Overhills Golf Club (NLE RCR LIDAR)

[Wang]

I'm trying something that should be really interesting. There is a lost ("No Longer Existing") Donald Ross course that has gone to pasture and is untouched. Fort Bragg military base in NC expanded and acquired the land. They used it for training and periodically do controlled burns to keep what used to be the fairways relatively clear. With Chad's lidar import tool, I was able to get a great recent LAS file that didn't take up much space on the object meter. For this project, the trees are basically just forest, so I had Chad's tool ignore them and I auto generated them on the border of the holes.

The history of this course is pretty interesting. They had 1,000+ acres and gave Ross the green light to make the best course that he possibly good with money and space being no object. This isn't far from Pinehurst and it is nice and hilly, so it was the perfect canvas for him. I have his to-scale diagrams of the holes and a decent amount of photos/ aerials.

This is fun and interesting to do, but I also think that it will be a great simulator course. In 1910, it was about 6,500 yards and with these hills, that was very substantial.

I've only completed one hole so far and I probably won't get to the rest until I finish a couple other projects, but here is a preview: I'm experimenting with roughing up the turf for some realism, especially the teeing ground to give it the 1910 North Carolina look.

[Wang]

This lost Ross gem is starting to come to life thanks to the lidar breakthrough. I have 6 holes completed. Here is a sampling.

The fairways are nice and wide and there are many downhill tee shots. Should be great for sim play, except that the greens are a little tricky. They'll have to be played at 1915 green speeds.

[Rockstar1974]

Looks Awesome!

[Solstice72]

How do you know the stimp of 1915? And how, without lawn mowers would they get that speed? Lol. The course looks awesome, love the fairways you describe

[FaultyClubs]

Stimpmeter wasn't invented then but lawn mowers definitely were. Lol

[Wang]

When I finish 9 holes I may publish a test version so that sim testers can see if the greens are playable or torture in their natural state.

[Wang]

I'm done with all 18 holes, just going back and working on the North Carolina aesthetics (roughing up the bunkers and adding patchy soil). Found all original 18 greens in the ground and was able to sync them up with the Ross hole-by-hole diagrams/ blueprints. What is really nice is that he left notes to the inch about bunker depths, etc

[Fantastish]

That looks impressive. TGC 2019 is going to fun with all of these real courses.

[Wizard of Coz]

Beautiful! Game on fantastish on this gem.

[Solstice72]

I'm done with all 18 holes, just going back and working on the North Carolina aesthetics (roughing up the bunkers and adding patchy soil). Found all original 18 greens in the ground and was able to sync them up with the Ross hole-by-hole diagrams/ blueprints. What is really nice is that he left notes to the inch about bunker depths, etc

Wang can you load it into 2019 like you did the Lido?

[wbond]

Wang Did this course get published? What was the specific name in TGC2019?

[Wang]

I have finished the front nine on this one and will start the detail work on the back. Hoping to have it ready to publish soon after the 2K21 launch.

Tour of front nine:

#1:



#2


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#5

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#9

[wanabe]

Past images look amazing but today’s post has no images. Missing links?

[Wang]

Very strange- they showed to me after posting.

Will try just a couple to make sure it's working. Using imgur and image insert with URLs

[ac4birdie]

Hey man, as a Ross enthusiast and NC Native, I hope this is close to completion. I've been following for a while, and wondering how long do we need to expect before it is posted in PGA Tour 2k21?? Looks absolutely awesome, and I can't wait to see the finished product!

[BBellWFU]

There's a very detailed article about the long history of this course available here: https://sometimes-interesting.com/20...on-fort-bragg/
Has a lot of great photos as well.

One interesting thing to note is that the greens were all sand as was customary particularly in that region (similar to Pinehurst at the time) due to the unique soil conditions in "The Sandhills" of North Carolina.

[Overhills]

Wang did you ever finish this course?

[chrisward3]

I searched around tonight, and "OH NLE_Test 01" lines up pretty close for distances and layout (I only peeked the first 3 holes). Will probably play tomorrow

[chrisward3]

Confirmed (played it last night). Seems solid overall, although the par on 2&3 seem to be off by 1-stroke (it balances out score-wise).

[Wang]

No, I'm tied up with a bunch of other projects that have deadlines. Will finish it eventually, but I work really slowly due to all of the research.