Rugged Dune
Course description
The course
Welcome to Rugged Dune! The course started out, as so many of mine do, as an experiment in new techniques with the apcd. This time I was looking for a raw, wild look to the course and the bunkers were going to reflect that. At around the same time I came accross a copy of Geoff Shackeford's book, "Alister Mackenzie's Cypress Point" I was bowled over by the course and the way it was when it was first constructed all those years ago. The holes were threaded between the natural dunesland along the California coastline and the scale of the dune's somehow made the course seem larger than life. A tremendous amount of earth moving took place by the standards of the day but it was all blended seamlessly together so it was almost impossible to tell where nature stopped and the hand of man started. Whenever my inspiration waned I would sit down with the book and soon the creative juices would be flowing once more. From the ragged bunkers edges to the rolling fairways and towering sand dunes, I tried to capture the feel and look of that wonderful terrain.
Old Cypress point wasn't the only inspiration for the course however. I have long been an admirer of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's "Sand Hills". The isolated, bleak and windswept location deep in sand hills of Nebraska were very much in my mind as the course took shape. I'm confident in saying that this is the closest anyone has yet come to recreating the awe inspiring look of that great course. The planting and colour scheme along with the dunes carved out of the rolling terrain took an absolute age to get right and as I write this, deep into beta testing, I'm still working on improving it.
Rugged Dune is set in Oregon along the same wonderful stretch of land that boasts Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes. The sandy rolling terrain and proximity to the ocean was a major factor in placing the course at that location.
The hole design is very much my own and the course is once again no monster in length, it's easy to create long and difficult courses and no doubt that is what some people prefer to play. However, as my knowledge grows, my courses are becoming shorter and hopefully more interesting to play as trying to hit a short iron onto a narrow ledge of a green to attack a difficult pin position, to me, is everybit as challenging as trying to thread the ball through the eye of a needle with a driver or long iron. This way, to score well you still have to produce accurate shots and true putts but the penalty for bad play is reduced and unless you're reckless you shouldn't be racking up big numbers on the scorecard. Thats not to say that every hole is short though, variety is everything and doglegs left and right and shots of all kinds will await you at Rugged Dune.
The construction
As far as the apcd techniques used are concerned, one again I've tried to push the envelope a little more. The multiple blendings and plantings of the bunkers took a while to get the hang of and they help give the course a wild and natural look. I used many photos of dunesland to get the look of the wild windswept dunes as close as possible to the real thing. I used a variety of custom objects, some my own, some borrowed from talented graphic artists such as Gus Green, Chris Perry and Mathew Woodbridge, some of them have been set to cast shadows and others, not. While it may not be obvious at first why I've done this, it makes the low grass and bush planting take on a whole different dimension. Look at the bunker around 80 yards off the 17th green on the right of play and you will see what I mean. That "look" just cannot be gained by any other means.
Using the fairway and green blending techniques I first used on Burn's Old Links I have applied an advanced version of this to Rugged Dune. You will notice dry patches along the fairway, not at random intervals but at the places where you would expect to find dry and worn grasses ie: on slopes and crests. In the low lying valleys between them where the moisture settles, the grass takes on a darker and "splotchier" look, as a multitude of different strains of grasses fight for supremacy. The greenkeeper might not agree but the added realism that this blending gives the course cannot be underestimated. The greens also have blending along the worn edges and ridges. This is done without compromising the green analyser for those that use this feature in links. On the tee areas you will find worn spots, divots on par3s and holes where experts might possibly use irons to gain an advantage. From time to time you will see rope fences surrounding the tees, created out of the terrain for maximum realism.
The sounds have not been neglected either and a custom global sound is included.
What you won't find here is any urban encroachment. It's just you, the course and one or two natural spectators (seagulls!) there is a tournament option for those that like playing in a competitive atmoshpere but if like me the pleasure is purely nature and golf, thats what you will find here.... in quantity. Enjoy!
Course links
Screenshots
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