommend a high rate of difficult pins if you don't like courses being on the easy side, in general they are not on steeper slopes than the moderate or easy pins, but rather in green areas that are tougher or riskier to attack. No pins are closer to fringes than 10 feet, and none are on a steeper slope than around 3.5%. I recommend F/Mc or F/Fc for green settings, the Redan hole 7 for example plays amazing on F/Fc in my opinion, you can make some really cool shots on that setting there.

Full list of Changes:
-Elevations for all 18 greens and their immediate surroundings completely remade.
-Tees completely replanted. The Back tees are based on the yardages from Wikipedia, which I believe is how the course most likely would be set up if a really big men's tournament was held there. The Middle tees are based on the real-life black tees, Forward tees are based on the real-life white tees, and Ladies tees are based on the real-life red tees (I believe the course par is higher for Ladies by the way). The Junior tees I didn't really know what to do with since there are only 3 different tees in real life on ordinary days, but I planted them with flexibility at tee areas that no other tees were utilizing - overall they play between the yardage of the Fwd and Ldy tees, but are mostly intended as occasional alternatives in custom tee sets. I briefly thought about making further fictional tees instead for one of the tee sets, but it would have required moving or creating new tee areas, and I didn't feel like doing that. I think the course plays challenging enough on difficult pins to not need it. It was difficult to find reliably accurate information about how far the real-life tees play these days, I went with a combination of info from different websites depending on which seemed to be most accurate and up-to-date, and a photograph of a real scorecard from 2020 showing only the first 9, that I randomly found on the internet.
-Pins completely replanted. The greatest challenge is probably if picking pin #17 on each hole, but here is a set that I like, which is a good challenge without being extreme:
12 13 11 16 17 12 14 11 16 - 16 17 11 15 17 17 16 12 17
-Certain large-scale tee-to-fairway-to-green elevations altered here and there to be a bit more like the real course, where I felt it made the biggest difference. I wasn't too particular about it since it can take a lot of work to make sure one doesn't mess up any spots while doing it, and in some cases it was impossible to puzzle different holes together exactly how I wanted them without making more tricky elevation overhauls of several holes at once (which I wasn't interested in doing), but I think the changes that happened turned out nice.
-Grasses (and only grasses) completely replanted (while trying to keep their appearance the same), because at least one of the old grass objects made for some quite unrealistic and inconsistent ball interactions. They play much more consistent now, but it can still be risky to pick aggressive club choices while among them (just like it would be in real life).
-Added simple Hole Previews.
-Subtly colour-corrected a few textures to be more in line with each other. I guess the tee texture saw a slightly bigger edit, mainly to make the mow lines much more subtle, because I felt like it didn't quite fit in too smoothly with the other textures before.
-Subtle change to the default wind direction according to wind roses for the local area. I may have increased the direction variance too, but I don't remember for sure.
-Added crowds.
-Swapped out a few inconsequential APCD-stock textures such as Asphalt and Concrete for equivalent-looking custom textures, to prevent the 'Red Sky' glitch.
-Added OB to practice range.
-Fixed the seamblend of one bunker on 18th.
-Swapped the deep rough texture between the green and bunker at 12th, to be closer in appearance to the normal rough rather than the one for the tall grasses.
-Moved or removed some trees and bushes off the road behind 14th.
-Cleaned up a couple mesh shadows that were visible on the top cam.
-Removed an out-of-place Mid texture in one of the seamblend textures.
-Name change to include "2021"...
-Tiny edit to the splash screen to include a mention of my edits. (I noticed it is a little low down and gets partially blocked by the loading bar if using a really low game resolution like 800 x 600, oh well.)


Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3t5oqk6c0dvy ... iomga?dl=0

Thank you so much Sage for making this course and for letting me update it! And thank you everyone who commented in previous threads about the course.

Feedback (of my edits or potential lack thereof) is always welcome, though I am unlikely to do any more work on this course unless some significant technical problem is found.
Last edited by Adelade on October 24th, 2021, 4:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Finished Courses - Main: Amedal (fictional), Nine Bridges (real)
Other: Austin, Sheshan, Kauri Cliffs, Le Golf Nat. Updates: Whirlpool, Royal Lytham, Royal St George's, Chicago, Chambers Bay, Munchen Nord E
Working on: 2 fictional courses + a couple things...
gene_golf
Posts: 267
Joined: August 28th, 2019, 1:30 pm

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by gene_golf »

As I recall when Sage released his version I noted that hole # 9 did not use the alternative tee just to left of 8th green that makes hole play a little bit longer, but pond between fairway and front of green limits bombing a drive there. This tee is not as obvious as the back tee on hole #12 that Sage for some reason decided not using it. Greens being made more accurate in slopes as to how they are really playable would be nice to experience. Thanks for your work as well a thanks to Sage for showing what is generally thought of being for a long time one of the best courses in the USA. That said the shapes of greens and sand traps were limited when this course was developed having to use horse and plow technique in those days just as in farming without mechanized equipment possible to use now for cut or fill moving around dirt for topograhical layout of today's golf courses.
Last edited by gene_golf on October 8th, 2021, 2:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
Pete
Posts: 320
Joined: March 29th, 2020, 12:27 pm

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by Pete »

Lovely update many thanks, Winged Foot East could do with one also, down as a pre beta but it looks very good
User avatar
sagevanni
Posts: 1133
Joined: August 27th, 2019, 6:21 am
Location: Somewhere on flat earth

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by sagevanni »

Looks very nice......great work...!!!!!

Sage..... :cheers1: :cheers1: :cheers1:
If there is one thing ................ummmmmmmm.......I can't remember.
User avatar
Adelade
Posts: 1346
Joined: August 27th, 2019, 10:24 am

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by Adelade »

Oops, the readme (and the post above, though I will edit that one) incorrectly states that it became the first American 18-hole course in 1983, but thats a typo, it was 1893 that I meant to say. Kinda big difference :laugh: Ahh eff it, I updated the Readme too.
Finished Courses - Main: Amedal (fictional), Nine Bridges (real)
Other: Austin, Sheshan, Kauri Cliffs, Le Golf Nat. Updates: Whirlpool, Royal Lytham, Royal St George's, Chicago, Chambers Bay, Munchen Nord E
Working on: 2 fictional courses + a couple things...
migolfer
Posts: 189
Joined: October 21st, 2020, 2:40 pm
Location: Northern Michigan

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by migolfer »

Oh, sweet! I'm glad I saw this. Downloading immediately.. :clapping:


BTW, the "punchbowl" reference in your screenshot is timely having just seen this article in my Links Magazine email digest:
10 of the Top Punchbowl Holes in the U.S. - For whatever reason, they did not list this hole as one of the best 10. <shrug>

I wouldn't claim to have heard much of anything about this hole style until recently. Will pay particular attention to #12 when I play this remake of Sage's nice version of this course.

Here is a good article on that style of hole: https://thefriedegg.com/punchbowl-green/
User avatar
Duglis
Posts: 293
Joined: March 30th, 2020, 3:11 am

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by Duglis »

Super!
Have you thought of recreating THE NATIONAL GOLF LINKS at NY. It's designed by the same course architect as Chicago in the same Era of Golf History!

Anyway, thanks for updating!

Douglas
:fcrossed:
User avatar
Adelade
Posts: 1346
Joined: August 27th, 2019, 10:24 am

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by Adelade »

While I definitely agree that The National Golf Links would be really great to see being made for Links, I dont foresee myself being able to work on it. Possibly in some collaborative effort, but not completely on my own, considering how many other course projects I already have on my list. With there being so many other designers making American courses, if I make another real course fully on my own, I would want it to be a course somewhere in either southern Europe or Asia, where the course representation is most lacking in my opinion.

I also agree about Sage's Winged Foot East, but it seemed just a little bit too short and easy for me to be passionate enough about it, for it to compete with all the other courses I really want to work on.
Finished Courses - Main: Amedal (fictional), Nine Bridges (real)
Other: Austin, Sheshan, Kauri Cliffs, Le Golf Nat. Updates: Whirlpool, Royal Lytham, Royal St George's, Chicago, Chambers Bay, Munchen Nord E
Working on: 2 fictional courses + a couple things...
dgrobo2000
Posts: 30
Joined: February 9th, 2020, 6:20 am

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by dgrobo2000 »

I have downloaded and enjoyed playing a few rounds at Chicago GC 2021. Although the original course design was spectacular, this update has given the course some teeth. The course now provides a U.S. Open type challenge when played with firm greens. The inclusion of crowds will also add to the Links tournament experience. I also welcome the addition of hole previews, as this allows the player to play without top cam view open. I look forward to playing many enjoyable round at this course. Thanks.
Could I suggest Chambers Bay as a potential course design that would be improved by a similar update.
User avatar
sagevanni
Posts: 1133
Joined: August 27th, 2019, 6:21 am
Location: Somewhere on flat earth

Re: Chicago GC 2021 Available

Post by sagevanni »

All my courses are free for anyone to do with as they please........just ask. Any improvement is most welcome.

Sage.....
If there is one thing ................ummmmmmmm.......I can't remember.
Post Reply