Course:  River Run
Location:  Easter Shore of Maryland
JNSE Adaptation:  Kerry Leibowitz and John Sandoval
Date: March 7, 1993

First, some words from Kerry...

     River Run, a Gary Player designed course located on Maryland's
Eastern Shore (Berlin, MD to be exact) is our second collaborative effort.
For this project, John and I reversed roles--this time I handled the
objects and background while John took care of the hole work and the overhead.
Since that left John with considerably more work, I chipped in by taking
care of object placement.  We seem to have established a good working
pattern and once we actually got ourselves going with the course (I must
confess to being largely responsible for the delays) things moved along
smoothly.

    The objects were mainly modifications of existing ones--I recycled
a couple of them from Doral, in slightly modified form, as well as
from Alhambra, Merion, Glen Abbey, and Muirfield Village.  All of these
objects were tweaked, some a little bit, some a lot, and all were
recolored.  The "bushy" object is an original creation.  This object
was used to create the effect of heavy forest undergrowth; 
extensive areas of the course are cut out of deep woods.  The 
background, created with DPIIE, is an original...the clouds were 
modeled after those in Ted Maiden's Glen Abbey.

    Thanks to John Kunyik.  His JNSEDT program makes palette changes
and background work with DPIIE possible.  And a very special thanks,
as always, to Mark Willett, most recently for all of his help with
DPIIE, and more generally for unceasing willingness to share his
considerable course design insight with others, for no reason save
his interest in advancing the hobby.  Thanks, Mark. 

    Last, but certainly NOT least, thanks to my design partner,
John Sandoval.  I can only hope that he enjoys these collaborative
projects 1/10 as much as I do.

And, now, some words from me (John)...

    This is the first time that I have routed an actual course.  
All my previous routing has been with original courses.  That of
course allows you to experiment, and I really think it helped
me to develop my design style.  Once I felt I had my style down, I 
wanted to try a REAL course.

    I was going to start by doing JNSE versions of Torrey Pines
North and South.  I lived in San Diego until last September, and I had
pictures of each hole on the course.  But, once I started work on
Torrey Pines South, I felt I wasn't quite ready yet, since I really
wanted to do justice to those two courses.  Plus the fact that there
is a Links version of the South course. <G>  The pressure was
just too great! <G>  
   
    When we first arrived in Maryland, we picked up all the tourist
pamphlets, since we didn't know where anything was.  My wife Jennifer
isn't a golf fan, but she understands how much I enjoy course 
design.  We spotted a pamphlet for River Run and I was impressed
with the amount of detain.  It not only had a scaled overhead plot,
but it also showed each individual hole overhead, with a paragraph
about each hole.  This was perfect!  A chance to try out a REAL course
before attempting the Torrey courses.

    I'm pleased with the results.  The pamphlet didn't have any elevation
data, so it's all guess work.  And of course, objects make a course, and
I was fortunate enough to have Kerry pick a great set of objects. <G>
This was an experimental course for him too, since he had never used
DPIIE before.  I think both of us did well.

    The course is VERY simple.  Remember, it's a resort course and
you're supposed to enjoy yourself on it.  Shoot in the mid-60's and
go to work bragging about your great score. <G>  The fairways 
are huge, and the fairway bunkers aren't usually in play. But there
is plenty of water, so if you're not careful, you can find trouble.
The par 3's are the toughest, with only 1 of 4 under 190 yards.

    My thanks go to basically the same people that Kerry's do. Mark
Willett helped me to get started in designing, and his tips and
encouragement have kept me going.  The group on Prodigy all deserve
a big thanks just for always having lively conversations <VBG>, and
having the best interests of the hobby at heart.

    And, I have to thank Kerry.  We've really struck up a great
friendship because of Prodigy, and we work well together as a team.
I hope, and expect, that we'll be working together for a long time
to come.  And yes, I enjoy it at least 1/10th as much as he does. <G>

    Oh, and the two Torrey Pines courses are now off the back burner.  
I'll be doing work on them concurrent with my work with Kerry.  


    Next up for us...  Bethpage (Black course).

    Also by us...  Doral CC (Doralse.zip)
