Fab & The
BadBody at the Links
With Guest
Reviews By Dave
06/19/01
Winged
Foot West Course By Frank Roorda
Designers Notes:
Opened
in 1923, this A.W. Tillinghast creation demands powerful, yet accurate golf. The
fairways are narrow, the rough is deep and the greens are contoured.
It is not only important to hit most of your tee shots long, but as
straight as humanly possible.
This club hosted the 1929, 1959, 1974, and 1984 U.S. Opens.
The winners were R. T. Jones, Jr., Billy Casper, Jr., Hale Irwin,
and Fuzzy Zoeller. The 1997 PGA Championship, won by Davis Love III,
was played here as well.
Fab: Before
I review this course I want to make one comment about PGA Golf and
an improvement I hope they make in future releases.
We need to have the grid color changed from yellow to white. That would resolve the only problem on playing this course
and many others, the inability to clearly see the breaks.
Now
for the review: GREAT
COURSE: ‘NUFF SAID
 
Excellent – A Definite Keeper
Dave:
Frank did his homework on this one, read the text file on it. This course
is a gem. Try as we might we could find nothing to complain about.
Well almost. Lol
The
turf that Frank used on this course is some of the best I have seen.
The rough has a texture that REALLY looks like rough. The fairways
even have divot marks in them. HOW’D HE DO THAT! hehe
Be
careful when playing this course, there are some hills and slopes
that are very deceptive and can fool a player into some trouble.
This
is a course of the top-notch variety. The only thing that I find to
be troublesome on it is the use of the turf Frank used and that is
only because it makes it almost impossible to read the greens using
the grids so take your time and GOOD LUCK!
 
Excellent – A Definite Keeper
Difficult
Run By Steve
Knoblock
Designers Notes: Constructed
on a portion of the original 966 acres granted to William Gunnell in
1730, Difficult Run Country Club nestles between the many branches
of its namesake stream. Difficult Run in real life is one of the
many streams tributary to the Potomac River and has probably a dozen
small branches. This virtual course is nestled between a couple of
these.f William is the probable ancestor of my own line of Fairfax
Gunnell's, thus my interest in these particular land grants in and
around the area where I grew up. The Gunnells migrated from England
sometime in the late 1600s. Despite that the first three generations
of Gunnell men were illiterate they were rewarded handsomely for
their many years loyal service as indentured servants and retainers
to the Lee family. The land granted to them by the Proprietary was
not free---it had to be purchased by faithfully paying the quit
rents. However, it was a better life with more opportunity than
England. I doubt they ever imagined that golf would be played on
their land (And most likely never will because of the many existing
sub-divisions and shopping centers built on the Gunnell tracts. Some
of the land does remain open. Who knows? Maybe there will be a
course there someday---and there are several in the area).
A
comparable course existing in real life would be Congressional
Country Club in Maryland and perhaps Army-Navy Country Club in
Arlington, Virginia.
Fab:
I added the
designer’s notes because I thought it an interesting piece of
history, and a look back at the immigrants lives.
Difficult
Run is not a real course rendition; I only wish that it were. It is a splendid virtual course that will be a challenge and
a lot of fun for most to play.
The
overall course design, layout and elevations are beautifully done. For the most part the greens are well thought out and
constructed although a few “Pool Table” smooth greens should
have been better constructed so as not to yield those straight in
putts. There were also
one or two greens that were an “upside down cereal bowl” with
what I would call an unfair pin position.
I
was not impressed with most of the bunkers which although had nice
dirt lips were too flat for my liking.
The bunkers that were sunk appeared to need a little extra
smoothing to really make them shine.
I also think the overall beauty of the course which used
light colored textures would have been enhanced with a little more
color. I believe Steve
tried to do this with his areas of wildflowers but that didn’t
work IMHO. They were
too flat, showed little definition and unless it said wildflowers I
would have mistaken for common waste areas.
Overall
I liked this course, and will be keeping it on my hard drive for
now. Nice job Steve.

Nice Course Worthy of Keeping
Dave:
Difficult Run has a lot
of very interesting ideas going for it. I really liked the shapes of
the bunkers, the fairways were fair with most of the trees well off
to the sides, but don’t let that fool you, the weeds are tough out
there. Trees aren’t needed…lol.
Approach
shots to the greens are to be taken seriously as one slip and
you’re in one of the many very intricately curved bunkers.
A
couple of items would have made this an excellent course though in
my opinion. The bunkers although very well thought out were still a
bit rough and could have used more smoothing on the edges and many
of them seemed to be completely flat once you landed in them…
which I seemed to have done with a great deal of accuracy.
The only other item that would have made this course more
enjoyable was more eye candy. I like the occasional view of well
placed flower beds, which seemed to be lacking. Steve did use some
fences I found to be very well placed and natural looking, great job
there. Having said that, eye candy aside, (personal preference of
mine) this is a course that is challenging and fun to play.

Nice Course Worthy of Keeping
Harbour
Town Golf Links By Smak2000
Fab:
Harbour Town Gold Links is a very
interesting course. It
is well designed, fun to play and good to look at. Dave and I opened up on the first hole and heard something
different for PGA, dogs barking…quite a pleasant surprise and
change of pace or so I thought.
After playing three holes the song “Who Let The Dogs Out”
came to mind….lol. After
the first four or five holes I began to think that everyone had dogs
because that is all I heard and it got to be a little annoying.
However both the dogs and my playing pard Dave finally shut
up after the first five holes and I could finally settle in for a
quiet and relaxing day of golf…..lol.
This
course requires that you do a little bit of thinking in order to
score well, although it is an easy course to have a very good round.
There were only two places where I saw anything that affected
the playability of this course and that was the greens on 9 and 13.
On 9 I had a short 5’ putt which showed almost no break (at
most right edge) set up my shot, putted and thought to myself
another birdie. Well I
was wrong halfway to the cup the ball decided it wanted to go
somewhere else and took a hard right turn.
On a putt that read a 2 break it actually turned out to be a
9 to get it into the cup. A
little more smoothing to get rid of that spike was needed.
I also think that the green on 13 with the pin up front was a
bad design. Either the small front portion should have less of a slope of
been larger, or maybe not having a pin located there would suffice.
Other
then those two items the course was very fair and fun to play.
Dave may not think so, he was horrible last night, but then
he usually is….lol. Oh
and speaking of Dave, if you should happen to see him, don’t say
anything about his crumpled golf cart, he’s a little touchy about
it, seems as though there is a large tree growing in the middle of
the cart path on the 13th and Dave wasn’t looking, and
well I guess you can figure it out from there……lol.

Nice Course Worthy of Keeping
Dave:
What can I say..
except… BRING DOG SPRAY! They are every where!
This
is a very well crafted course, very smooth looking with lots of
people living on the course and they all have dogs. Very interesting
sounds there SMAK! Although they got on my nerves after a bit.
Thought they were after me!
Well
as I said the course was VERY well designed and as Fab has
mentioned, I only noticed the spike in the green and believe me its
there.. we hit it over and over…lol before Fab got it in the
hole..lol. Now my
nemesis of a hole was the 13th , BIG bunker down deep
with sheer walls and a pin location up front that was impossible to
hit.. played a bit of ping pong trying to get it there so I hit it
to the back of the green and found myself having to putt around a
corner to the pin with that wall and the bunker in the way.. Nice
idea for a green but not practical.
Actually
the whole course was great but watch out.. It will lure you in to
complacency and then you hit the 13th and 14th
holes and they will eat you up.. well they did me anyway!
I
did enjoy my time at Harbour Town though at least that’s what Fab
told me when I came to at the Hospital after hitting that tree
growing out of the middle of the path! But my head still hurts and I
now have to pay for a cart!
All
in all if you want a challenge get it, play it!

Nice Course Worthy of Keeping

Kaulani
Bay Resort By Steve Opfer
Fab:
Kaulani Bay Resort as far as I can tell
is not a real course rendition, though it could be.
I used to live in Hawaii, and Steve has definitely caught the
flavor of the area with this beautiful course.
The only thing lacking that would have made this look better
would have been a different panorama, one with steep Hawaiian cliffs
as the islands are noted for. The
panorama used was close, but not quite the mountains typical to
Hawaii.
The
choice of texture, course layout and design were all very well done.
I especially liked the idea of using the two clubhouses back
to back making for a more splendid overall clubhouse.
The
only misses that I saw on this course were in two areas.
One was the lack of well
defined bunker lips of the dirt type of construction.
The bunkers appeared too flat for me.
The other if this was to be a true Hawaiian style course
would have been a little thicker tropical vegetation.
The type of trees used just didn’t seem to fit the locale
IMHO.
The
course although not too difficult is a challenging course with some
very difficult doglegs to follow and hit with accuracy
This
is a very nice course, one that will remain on my hard drive.

Nice Course Worthy of Keeping
Dave:
Kaulani Bay Resort, after a
long flight to somewhere in the south pacific Fab and I finally
arrived at the resort checked into our hotel and grabbed our bags.
As we tee’d up at the first hole I drew a deep breath, savoring
the taste of salt air, the sound of the surf crashing on the shore
ringing in my ears, I drew back and hit the ball..
POW…..
I really got that one but where in the world was it going?
This
course is very well thought out. The fairways are of a good width
and easy to hit, providing you look before you swing. Some of the
holes are deceptive, so don’t just rip one off. And that is what
makes a fun course, YOU HAVE TO LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP! There are
holes that go around a bay or two that look like you might just be
able to take a short cut.. don’t ! lol
I
did however find a couple of things that were distracting to myself,
although not enough to warrant my NOT advocating one to try this
course out. The first was that although Steve did a fine job of
smoothing the bunkers down into themselves I did miss that little
bit of a lip that makes a bunker complete to me. The second, was a
couple of greens that were a bit too steep for my liking. But like I
said before, those were not enough to deter me and I really enjoyed
this course. Steve you did a great job on smoothing throughout the
whole course and the holes were a good challenge. Keep up the good
work! I know I will be playing at the resort again.

Nice Course Worthy of Keeping

Apache
Pass By Brad "Clack" Mabie
Fab:
Apache Pass is a very interesting
course that is well constructed and well thought out.
Oh it may not have the polish of some of the better course
designers, but it is a very well done course.
It is not by any means an easy course to play…..ask my pard
Dave….he spent most of the night in the sand, lucky thing a cat
didn’t come by and cover him up….lmao.
There
are a lot of bunkers on this course, most are well sunken bunkers,
some around the greens are what I call subterranean…..lol.
Don’t go long over the greens or you will find out what I
mean, its fun getting out of a bunker but hard to place well when
you can’t see the green because its above your head.
Although from in there I didn’t have to look at my bro
Dave, so it was a fair trade…lol.
On one hole we counted twelve bunkers and for us that’s no
easy task, its hard to take off my shoes when sitting at my puter
and I ran out of fingers.
This
is definitely a thinking mans course, no “Grip & Rip” here. This course is not long, as a matter of fact it has some very
short holes on it, but you don’t just grab your driver and crack
one…you can but you’ll find yourself in some deep *@#% !
This course requires you to look at the shot and decide where
and how you are going to place your tee shot, get it right and this
course is easy to score on, get it wrong and you’’ play like
Dave…lol.
It’s
a shame BadBody wasn’t here for this course he would have loved
all the flowers and the water.
He would have fainted if he saw hole #11, that’s BB’s
type of hole for sure.
This
course isn’t perfect, in fact it has its share of flaws.
A few of the greens are questionable in my mind for the
amount of slope, on very dry conditions they would be impossible.
If you want a challenge, a course where you have to think on
every shot, then by all means download this course.

Nice Course Worthy of Keeping
Dave:
Apache Pass a course with a mission! That
mission seemed to be to get me to see every bunker on every hole.
lol
Actually
this is just the kind of course that BadBody would LOVE! And frankly
I had a great time on this course. Its not the easiest course out
there, in fact it can become frustrating. But Fab and I had a blast
playing this course. So neither of us were really concentrating on
maintaining our scores. I think, played again and with some thought
while playing, it would be possible to stay out of those bunkers.
The
course is well done technically with great grass cuts and well
defined bunkers. Lots of flowers and eye candy. In short it’s very
pleasing to the eye. The eleventh hole has to be Brad’s signature
hole, this hole is a par 3, but with teeing off to a small area
jutting off the side of a cliff with nothing but water to land in
except for the green it could be tough. But it got an OOOH out of me
when it came up.
The
course may have a few areas which need some improvement but to be
frank, it grabbed me from the opening shot to the last and I really
didn’t notice the imperfections. I liked this course and I believe
the man I am replacing would have loved it. If you are looking for a
fun course to play on, THIS is it. Download it and try it out. Think
I will be keeping this one on in my library for a while.

Nice Course Worthy of Keeping


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