Castle Stewart by Polslad [New Course]

[BrianZ111]

Course: Castle Stewart (22.6 MB)
Type: Real, Links
Designer: Polslad
Date: 4/21/2013
Images: Sp, #3, #18
Libraries Used: Castle_Stewart, coosbay, coosbayblend

[bryce]

Pics look great David! I will have to download it and give it a spin when I get home from work today.

[sandwedge]

I have never played the real-life Castle Stewart or seen it for that matter so I cannot comment on the accuracy of the layout. Considering David's previous works, I suspect it is accurate.

What I liked: I thought the layout was a fair test - at least for my golfing skills. I liked the panorama - bridge seemed to be in scale. I liked the sounds - not overly done and improved the ambiance of a round nicely. I liked the clubhouse object.

What gave me pause: The color of the textures - the green used is a tint that resembles St. Patrick green - not sure if it is this way in Scotland or not but I did not prefer this tint of green. I also got tired of the panorama by the tenth hole or so. At first the bridge was a nice surprise but after seeing it on what seemed like every other hole, well it wore on me.

Overall impressions: I will be keeping the course on my hard drive for sure. I might elect to turn the panorama off while playing though. Thanks so much David for the hard work and I must say I appreciate the realistic and beautiful result

[gova]

Hi David,

Thanks for your version of Castle Stewart, the course looked great and played fairly and I enjoyed my round.

I play GBC, Links 03 and TW08 and TW have this course and I appreciate how it looks in PGA2000.

Cheers
Brian

[bryce]

Great looking course David!

The Good:
I like the layout alot, as well as the custom textures. The greens were quite challenging on very dry, but not overwhelming. I love the grass around the sand traps, especially around the greens.

The Bad
The only thing I really can say bad about this course were some of the tee boxes. A few tee positions were not centered with the markers, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I happen to like symmetry. One tee box was no more than 8 feet wide, and the 4th tee box had a big uphill lie, instead of being flat.

Overall
Not my favorite Polslad design, but still a definite keeper. I played rather well in my first go 'round, knocking 4 birdies down in the first 6 holes. I got a little wild on the back 9, but still hung on for a nice round of 70. I played long, very dry, breezy conditions, to fit with the links style of the course.

Good job David! Glad to see courses still coming!

Doron

[Parrothead]

I like it enough, it's a keeper. I've played a few rounds and have found on the back nine, hitting into the rough on a couple of the holes, can be unforgiving and ruin a round, much like when playing Bethpage Black. Lesson learned, try to stay out of the rough.

Cheers.

[Polslad]

Cheers Guys,
Comments taken on-board.
A few own goals with the tee boxes, must confess, I really rushed completing this one, didn't take the usual care and have been found out.
Textures were supplied in a custom library by Linkslegend, I used them straight out of the box.

All can be adjusted if people see the need?

[sandwedge]

Back in the day when we had the design contests, the judges always seemed to be sticklers for those tee boxes and making sure the water line was realistic. Maybe fixing the tee boxes might be in order. I think the textures are a matter of taste though and it seems to me that your artistic view speaks for itself - I wouldn't change them over my opinion By the way, I shot a 69 on the course the other day - enjoying it quite a lot right now!

[SteveHorn]

Just finished playing 4 rounds at Castle Stewart (Scottish Open). David! Very well done. Enjoyed it very much.
Shot 70,68,69,69 (-12) tied for 16th. This may be your best work yet. Rated it a solid (A) list course and one of the best real links courses avalible on this game. Hope it won't be long before you start and complete another gem.

[bryce]

I've been watching the Scottish Open this week and must say that it looks almost the same on my monitor as it does on television. I already put my 2 cents in when Polslad uploaded this one, but now that I have been looking at the real thing, I feel like I am playing the real thing! It's a shame this will be the last year playing it at Castle Stuart. I enjoy this course very much.

Doron