Links Corner Forum

Weeler.
I am pleased that you enjoyed playing the course.

Chuck,
Thanks for your comment and the link to the video.

Thank you to both.

Ian

I have enjoyed a round of Pasatiempo GC beta. The only issue I found with this spectacular design was the flatness of the 18th tee.

Fabulous looking course. Splash screen, panorama, bunkers, houses are great Like other Ian courses, it's as pretty as a postcard. The only observation I might have is that the barrancas don't have a stream at the bottom. Could be they are just dried up, which is fine. I have versions of the course on TW08, JN6, and PGA2000 and they all show a rocky stream in front of the 16th, for example. I'm happy the way it is, actually. Can't really tell on ProVisualizer flyover. Thanks again for the course.

Ian-you know the way to my heart! You should be a real estate agent! Those houses are amazing!!!

Before I do a full nit-pick I'm playing a complete round. Here's one thing that grabs my attention:

The fairways have what appears to be two different shades of grass divided by a line down the middle…it’s a little "off-putting" and makes it unnecessarily difficult to isolate areas that are really “rough”.

But like I said-with all the houses that you've planted I promise to be gentle!

Speaking of houses I looked at the clubhouse on the website and also Googled some pictures. What's it made of? I can't make out any material divisions on the "official" pictures either!

TL;DR: Just a bunch of thoughts about colours/textures.

Since I said I really liked the colours and since three people already brought up slightly negative feelings on some of the textures I wanted to extend the discussion of them a little bit. First a disclaimer: just because I think it is an interesting discussion to have - enough to make second comment on it - I want to make it very clear that I have no slightest bit of trouble with anyone's opinions being voiced, including ones that differ from my own. Nor do I think my subjective opinions should be heard anymore than anyone elses - quite the opposite, IMO as many opinions as possible should be taken into account (but at the end of the day of course the designer should feel free to go with whatever they themselves want to). I simply think texture- and colour preferences is a really interesting topic to discuss.

I wouldnt mind seeing slightly less saturated colours, or different mowing patterns of greens or fairways. I agree that a less saturated look would probably be more realitic. That said, I dont mind the saturated look at all, it reminds me of Las Sendas - which also may not be the most realistic colouring - but is still really pretty if you're a person who doesnt mind that type of look. Mostly what matters to me is that the colours on any given course all make sense as a whole, together, including textures, plantings, panorama and everything within view. Some courses have nice textures and colours individually, but they come together in very varying hues or saturation levels, and so they end up clashing with eachother, I have a hard time enjoying such courses to the full extent. And I think that is different from subjective feelings about which colours one likes - it is objectively a colour mismatch in those cases. Pasatiempo doesnt have that problem, the saturation and hue levels are coherent with eachother across the board and mainly that is what I enjoy.

About mowlines, or other irregular features such as patches, of greens and fairways: I think it is a very interesting discussion, personally I feel a bit of an aversion to some fairway looks on some courses where the mowlines are too distinct, or perhaps it is also about which colours or textures exactly. On some courses Im completely fine with the fairway mowlines and on others it actually bothers me a bit, and Im not 100% sure why, my best guess is that I dont like when they are too clearly defined. The split-in-two type like on Pasatiempo and Whistling Straits to name another example, has never bothered me (in fact, it really helps a lot from a gameplay perspective when playing without top cam), it is only the more common, denser mowlines that ever do in my case.

That being said, the mowlines serve the purpose of revealing elevations too, and I really like that. While I may think that greens completely without mowlines in general are slightly prettier, it is a shame that many beautiful elevations of courses get lost on the player then because they arent really visible. Playing with the grid would reveal them up close yes, but the grid has a max range, and personally I think the grid just makes courses uglier anyway. So the conclusion I have come up with for myself, as a designer, is to use very subtle mowlines on fairways and greens, and I think Im going to mostly stick with that. Because I think thats what I enjoy the most in Links as a player personally, anyway, but Im not too sure what others' opinions about it is.

At the end of the day, I dont like when all courses look too similar, variation is nice, so I enjoy different types of colour schemes and mowline configurations for different courses. I like how they are on Pasatiempo currently, but I wouldnt necessarily mind changes either, as long as colours stay coherent enough as a whole.

dgrobo2000,
Thanks for the comment.
The back tee on the 18th is two tiered. Does this answer your comment regarding the flatness?

Chuck,
Thanks for your kind words.
I can only assume that because of the drought the area has been suffering over the last years any streams must have dried up. I certainly did not see any while looking at GE/videos/images.

Jimbo,
I have assumed that the clubhouse is painted concrete.
I await your comments.

Ian

Here's a screenshot of the back tee on 18. You can see the angle that was reported by dgrobo2000.

Chad,
Thank you for the clarification.

dgrobo2000
Thank you for highlighting it.
I just checked in APCD and one vertex was lower by 2 inches.

Thanks again,
Ian

I dont like when all courses look too similar, variation is nice, so I enjoy different types of colour schemes and mowline configurations for different courses

I completely agree with this, if everyone used the same texture, more or less, it would quickly become boring. Custom colors and textures are quite beneficial to a course. I stand by my comment about the solid color on the greens. :) It won't stop me from playing this course often though.

Ian Wells wrote: ↑August 18th, 2021, 4:16 pm Chad,
Thank you for the clarification.

dgrobo2000
Thank you for highlighting it.
I just checked in APCD and one vertex was lower by 2 inches.

Thanks again,
Ian

The right tee marker does appear slightly higher than the left one and it is good to know tee is not perfectly flat, but with 2 toned cut on tee this could have caused optical illusion making it seem not level even if were so. Believe Robert Miller utilized this same texture type for his course, The Glen. Somehow with colors of fairways makes me think they are wider than actually are. Then again the fairways seem generously wide for some of the short par 4's and the rough is not all that tough to escape from especially on short iron shots.