Heath 9 - work in progress

[Goran]

The design bug bit me again when doing one hole in the Alainn co-design, so I collected a few unfinished holes from a fictional links project, some real holes holes only laid out in the designer etc. I have nine holes in the folder (hence the name) and four of them are 90% done.
I found a horizon from a heathland in England, from MS Links I think and it looks great together with Charlies textures.
Here is the first hole I did from a hole I designed 20 years ago. Then it had hundreds of trees to hide the mediocre background and the glaring greenline but I axed them all down
I am doing this for relaxing now when retired, I will make nine holes and perhaps stop there depending of how I feel then about it. I realise the game is not played anymore, so this is just for my own enjoyment. I will post new holes as I go along.

[tarheel]

Looks really good! If you do finish a full 18, know that I will be getting tee times

[Goran]

Not sure I will be able to make 18 holes, but 9 are almost guaranteed. There is plenty of room for a par 3 on the left side and planning to make two holes in each window with sand dunes or shared bunkers dividing the fairways. I will release it as a 9-holer, hope you will book a tee time anyway
In my 50´s I could spend 5 hours at my desk but now my back and legs scream at me to get up for walkabouts after 30 minutes lol

[BradTheDad]

Looks terrific Goran. Please keep designing. While there are no large competitions going anymore, I'm sure there are still quite a few guys playing this great game.

Cheers

Brad

[tarheel]

I will definitely get teetimes even if it’s nine. But if you don’t think you could do a full 18 maybe someone else could finish the additional nine in their spare time? A two player tag team effort.

[Goran]

Thanks for the encouragement, spent a few hours deleting grass and gorse on the holes I started lol. Used too wide yellow grass, looked out of place compared to the view I like from my 1st screenie. Will make sure I know which plants I like before planting on next holes.
Found a screenshot from the exakt same position, not from 20 years ago but 10 years later with the same BG used now, but different. Trying to figure out who changed it to a lower perspective, I know I am certainly not able to do that. I dont even have a paint program anymore.



Lesson learned, dont be afraid of wide open spaces. Trees can be good but not by the hundreds, a few in a chosen place is better, Dont think I had the confidence way back then to let players aim their shots where they liked to, I wanted to punish them if they did not play as I wanted

[BradTheDad]

Hi Goran,

I agree that sometimes less is better. Warren "Aussie Rules" Lamshed was a great exponent of using wide open spaces and selectively placed trees and bunkers to give a golfer options, while providing a very expansive feel to the golf course. I reckon you have captured the same in the image above. Loving the look of what you are doing.

Cheers

Brad

[Goran]

View from left greensite bunker. Reworked the green on the par 5, made it twice as long for players to be able to land on the green even with a 3 wood. I want to make the hole more fun and not as frustrating as it was. Instead of trees I made sand dunes to hide the greenline on the other side, and use textures rather than littering the course with grass objects. I like the clean look better, will only plant grass and gorse in front of the tee area and behind the greensites, and not in the playing areas.

[Goran]

A conservative tee shot will give you this approach to the 2nd hole. A drive with more confidence and power will fly just past the left bunker and roll on, or hesitate and end up in the right bunker heheh.
Make sure to land in the middle of the green, or roll back into the swale fronting the green.

[Goran]

Two par 3s already in existing windows done so 4 holes finished. And this hole has an almost finished adjacent par 4 that you cant see, used sand dunes to separeta them. 5 holes already then lol. Almost Sundance speed