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APCD Courses
The Real Courses 7-12
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| Shinnecock
Hills |
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| Robert
Miller |
| 7029
yards. Par 70. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
US
Links
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| Real
- 118mb |
| Apr
2007 |
Overall
Rank 7th
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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 |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| The
Country Club, Brookline |
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| Eddie
Schmidt |
| 7011
yards. Par 71. |
| Difficulty
Medium/Hard |
Parkland
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| Real
- 55mb |
| May
2003 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 8th
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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 |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Westchester
Country Club |
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| Steve
Avery |
| 6841
yards. Par 71. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Rolling
Woodland
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| Real
- 114mb |
| Nov
2007 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 9th
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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 |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Inverness
Club |
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| Bruce
Ditmyer |
| 7024
yards. Par 72. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Parkland
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| Real
- 72mb |
| Oct
2006 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 10th
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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 |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Medinah
No.3 |
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| John
Pineda |
| 7403
yards. Par 72. |
| Difficulty
Medium/Hard |
Woodland
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| Real
- 70mb |
| May
2005 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 11th
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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
3s 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 |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Bethpage
Black |
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| Dominique
Bois & Robert Miller |
| 7441
yards. Par 70. |
| Difficulty
Hard |
Parkland
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| Real
- 115mb |
| May
2006 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 12th
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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 |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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