Because Motorcycles and Golf are two great tastes that taste great together
I was lucky enough to get to spend my part of my Saturday with Aly Tungsten, the creator of the new Retribution Ridge Golf Course. We had a fantastic chat the challenges of course design, the philosophy behind the construction of RRGC (as well as the future of SL’s newest course), some really worthwhile causes, and, of course, baking.
(I meant golf. That was me being a three-coffee smartass.)
Keyli Daltrey: Let’s start with a bit about you, because we haven’t really hung out and chatted a lot. How long have you been playing golf in SL?
Aly Tungsten: On the regular, I have just recently gotten back into SL golf, but I started playing and falling in love with it about 5 years ago when a friend took our group to play at Emerald.
KD: Did you start playing with the Elite system back then or was it something else?
AT: I started with the <o.O> clubs and thought they were OK until we stumbled across the Elite when we found Deer Creek.
KD: What else do you enjoy in Second Life?
AT: I am a Bike Builder and President of an SL MC (motorcycle club) so I enjoy anything that keeps me busy and laughing. We like to do a lot of charity work so between our love of golf, MC life, and charity, we thought it would be awesome to marry all of them together and bring more people over to the golf side.
KD: I remember when we first talked I got the impression the course took you a lot of time to put together. Can you sum it up for me? How long did it take you to get the course ready for play from start to finish?
AT: it took us about two-and-a-half months of planning and laying everything out on prims, and then another two’ish weeks to get it terraformed and testable.
KD: Do you have a rough estimate on the total amount of work hours y’all put in?
AT: Hmmm, let me calculate. I would say between the two of us we probably have spent close to 300 hours working on it and tweaking it.
KD: You mentioned to me a few days ago you had kind of a concept in mind when it came to the difficulty of the course: “beatable but challenging”, if I remember correctly. What led you to that design concept?
AT: We have been to some courses that, when you are done, you feel like there was no challenge…then some where no matter what you do there is no way to do well. So we wanted to be more like Rainbow, Deer Creek, and a few others where there is some thinking and challenge, but not so hard it is impossible to better your score.
KD: That actually goes right into my next question – you looked to Rainbow and Deer Creek for some kind of design concepts and ideas, but were there other courses, either in SL or RL, you looked to for inspiration when building the course?
AT: Before my daddy passed away…we used to play a course locally that helped inspire the layout here. Then we played a lot at Rainbow (Valley North), (Rainbow Links) Hawaii, Deer Creek, and Danaan to figure out how to bring it to life in world.
KD: What was the most difficult part of building RRGC?
AT: Oooooooh, that is a tough one. The landscaping was definitely tough, but the hardest part was the terraforming to give some depth without completely borking your shots or eating your ball. I am horrible at it…I am known for my spires to heaven or pits to hell. Lucky for me, Wild is good with terraforming.
We had some family who helped move trees and grass towards the end and helped test behind us so we knew where to make edits. Then, as we got closer, Chelsea, Lexy, and Poppy have been godsends with final suggestions to make it ready to open.
KD: Speaking of which, is the course open for public play right now?
AT: Yes ma’am, it is – that is my next thing to figure out – getting the word out.
AT: Chelsea and Poppy have us added to the TrueGolf Caddy HUD now. I did a little girl squeal, I will admit.
KD: Are you doing anything special to mark the opening of the course?
AT: We are actually now working on a Tournament for February for RFL Kick Off, but we are trying to plan a little something to be our official Grand Opening.
KD: That’s awesome! I’m a huge supporter of RFL. I will 100% be there for that tournament.
AT: Our biggies are RFL, HFOT, and NAMI. Our MC has three major events every year for them and this year a golf tournament will be incorporated into them to merge our two favorite communities in doing good.
KD: That’s Relay For Life, Homes for Our Troops, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, if I remember right? Three really amazing causes; I think it’s awesome that you guys work so hard to support them and to spread awareness.
AT: Yes ma’am.
KD: It’s very much early days, but do you have any plans for the future of the course? Is there anything you’d like to add, subtract, or revise in the foreseeable future?
AT: Our goal in the foreseeable future is to add another sim so (the course wouldn’t be) as compact. We want to make sure every few months we revise it some so we do not get stagnant. We just want people to be able to come and have fun with us.
KD: Last one – and this is a question I’m gonna start asking everyone I talk to that uses the TrueGolf VGS when I interview them – you’re just my first victim: what TrueGolf caddy bag do you use the most and why?
AT: So my favorite colors are purple and green, so the Orvis is my go-to. I love how the bags give us more realism and (we’re) not always walking around with a club in our hand.
KD: Me too! I love them. Anytime I see someone without one I kinda want to drag them to a TG Pro Shop and tell them to pick one out.
AT: Right!!!! We have gone and gifted a few ourselves.
KD: Aly, thanks so much for sitting down to talk to me today about Retribution and your experience with building the course and golf in Second Life. I really appreciate it. 🙂
AT: Thank you so much for thinking of us.
Soooooooo…have you entered the giveaway yet? I’m giving away a Steelhead Outfitters Gift Card for L$1,000! Go check out THIS POST and leave a comment at the end – make sure to include your SL account name! The giveaway is on the 12th!
The Second Links Traveler 
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