Sumerland Hills:
SH had a decent plot. The writing was pretty smooth and the holes were
well done. The course itself had some very good points. The tee shot
at #4, the par 3 #17, approach to #9, the par 3#10, the approach to #
15, and the approach to #6. The holes all flowed well, and for the most
part, the bunkers were not choppy. I didn't run accross any unplayable
greens, or large cliffs. There were many senic shots at SH. Also, the
holes varried throughout the course. At no time while playing this
course did I become boared with the same type of hole time after time.
SH was a fairly challanging, well thought out course. One thing that
kept this course from being great was the fact that it was easy to tell
that two designers worked on it. Some of the tees were lined in
fairway, while others rough, as well as some other general designing
techniques that seemed to differ completely. Other than that, SH was a
good course to which Mike Clark should get most of the credit.
The Barrowlands:
TBL starts out very well with a nice plot. The writing was very well
done. The course too, was nice. The holes themselves were well thought
out, and for the most part, fairly challanging. TBL also had a rugged,
midevil theme, which I enjoyed. I did, however, get a feeling of
inconsistancy while playing the course. The rough that was scattered
around some holes was a very clever and uncommon touch, but it only
appeared on some holes, #14 the most prevelent. I had a hard time
figureing out what purpose the scattered rough had, if any at all.
Another thing that hurt this course was the small bunkers that seemed to
be scattered about the fairways. They were not outlined by rough, and
looked rather poor. These may have been placed there to add to the
rugged, midevil theme, in which case they would have been great. But
they only appeared on one hole #5 which made it seem like a designing
flaw. Also, the path of rough traced through most holes connecting the
tees to fairways and such looked very nice, but wasn't used on every
hole. The water on #12 was dotted with heavy rough which was not done
on any other holes, and made it too seem like a design flaw. Finaly,
the forest object was used repititiously. It made some of the holes
look unnatural. Once again, all greens were playable, and no cliffs or
ridges were spotted. With minor editing, TBL could be a fine course.
Western Highlands:
WH began with a good plot. The bunker cartpath was a nice touch. The
holes were well done and stuck with the theme of scarceness. Most of
the holes were not heavily wooded, and yet were done very well. #1
however was too scarce, and gave the appearence of an unfinished hole.
The rest of the course was really well done. I especially enjoyed #6,
#7, and #15. All of the tee shots required some degree of accuracy due
to good bunker placement. The placement of the bunkers is what made the
course challanging and fun to play. The only thing that lacked in this
course was the smooth flow from hole to hole. This was probly due to
the fact that it was designed by 3 different people, with 3 different
designing styles. The different styles became noticable throughout the
course, leaving a sense of unconformity. This, however, is unavoidable
when doing a 3 way co-design. WH was extremely well done, and is an
enjoyable course to play.
River Run:
RR starts out with an OK plot featuring a decent picture of a green at
the top. The holes all fit well together, and played good. Some of the
holes I enjoyed the most were #4, #11, and #13. All of the holes at RR
were well planned out, with bunkers placed at all the right lengths and
distances. The brown scragly bush object was a great choice; perfect
for the course. Ferchoff must be a real ladie's man because he is
awfuly friendly to them. The par 3 #11, and #15 are a combined 126
yards from the ladies tees. The scenery at RR wasn't the greatest, but
it was definitly better than average. The only downfall of RR had to
have been the repititious look of most of the holes. Bunker placement
was almost uniform, and one particular tree seemed to be overused. The
large boulder used in #13, and #15 seemed to have no place on the
course. RR was not an overly challanging course, but does make the
player think about every shot. It was a nice enjoyable course that was
well thought out, and well designed.
