Burn's Old Links
Course description
Those who have played my course over the last 2 years for my previous courses, know of my love for links/seaside type golf. My goals for Burn's where to create a course as close as humanly possible in style and look to the very earliest courses in the world, fashioned amongst the dunes of the east and west coast's of Scotland.
Prestwick originaly hosted the very first Open championship and went on to host many more and the wooden faced bunkers such as the famous "Cardinal" bunker have been much copied ever since. Over on the other side of Scotland, golf had been played on the east coast at St Andrews for centuries before the "old" course as we now know it became formalised into 18 holes and set the standard for all courses that followed. These courses were the main inspiration for Burn's as I tried to recreate the atmosphere and playability of these classic masterpieces.
Things you may notice as you play Burn's- Multiple type bunkers and construction methods - ranging from the difficult wooden faced variety, nasty hidden pot bunkers, the shallower sand splashed bunkers to the really nasty overgrown ones dotted about the course, usually just where your ball wants to go!Many mappings and blends were used to create this natural look and I've used my previous experience to bring together the different techniques required to contruct them. You may also see steps and ramps leading in and out of some of them!
- Detailed planting - The planting is lower in height here than my previous links courses and hopefully brings with it that open look that is so noticable as you play St Andrews and its neigbouring courses. Virtually every bush you see apart from the grass objects is hand planted as they are on all my courses. It is the only way to plant realistically IMO. Forresting these objects simply does not work very well. I hope you can tell the difference! Many of the objects were also altered from "stock" to either trick the graphics engine into drawing them further out into the distance (links normally limits visibility of small objects), adjust colour/edit shape or remove the top views which make small bushes look overly dark as default.
- Fairways utilise multiple texture blending techniques to bring the absolute closest look of links golf available on a home computer. I've stepped this up from my previous creations and Burn's has more mappings than my previous 2003 courses. The greens also have had extensive texture work. You'll see patchy sandy areas around some of the green edges and on the major elevation changes within the green. This once again goes that little bit further to realising my goal of the most realistic looking links course available.
- Shared greens and fairways- When playing the course you will notice that many of the greens and fairways are shared with other holes just like St Andrews. Shared fairways (and bunkers) is indeed unusual compared to most modern type courses and you may find yourself in the same bunker on different occasions playing in opposite directions! Watch out! hehe.
- The "old town" - Hundreds of 3d houses have gone into creating the town that runs alongside the first few holes. They are the Microsoft 3d buildings that were used in the making of the St Andrews old course for links. I think they look pretty good and capture the look of an old Scotish town perfectly.
- On the 5th and 9th holes most noticably you will see "Burn's new course" on the other side of the fence as the two courses run side by side. I think this adds a lot to the immersive feeling you get on the course. Just don't be tempted to land on one of the new course's fairways or greens, sharing only goes so far and you will find yourself Out of Bounds! :)
- Custom global sounds - I have created a custom global sound for Burn's that incorporates the usual bird chatter with a low rumbling of the not so far of sea. I think it works pretty well. Also you will hear the cry of herring and other types of gulls as you play and maybe the R.A.F. with do a low "flyby" over the course from time to time.
Burn's Old Links - now available - click on one of the buy buttons to purchase this course.
Course links
Screenshots
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