APCD Courses

The Real Courses 7-12
   
Shinnecock Hills
 
Robert Miller
7029 yards. Par 70.
Difficulty Medium

US Links
Real - 118mb
Apr 2007

Overall Rank 7th
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is a prestigious link-style golf club located in Southampton on Long Island, New York and is ranked up at number two on the latest Golf Digest US course list. It has hosted the US Open four times with winners including Ray Floyd in 1986, Corey Pavin 1995 and Retief Goosen in 2004. The club was founded in 1891 and was originally laid out by William Dunn Jr., and was redesigned by Charles B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor in around 1916, retaining five of Dunn's original holes, and redesigned again by Howard C. Toomey and William S. Flynn in 1931, retaining five of Macdonald and Raynor's holes and the green of a sixth hole. It is famous for the grand clubhouse which stands proudly visable over the rolling prairie like course. This apcd course simulation begun by Robert Miller with the 3d clubhouse following his completion of the Bethpage Black update. He was certainly the right man for this type of course, his planting effect is clearly suited to the rolling open landscape of waving grasses on the links style design, it is inspired and stunning to look at. A good selection of trees provide the backdrop at the fringes of the design, and the occasional unique tee-side tree is true to the original. The clubhouse is amazing, and really does make this course extra special. Playing the course is great fun, in true links style, your positional play is important and it definately benefits from a touch of wind blowing from the north-east. Greens here at the 2004 US Open was immensely fast, almost to the point of upsetting the professionals, and as the fairways are not all overly tight, it is good option to add the speed for a realistic and challenging game. This course is a prime example that the USA can produce a great links course, and Robert Miller has done a superb job of replicating it. This course is just real looking, with nice rope style bridges and fences but does not come with loads of frills and spectacular enhanced views, just a natural open links view of rolling grassland framing the fairways, and i love it.
Hole Previews : Excellent Tournament Option : Excellent
     
The Country Club, Brookline
 
Eddie Schmidt
7011 yards. Par 71.
Difficulty Medium/Hard

Parkland
Real - 55mb
May 2003

Course of the Month

Overall Rank 8th
The Country Club at Brookline Massachusetts is one of the great courses in the world. Placed at number 19 in the latest Golf Digest rankings, it has a history of hosting the major events including the US Open that saw Curtis Strange defeat Nick Faldo in a play-off in 1988, and in 1999 as host to the Ryder Cup it featured a dramatic USA final day comeback to win the trophy. In 2005 it will be host to the USPGA Championship. By now you should be really keen to play this great course, and more so when you know that Eddie Schmidt has designed it, well known already for the famous Spyglass Hill, Augusta Par 3, and Southern Pines courses. This recreation is first class in every way, incorporating all the best features it can from the apcd including full 2003 textures and blending, loads of 3 dimentional buildings and an accurate lay out of the real course. Visually the course is outstanding, a smooth look with loads of elevation changes, a light coloured green grass texture which contrasts but also blends nicely with the light brown wilder grassy areas. Dark textured paths wind around the course adjoining the excellent 3d buildings and a superb yellow walled clubhouse complex at the back of the 18th green. Sounds are immersive and impressive featuring a good soundtrack and a traffic effect as you near the main road, and running water near the stream. The tree planting is where this designer always excells, being consistant, blending really well, in generally soft green shades and with a great balance in height and colour, it is delightfully one of the best ever seen in this regard. Bunkers are beautifully edged too. Playing the course is a wonderful challenge, there are loads of tricky shots to be made, and a balance really needs to be found between being aggressive against playing safe, as the rough is set deep in its properties and the course quite long as a par 71. It is strategically very clever, great looking and ultimately one of the very best real courses we have available.
Hole Previews : Very Good Tournament Option : Excellent
     
Westchester Country Club
 
Steve Avery
6841 yards. Par 71.
Difficulty Medium

Rolling Woodland
Real - 114mb
Nov 2007

Course of the Month

Overall Rank 9th
The Westchester Country Club is located in Harrison, New York and has been a regular PGA Tour venue since 1963, annually hosting The Westchester Classic (from 2007 is now known as The Barclays). APCD designer Steve Avery is well known and highly respected designer bringing us the quality courses of Oakland Hills South and North courses and co-designing Sarazen Links. Westchester is his best design so far, not least aided by a course that is so interesting to play. The style of the course is on a quick glance a fairly typical US treelined course, mid-way between parkland and woodland and with deep rough surrounding the fairways. Certainly it would not be out of place as a majors venue alongside say Oakland Hills. On closer inspection though this is a far more interesting course, with rolling hills and valleys making for some great views but also adding that extra layer of thought that elevation requires. Everything about this creation is superbly done, the tree planting blends very nicely indeed, there are a number of additional textures under the tree areas for instance, and long grass planting will catch your eye in key places to add realism without becoming overbearing. Rocky outcrops will be found throughout the course and also beautifully textured. A superb clubhouse complex has been build which includes an imposing structure overlooking the course, with tennis court areas and outbuildings. The rolling terrain already mentioned makes this strategically more interesting than usual to play, and the variety offered is excellent including a number of doglegs. The 3rd hole offers the first real downhill view over the course and is a beauty, the 8th is guarded all down the side of a large lake which you drive right at, and the domeshaped 14th par 3 is fabulous with neat planting at the tee. Visually and strategically this course scores so high. For a ranking this high, the hole previews are a fairly basic graphically, but do the job and also show the green contours which is a real plus, and there was a couple of trees without a shadow (if you want to be really picky). Steve Avery has produced a classic here, it is more rounded than Oakland Hills, more fun to play and is better visually on the eye due to the texture variations. This is a late contender for Course of the Year.
Hole Previews : Excellent Tournament Option : Excellent
     
Inverness Club
 
Bruce Ditmyer
7024 yards. Par 72.
Difficulty Medium

Parkland
Real - 72mb
Oct 2006

Course of the Month

Overall Rank 10th
The Inverness Club is one of the prestigious Championship golf courses in the USA. Founded in 1903, it was originally a 9-hole layout designed by Bernard Nichols which over the years underwent renovations by great architects such as Donald Ross, and George and Tom Fazio, until the course measured 7024 yards from the championship tees and was chosen by the USGA to host the 1979 U. S. Open won by Hale Irwin. Eight major golf championships have been hosted by Inverness over the years, and it lies at 41st on the Golf Digest list of greatest USA courses. As a debut design, and over two years in the making this design by Bruce Ditmyer is quite astonishing and easily stands alongside the best courses ever made available for the game. This is a lush green and picturesque looking parkland course with a neat planting set that never looks out of place. It has 3 cuts of rough from the narrow first cut through to normal rough and then if you stray too far the deep grass will be found. Now the way these textures have been coloured is second to none, so that although there is no actual grass planting, it actually looks like the grass is deeper at the boundaries of the textures. Everything you could ask for is here, the full club has been re-produced including a beautiful 3d clubhouse and swimming pool complex, small bridges over the creeks, and a comprehensive tournament option. The course itself it reasonable long, features a shared opening fairway, a small lake at the excellent 3rd hole and creeks that cut around some of the greens and is most noticable at the 5th. Elevation changes and doglegs also feature, and to be honest it incorporates most design attributes you could want from an inland course. Whilst the original course doesnt have the drama of Augusta, Pebble Beach and The Belfry, I would say this is one of the most natural and realistic designs we have ever seen, and it plays like a dream.
Hole Previews : Excellent Tournament Option : Excellent
     
Medinah No.3
 
John Pineda
7403 yards. Par 72.
Difficulty Medium/Hard

Woodland
Real - 70mb
May 2005

Course of the Month

Overall Rank 11th
This is a highly rated course from the PGA Tour, placed at number 15 in the Golf Digest rankings, and was host to the 2000 USPGA Championship. Recreated superbly by John Pineda for Links 2001, this has now been further updated in 2005 and is enhanced in every way. The design excells in every area, with the general attention to detail being very high indeed, and its comparison visually to the real life course seemingly almost perfect. This is a heavily wooded course, with fairways made to feel tighter than usual due to the close proximity of trees lining both sides. The addition of shadows to this course is a major bonus adding visual depth and realism. The tight fairways make tee shots fairly tricky, but when wayward you will often get a playable lie from the deep rough, as ground planting under the trees is sparce. The result is a pretty tough course, particularly at the harder levels. Visually the course is amazing, looking very natural and realistic with good quality textures, a large variety of trees, and some very nicely raised greens surrounded with bunkers. The general course surroundings are also very good, with distance hole signs at each tee, and a very nicely laid out 3D clubhouse fronted by a putting green at the back of the 18th hole. The par 3’s here are especially nice, most featuring shots over water, with excellent lake edging evident and some nice plantings and bridges. Large championship crowds are available in a quite superb tournament option, and there are also lovely hole previews which include descriptions. In addition, a beautifully presented hole by hole guide with great overhead pictures was also included in the original download. It is another wonderfully well presented course, benefiting hugely from the 2003 textures, blending, and shadows, making the course look much smoother and more attractive. Be prepared for a tough putting challenge on some greens, although the 2005 edition has made it more 1.06 friendly. This course design is a real beauty and really gives you an enclosed woodland feel like no other design.
Hole Previews : Excellent Tournament Option : Excellent
     
Bethpage Black
 
Dominique Bois & Robert Miller
7441 yards. Par 70.
Difficulty Hard

Parkland
Real - 115mb
May 2006

Course of the Month

Overall Rank 12th
Bethpage Black is one of five 18-hole courses at Bethpage State Park, Long Island, New York, and the biggest public golf facility in the world. The courses include the Red, Blue, Green and Yellow, but clearly the Black is the most challenging of them all and is ranked at 29 on the Golf Digest list. With a first tee featuring a warning sign: "The Black Course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers'', the course became the host to the US Open in 2002 won by Tiger Woods, and will host the event again in 2009. Originally this was designed by Dominique Bois in 2001, on the back of previous releases Gold Club Des Volcans and Broken Arrow. It was updated in 2003, but Robert Miller has again re-worked and overhauled the course in 2006 to the current yardages, adding new and glorious textures and replanting large areas of the course. The combined effort now makes this one of the very best apcd designs available. This is a tough course to play, at 7441 yards and a par 70 you will not find many others that test your long game quite so seriously. It looks superb in all areas, using great looking textures for the rough, abundant deep rough and burnt rough areas, with excellent blending throughout. The grass generally plays deep in true US majors fashion, and the planting is extensive using varying shades for a very realistic effect, and a prefect replica of the real thing. Fairways are quite tight and prove a tough challenge, but the run off areas are usually generous and a shot is nearly always available from the deep rough to the green. The trees are very nicely chosen, looking even better in the updated version, and with good variety and blending so well. Some of the views across the burnt rough are fantastic, the 7th and 17th tee shots were instant favourites. The whole feel of the design is quite amazing, it really does give the player the impression that they are involved on the real thing, with tee objects and 3d buildings well placed, and a superb clubhouse overlooking the course. Once you add in some amazingly good hole previews, and a wonderfully full US Open crowd, the tourney option offers quite a different experience from the natural one. This is now an outstanding design, albeit a very challengine one.
Hole Previews : Excellent Tournament Option : Excellent
     

APCD Courses

  

Courses 13-18