APCD Courses

APCD Courses

The Real Courses 25-30

Munchen Nord, Eichenried

Guenter Kujat

7099 yards. Par 72.

Difficulty Medium

European Parkland

Real - 63mb

Oct 2002

2000 Course of the Year

Overall Rank 25th

The Eichenried course in Munich has been meticulously recreated by Guenter Kujat and is an excellent simulation of the real life European Tour venue. It was one of the first apcd releases for Links 2001 and became the first apcd release for 2003. The designer's attention to detail is apparent all the way around, with great use of objects from detailed hole layouts at the tees to greenside sprinklers at the greens, electric pylons dissappearing into the distance, and some really nice clubhouse buildings. For the tournament option you additionally get tents, various advertising signs all over the course and hole in one cars at par 3's. Wildlife will features via ducks on the lakes, and a canadian goose at the 6th. Sounds are also included to enhance the atmosphere with bird cries and chitters, sprinklers in key places, a helicopter, and a car starting up at the 1st tee, all of which create a superb ambiance. The course indeed looks real, and simulates an accurate and fair round of European golf extremely well. The general planting and textures here are outstanding, with lakes looking stunning, and wild grass areas seen at most holes. Textures and mapping is fully upgraded using the 2003 tools available and is expertly completed and looks visually amazing. The course often plays harder than it initially looks, with tricky approaches to be found, especially at the 3rd where a tree can easily block you, the 6th where a lake makes the par 5 risky in 2 shots, and the 14th where 3 bunkers surround the front, left and right of the green. However the rough is quite generous and wayward shots often can be comfortably recovered. Greens are nicely sloped with no undue severity apparent, but not easy for the most part either. This is a great venue which really gives a European player the feeling of playing their local course. For the whole experience it is one of the best independent real life course creations and one of the most realistic tournament course simulations available.

Wentworth

(West Course Beta v3)

Curt Simms

7231 yards. Par 72.

Difficulty Medium/Hard

English Woodland

Real - 88mb

Oct 2007

Overall Rank 26th

The Wentworth Golf Club is located at Virginia Water in Surrey and its West course was designed by Harry Colt and opened in 1926. It has become the most televised course in Britain, playing host to 3 professional tournaments a year, the World Matchplay, the European Tour PGA event and the Seniors Masters. It was also the venue for the 1953 Ryder Cup won narrowly by the Americans. Curt Simms is the designer now bringing the course to life for Links, and given his pedigree on Edgbaston (another English woodland design) this is clearly going to be a winning combination. Just to clarify, the current release is only a beta and the course still remains under construction until 2008. However that said the quality is so good anyway that i felt it was certainly worth a chart profile already in its current state. I grew up watching television coverage of events on this course, and as a relatively local course to me, it must rank as one of my most wanted designs. Many European Tour followers for sure will be eager to replicate the demands of this course. Curt Simms has already begun a wonderful job with this design, the textures are great quality, the planting is already fabulous with a touch of autumn in the foliage and the underplanting is comprehensive. Objects includie clubhouse, tournament signs and tv towers, with custom leaderboards and 3d grandstands excellent. Looking at this familiar course from memory i feel the designer has captured the views and slopes perfectly. This is a relatively demanding course, the fairways are reasonably tight, deep rough and bunkers wait to capture anything a little offline making recovery difficult, and trees await anything more wayward. There are many notable holes, the 2nd a short par 3 with a sentry oak tree and a tee shot that carries over a valley. Water fronts the exciting 8th green, and the 10th is a lovely par 3 with an upward sloped green. The 13th is a long par 4 sweeping left with bunkers guarding the obvious right hand side tee shot, and the long treelined par 5 17th tunnels towards to the green around the left dogleg. The quality of the course is already very high indeed. Yes there are still design elements under construction, the blending of cart paths perhaps the most notable omission visually, together with the absence of crowds, but the final finish to the course is expected to become immaculate.

Prairie Dunes

Steve Avery

6598 yards. Par 70.

Difficulty Medium

Rolling Heathland

Real - 122mb

Mar 2009

Overall Rank 27th

Prairie Dunes is a golf course located in Hutchinson, Kansas and is rated amongst America's best courses at #30 in the Golf Digest list. It was originally designed in 1937 by Perry Maxwell and is more closely related to the traditional British Links than the usual American venues, with rolling humpy-bumpy fairways, sweeping tough greens and deep thickets surrounding the course. This course has been with Links golf game players for many years, although time hasnt aged the original one from Access well at all, and so it was earmarked for a remake by one of the best designers of real courses, Steve Avery. It isnt hard to see that he has completed a fantastic design here, in fact i believe it to be one of his best ones second only to the excellent Westchester but exceeding the famous Oakland Hills (although part of this is due to my preference for the way this course plays over the narrow pinched fairways of the majors venue). Visually this is naturally beautiful, the landscape is open and at times you can see right across the course and far into the distance. Trees are scattered here and well chosen to fit the location and at ground level the real cleverness is seen in grass and thicket planting which is excellent. Despite it being predominantly long grass, he has varied the styles to create visual variation and also added touches of interest such as occasional yellow leafed flowers or corn-like stalks to break up the flowing grassland around the tees. There are nice little outbuildings as well and an excellent clubhouse in place. The rough here is deep everywhere so you will need to be accurate or strategically clever to score very well, but it doesnt look a really tough course off the tee. The greens here are known for their rolling tiers so approches are important. This is one of the great venues in America and a design i really like to play.

Quail Hollow

Tim Hagen

7437 yards. Par 72.

Difficulty Medium

Parkland

Real - 68mb

May 2005

Overall Rank 28th

Quail Hollow Club is one of the finest courses in the Southeast United States, a private member club which hosted the Kemper Open from 1969 to 1979, the World Seniors Invitational from 1980 to 1989, and has more recently been a regular PGA Tour for the Wachovia Championship. This real course was originally designed by famed golf course architect George Cobb in 1961 to capture the beauty as well as challenging terrain of the Piedmont region. In the intervening years, the course underwent a series of improvements, including modifications of several holes by Arnold Palmer in 1986, and a redesign by Tom Fazio in 1997 and 2003. The manicured nature of the course is now captured in this superb Links design by Tim Hagen who cut his teeth on Zoe Lakes a few years back. This is a traditional tree lined course, with water becoming a key feature down the back nine, and the rough plays deep. There are also a number of doglegs so the driver will not always be your best club off the tee. Course highlights include hole 7, which is transected by a serpentine pond complete with waterfall and rock wall; the signature hole 17, a scary 217 yards shot over water; and a suitably challenging finish at hole 18, which must be negotiated over a deep creek bed that runs the length of the fairway. This reproduction is just exquisite, the textures are fantastic making this feel like Augusta in many ways, and the tree choice and planting is as good as any other course i have seen, all blending perfectly. When the lakes come into play the views are very impressive indeed. This is probably the most natural design so far, it looks and feels very accurate to the real thing, and seems much more like a simulation than a game. Ultimately i believe my fondness for it will increase as i learn it, but i rate this right alongside Augusta National in terms of its realism. Fantastic work, and a superb tournament option included too.

Roganstown

John Aherne

6966 yards. Par 71.

Difficulty Medium

Parkland

Real - 149mb

Dec 2008

Overall Rank 29th

Roganstown Golf & Country Club is a Dublin course and another of Irelands most prestigious golfing venues brought to life by designer John Aherne alongside the K Club venues. In real life the course was designed by Christy O'Connor Jr in 2004 and is an open parkland style course which winds its way between ponds and small lakes. As a complete piece of design work this is John Aherne's best effort so far, its natural look, soft effective texuring and superbly balanced planting lifts this course into the top realms. There are loads of details out on the course, from buildings partially hidden in the trees, to neat fencing, and realistic looking lakes. Also the ground level planting is well thought out with extra grasses and bushes in the deepest areas beneath the scattered trees, but not covering the whole rough area, it is again very realistic. The way the 'new trees' have been laid out alongside the fairways is a great touch. The high design quality therefore is confirmed but as it is probably not a course you have seen on the television too often, it will also need to play well too. Well, this is a great lay-out, not too tough as there is quite a lot of run out areas should you spray your shots off the fairway, but equally the course is littered with ponds, small lakes, streams and out of bounds so you will pay the penalty for poor play, and this does indeed give you some nervous moments. However it is a course you can notch up to the higher difficulty levels without becoming too frustrated and this is a good balance. The course is beautiful to look at, the planting is excellent so it all looks natural, and the 6th hole is a real stunner with a par 3 tee shot over a lake to a small green. This may not be the highest profile course available but there are not too many releases nowadays that really have this level of quality about them.

Colonial Country Club

Eric Dorsey

7080 yards. Par 70.

Difficulty Hard

Parkland

Real - 89mb

Apr 2004

Overall Rank 30th

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 18^th, 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.