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APCD Courses
The Real Courses 25-30
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| Colonial
Country Club |
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| Eric
Dorsey |
| 7080
yards. Par 70. |
| Difficulty
Hard |
Parkland
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| Real
- 89mb |
| Apr
2004 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 25th
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The Colonial Country Club
is host to the longest-running PGA Tour event
still played on an original site, and is dubbed
Hogan's Alley for Ben Hogan's five career
victories here. This classic course opened
in 1935 and was originally designed by Texas
architect John Bredemus, who took advantage of
the site bordering the banks of the Trinity
river. The Colonial Invitational event was first
played in 1946 and is ranked 73rd at Golf Digest
top 100 American courses. Eric Dorsey has brought this
course to life to Links 2003, I cannot recall any
other designs he has previously released, but
this one is a real corker. Technically this
design is high quality, all the textures are
smoothly created in a light green grass colour
with great blending, and some dry brown worn
patches evident to the fairways. Bunkers look
fantastic, a soft orange colour, but with a
distinct colour change to blend the lighter face
sand to the darker almost slightly damp sand at
the bottom. Bunkers do have a darker lip to them
and they are very well made indeed, contrasting
nicely with the light grass. Tree planting is
excellent, trees are well chosen with minimal
obvious duplication from hole to hole, and they
line up close to the fairway to become a real
menace to your shot selection. Underneath, the
designer relies on the grass texture and shadows
for good effect, and with the closeness of the
trees any underplanting would be more of a
hindrance I feel. There are plenty of objects
evident, ball cleaners, waste bins (wasn’t
keen on these), the nice resident scoreboard of
past winners at the 18th, good
bridges, a clock, and a superb 3d clubhouse
dominating the closing holes. A really neat pile
of sand with digger is at the back of the 13th,
and you’ll even find a superb drop zone area
in front of the water at the 9th. So the course
looks fantastic, a really high quality, and it
plays challengingly tough as a par 70, there are
some tricky doglegs and long par 3’s and
4’s to negociate in your round. Overall this
is an excellent course, and as a high profile
real course listed in the Golf Digests top 40 it
has to be a course to recommend to everyone. Hole
previews, crowds and start up screens are all of
a great quality too.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Cog
Hill (Dubsdread) |
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| Tim
Hagen |
| 7339
yards. Par 71. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Woodland
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| Real
- 83mb |
| Oct
2008 |
Overall
Rank 26th
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Cogill is located in
Lemont Illinois within a complex of 4 course,
with No.4 nicknamed Dubsdread. The course borders
between a woodland and a parkland course that
looks visually really good with a wide variety of
natural tree species in view. It has been home to
the BMW PGA Championship since 200. Orginially
this was played in Links as a Microsoft VGA
course but has now been recreated by Tim Hagen
famed for the excellent Quail Hollow. Cog Hill is
a fabulous course to play that mixes up the game
nicely with different holes testing you in
different ways. Driving on the whole needs to be
accurate, as the trees will usually collect any
stray shots, and from time to time water makes an
appearance to test your approach shots. Dog legs
are a real feature here too, and bunkers protect
many of the greens. The most noticable holes come
at the 5th and 9th which are long par 5's and
hard to reach in two, and the latter being
extremely narrow with it. The 8th, a par 4 needs
a good positional shot off the tee for access to
the green, and the 15th requires a fade off the
tee to hit the fairway. The 14th is lovely
looking par 3 that requires an accurate tee shot.
Water appears late on in the round on the left of
the 16th and the tricky finishing 18th hole. Tim
Hagen has done a superb job bringing this course
to life. It looks better than ever with new
1024x1024 textures, and has a really lush green
feel to the grass, but its tree planting is what
works really well and is perhaps one of the
hardest to achieve on a woodland style course. I
have always enjoyed playing this course, as
strategically it offers so much to think about
and has some scary tee shots too. it is wonderful
that this has returned the game with such visual
improvements. A final side note is that this
release at the moment only contains the back tee
positions.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
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Tournament
Option : None |
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| Riviera
Country Club |
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| Chuck
Clark & Pat Auge |
| 7188
yards. Par 71. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Woodland
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| Real
- 54mb |
| Jan
2006 |
Overall
Rank 27th
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The Riviera Country Club is the very famous course in
Pacific Pallisades, California (near Los
Angeles). It was orginally designed by George C.
Thomas Jr and Billy Bell in the early 1900's on a
steep sided canyon with a flat bottom and may be
one of the greatest jobs by a golf course
architect ever performed. Riviera is a woodland
course that has many difficult drives and some
well placed tree hazards, and there isn't a weak
hole here, with a number of exciting and
fascinating strategic challenges. Many people for
instance believe that the 10th hole is one of the
best par 4 holes in all of golf. Your game needs to good right from
the start here, with out of bounds tennis courts
down the left at the first, and a wire fence
bordering the 2nd again out of bounds down the
left, and a green that is hard to reach in 2
especially when windy. The 5th needs an accurate
drive to the right of the fairway to avoid a well
placed tree protecting the entry to the green.
The 6th par 3 is noted for a bunker in the middle
of the green, and the 8th has a tall tree to
drive over, to find a safe place on the fairway
to ease your approach to the green. The back 9
features the drivable par 4 at the 10th assisted
by a light wind, before a number of tight tree
lined drives and a dogleg at the 15th begin to
make life difficult again on the home straight.
The course is an annual stop on the PGA Tour at
the Nissan Open and has also hosted a number of
major events, including the USPGA in 1995 and the
1998 US Senior Open. It became a well known
association with Ben Hogan and was nicknamed
'Hogans Alley'. Chuck Clark has done another
fantastic job restoring this old Microsoft course
to new heights, and giving it a complete
make-over. Everything is smooth and well
presented, the trees look to fit the real life
location well, and the objects such as tennis
courts, wire fences and small buildings are
expertly created. Pat Auge has re-created much of
the 3d work including the amazing clubhouse, one
of the most famous in golf, and it stands proudly
over a fine design. For challenge and enjoyment
there are few big name courses that can match
this one and the start up screens and hole
previews are spot on for emphasising the history
of this venue.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Spyglass
Hill |
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| Eddie
Schmidt |
| 6862
yards. Par 72. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Pine
Forest
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| Real
- 42mb |
| Feb
2005 |
Course
of the Month
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Overall
Rank 28th
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Eddie
Schmidt began his designing career with Southern
Pines and Clubcito Diablo, developing into one of
the best designers by the time he completed
Brookline Country Club and Bull Run. In the
middle of these courses he produced the famous
Spyglass Hill, a Robert Trent Jones Snr design
from 1966, considered the toughest course in
Northern California, and ranked 53 on the Golf
Digest list. Originally released in Feb 2002, it
has now been updated with new textures, however
no blending is included. This recreation is
accurate and detailed with many amazing features
included. You start the round heading towards the
coastal beach area, where the sand texture and
planting are beautiful and unique. The sea is
also textured wonderfully well, and the seagulls
and yacht add that extra touch of class, with the
3rd hole, a par 3 overlooking the bay being a
particular favourite. From hole 6 you move into
the Del Monte forest, a great change in contrast,
and no let up in excellence. Fairways are smooth,
with lovely slopes and contours, brown pine
textures are then seen to the edges of the holes,
nicely planted with undergrowth grasses and
bushes. Trees fit the location perfectly, and
there is loads of grass growing around the bases,
admirable in its detail. Cart paths wind around
the course, with nice hole signs evident, and
wonderful looking buildings lurk within the trees
adding realism. The course plays brilliantly,
with a difficulty level set close to the
microsoft real course levels, it is fair and has
no elements of forced difficulty. The natural
setting option is visually beautiful and
recommended, and then if you try the tournament
option it offers a whole different experience,
immersed in large crowds and tournament objects,
including leaderboards and towers, it is quite
breathtaking. Hole previews are very good here
too, great looking and containing hole names and
short tactical advice. This is a fabulous design,
easily one of the very best real courses
available.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Gut
Kaden |
C&B/A&C/B&A
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| Guenter
Kujat |
| 7117/6474/6579
yards. |
Par
72/71/71.
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| Difficulty
Medium |
European
Parkland
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| Real
- 60mb |
| Jan
2002 |
Overall
Rank 29th
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Guenter
Kujat's courses are arguably the most realistic
venues you can find from any apcd designer,
easily matching up to and sometimes surpassing
microsoft in terms of the added details and the
natural planting look found. If you really want
to experience the realism of playing at a
European venue then you need look no further.
Guenter has now released three separate German
courses, and Gut Kaden has the special attribute
of being formed of three nine hole courses put
together in different combinations. The C&B
course set up is the home of the Deutsche
Bank/SAP Open, originally designed by Frank
Penninck and updated by Karl F Grohs. Of the
three courses, this is the most comprehensive in
terms of the tournament options, containing the
most added objects and crowds to reflect the real
tournament conditions. The other two do also have
a smaller crowd presence on offer. The whole look
and experience is crafted perfectly, with
grasses, bushes and tree planting used in the
best way possible to create that real effect. The
designer remains true in his use of grass
texturing, and a first cut is again apparent
separating fairways from the rough. Overall the
courses are parkland in style, and relatively
flat, although fairways are nicely contoured to
affect most shots played. A fitting woodland
panorama backs the location beautifully. Gut
Kaden plays fairly and realistically, and the
design of the holes and hazards are such that
they come more into play as you tweak to harder
difficulty levels, always an excellent sign. As
usual, Guenter's use of custom objects and
clubhouses are exemplary. All the course
combinations are fantastic and well worth having,
the hole previews and start up screens are
superb, and to be honest real European venues
just wont come too much better than this.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
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Tournament
Option : Excellent |
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| Kapalua
Plantation |
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| Andrew
Jones |
| 7441
yards. Par 73. |
| Difficulty
Medium |
Tropical
Coastal
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| Real
- 78mb |
| Dec
2006 |
Overall
Rank 30th
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The 3 courses at Kapalua,
Maui (Bay, Village and Plantation) have been
available in the Links game since the Links LS 98
version (my first and fondest purchase of the
game). The par 73 Plantation Course, is the
course of the champions, and site of the PGA Tour
Mercedes Championships each January, featuring an
elite field of previous year's PGA Tour winners.
The grand scale of the course designed by Ben
Crenshaw and Bill Coore unfurls across natural
geographic coastal formations and pineapple
plantation fields that will take your breath
away. It is a dramatic venue where distance means
little as the elevations and slopes make their
mark on your gameplay. There are many sea views
from this dramatic course, where the fairways are
generous, but stray and you will find yourself in
deep grassland and wasteground that is usually
unplayable. The last Microsoft version (2003) has
now been upgraded by Andrew Jones (famous
designer of our beloved Augusta course), and has
made this into another one of our best designs.
There are sweeping improvements all round, the
new 3d clubhouse has been remade by Pat Auge and
the panorama now looks amazing, sharper and
lighter and better fitting for such dramatic
location, having been redeveloped by Rick
Weathers. Textures and deep grass planting now
looks much more natural and not quite so
overgrown, giving it a smoother and better kept
appearance. The strength of the course lies in
its playability and its annual association with
television coverage. By relative standards the
fairways are easier to find, but the elevation
changes and sweeping slopes make approach shots
more tricky to judge. The opening hole is a
classic and tough start requiring a perfect
approach shot over deep grass onto a low green.
The par 5’s all offer great opportunity to
attack for an eagle chance, and the 17th and 18th
holes use strategic slopes to rank as excellent
finishing holes. Kapalua Plantation is a popular
and cleverly laid out course, and this version
raises it to become one of the finest venues to
play in the game.
| Hole
Previews : Excellent |
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Tournament
Option : None |
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