Royal County Kilderry 2003
Course description
Anyone who has ever played a true British or Irish links course can testify to the fact that these courses can touch your heart like no other. I will never forget my introduction to Links golf at the age of 11 on a family holiday to Cornwall. I was priviliged to spend a week playing both the full and short course at the links at St. Enodoc, a place that the famous poet laureate, Sir John Betjemen, brought to life in some of his classic poems and writings. I loved it at first site and my love of links golf has continued to this day.
Every year before the British open takes place, scores of professionals make a "pilgrimage" to the wild and untamed links courses of the British Isles. Tom Watson started the tradition and professionals such as world number one Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, David Duval and many others beyond count, have carried it on...
Standing on the first tee with the wind whiping at your clothes and the seaguls soaring overhead is an occasion not soon forgotten. I have attempted with this course to capture some of that links magic.
Things I tried to achieve with Kilderry:
- A realistic layout consistent with an old links course. This includes lots of undulating surrounds to the greens as well as lots of false fronts, dips, swails and tiers on the greens themselves. Hopefully a very good shot in will leave a good chance of holing the putt but woe betide the player who hits his approach shot 50 feet from the flag!
- Realistic elevations including lots of bumps, dips and mounds on the fairways themselves as well as a sea of hillocks and hollows off the beaten path.
- Many photos of real courses were used to try and make the planting as true to life as possible. Although each individual course has its own look they all share the rugged beauty of nature that I hope I managed to capture here.
- A fun and varied round of golf. No one likes having to hit a 2 iron into every green. A good golf course has eighteen individual little gifts to unwrap with many surprised to be had. The most obvious shots won't always be the correct one as you will find out sooner rather than later. Depending on the pin positions you may need to alter you club selection and line off the tee to give the most favorable angle in to the flag. Under favourable conditions you will have the opportunity to really attack some holes with audacious lines across some fearsome terrain. Make the grade and you will handsomely rewarded. Fail and you'll be the laughing stock back in the clubhouse after a quick triple bogey!
- Pin positions play a major part of the courses strategy. Of my other courses only Drift-Wood perhaps has such a wide disparity of difficulty between the various pin settings. Easy pins with little wind and soft or medium greens will have you eating the course up with birdies galore. Take the plunge and play difficult pins with firm, fast and breezy or windy condition and you will have a fight on your hands as Kilderry bears her fangs.
- With the new features in the APCD 1.5, I have been able to make this course more realistic than ever before with extremely detailed high res textures, seam blending to create realistic worn and dry spots and other enhancements that with re create the exact look and feel of links golf. Check out the pictures below for some screen shots.
Maybe I have achieved some or all of the above but either way, I gave it my best shot.
Because of the nature of the terrain ie deep pot bunkers and old stone walls etc some of the computer players can have trouble in certain situations and can't figure out what to do. Until MS start making their computer players smarter you may experience problems with them from time to time.
Course links
Screenshots
Purchase Royal County Kilderry 2003
My Links 2003 golf courses are available for $6.95 each.
There is a discount if you buy two or more courses at the same time. For current pricing and discount information, please go to the purchase information page.
Click the button below to purchase my courses, or click here for detailed purchase information.
