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APCD Courses
The Fictional Courses 7-12
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| The
Pinnacle |
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| Paul
Woodbury |
| 6941
yards. Par 72. |
| Difficulty
Medium/Hard |
Desert
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| Fictitous
- 49mb |
| Dec
2003 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 7th
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Paul Woodbury developed
his apcd skills on courses such as Scirroco Golf
Club, The Meadows and the highly rated San Simeon
designs. A great talent, and one of the best
natural planters in setting a beautiful scene
before you. The Pinnacle is a traditional desert
course, but one that contains immense depth with
great hole structures, superb views and some
awesome natural scenery. Desert courses can often
have a similar look and feel to them, and where
The Pinnacle really shines through is in the
striking snow capped panorama, an amazing
backdrop to the course, and the use of buildings
to make it feel all the more realistic. It really
is more comprehensive than even the Microsoft
designs. The landscape is quite elevated in
places, and the 12th par 3 will provide you with
a superb view of the whole course. Its not an
easy course to score well on, fairways are
relatively generous, although you need to learn
the best routes to take, and they roll and dip
everywhere to make approach shots quite tricky.
The greens are in true desert fashion on the
tough side and some pins can occasionally border
on the very difficult side, so nailing a birdie
will not be an easy task. There are many great
holes out on the course, especially the front 9
with the 2nd and 3rd requiring shots over the
lakes, the narrow opening to the 8th guarded by
symmetrical bunkers, the quite breathtaking 9th
hole, where the clubhouse hotel overlooks the
lake, and the dangerous valley at the 11th. As
mentioned every view looks fantastic, naturally
planted with appropriate scrub, palms and rocks
liberally strewn around. Textures work really
well too with the soft colour of the desert sand.
The hole previews are smart looking and contain
good information, and crowds are available in the
tourney option. The start up screens are very
impressive and professional, and in my view are
equal to the best i've seen. A design of this
quality is a must have in your collection to be
honest, it is one of the best desert designs ever
seen.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Cara
Brae |
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| Mike
Jones |
| 6909
yards. Par 70. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Irish
Links
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| Fictitous
- 65mb |
| Jun
2005 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 8th
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Cara Brae is the 13th
course release by Mike Jones and is set in the
Emerald Isle. The name roughly translated from
gaelic means 'friendly cliffs'. It is another beautiful design
from his links style portfolio, this one set
right on the cliffside and using the amazing
coastline to form dramatic hazards. Inland the
course is bordered by impressive pine trees, with
yellow course and wild grass bordering the
rolling fairways. The strategy of the design is
among the best seen, revolving around when to
play safe and when to be bold. The aggressive
player who is on his game will reap rich rewards
as he takes huge chances off the tee threading
his way in between and over the rugged, windswept
bunkers, slopes and tall grasses. For the more
cautious player though, guile and cunning is also
rewarded with good angles and lots of
opportunities to run the ball onto the greens
avoiding the deep overgrown bunkers. The course
encourages you to think first and play to your
strengths, with no single style of player having
an advantage. In many ways this course is a
culmination of all Mike's skills from his
previous releases, containing the ocean views of
Pacific Breaks, the wild bunkering of Rugged
Dunes, and at times the rolling lay-out of Burn's
Old Links. However all these elements are taken
up a notch, the ocean blends and rugged cliff
texturing are the best yet. The stone clubhouse
perfectly fits the scene, bunkers even contain
seagull footprints, and the cabbage laden field
is an extremely delicate touch. Favourite holes
include the par 3 5th hole elevated over the
cliffs, and the superb 15th is a split par 5 and
one of the best ever made. In fact the closing
holes from 15 are simply outstanding both
visually and strategically, and as usual the
sound effects will lift your experience to the
highest level. Burn's Old Links may still be my
all time favourite lay out, but this one may edge
home as the best all round apcd course design. |
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| The
Shrew |
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| John
Borycheski |
| 6985
yards. Par 72. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Scrub
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| Fictitous
- 58mb |
| Apr
2007 |
Overall
Rank 9th
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John Borycheski is one of
the unsung heroes of the apcd. Way back in 2000
when the designer was first released he produced
a lovely mountain forest course called Falcon
Ridge, a forerunner and a high standard to many
that followed in that era. In subsequent years he
released The Scorpion (a desert style course) and
The Gallows (a rolling parkland course), both
were great designs but ones that have largely
gone unmentioned in recent years. The long wait
for anything new is now over, and nearly 5 years
later we have what i consider one of the finest
and most distinctive designs of all time. The
Shew is a scrub and wasteland style course,
almost like a desert but without any real sandy
areas (other than the bunkers). A lush fairway is
surrounded by a dry yellowing grassland on which
the tall grass and bushes and found. This has the
effect of lightening and framing the view and
produces an amazing and somewhat unique visual
look. The scrubland areas do have patches of fir
trees, but these are low key and not much in
play. Fairways are cleverly designed, you can
certainly choose aggressive or safer routes, but
the rough is deep so stay on the short grass
wherever possible. Lakes do come into play at the
amazing 2nd hole and then down the closing
straight from 15, breaking up the hazards into a
new challenge. The 11th has 3 neat bunkers in a
row in view off the tee and the 14th is a
reachable par 4. All the par 3's here are
excellent but the 17th is exquisite, with water
in play for any right hand pin. One of the
greatest features of the design is the way the
panorama blends perfectly with the foreground in
both colour and nature, and complete with the
occasional building is a real feature of the
course. The planting and general lay-out is first
class, greens often are found on raised areas
with a run off into difficult territory if you
find the wrong side on your approach. This is a
type of course i can honestly say i have been
waiting a long time for, it is possibly best
described as a 'green desert' course and i find
it truely beautiful to look at, having always
liked the open view style. This is the design i
always knew this designer could produce and it is
certainly one of my all time favourites.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Adams
Tree |
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| Paul
Seaman |
| 6970
yards. Par 71. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Parkland
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| Fictitous
- 95mb |
| Jan
2007 |
Overall
Rank 10th
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Adam's Tree is a design
by Paul Seaman now famous for excellent designs
such as Dullatur Antonine and Black Rose Valley.
This is his opening venture into the pay to play
arena as this becomes the first course to be
released as a way of raising funds for a friend
whose son suffered a terrible accident. As such
this is a most commendable course for you to own.
This fictional course is set in Melbourne and is
a mature parkland style venue which has a well
manicured look but is also not without some
deliberate rough edges. As such it is a very
realistic creation. The overall appearance is a
smooth, well textured design with great use of
colours. At grass level there is a slightly dry
appearance, particularly in the deeper rough and
with blended paths and worn drainage ditches
giving it an added level of complexity. Grass is
well planted and covers the more wayward areas,
and bunkers are smooth and have browner dried out
grass edges. The soil areas under the trees play
with sand properties. The trees are colourful and
well chosen, working well together to provide an
interesting and bright effect with more autumnal
colouring than most courses. I have always loved
the old Autumn Valley by Wayne Hewitt, and
Adam’s Tree has a similar feel, but is a
much finer overall creation. All over the course
are neat touches that make the experience more
involving, from the brick bridges and ducts, to
the sprinkler heads around the greens. The city
skyline panorama is the weakest part of the
design and becomes a little overbearing. The
lay-out is interesting and clever, asking you to
think about your approaches and attack when the
time is right. Overall this is an outstanding
design, incorporating many of the quaint features
you could expect from a local parkland course,
and it becomes one of the more enjoyable courses
I have played.
Many of the
views are simply beautiful.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Bull
Run |
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| Eddie
Schmidt |
| 7061
yards. Par 72. |
| Difficulty
Medium/Hard |
Woodland
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| Fictitous
- 58mb |
| Mar
2004 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 11th
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Eddie Schmidt is one of
those designers who just keeps getting better and
better. He has already produced a couple of the
best ever top American courses, Brookline and
Spyglass Hill, and here he has returned to
fictional designing with Bull Run. Retaining a
flavour of the civil war theme begun in Southern
Pines, this is a woodland course which winds
among the trees and small lakes to create an
inventive and clever course which is always
waiting to catch you out. One of the designers
trademarks is his fabulous eye for effective tree
planting, and this course easily measures up to
the high standards set by Brookline. On the
ground level though this course goes much further
than he has done before, with intricate long
grass, bushes and coloured wild flowers bordering
the fairways and growing under the trees.
Buildings are plentiful, partially hidden by the
woodlands in true Harbour Town style, and
offering a very realistic effect. Another one of
the key course strengths are the hole designs,
with bunkers and small lakes are used to full
effect, and are often a worry when playing. The
lakes are beautiful, slighly overgrown with a
touch of algie, and when you look back down the
greens across the lakes you will get some awesome
views. The landscaped bridges, walls and rails
add an extra touch. All the par 5's were
extremely well set up to offer a chance at
improving your score, but there is always a risk,
and the par 3's are all visually beautiful and
with different challenges. To outline a few of my
favourite holes, the water approach at the 2nd is
an early test, and the par 3 7th hole is arguably
the most beautiful visually, complete with a
lovely isolated shack. The uphill then downhill
13th was a really clever design, followed by the
drivable (on a good day) peninsula at the 14th.
Then an awesome drive at the 15th to open up the
par 5, and the long tough 17th and 18th. This is
a classy course in every respect, all the options
are catered for, with Paul Woodbury helping on
some of the amazing screen graphics.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Rugged
Dune |
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| Mike
Jones |
| 6746
yards. Par 70. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Nebraska
Dunes
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| Fictitous
- 45mb |
| Oct
2004 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 12th
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Rugged Dune is set in
Oregon along the same stretch of land that boasts
Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes. It's inspiration
for design comes from Old Cypress point and Ben
Crenshaw's Sand Hills course. The isolated, bleak
and windswept location deep in the sand hills of
Nebraska were very much in my mind as the course
took shape. Rugged Dune impressively is now the
11th course design from Mike Jones, and the open
style of dune landscape you see here hasn’t
really been replicated before. Rugged Dune
contains more expanses of sand than any other non
desert design I can recall, and has exceptional
wild planting to generate the realism the course
requires. Both small bunkers and large areas of
sandy wasteground are evident. Dunes courses do
bear a close relation to an English links course
in style, an open landscape overgrown with wild
grass and gorse bushes and barely a tree in
sight. Visually though this is definitely a step
beyond what we have previously in terms of the
wildness and realism of the planting and
bunkering. Bunkers contain an almost white sand,
overgrown around the edges with deep grass, and
with additional texturing to show patches of
dirt, grass and mottled effects, they are
extremely high quality. There is plenty of
variety in strategy out on the course, more so
even than other courses by Mike Jones, the 4 par
3’s for example range from 140 yards to 210
yard tee shots, and compared to courses like
Atlantic Point it doesn’t seem quite as
tough to keep the ball in play, although it still
remains tricky to actually hole out for birdies.
This should allow a more liberal use of fast
greens and windy conditions to game players. As
usual there are some really impressive design
traits, lay up to the wrong areas and you may
find yourself on a steeper slope or the view of
the green partially hidden, and watch out for the
downslopes away from the raised parts of the
green, the ball may just keep on rolling. The
13th and 14th are the most testing to play, and
my favourite hole is the 9th with a tee shot over
a huge bunker to an angled fairway teasing you to
bite off more than you should. Quite simply this
is an awesome creation which again pushes a few
more boundaries in design and blending terms, it
also benefits from being quite unique in its
visual style and has superb sound effects. |
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