[Desdichado]

I have dabbled with the course designer and in fact had gotten pretty far on one course until my hard drive melted down. Before I start again, I was hoping to find out from the pros just how they begin a new course. Specifically, do you build terrain features first such as hills and lakes and then route the course or do you route the holes and build elevation, etc. around the holes? I have struggled to find the most efficient way.

Any tips would be much appreciated before I begin a new course and back it up on several drives!!!

[Blade]

Hi there,

I think this is really up to the individual. Some designers will take an pre elevated plot of land and look at it for weeks thinking about where to lay a course on it. For speed you could draw out a nice layout, highlight the entire course and randomly generate some very gentle rolling terrain. Then elevate specific areas as you need including adding the lakes, raising and levelling the tees, adding split level greens, saucered greens and leveling some of the fairways so they slope where you need them to etc, etc.


Dave.