With this Bacchus Ridge course, rlslay, once again, shows why he is in a world of his own... even when he is not designing tropical courses !
Set around the beautiful Laurel panorama (mountains & lakes), this par 72 has some spectacular views along with superb plantings (as always) and is quite challenging, despite its wide fairways, with plenty of pot bunkers near the smooth greens.
The par-4 1st hole is a gorgeous way to start your round, with a very wide lake on the left, a small pot bunker in the middle of the fairway, and an approach shot over part of the lake to reach the green, slightly to the left, and is followed by the par-5 2nd, with a fairway hugging the lake on the left and a green, slightly to the right.
Then, after the par-3 3rd hole, with a tee shot over a small lake (and a nice small gazebo on the right halfway), and the par-4 4th, with a tough approach shot to the green, slightly to the right and hidden by plenty of vegetation with four pot bunkers behind, you will reach the straight par-5 5th hole, with a slightly-downhill tee shot, an elongated bunker on the left and pot bunkers on the right midway through, and another wide bunker across in front of the elevated green, with a few more around !
The last three holes on the front 9 are nice too : the par-4 7th is straight and short (about 360 yards), with a small creek across the fairway in a u-shape halfway, and a big bunker in front of the green, the par-5 8th hole is a right dogleg, with an elongated bunker not far from the green on the right, and a little gazebo on the left, and the par-3 9th hole is very short (about 120 yards) and straight, with a gorgeous view of the lake behind and the superb clubhouse far away !
On the back 9, I like the approach on the par-5 12th hole, with a tiny pond on the right of the green, the picturesque par-3 13th, with a meandering cart path on the left and a creek crossing the fairway diagonally from the left, near the tee, and ending past the green (with a beautiful panoramic view beyond), and the short (about 500 yards) par-5 14th hole, with the fairway hugging a wide lake on the right and an elongated bunker on the left midway.
The last four holes are beautiful too : the par-4 15th has a wide meandering creek on the right, plenty of pink bushes on both sides of the fairway and a wide lake behind the green, the par-3 16th has a lake on the left and a nice panoramic view beyond, and the par-4 17th hole is quite short (about 340 yards), with a wide lake on the left and a slightly-elevated green, with little pot bunkers around.
And what a way to finish with the long (more than 600 yards) and gorgeous par-5 18th hole, with a superb and big clubhouse halfway on the right (with 9 national flags in front) facing the lake on the left, and a choice of fairways on your second shot with about a... dozen (!) small bunkers in the middle near the green, slightly to the left !
Overall, if Bacchus Ridge is not the most difficult course ever designed by rlslay, it is another gorgeous proof of his talent and one that you should definitely download.

rlslay just downloaded this course...just played 9 of Mauna Kea...you sir are a great desiginer...THANKS

I have downloaded nine courses, three of which are yours. This is also the only fantasy course I've downloaded. As for my comment, all I can say is: "you sir are the Robert Trent Jones Jr. of TW '08 course desing". Your courses are, in a word, bad arse.

Thank you.

Nothing bad can be said about this one, in my opinion one of Robs best.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to return and leave a comment on this course. I have tried to advance TW08 with each new course Ive made over the years. Each new course I released, I tried to improve on and make more realist than the course before. This course with all 40,000+ ( 3rd most objects ) including the 14 unreleased courses has given me a new life to this game. I have seen what the newest TW on play station and xbox have looked like and I can say to myself that my newest course equal those. Even with my low end computer now, I get a fully rendered course that will give me a few more years of TW08 game. I have look at many of new and upcoming designers, ( architects ) with great ideas, but some of their courses seem to fit better with the TW06 game. I am not trying to bash anybody for their courses, but only hope that they will take the next step up and improve on with each of their new courses. There are tutorials for everything you need to keep improving your courses and I still use them today. My thoughts are that there are fewer people downloading courses than ever before, and that we designers need to make highest quality courses possible to keep up with the newest TW games. I have been very fortune to have so many players download my courses on this site, that even the smallest of downloads makes it worth the effort to build courses for those to play and enjoy. I also would like to thank Coursedownloads site for being online to share my courses. A big thanks to everyone who has built or helps builds a library that I have used over the years and to CGX team for their great libraries. Any designer can call on me for my help or thoughts just send me a message and I will get back with you. Thank you for your time....Rob (rlslay)

Dedicated to Bacchus but you certainly can't w*ine about this one. A series of well planted lakeside holes that cumulates in a crescendo at the 18th hole.

Fantastic course one of the best for planting I have ever seen, brilliant to play and look at, superb in every way 5 star