Point Reyes National by Steve Horn [Contest Course]

[BrianZ111]

Course: Point Reyes National (20.7 MB)
Type: Fictional, Oceanside
Designer: Steve Horn
Date: 12/19/2010
Images: Splash, #3, #13, #16
Libraries Used: august, bethpage1, chiltonhills, cypress, evesky2, southwind_2010, the_ridges, wisconsinriver

[bryce]

THE GOOD
I like a good challenge, and Steve has definitely provided us with one. The greens are very hilly, with alot of tiers and little humps. They were really fun to play on with very dry conditions! The layout is outstanding and will make you think about where to place your shots at. There are several holes right on the water, and number 3 is a really nice little hole to try to drive with the wind blowing 15 mph!

THE BAD
I just don't know about the pano. It looks like you are playing in a storm. The raised waves were something I had never seen before, but were somewhat jagged when you get up close to them. It's a very interesting idea though.

My Thoughts
Even though I shot my worst round of the contest courses at +6, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Point Reyes. If you are looking for the fun factor, definitely give this one a try. Dar, I would like to see what your group shoots on this course with very dry greens! LOL The finishing hole reminds me, as it will everyone else, of a famous finishing hole. My favorite hole was the par 5 13th.....you'll see!

Steve, this was a really enjoyable course!

[A Brandt]

This is the first course I'm judging. I really enjoyed playing it. Right off the bat I noticed some very nice elevation work, and I like the occasional rocks/cliffs. As I made my way around I noticed many good things and some bad. The waves are very cool! I would never have the patience for that! I really like the work along the coast, with the rocks, dunes, and what looks like a retaining wall. The greens are awesome too, with very realistic contours. I still haven't figured out how to make such distinct tiers without having them be 3ft high. Planting is done very well. Now what I didn't like... The pano is distracting, although in some spots it seems to work (see below). I applaud trying something different, but it just doesn't fit. I wasn't too fond of the difference between light and deep rough, going from a deep green to a much lighter shade immediately. The layout was fair and offered sufficient variety, but I found myself pointed at the trees off the tee on a couple holes. Overall I think this is a great course and a solid first course for me. I expect it to be right at the top, but who knows!?

I don't know why, but the side of this hill caught my eye. I love the way it looks with the stormy sky. Maybe using a darker, merkier looking water texture would help with the pano.

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[Craigus10]

Nice course Steve. Some great elevation work, as stated by the guys above and some nice looking cliff textures. Some really great looking holes and surrounding scenery on some of them as well.

I played the course on medium, Dry, breezy for my first round to make it interesting. All of the greens were well made, and rolled true on these settings. A good amount of thought has to be put into some shots otherwise you will end up in trouble, which is really how a course should be. The course felt a little dark, probably a combination of the pano and the textures, which I didn't mind, as it gave it a feeling of being a well secluded course, and hidden away in a valley.

For overall gameplay, I thought the course was challenging but fair, and will definately have another round or 2 to take in some of the scenery.

Thanks for the course and the hard work Steve!

[Polslad]

Agree with all of the above.
Good selection of holes.
Lots of elevation work.
Cuople of blind uphill shots.
Favourite 2 holes are the short par 4 third, and long par 3 seventeenth, both next to or across the water.
Also agree with the comments about the pano, perhaps a darker water texture may have matched the storm thats heading this way.

[spencerturner]

Pretty nice course Steve. I would like to have seen a little more underbrush under your trees to give the course a fuller look if you will. I think Monterey and Metropolitan libraries offer a good selection . I agree with the comments about the pano selection . I think the pano selection is the most important choice for any course as it sets the theme for every thing else you do . I noticed that none of the bunkers had lips on them which takes away from the look I think you want. I could see on some holes the beginning and ending of some cart paths that went only a few yards and then stopped in the middle of nowhere. Some of the tees may have had too many tee markers on them for the size of the tee itself. Over all I think you did a fine job and applaud your efforts. My comments are not as flowery as some you will receive but they are ment not as a criticism of your work but it is intended to help you become a professional designer. Plese let me know If I can be of any assistance to you in your next design I might be able to help you with those bunker lips. Respectfully, Spencer.

[sandwedge]

Steve,

Thanks for this course I gave you high marks for originality - liked the crested waves. I also enjoyed the challenge of the layout and thought the par five 13th was especially delightful. This was easily the most difficult of the contest courses for my cyber golf game. The only negatives I had were: 1. the creek needs to be spruced up alot to look more realistic, 2. the placement of the benches was off, 3. there is a need for smoothing around the 12th green and 4. some of the hazard stakes are not in proportion. My favorite hole was the par five 16th. I am not only keeping this course but I plan on playing it again right after I get off of the Internet. This is truly a great design!

[SteveHorn]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions on my latest design. Just remember that with contest courses you are limited in ways ( libraries ) and I may have done a couple of things slightly different if I had more libraries avalible for use. I don't create my own libraries
( I leave that to the experts with better computers ). That being said I'm still very happy with this design and the results.
I wanted to do something a little different and I remember those white caps on Lake Erie and the Ocean and wanted to see if I could do that. I made them jagged because I've never in my life seen a smooth white cap. I originally tried a darker texture with the water, but it was to dark in my opinon with the pano I choose. Since I had white caps I certainly didn't want a pretty blue sky and white fluffy clouds. I remembered Robert@ using a stormy pano for lighthouse bay that I liked so I used it. Since I made this course difficult I made alot of my bunkers with smaller lips but there's still more then you may realize out their with lips that will punish you for finding that bunker.

[Indy Anna Jones]

Poppy, Jack and I played our final contest round here today on a/n/b, and found Pt. Reyes quite a demanding course, which we all enjoyed. I love planting that is both nice to look at and strategically challenging, and PtR has these in abundance, starting with the nicely tucked in green area of #1. We also enjoyed the nice mixture of tight vs open holes and long uphill/long downhill shots.

I also found the stormy sky/lt blue ocean a bit distracting but Poppy really liked it. (There's nothing a designer can do about it, but I don't think there are any ocean textures which reflect the sky, so you always end up with a flat look.)

We weren't too happy with the greens. Again I don't think it was the designers fault but several times in our round the ball simply wouldn't take the break or would even move against the break line. It got pretty confusing which certainly reduced our enjoyment of the course.

Overall though, we loved its looks and playability. Steve did a great job (they all did) with Bryan's plot and it was a lot of fun playing.

/

[SteveHorn]

Indy! I'm suprised at how you and your group found the greens breaks would'nt take. In numerous rounds of test play I found that the main feature of the greens were that since they were faster then most they took the break more then some greens.