Four Lakes Preserve was released on March 327, 2004 by Chuck Gunsaullus (aka Chuck G). Included in the course notes are some great explanations on his design. Here they are:
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Four Lakes Preserve
A fictional design by Chuck Gunsaullus
Par 72, 7438 yards
Since the release of Tidewater at the end of 2003, I have slowed down a little in my design work. I started a few new designs before my old computer decided to take a dump, but I didn’t finish any of them aside from Stableford Meadows, which is, at best, a weak effort on my part. I have started work on a demanding real course rendition of Kiawah Island Ocean Course, but that process is very different than that of a fictional design, and will take much longer to complete.
I was fooling around with the architect one night, and decided to lay out 18 holes of golf course just to see what might happen. After spending a few weeks on Kiawah, I was getting a little anxious to get back to my own designs. The layout came out perfectly, with holes in every direction, a great mix of yardage, and a perfect routing without the holes being ten miles apart. I had put some very basic elevation on the land plot and even this worked out well with the layout so I decided to work on a few of the holes.
Once I get started on a design that is going well, it’s very difficult to stop. In just 2 weeks, I had the entire course elevated, the greens and bunkers done, and much of the planting and foresting finished. Surprisingly, almost none of the original layout was changed at all. The yardage changed by only 40 or 50 yards from my original layout.
The course itself is one of the longest I have ever designed at 7438 yards from the tips. As usual, there is very little water on the course, coming into play on only 7 holes. There were two main goals I tried to accomplish with this course.
First, there are no “gimme” holes. All of the par 5’s are over 500 yards and three of them (#7, #10, #18) require a long second shot over or around water. The shortest par 3 is the 6th hole at just under 170 yards. There is only one short par 4, the 11th, and it can be reached off the tee with favorable winds and a good power fade. To the front of the green is around 320 yards (around the lake, of course). There are several long par 4’s (over 450 yards) and 2 par 3’s over 200 (depending on the hole locations).
In keeping with the above theme, the second thing I tried to accomplish was to make some bad bounces happen to careless golfers. What I mean by that is, some fairways (like the 7th and 12th) have areas of extreme elevation that will make a golf ball go somewhere bad. The 7th hole will bounce a long drive off the fairway if it is too far to the left, and the 12th will leave a blind shot from behind a huge mound if a tee-ball is too far to the right. On these holes, there is plenty of room to place a drive that will be safe. Also, there are several raised greens that will be fun to chip to if you miss. Bad shots too these greens will be repelled down into chipping areas. I like to make a golf course difficult without being obvious with water and bunkers all over the place. Speaking of bunkers, there are tons of them (76 to be exact), but many are for visual distraction purposes rather than actual interference. The 2nd, 5th, and 16th holes have areas with many small bunkers that don’t necessarily come into play.
I used 5 libraries to design this course. The textures except for the bunkers are from the Arrowhead Golf Club library by Jorgen Ekroth. The bunkers along with the cart paths and some trees are from the CCove library by Jim Dickson. The pano and most of the trees are from the Barren Hills library by Brian Silvernail, and additional trees and flowers are from the Blackheath library by Phillip Lothian and the Flowers3 library by someone I don’t know (apologies). The course music is a cute song by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straights fame called “Quality Shoe.”
Any comments may be forwarded to vlasux@yahoo.com or at the reviews forum at the Copyright Club.
Thank you for playing Four Lakes Preserve!
Chuck Gunsaullus 3/27/04
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On the very first tee box, you will see just how capable Chuck G is of making a great golf course. The planting is superb, and the colors look very nice together.
The combination of trees, grass and bushes blends perfectly with the pano for a very realistic look.
As you can see from the last pic, Chuck has some big false fronts to several greens. This is part of his 'defense' mechanism he mentioned in his notes. You will see some hilly fairways as well, but at the same time, I had alot of flat lies in the fairways.
You had better keep the overhead cam and your thinking cap on. The fairways are plenty wide, but the stray sand trap or dogleg can get you if you just tee it up and smash it. This is the par 5 finishing hole:
This is the epitome of a great golf hole. Many options off of the tee, and trouble lurking with a bad shot or even a bad decision. There are many holes like this at Four Lakes Preserve that can lead to anything from an easy birdie to a triple bogey.
For those of you trying this for the first time, do not be intimidated by the yardage. I am not a long hitter, and I usually shoot around 70, but I had 6 birdies and shot 68. So it can be tamed, even by us hackers. I also playtested with very dry greens and found them to putt very nicely. I did run into a spike on the very back of the second green, but other than that they were perfect.
Anyone who has not played a Chuck Gunsaullus course is really missing out! If you like this one, he has quite a few more to offer....13 more in fact. Here they are:
Aspiration Valley GL
Barnegat Bay Club
Boundary Waters GC
Destiny Ridge GC
Le Vallee Du Le Juste
Point Counter Point
Schuberts Bay Golf Club
Stableford Meadows GL
The Country Club of Martin Downs
Thors Hammer 2000
Thors Hammer 2004
Tidewater GC and Plantation
TPC of Egg Harbor
Oldie but Goodie: Four Lakes Preserve
Re: Oldie but Goodie: Four Lakes Preserve
I've played several of Chuck G. courses and this is a ( F ) letter A list course. It was my tour stop this season back just a few weeks ago for the HSBC Champions Tournament. This is probably my favorite course that he's designed that I've played. Also Destiny Ridge was very good
Re: Oldie but Goodie: Four Lakes Preserve
Another nice review Doron... thanks.
For what its worth, I have eight of Chuck's 14 courses on my A-List. In order of personal preference:
Destiny Ridge GC 04/23/05
Point Counter Point 09/27/04
Schuberts Bay Golf Club 01/06/05
TPC of Egg Harbor 05/08/04
Aspiration Valley GL 10/07/02
Boundary Waters GC 09/11/03
Four Lakes Preserve 03/27/04
Thors Hammer 2004 09/18/04
Dar
For what its worth, I have eight of Chuck's 14 courses on my A-List. In order of personal preference:
Destiny Ridge GC 04/23/05
Point Counter Point 09/27/04
Schuberts Bay Golf Club 01/06/05
TPC of Egg Harbor 05/08/04
Aspiration Valley GL 10/07/02
Boundary Waters GC 09/11/03
Four Lakes Preserve 03/27/04
Thors Hammer 2004 09/18/04
Dar