Just a quick note on texture properties. The only textures that will be changed from default properties are the fringe and the green runoff areas. These will play as normal when you hit from them but the ball will roll more freely through these areas, much as it would in real life as I have instructed the greenskeeper to keep this turf mown short to allow for more variety of recovery shots. :) Bring on the 'Texas Wedge'!
Fairways will vary in width from one hole to the next. I find courses where the fairways are constantly cut to 25-30yds width, extremely boring. Some holes just lend themselves to wider fairways so that there can be more options to play into the green from various angles.
Some of these extra wide fairways have internal bunkering to you can't just blast away, you have to think out your strategy before you hit. That's not to say that you will have bunkers down the centre of all the fairways! I think there are currently two or three holes with internal fairway bunkering.
Some holes will have much narrower fairways but these holes are generally shorter ones where accuracy is at a premium. Variety is everything.
The native grass areas you see on some of the pictures, don't often encroach too close to play. Even on the holes with generous fairways, you will have 10 to 15 yards of semi rough before you hit the 'deep stuff'. No-one enjoys constantly hacking the ball out of deep grass simply to get it back into play, so with these generous short rough areas, you will have the chance to play a spectacular recovery shot after an errant drive.
There are a couple of small lakes on the back 9 but again these are not right on the edge of play. I've made several courses in the past, where many of the holes were 'all or nothing' types over water etc. While it's ok to have this type of hole from time to time, I've found that you CAN overdo it!
Much of the fun in golf is skillfully recovering from a mistake. Holes that don't allow you to do that, can sap the enjoyment from a course.
Absolutely AMAZING rock backdrop!
ReplyDeleteI also totally agree with you about variety and allowing golfers at least a CHANCE at recovery from bad shots...
I've had many an argument with other Linksters over fairness of courses. There was one course in particular (can't remember the name, it's from the 2001 days, and is long since off my HD) where I had a heated "discussion" in the old Zone chatroom with someone who loved the course for some reason. It played so tough that a carefully-planned drive that BARELY missed the tiny landing area would roll slowwwwwwwwwlyyyyyy off the fairway, into a super-deep bunker where recovery without giving up several shots was virtually impossible. And, this was far from the only place on the course where slight mistakes would cost several strokes.
I think that if you played this course, you'd agree with me that this course was in serious need of re-design to make it enjoyable.
Once again, I'm drooling over the prospect of Pilgrim Trails!