Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

Course: BirdSong Golf Club (14.3 MB)
Type: Fictional, Oceanside
Designer: SirTorben
Date: 8/19/2012
Images: Sp, #1, #11
Libraries Used: baltursol, barrenhills, beartooth, coosbay, oceanside, portmarnock, sammamish, sammamishplateau, whisperwind

Just finished playing this course. I really enjoyed it and found it to be interesting and fun. There were some very nice texture choices and the attention to detail in the waste area plantings and rockey gullies was amazing. I'm not sure I liked the choice of three different bunker types as the course moved from ocean to forest and back. I find a lot of the bunker treatments in PGA2000 designs(particularly the borders and surrounds) are cartoonie and unrealistic, so I much prefer the direct rough to sand treatments or those realistic sandy/grassy blends that some designers have used. I was tempted to knock it down a half a star for the this, but restrained myself and went with the full 5 stars. Thanks for allowing us to enjoy this course Sir Torben, hopefully there are more to come.
Cheers, Dave

Five of us played the back nine last night. Consensus opinion, nice course. The course is technically good. The greens had no spikes that we found. The course is visually appealing and the plantings seem quite realistic. One needs to avoid the bomb craters...er... deep bunkers. I got greedy and went for the green on the short par 4. You guessed it... bunker... had to drop. Still, I got lucky and chipped it in for a bird. We played it on long/dry/breezy and scores ran from -6 to -9 (for 9 holes)... so it plays pretty easy if you stay out of trouble.

In my opinion, this course is much much improved from SirTorben's earlier courses.

Good job... Keep em coming.

Dar

What I liked -
The final six holes in links style design were well done - the textures work well and the bunkers are fun.
The layout was interesting and kept my attention throughout.
Don't believe there was one par 3 hole that was unfair or unplayable for a duffer like me

What I questioned -
The course is set up with three different themes, each running for six holes - the first six are oceanside, the next six are forest and the final six are links. Each themed set of holes had their own textures and personality. Like in his first design, it is clear that Sir Torben is not afraid to roll the dice and go outside of the box in his presentation. I have played a course in Canada that is laid out similarly so it is kind of realistic - not that far off the beaten path for sure but certainly no one has attempted it like this before in PGA 2000. I am not sure if I like it though. On the one hand I was not bored playing my round - on the other hand I kinda felt like I was playing 3 demo courses in a row; each with only 1/3 of their holes. I guess this will be a matter of taste - certainly gives us something to talk about

What I noticed that might help in future designs -
The balls on the driving range were out of scale.
The statue from Sahalee? looked out of place where it was put.
The seagulls seemed too large as well.

My advice then -
You should download this course and keep it installed for a few reasons - inspiration to be creative in designs of your own, a nice and realistic change of pace, you can say you played an original design by an architect that will probably get even better and my girls liked it (they made me put that there) I will not say it is an A list course but I will say it is one you must at least play once and then make up your mind. Thanks very much Sir T - appreciate your work and contribution to our community.