Top Real Course Recreations – December 2015
As some may know by my design tendencies, I have a soft spot for real course recreations. This might be my favorite list to maintain, and it’s a tough one to judge one course against another. Here are things that I consider when evaluating a course:
- The quality of the real course. The classics are always the classics.
- The technical quality of the course. It doesn’t matter if you are making Pebble Beach or your local muni, a well-designed course in the GNCD will stand out.
- The accuracy of the recreation. This comes last, because not all RCR’s are of famous courses. If you are tackling one of the greats, though, I expect you to pay attention to every detail.
I am excited that so there so many real courses that I either have not reviewed yet, or are currently in production, and I can’t wait to update this list in the future. Without further ado…
Pebble Beach Golf Links (blacks) by Brandon Pugh
Top Real Course Creations – December 2015
| Real Rank | Overall Rank | Name | Designer |
| 1 | 1 | Whistling Staits, Sheboygan | Craig Frey |
| 2 | 2 | Pine Valley, New Jersey | Craig Frey |
| 3 | 7 | Pebble Beach Golf Links (blacks) | Brandon Pugh |
| 4 | 9 | Muirfield | Yeltzman |
| 5 | 14 | Firestone CC South | Brandon Pugh |
| 6 | 17 | Spyglass Hill 2015 | yeltzman |
| 7 | 19 | Le Golf National | Dean Lowden |
| 8 | 20 | Vallentuna Golfklubb – Sweden | Mikael Thunberg |
| 9 | 21 | Tobacco Dunes | Steve Pope |
| 10 | 25 | Royal Birkdale 2015 | Yeltzman |
| 11 | 26 | TGC @ the Engish Rose (Thurs) | Wendy Airey |
| 12 | 35 | Mistwood Golf Course | William Bradford |
| 13 | 43 | PGA West (Palmer) [Sunday] | Rod Simpson |
| 14 | 47 | Royal Troon Old Course 2015 | Yeltzman |
| 15 | 49 | Chicago Golf Club | JELindholm |
| 16 | 50 | Cohutta Country Club | Todd Driver |
| 17 | 52 | The Walker Course Clemson, SC | William Bradford |
| 18 | 53 | Turnberry Kintyre Course | Alan McSpadyen |
| 19 | 86 | Kapalua Bay Golf Club | Bryan Boomer |
| 20 | 87 | Fishers GC – Fishers Island, NY | Matthew Essig |
| 21 | 92 | St. Andrews Old Course 2015 | Colin Marriott |
| 22 | 105 | Turnberry Ailsa course 2015 | Colin Marriott |
Honorable Mention
Since the inception of my Top 100 I’ve Played lists, I’ve decided not to include my own courses for ratings to maintain objectivity. I think my real course recreations are fairly good, though, if I may say so. Therefore, I will include my courses here just for reference:
Merion East – Ardmore, PA (17th Hole)
Magnolia National, Georgia (Magnolia National 2016 coming soon)
Magnolia National 2016 Par 3 Contest
Pinehurst #2 (’16 Edition)
Merion East – Ardmore, PA
Chambers Bay, WA
Have an idea for another kind of list that you would like to see? Let me know!
This could be something like Top Desert Courses, Top Fantasy Courses, Top Easy/Hard Courses, etc. If you can name it, I can probably compile a list for it!
Your Magnolia National is the best. Amazing acuracy to real course.
Thanks!
TPC Boston not good enough for this list? please tell me why! 🙂
I have not played it yet. But I featured it in Real Course Tour v3, and will play it soon.
Great list.
One you should look at it you haven’t already is FriendBOMBER’s Hobble Creek GC.
Yep, that’s a good one! It’s on my list of played but not reviewed or rated. Also featured on Real Course Tour v2, I believe.
Hi Craig what yourself and others are creating is exceptional. Is it hard to do what you are doing? It seems so ? I’ve seen some people use buildings in their golf designs like skyscrapers etc in the background. How is this achieved please? It really is exciting how this superb game has such an amazing course creator. Keep up the great work my friend. Thanks
Mark, thanks for the comment!
I’ve seen the new course with the skyscrapers, but can only guess at how that was made. I don’t think using the course creator is hard, but it does take patience, concentration, and attention to detail. Thankfully, those are things that I am good at!
If you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to visit the Greg Norman Course Designer forum over at the HB Studios page. There are lots of great tutorials there from good designers to help with designing. Once you’ve mastered the GNCD, the rest is just up to your imagination.