APCD Courses

APCD Courses

The Real Courses 13-18

The Country Club, Brookline

Eddie Schmidt

7011 yards. Par 71.

Difficulty Medium/Hard

Parkland

Real - 55mb

May 2003

Overall Rank 13th

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 still remains one of the very best real courses we have available.

Westchester Country Club

Steve Avery

6841 yards. Par 71.

Difficulty Medium

Rolling Woodland

Real - 114mb

Nov 2007

2007 Course of the Year Runner Up

Overall Rank 14th

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.

TPC @ Sawgrass

2008 Version

Anders Bessermann

7087 yards. Par 72.

Difficulty Medium/Hard

Pine Forest / Lakeside

Real - 48mb

May 2002

Overall Rank 15th

Anders Bessermann has replicated a course that is considered to be one of the very best real life courses in the sport, and offers here a superb tournament version to play too. This is the home of The Players Championship, ranked 98 on the Golf Digerst list but considered to be the 5th major and often featuring the strongest field of players each year, and this design has given it the justice it really deserves. In terms of the overall quality of the course, this is extremely high with a great rough grass texture that still works well converted to Links 2003 and has a very smooth look and feel. Only the tee areas and 1st cut could perhaps do with a texture revamp. For those that know the course, water is a common hazard, and the beautiful lakes here are superbly edged with the expected wooden boarding. Planting is generally good, tall trees surround the fairways growing within pine textures with a variety of ground bushes to be seen within the trees. Splashes of colour will also occasionally appear, adding a nice touch of variety. The clubhouse is amazing, and other buildings and tournament objects are also very well presented. Once you turn on the tournament option, the course really comes to life and excells, with well placed officials, gallaries and deep crowds, it works brilliantly and certainly gives you the feeling of participating at the event. In the end a course is ultimately judged on playability, and Sawgrass really excells here also. It seemed perfectly set up to be very tough but still fair, always making you decide whether to be aggressive or safe. The rough is deep, so accuracy is important, and recovery is not easy, and on a good day you can score well, but on a bad day you'll really be scrambling for pars. The final 3 holes here are most famous for their test. Taking on the 16th in two shots seemed to be just as hard as the pros face, and the par 4 18th provides a very scary view on the tee. The island 17th is perhaps the most famous hole on the course, and it looks outstanding, and plays as close to the real thing as it can within the game. Hole previews are also outstandingly good. It continues to grow on me as one of the most enjoyable courses on which to test the nerves, its risk versus reward playability remains one of the very best available. The latest update is the 2008 version available from APCD Courses which has more tourney objects and a new clubhouse.

Harbour Town

Eddie Schmidt

6972 yards. Par 71.

Difficulty Medium

Woodland

Real - 145mb

Jul 2006

Overall Rank 16th

The Harbour Town Golf Links, located at Hilton Head Island is home to the PGA Tour's MCI Heritage Classic, and is one of the most popular tour events on the US circuit, being ranked at 98 on Golf Digests top US course list. The fairways were built on flat terrain and are closely lined by pine trees, often covered in dangling moss. The small greens are slightly sloped and tend to have medium speed. The signature hole is at 18, a 478-yard par 4, requiring a tee shot to a wide landing area jutting into the Calibogue Sound marshland. Overlooking this hole is the trademark red and white harbour lighthouse. This course has tradition and character, together with a great layout and a close proximity of trees which always play on your mind off the tee. The par 3's in particular use the natural water hazards to spectacular effect and are some of the best in the game. Eddie Schmidt is well known to us all by now as one of the greatest real course creators, having designed Augusta Par 3, Spyglass Hill and the amazing Brookline. Harbour Town is an exemplary design, especially at ground level where the soft green textures and blending, river bulwarks, and buildings set within the trees are all first class and equal the best seen on any course. The lay-out appears very accurate to me and is simply beautiful to play, with an amazing clubhouse area behind the 9th green. The hardest task on this type of thick woodland course is to get enough tree objects that blend well, here Eddie again has done a fine job, although you will notice the occasional tree that jumps out from the rest. Harbour Town is an excellent PGA course, and was always one of my favourites featuring a set of 3 finishing holes that rank amongst the best in golf. This design is a worthy replacement for the Microsoft version and is again a superb example of Eddie's amazing apcd talent.

TPC Boston

Steve Avery

7206 yards. Par 71.

Difficulty Medium

Marshland

Real - 133mb

Oct 2010

Overall Rank 17th

TPC Boston is yet another fabulous TPC tour design from Steve Avery which adds to his list of Westchester, Prairie Dunes and Oakland Hills South. Whilst it is a regular PGA tour circuit venue, it isnt one i am overly familiar, so with real course accuracy put aside for now, this is a lovely looking course with amazing attention to detail and planting. This course weaves around a marshland which makes the course quite open visually, but also has loads of ground level planting to keep you interested. Steve Avery has a natural design approach with neat almost manicured looking courses that work well for me. With touches of colour here and there, and lakes in play this is a visual treat and one that is very enjoyable to play. The par 3 at the 16th stands out as the best hole, hitting out to a green guarded by a large lake, but it is one of many lovely holes here. This designer keeps producing course of such a high standard that he should get high recognition for his overall contribution to the game.

Royal Troon

Championship Edition

Stewart Parker

7201 yards. Par 71.

Difficulty Medium

Links

Real - 128mb

Jun 2011

Overall Rank 18th

Royal Troon Golf Club is a links golf course located in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland. The club was founded in 1878 and its Old Course is one of the host courses for The Open Championship, where the Open has now been played eight times. It is a course the Americans like, with past winners including Todd Hamilton, Justin Leonard, Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Watson, Tom Weikopf and Arnold Palmer. Royal Troon is home to both the longest and shortest holes in Open Championship golf. The par-3 8th hole "Postage Stamp" measures a short 123 yards and is regarded as one of the top holes in the world, while the par-5 6th "Turnberry" is 601 yards long. The 490 yard par 4 11^th hole is considered quite brutal and was the most difficult scoring hole in 1997. The game design is by Stewart Parker who has become one of the great links style course designers. He has a number of fictional and real courses to his name, but most recently his designs at Turnberry and Royal Troon are not only his best, but also rate amongst the best by any designer. Royal Troon is as you may expect very similar to Turnberry, the latter is more dramatic looking as it uses the cliffs as part of the course hazards, but the design quality here is equal, and feels better now that a full tournament option is included as the extra objects and crowds add a bit more depth. I also noted that the sand and sea areas have seen an improvement. Personally I am very fond on links courses, always keen to play them when The Open is on, and this rates as a great real course re-creation.