Panos and Plots

[Indy Anna Jones]

Adam is right, glenhaven does have some lovely sand/dune textures.
Polslad is our resident king of links-style renditions of real courses. You also might check out his courses and libraries.

Just to make it easy for you:
Caladh Gearr
Childe of Hale
Cladach Gaoth
Magillicuddy Reeks
Muirfield
Royal Lytham & St. Anne's
Royal Troon
The Old Course @ St Andrews (2010)
The Tullybothy Craigs

[Polslad]

Not to mention Hoylake and Turnberry!

Funny you should mention Glenhaven, that's the lib I'm currentley using on Royal St Georges, which I am 50% complete with.
Only been using the darker grass tectures at the moment, getting a very deep lush look, very green, was planning on using the lighter stuff for course perimiter and sand dunes on the seaside stretch of the course.

[Terry Grayson]

Hey someone mentioned plots, or architect files of their old plots on courses...Or did I mis-read..

If anyone wants any architect files from any of the courses I have built along the way, Id be happy to upload them... I have pretty much all of them saved...I always wanted to see the architect file of say Trench at Monticello to study after completion...

If anyone is interested..be happy to zip any up and send to the community....I know I have every one of them from say Moonshine course, through Stone Forest...

[Polslad]

The Trench at Montecillo.
In my humble opinion possibly the greatest course design ever produced using the PGA architect tools.
Certainly gets my vote.
It's a work of art.

[Indy Anna Jones]

I second Polslad, it is the touchstone of greatness in every aspect, and that's saying a lot because there are hundreds of incredible courses out there.
Terry, yeh, I'd love for you to send your plots up for downloading. I was about to ask you if you'd send me the Stony Forest plot (completed.) I'd love to do some planting work on it.

[Guggy107]

Hey Polslad, I've played a few of your links courses already, and it certainly does look like you know what you're doing. Do you have any tips in general for building dunes? Not only am I having trouble with the texture, I also don't feel comfortable with the height. As it is now, my dunes range from 10-20 feet tall. I should probably stop wasting time thinking about the dunes right now and actually get to laying out some holes. Maybe once the course starts to take shape, it will become more clear what I need to do with the dunes. As it stands now, I have 0 holes layed out. I've been slaving over building the bern that will run through the course. I'd rather have the major topographical features in place before I even think about laying holes out to make it a more realistic planning process. Anyway....any tips on dunes

[Indy Anna Jones]

Another suggestion, Guggy. First off, though, features sometimes look larger in the designer than they'll look on the course.
What I do is just lay out some temporary holes throughout the plot so I can look at it from various locations and angles. I might make like a cross pattern by laying down a green somewhere then 3-4-more tees and route them to the one green. Do this 3 or 4 times in various parts of your plot and you can get an idea of how things are going to look when you start your actual routing. You do have to use a tee and green texture or the designer won't allow you to place a tee or flag, but should you choose just to move them around once they're "placed" it doesn't matter where they end up. Just make sure you delete them all! Nothing worse than rogue pin/tee placements.

I'll leave the dune building suggestions to Polslad; those aren't one of my strengths. (Interpreted: those are one of my weaknesses.)

[Polslad]

I have various ways I use to tackle building a course.
Ficticious ones are easier, as no-one knows what they look like!
For those, I like to create or use an existing landplot and try to 'find' the holes and routings amongst the features already laid out, with a few minor adjustments here and there.
For real courses, I use a good overhead and stroke saver guides to get the yardages and features laid out as accurately as possible.
On smaller real courses where land features impact on multiple holes, I lay out all the course first and then work in the major elevations, before working my way down to individual hole details.
For Royal St Georges at the moment, the is so much space between the holes that it is allowing me to build each hole individually. (If I figure out how to post photo's, I will add one to show how the land plot looks with 9 holes complete). I will add the sea and beach when all the holes are complete.
Once all the holes are complete, I then add the course perimiter, suitably disguised if neccesary.
As for dunes, they are just hills and created using the 'two shape' tool. Points close together for steep sides, wider apart for more gentle slopes.
Always over build your initial contours, as detail will be lost when you begin to 'smooth' the features.
I then start to draw in and lay down the textures and blends, outwards to inwards, building the layers either progressively lighter or darker, as required.
One thing I try not to do with blends is 'use as shape' and reduce and drop to get the uniform outline copy of each shape. This method is OK on US manicured and well presented courses, but never on wild links.
I prefere to draw random shapes reflecting the contours and blend the textures that way. Remember, there ar no straight edges in nature.
Finally, for any newbie designer, don't try to incorporate every idea and feature on golf course design in each hole. Start simple but well, let your skills mature with each release, and that masterpiece we all aspire to will just develop one day!
Terry wasn't created in one day, he grew into the master that he now is!
Download and look at The Trench at Montecillo, and weep that none of us are likely to ever produce something like that, but someone did, and he started just like the rest of us.

[Terry Grayson]

Judy

Id be happy to send that completed arch file to you...Probably 90mb though

Its a mountain one.... I can upload it, any of the links courses I have done as well....Ill leave them in "completed" stages and anyone can take and do with them whatever they please...

Heck Ive even still got the UpStateCC completed arch file Dano uploaded LONG ago for everyone... Ive got a copy of European Links, Stef and Southern did, one from Muirfield when Pols sent it... I am like Dar, I keep most everything...lol...

[Indy Anna Jones]

Terry check your PM box. Thanks