Links Corner Forum

My Christmas holiday got cancelled last minute because relative got COVID, it is what it is and most important thing is that they make it through it alright, but it does leave me without much to do over Christmas... except for APCD. I decided to start my Austin update, but updating courses is sometimes really cumbersome since different designers have different systems and structures for their courses, and I quickly decided that Im actually gonna try make a completely new version from scratch instead. I cant believe Im signing up for such big of a project... but Im gonna try my hardest to put my perfectionist self completely aside and not be any thorough about the elevations or planting, and instead just try to speed through the project and see if I can get it done before March (when the PGA goes there) as a challenge. Obviously I want to make it a nice course, but I feel confident that I can accomplish that anyway, just not aiming for my usual thoroughness with the elevations and planting (and probably gonna settle for something really simple in terms of panorama). Really cant believe Im signing myself up for this! But I think it will be fun as long as Im able to put aside the perfectionist (which I can normally basically never do, but with this being a side-project, and with the time challenge element as fun spice (Im a challenge-junkie), I think I might be able to do it this time!)

Glenn Braden already contributed with 2-inch accuracy green elevation charts - Thank you so much!!!

Im thinking about doing a frequent blog about how the project goes. Here is how far I am at end of "Day 1":

Did single elevation points for all tees and greens, and got through 13 holes of the most important fairway points.

Thank you and good luck!

Glenn

Nice, Adelade! Those holes that get so much TV coverage should be a blast to play!

Pete

Was the original plan going to be to update the 2021 Match play version that John Brooks just released in March?

Yes, that latest version (I know there are two). My new version will have the same routing as that one (same as how the PGA have been playing it).

Christmas plans got changed again though, wont be able to work more on the course until after the weekend, at least not much. Quick turns with this project... Hoping I'll be able to pick up the enthusiasm I started off with.

"Those holes that get so much TV coverage should be a blast to play!"

What he said.....

Tour of course site.
https://www.austincountryclub.com/club/ ... V2&CID=657

All courses designed by Pete Dye.
https://www.golfcompendium.com/2020/01/ ... -list.html

Austin CC see each year for match play tournament, whereas some of Pete Dye's other courses also host yearly tournaments or for this year Phil Mickelson won the PGA at Kiawah Island and USA won Ryder Cup competition at Whistling Straights. Several of Pete Dye's courses have been designed in Links, but some obvious ones are missing. The 1988 PGA won by Jeff Sluman at Oak Tree in Edmund, Oklahoma as well as the 1990 PGA won by John Daly at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana that state where Dye seems to be most closest living perhaps there despite designing courses all over the world. Tom Goodrich designed PGA West early on in Links 2000, https://linkscorner.org/courses/course.php?crz=201 that could definitely be upgraded. That course still is part of courses that host the old Bob Hope tournament that continues on today under a different name and not with 5 rounds for tournament as was done before. Also around this time of holiday season in year the Skin's match was played and several times at PGA West course. Here is a clip of Trevino's hole in one back in 1987. https://golfhistorytoday.com/1987-lee-t ... e-one-ace/ On The Golf Channel at this time of year it usually shows Shell's Wonderful World of Golf matches and it is nostalgic to see players no longer alive back in their prime as well as them playing on courses rarely seen, such as at Pete Dye's Teeth of the Dog-Casa de Campo course in the Dominican Republic. Some of the courses shown in the 1960's then were not in playing conditions that they can be usually seen now days.

And for Pete Dye, sadly he passed away fairly recently, January 9th, 2020.

With a "busy" Christmas, I havent been able to sit down with it much since that first day, just half an hour here or there, but I still got all the elevation marking done, and now things have calmed down so I might be able to pick up the pace.

First picture below is the state of the course earlier today, with the elevation readings from GE all finished and put in. I estimate it to be around 1000 individual GE elevation point readings, since many of the verts are water elevation duplicates and a few in unimportant places are simply filled in to make the mesh cleaner. I had a lot more for Nine Bridges, around 4000, despite GE elevations there - unlike Austin - not being in high detail, but a lot of the elevation points for Nine Bridges were made from observing flyover videos instead. 1000 is still a lot more than I had planned on doing, I started off thinking I was just going to get the most important play areas right and then make the rest fairly sparse to get the main hills and stuff, and then gradually as I went through the holes I unintentionally got more and more meticulous... without intending to... common problem... sigh.



And today I started painting in fairways and tees a bit, did first two-and-a-half holes, however Im waiting to apply textures until I've built the greens too. Im also gonna go back and fill in a "first cut" on the inside later. Im planning on doing horizontal seamblends (a first for me, as opposed to extrusion-style seamblends) without any sharp edges, since I believe it will be much less work to get all the elevations naturally smooth that way.

Nice work Adelade...!!!

Sage......

Finished vert-painting the fairways and tees, plus river, ponds, creek water, main roads and a sort of course area perimeter. Then I built one green and basically finished that one hole (#2), just to make sure my plan for structuring things doesnt turn out to have any nasty surprises on all holes later on. Checked it out in Links too, things seem to go well, although I think I will make the fringe-to-green and perhaps rough-to-deep-rough seamblends by extrusion method after all. I will next go ahead and for all holes paint in what I earlier was clumsy enough to call "first cut" (it is really an edge of fairway in this case, not gonna bother making a first cut for the rough. I was planning on having the common rough play as standard rough anyway, since I dont think deep rough will be too suitable for this type of course), and then after that I will start building each green one by one. Building the first green went a bit slower than I had expected, so I think it might be tough to finish the course before the WGC event starting 23rd of March... but I definitely want to try. If I dont get bored and hit a phase of lower APCD activity anywhere, I think I will be able to - but that is a very big "if".