Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

Just started playing around a bit with a new course, larceny. Test planting only.

Will Jim Hall become the next Robert@ stay tuned.

I like the look of the planting, it goes with the pano.

So, I decided that I didn't like the way Larceny was going, so I decided to start over - I do that a lot I've decided to tighten it up. The first hole is actually a pretty easy hole to start with provided you stay out of the rough - gives you a chance to "warm up" out of the gate.

I have the first 9 holes of Larceny done and am not happy - just too boring and cookie cutter so I'm scrapping what I have and will start over. I still want to use the mountain panorama but, I'm curious, what, as players, draws you to a course? I understand that the real courses have major appeal but I won't be doing one of those. Any input would be appreciated.

Changed my mind. I deleted all the planting I had done and I like the layout. It was the planting that was throwing everything off.

Jim!
I look at the screen shots and decide from there if it's worth a download. Then in tournament play (whenever that is) I'll rate the course. If it doesn't score as an A it will be rare if I play that course again. B grade I may give it another go but there are so many A lister's that it's rare.
Real course's are nice but there are many created course's that are as good or better then some of the real designs.
I don't like course's where you can tell it wasn't play test enough. Tree's in fairway long grass on a green or anything like that are example's. Also don't care for course's that most or every hole is all tricked up or every green is super small or all flat putts. The worst is pin positions that are totally unfair. Pins at or near the top or edge of a large slope and either you make the putt or your going to be 15 to 25 feet away on your next putt.

I like strategic golf course architecture. There are many books and online postings about this but one of the most basic tenets is you put the hazards (bunkers, water, trees, mounds, whatever might make things more difficult for the golfer) at or near where the ideal line of play for the hole would be if no hazards exist. Then then you give the player multiple options to play around those hazards and force them to make decisions about the best way to do so. Another valuable tool in strategic design is setting things at angles to the golfer's line such as greens, fairways, and hazards. This gives the player a variety of lines they can take depending on how far they want to try to carry the ball. In PGA 2000 you can see these philosophies applied in fictional courses by DanO and LinksLegend. There are others too but they are the ones that jump to the forefront in my mind and people I learned a lot about golf course architecture from back in the earlier days of the game.