FSX Courses

[p3eps]

Is there any way of previewing courses before taking the plunge and buying?
On the Foresight page I can get a 1 hole flyover, but it would appear that's it. I've bought several courses that I've played once or twice and will probably never play again because I don't think they're that great.

Any recommendations? I fancy a new one, but not sure what to get - and don't want to waste more money on something that's not very good!

[col forbin]

Even on the page, they had the wrong hole flyovers for a while. It looks like they are getting better at updating that. Even put scorecards on! What are some of the courses that you don't think are very good? They have come out with some new ones recently that look interesting. Out of the ones I have played, which is about 50 or so, not the newest ones, I would rate the top ones like this:
Coeur D'Alene
La Cumbre Country Club
Nine Lakes
Flint Hills
Wentworth West
Olympic
Yishan
Village Links of Glen Ellyn
Spring City Lower Course
Doral Blue Monster

[p3eps]

In an ideal world, I'd like to pay something like $10 for a single round. Foresight would give you a licence that expired after 1 round. If I then bought the course, my $10 would go towards it.
Even if I could get a full course flyover... that'd be helpful. A scorecard doesn't help me much either - especially on make-believe courses.

Currently, I have the following courses...

Castle Stuart
Celtic Manor
Coeur D'Alene
Cog Hill
Congressional
Flint Hills
Hanauma Cliffs
Hazeltine National
Nine Lakes
Quarry at Giants Ridge
Wentworth West Course

And then the 5 free ones...
Teton Pines
Blue Bayou
Broken Tree
Linfield National
Willow Crest Golf Club

I think my favourite courses are Nine Lakes / Quarry at Giants Ridge / Celtic Manor. Coeur D'Alene and Congressional are good too.
$159 retail per course (although I don't think anyone ever pays full price), and once you ask for it, you're stuck with it!
I enjoy a course that has some water and a bit of strategic play involved. I've grown up in Scotland playing links courses, and courses that are tree lined where you play up, back, up, back. On a simulator, I want something a bit more interesting. I love playing golf in Florida, where lots of the holes have water hazards.

How did you manage to play 50 courses? Do you own them all, or do you play on other people's sims? I wish I had a way of testing them out without having to drop $$'s first!

[col forbin]

I have about 33 courses and sold off about 20 via eBay. I have never payed even close to $159, and I never would. Early on in its development, I was sort of a beta tester for FSX, but I think they already had an idea where they wanted their software to go. It has improved a lot since 2014, but the courses seem to be skewed towards historic links courses and parkland courses. If you like Nine Lakes, I think there are really no other courses for FSX quite like it. At least not yet. Doral is probably the closest.

[legendsfan]

What is a good price to pay through Foresight and what's a good price on EBay when they come available?

[p3eps]

How do you buy / sell courses via eBay? Do Foresight charge to swap the licence?
I always see Dallas National recommended. I was tempted to try it next.
The course library is growing every week by the look of it. I just noticed Scottsdale National and Woodloch have appeared yesterday! According to my Foresight rep, they're likely to have 50 new courses by this time next year!
I'll have a look at Doral - thanks.

[col forbin]

I just posted a pack of 20 courses for a set price. Foresight does charge a fee of $100.00 to the buyer I believe to swap the license. So they told me to consider that when I posted a price. To my knowledge, I have been the only one to sell FSX courses via ebay. I would not expect them to come on the ebay market frequently.

I really like Dallas National a lot, but it does not have any water on the course at all from memory. There is an abundance of trees and some really great hole layouts, but for the most part you could be playing Congressional or Wentworth West and get the same feel. I think it sounds like you are looking for some more tropical courses and FSX doesn't offer that much. Doral, Abu Dhabi & Emirates are probably the closest thing besides Nine Lakes.

Scottsdale National is not available to us. I have tried, but the owner of PXG signed a waiver and they created it exclusively for them. That would have been my next one,

[Bouxy]

Have you sold your 20 courses?

[Bouxy]

I'd be interested

[col forbin]

Sorry, I sold them a while ago.

[mmlincon]

I started creating videos of the FSX courses I own with Birds Eye Views and Flybys. It gives a quick, just over 10 min or so, overview of the course so you can get an idea if you'd be interested in buying or playing it. The idea is I can send my friends over to the playlist to pick a course they'd like to play. I figured it would be good for folks who are interested in buying some FSX courses too so they can actually see what they'd be buying instead of having to make a purchase decision on a single hole fly over. I'm planning on doing this for E6, JNPG and TGC as well but figured FSX was a good place to start since they are the most costly option. Anyway, let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions for improvement etc. Oh, you may want to subscribe so you know when new ones are added. I'm at 50 FSX courses, I have most of the E6 packs and all the JNPG purchase courses.

Here is a link to the FSX course playlist I've done so far:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXU0dwh04zFpiNiZ6b-B2SUd6gKxnpY_a

[col forbin]

Very Nicely done! I know this probably takes a bit of time, but it will help a lot of people with choosing what courses they would prefer. Each one gives a really nice idea of what that specific course has to offer. I look forward to the other software overviews as well. It will be interesting to see how the same course looks on the different software applications. This is a great addition to the forum!

[p3eps]

Great job - thanks for doing this.
I'm thinking about getting another couple of courses in the next couple of weeks - so I'll be watching a few of these to see if there's anything that tickles my fancy. I have quite a few of the same ones that you do already, but there are few that I'd like to check out!

[delaloi]

mm, those look great -- thanks! So far I see about 19 FSX courses uploaded. Have you actually done 50 or are you saying that's where the project is headed?

In general, are the more recent FSX courses done to a higher standard (graphics etc) or are the original ones also being brought fully up to date?

[mmlincon]

Thanks guys. I currently have 50 and will be adding them over time. It takes a while to record and edit them. I should be able to get at least a couple out per week. Might be a little slower with the holidays. There pretty much seems to be an improvement across the board but some do look better than others. I'm currently running FSX 3.3.1 and it is by far the most stable I've used to date. There are still quite a few features I'd like to see implemented but haven't seen any weirdness to date.

[mmlincon]

Huh, just ran across this https://foresight-sports.myshopify.c...ctions/courses
Let's hope they move to this format for purchases except for the fact that you can't really negotiate price. Kinda weird these aren't showing up is their course list.