Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

I mentioned elsewhere I've been having some back problems which totally slowed down the work on my latest course, Cougill's Keep, named in honor of my father Glen Cougill who passed away in February. I finally completed the course routing yesterday, and have done a little planting work today, mainly around the perimeter.

I've tried to make my courses look real, but I've wandered a bit more into the fantasy realm with this one. Some of the tees are a bit absurb, but it was fun playing with tall hills and a lot of slope. I'm still not certain whether to use piney or hardwood types of trees; this one is using pines. I've also messed around with making a waterfall which IMO looks pretty good.

It's not going to be an easy course; greens will have a lot of movement and slope so D/VD is going to be quite a challenge depending on which one of the pins you get. Personally I'd like to make -5 a challenge for the big guns, but that might make it ridiculously hard for us mortals.

Anyway, here are a few shots. This is the first course that I didn't plant during the construction phase, as again I'm still not sure what direction I'm going to go with it.

Judy! I like what I see so far. Its hard to get a real fill for a design sometimes when a designer hasn't decided on the tree's and such. One small suggestion, you might want to put a white like foamey looking texture at the bottom of your waterfall. This can be done using a sand texture so long as your sure nobody will notice or hit a ball into it. Make it a odd shape or even 2 or 3 small shapes and add a few tiny hills or treat it like a rock formation with jagged areas. Maybe a rock or 2 would also work.As I said just a suggestion.

Looks awesome Judy. Cant wait to see the finished product.
Dar

I know I don't want the job of mowing this one Looks good so far - not sure about the pano.

Indy Anna Jones,

I'm getting comfortable enough to post some shots of Penrhyn Township Golf Links soon, so for every comment I make here, feel free to return it ten-fold.

Overall, it looks like you have very good control over the elevation tools. The mountains in the background look too blue. Is the panorama your own? If so, consider toning down the saturation.

The 2nd hole looks like a hole I've played locally. Is the area of fairway over the creek reachable off the tee? The short pitch to the flag is a great reward for the big risk it takes to get there.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm looking at with the 5th hole shot. Are those bunkers really necessary? They do look a little out of place. The rolling elevations look nice, though. Goes well with the tumbling tree line behind the green.

The waterfall looks really good. As Steve suggested, try adding a ripple or three (odd numbers look more natural than even numbers) with either a sandy texture or different coloured water texture(s). You're off to a good start. Keep going. Consider making the area immediately to the right of the green a little less steep. Do a quick google search for waterfall to get some inspiration for rocks, trees, even birds (sounds) that would be appropriate for that scene.

Now I'll just duck in the corner and wait for the rotten tomatoes to be thrown my way.

Thank you all very much for your comments!

The pano is xanw; I have no idea what course it belongs to. I agree with the blue mountains. The main reason I picked it is because it has a really neat old castle...ie, Keep. There's also a cool looking river or lake and a neat stone trestle in the pano.

I do plan on doing more work on the falls, so thanks for the suggestions.

Cougill (Cowgill) being Irish, that's what's making it hard on deciding how to plant. I prefer a piney look, but I'm not sure if it would be in keeping with the Irish countryside. I'm still at a place that I can make major changes without having to do a lot of work, so I may end up changing the pano; Mag Mtn. would work well with the pines. I don't want a rocky mountain look since I just did a mountain course last year. Ah, decisions, decisions.

Mike, about #2. Since last year I've been using traps not just for strategy/penalty, but also for definition; it's actually a very short par 4 (300 yards) so yeh, there's plenty of clearance! One thing I always try to make sure of is that a carry is makeable by me into a breeze and that if it's a G/S headwind, there's a layup area available.

#5 is a tough hole, almost all up hill, but with a good drive, it's actually less than 250 to the front of the green. Without the traps, it has no teeth.

Hello,

Judy, first I hope your back will be better soon and you are doing better.

Thank you for posting some pics for us.
From what I can see on the pics, I like the progress you did, since I saw it the last time.
I don´t have really much to add from what has already been said, so I guess I can´t give you much "input".

I agree on the pano. My thought is, that on the pics with the planting, it looks good and could work out, but if you have a free view on it, it looks a bit starnge to my eye.
If I remember right, Jimi did a few very nice looking courses that are a little bit "fantasy style", he did a lot courses and I don´t remember wich one I like most.
Barmy Castle has pano with a castle I think, but the sky looks a bit strange (red colored), so maybe that would not fit to your course or what you have in your mind.
Maybe you can find a other pano to try out on these copyright pano files, we can download here, where you can have a first look on most of the panos we have.

I know you still trying out diffrent things, at the moment, I am not sure, if the "second rough" does fit good to the other textures.
I like the elevation work and the other stuff.
(If you need a play tester, feel free to send it to me anytime, you want.)

That are just my first thoughts.

Greetings
Boris

Thanks Boris, I always appreciate your input, and I'm sorry I didn't give you any for your new course. I'm still waiting to play it also... I'm so behind on the newbies!!

I see what you're saying about the second rough. It's awfully dark compared to the other textures. I'm mainly using blackwolf for my fairway+ textures but the light and heavy rough are both NAW; I'll see if I can find something more compatible.

I've tried out a few other panos and have another look at the pano sheet. Agree with the blue mountains... I think they're intended as shadows and sunlight on the hillsides. I'm trying to avoid a "rocky mountain" look... most of the mountain panos are of that type... and Mag Mtn. just doesn't fit in with what I'm trying to do.

I'm going with the pines, but now I'm searching for the right look in the trees. If I stick with the xanw pano I need more green than most of the trees have; the brownish look doesn't fit in too well.

This is a shot from the 4th tee with just gross planting so far: And this is a view to the right side of the 16th green: We'll be playing it on Monday, so I'll be sure and send you the file even if you can't make it. Look for it somewhere between 7-8pm your time.

Judy , a long time ago I did what I visioned as an Irish course. I called it Tralee which is a real irish course my rendition is not real. The reason I mention this is you might want to take a look at it or at least at the pano I used. I got t he pano from a library called Ter Libs. The only part of this library that you would be interested in for your course is the pano. Just a thought, Spencer.