Lessons Learned
Lessons & Observations on the various courses. Why they might be worthwhile in downloading and looking into. Every course I design has a goal and some sort of idea to implement to see how it works in SIMGolf. Here I will post the findings.
Arid Heights
This course was the original Grand Slam course and in some ways still the best.
It has two holes with imagination ratings over 3 and several over two. A total of nine
classic holes. Its a fine test of golf and the risk/reward principle. Two par 5's are
reachable in two and one par 4 is driveable. This was the course in which I learned to use
the "Shot Analysis" Tool. Although the tool is wonky sometimes, it doesnt lie
very much. It exposes the weakness in the Length & Accuracy Golfers (No Imagination)
and the Accuracy & Imagination Golfers (No Length). As I discovered in building this
course, these golfers NEVER change throughout the game, they are 100% predictable. This
allow a hole to be built around these two golfers weaknesses, assuring high ratings in
imagination & length. You will see how this works in the Golf Course Design Section
articles, "How to Build..." projects.
This course has a great use of Palm Trees to route the golf shots and intended lines for each holes. Although target is popular in the desert, this first scenario I used Palm Trees specifically to obtain the ratings. In a subsequent course, I will attempt the true target golf concept. The true "reachable in two" par 5 classic hole (Hole 11) makes this course worth analysis. Number 6, a par 4 Classic Hole with an imagination rating of 3.11 is worthy of analysis as well. This is a hole that is believeable in layout, looks interesting and yet is highly rated. The great part about it is it has a fun rating of 133% and there are no landmarks, etc to skew the ratings.
Rocky Pass
Based on the Rocky Mountain Parklands map, this course has alot of fun and
high skill ratings. Not as tough as Arid Heights, but quite interesting in layout. All
three skill ratings average over 1.0 and imagination is 1.42, according to the game, too
high :-)
The two holes that make this course worth analysis are Number 8, a downhill, par 4 measuring 398 yards and Number 16, a downhill, par 4 measuring 390 yards. Both have good yardage readings and yet both are reachable with a well placed drive. Both are over .80 in length ratings even though they are driveable. I set out to prove that driveable par fours would get decent ratings in the game. All three ratings for both holes are over .50, the mark needed to get a full SGA approval for the hole. There are two questions this course brought up that I cannot answer and plan to do some investigating into. Why hole 13 is not considered scenic, when it has a handful of scenic trees & landmarks on it. Also, why Hole 3 has not been given a name, when the ratings are into the high level of Classic ratings. This was the first time I have seen a Classic hole not given a name designation.
Pineapple Hills
Based on the Jamican Tropical map, this course was the uncovering of the "Hole
Variety" question. How the game determines it. You can find this information on the
"Other Articles" page. This course also was the precursor to the "How to
build a Classic Par 3" article as three of the par threes were built with that
process in this course and all three reached Classic Status, including 15, which
was rated at 2.90 Length, 1.35 Accuracy & 2.68 Imagination. A signature hole for the
course.
The Voyaguer
Based on the Nova Scotia Links map, this is the most satisfying course to date.
Although hardly the tes of golf the previous courses are, links courses are the most
challenging, in my opinion. Several tries at getting a good, full course layout have
failed in previous attempts. Although only a Par 71, this one still is over 6900 yards,
thereby becoming a fine course for length and par.
The first goal I attempted was to make a par 3 the opening hole. I
needed to find out the par 3 name of this hole. This proved to be not only revealing as
the name, but as a strategy in course & time management. This course is played in 3
Hours and 14 minutes!!!! A full 10 star rating for the SGA, previous to this, time was the
only thing holding my courses back from near perfect SGA ratings. All courses listed are
90 & above, except for Pineapple Hills, which is an 88. As you can see by the Course Report the front
nine is lightning quick to play. I must attribute some of this to the opener being a par
3. The reason this may work is that the second group will not tee off until the first
group has left the hole. In this way the second group is almost done with hole 2 and you
are getting almost a whole open hole between groups. When backups start later on, they are
minimal and easy to manage with Marshalls. On the flip side, its not the best real way to
layout a course, Par 3's as openers are rare. I lost alot of golfers resigning memberships
on that tough, opening hole, but it was a good place to have that happen, they were booted
quickly with minimal damage to the overall fun rating.
The second goal was to use a minimal amount of trees in true links fashion. The reasons believeable links course are hard in SIMgolf is that the patrons will be hitting all over the place with some trees in place. This map had some groves of trees and I tried to work around them with tees & greens to minimize the brain dead golfers hitting all over the place. I had to place some here an there, and put some around the edges of the map to minimize the "Black Hole" look of the map edge, but overall, I think the goal was accomplished. Gorse is more prevelant than trees on ther course as hole dividers. Photo
The last goal was the most fun yet to date. To create a St.Andrews style green where two holes shared a green with pins on either side. I tried it twice. In this photo, it works to perfection, the amount of overlap in balls to the other hole is minimal, the look in interesting and the results of both holes are below
In another case, I tried this with a par three and a par four and the results were disastrous, guys on the par three hitting onto the par four green and putting into the pot bunkers that bordered them, both holes had huge dips in the fun ratings and monstrous backups. I wil post that photo at a later date and try other par3/4 combos to see if it was just that hole or a sharing concept, that just doesnt work....
Based on the San Diego Parklands Map. This is pretty typical of Parklands designs. Par 3's are built around islands, penisulas & the marshland, all provided within the map itself. For Par 4's, it has my signature driveable par 4 (I try to create one in every course), a very wicked & different snap dogleg left, then snap right between two Rock Faces provided in the map. The hole #5, was rated a classic in about one year of play. The Par 5's are anchored by the intimidating #11, a downhill 588yd monster built off a peninsula with water running across the fairway where the longest drives land & roll. The hole was 2+ in length and imagination and approached 2.0 in accuracy before being tweaked back a bit to avoid backlogs. The course has some interesting layouts that are much different than my earlier designs. Instead of more gradual bends in the doglegs, some of them are sharp.
Based on the Wales link map. This is the most original design I have seen yet. I built it loosely on the limited knowledge I have of British Isle courses. Taking my experiences in watching British opens, I set out to do a map that paralleled the style of St. Andrews et al in my approach to certain characteristics within the course. The highlight is four HUGE double greens that house the pins of eight holes. I also wanted to make buildings in play, or at least to make some shots be directed by the buildings. lastly, I wanted to make 1 & 10 start from the clubhouse and 9 & 18 finish at the clubhouse.....I zoomed out to show this layout here ..... Starting & finishing at the clubhouse isnt very "Links" but I wanted to do it anyways. As you can see by the layout 1 & 10 start on either side of the clubhouse area dogleg around the Clubhouse & hotel and end in a long doublegreen, they even share some fairway near the final hole approach. Nine & 18 start on opposite ends of the map and end in a very large double green next to the clubhouse.....There is a stretch of 9, 10, 11, 12 where all golfers play on double greens.
For Par 3's there is an island, peninusula and land locked version. Only three on the course. The land-locked version is very different for my designs. A highly elevated green with severe slopes and fairway sloping behind it. The ratings were not good, because even the golf pros could take 10's due the severity of the slope and the fairway past the sloping down into the gorse and church. The Par 5's are the one & ten combo. A narrow number 6 and double-dogleg #17 which winds around the local Castle. Gorse is prevelant throughout, only using the provided groves of trees and adding some along the map edge and a few here and there to "force" hole routing of the golfers. Nine classic holes round out the overall picture. The golfers do very well in double greens, never hitting to the wrong hole, there are a few "Hey, that ball almost hit me" quotes, but never enough to sabotage the fun rating. No more than I get from players hitting in the wrong fairway. After this course, it is apparent to me that Links courses are now my favorite design, even though the lack of trees usually limits the overall skill ratings of the course itself.
Parklands Course built and the Carolina Map. This course has a signature #16, A Driveable Par 4 over a water filled Canyon. A Well placed fade can reach the green in one and give the better pros a chance for an eagle putt. I personally love these sort of holes, I find this the most fun as a designer and when I play courses. You can take a 2, or if the drive goes astray a 6. The course report shows that the driveable hole is rated as a classic. Some serious elevation work in the course makes for an interesting layout. I used some photos of Magazines to come up with some ideas on how to layout real looking holes. Overall, just a fun course to play. This course ended up much better than I figured it would.
Desert Course on the Arizona Map. This was my "Target Golf" Project. My original desert layout was using palm trees & water to force course routing. This course was to be faithful to the target golf concept and to minimize use of water. Using Cactus & sandtraps liberally in routing holes I achieved a clean looking layout. What I didnt expect was the test of golf that resulted. Basically ten classic holes with a few on the edge and a 70+ skill rating was quite a success story to the course. The Demonic #1, #11 & #16 will te4st any pro. If you cancome out of those with pars, you have a chance to win any tournament. How about #17, a straight 175yrd Par 3 with a length rating of 3+...!!! This course has many birdie opportunities and has great replay value once you figure out when to attack it and when to lay back. To me, that is a fun and exciting layout.....
Links course on the Scotland Map. Using Scots pines liberally allowed the Skill Ratings to achieve a higher level than my previous links courses. Twelve Classics make it a SGA approved Grand Slam and runs about average for number of classic holes on my courses. This is one of the neatest links layouts I have made. Very few double greens, but the course winds around itself and in out. A pro who can hit draws & fades effectively will put up some gaudy numbers and have fun doing so. Water is used, mostly the default on the map itself. I made a conscious effort to work within the map supplied and not overdo any elevation or water. But make no mistake, their is water and their is some tricky elevation work. One of the courses I found myself playing more than tweaking. Hopefully, you will do the same...!!
A monsterously long Tropical Layout with 12 classic holes. The skill rating is not the highest, but I had to spend less years on this course than most. It rated well rather quickly, so tweaking is minimal. I am less enthralled with Tropical layouts than any other so I was pleased with this course as it rates very well in a very raw form. If your pro is a power hitter, you will enjoy this course and might even rack up a few eagles in the tourney.
What a course! Desert layout on the Las Vegas map with 13 classic holes. A quick check of the course report shows this course could very easily get all 18 classics with very little tweaking. My signature driveable par 4 is the Double Down, #12, a 421yd par 4 with eagle definitely possible. I shot a 55 with three eagles, a blast of a course to play...!!! All holes are renamed with vegas gambling or card related terms. This my original attempt to rename all the holes with unique rather than the default names. All in all, this is a must for anyones collection, original in layout and design, as well a great test of golf that emphasizes fun...!!
Monterry Parklands course with a project I was just drooling to implement. By raising the coastal into cliffs I created a likeness of the Monterry Penisula and Pebble Beach. I used the signature #7, #8 & #18 from pebble beach and created some likeness in Pacific Cliffs. #15, #17, #18 are recreations and add to the fun factor of this layout. Several holes are created out of books I have found with real life holes. Number 10 is recreated out of the Par 4, 6th hole at Seminole Golf Club and #12 is a par 5 recreated out a TPC layout. The Back nine features extreme elevation changes. The fun factor of the Sim golfers was very high for such a high skill rating (72.87). The SGA had rated it 97/100 with only the three non-scenic holes to change in order to make it a full 100 SGA Rating. Everyone seemed to be happy with the course within the game. Download this, play it and see if it is as fun for you as it was for the Sim golfers...!!