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Oliver Park DGC reviews
7
0
How Did This Get Approved?! 2+ years
Reviewed:
Updated:
Played on:Jun 20, 2021
Played the course:once
Other Thoughts:
-I'm just going to get down to the point here. This is a sports complex. The disc golf course is concurrent with the other sports activities. Even if practice isn't occurring, groups of families tend to spend time together in the fields or near the fields. Right from the go, I was questioning how on Earth the design of a disc golf course got approved. While some of the holes here are fun, such as #7 being a downhill bomb over the football field and #12 being a long hole with the basket on a peninsula green, some other holes are dreadful. The first hole's short pad sits inside the ball field and the long pad has you facing the field and has you either throwing over it or throwing a low skip shot around the line of trees outside the field. I saw a father and son inside that field (opposite side of where you tee off) and after my round, I saw a few mothers with their children walking out of the field. It's not that you are missing anything if you skip this hole, but some players will insist that they won't hit anyone and play it anyway or they'll skip it and the idea for an eighteen hole course is shown to be an act of sheer folly.
-I didn't see any practice events or any people actually playing in those designated fields but they are multi use. I didn't have to yield to many people, but there's a possibility that you will. People may simply park their vehicles in the gravel space that you throw over on #3. Pedestrians may want to take their children on a walk with them. Often times as a kid, my dad would take me to the park and we'd walk in the ballfields, and he and I still do sometimes if he and I are both in town and have a day off. I don't know if this is relevant or not, but this place is perfectly capable of having a cross country 5K course. It very might have one now, or will in the future. Cross country practice could very well occur here even if there's not a 5K trail already implanted. I do realize that runners could interfere with other student athletes on the football or soccer fields but there's a BIG difference between running through fields where other athletes can easily spot a group of runners and one person in the background throwing a flying object that goes fast and has a hard rim. Again, if those fields are being used, a disc golfer would either skip the hole or insist that they won't hit anyone and play anyway still causing possible friction with someone else practicing in the field.
-You have to plan accordingly if you decide to play here. I really don't know. It's a very family friendly park. It could get crowded on the weekend. Then again, there may be an event on a school day in the high noon or earlier evening. There are different sports tournaments held here. A part of the disc golf course may be unplayable as a result. If there's nothing going on, then you might enjoy yourself. I enjoyed holes #7 and #12 even though they aren't well planned. A few holes are well thought out. Like #15. It's the prettiest part of the course. A downhill, slightly wooded par three that's away from the other recreational activities. Unfortunately though, the lack of its own space of the course gets makes me not plan to ever return to it again. It was a viable option for a practice round before one of the rounds in the Magic City Mega Bowl because there are many opportunities to rip a driver while having to avoid a lot of OB. Good practice for the Magic City Mega Bowl, I'd say, but it's pretty far from courses like Civitan, Clay, and Greg Carter. While Oliver Park is closer to Inverness, it's very different from Inverness and wouldn't really prepare you or set the proper mentality before a tournament round at a course as difficult as Inverness is.
-There's a busy road in proximity. Holes 10 and 11 both play entirely too close. On the opposite side of the road of where you are playing, there is owned property. If you hyzer out too much and skip over the road, you'll be crossing someone's property to retrieve your disc. I had to retrieve mine on #11. #11 does not make sense to me. It plays fully along the side of the road on the right of it. There's a mando pole pointing to the right side; avoiding the likelihood of landing on or near the busy road, but a mando does not necessarily mean that you won't hit the road or that drivers won't have to keep a close eye if there are people playing this hole as they drive past. One of the pin positions is in the middle of a cluster of trees with unkempt limbs. Pretty aggravating hole in my opinion.
-Seems that there have been some additions. Several holes have two baskets in play. Mach pins and dynamic patriots. Several holes have dual pads. #5 was a fun uphill par four. To add to it, #5 does have a lot of it's own unused space. #9's original pin is tucked into the woods and plays as a nice hyzer from the long pad. The back pin is about 430' long and in the open, but not far outside the woods. If the field is being used, you do have the option to play the short pad since it is not in the field, but that hole is nothing but a plinko shot in the woods with no fairway.
-In order to have fun here, it can't be crowded. I have upvoted courses with safety hazards but that's because they were on school property, where the hours of operation are well defined. Or because they weren't as excessive or severe as they are at Oliver. With the busy road, the constant concurrency with other extracurricular activities, and playing near or even over possible parking areas (like on #3), it doesn't have that base need of a disc golf course: Land of its own. Plan accordingly. Expect to wait at least a few times before throwing. This is officially the most obstructive course that I have played. It's too hazardous.
-I didn't see any practice events or any people actually playing in those designated fields but they are multi use. I didn't have to yield to many people, but there's a possibility that you will. People may simply park their vehicles in the gravel space that you throw over on #3. Pedestrians may want to take their children on a walk with them. Often times as a kid, my dad would take me to the park and we'd walk in the ballfields, and he and I still do sometimes if he and I are both in town and have a day off. I don't know if this is relevant or not, but this place is perfectly capable of having a cross country 5K course. It very might have one now, or will in the future. Cross country practice could very well occur here even if there's not a 5K trail already implanted. I do realize that runners could interfere with other student athletes on the football or soccer fields but there's a BIG difference between running through fields where other athletes can easily spot a group of runners and one person in the background throwing a flying object that goes fast and has a hard rim. Again, if those fields are being used, a disc golfer would either skip the hole or insist that they won't hit anyone and play anyway still causing possible friction with someone else practicing in the field.
-You have to plan accordingly if you decide to play here. I really don't know. It's a very family friendly park. It could get crowded on the weekend. Then again, there may be an event on a school day in the high noon or earlier evening. There are different sports tournaments held here. A part of the disc golf course may be unplayable as a result. If there's nothing going on, then you might enjoy yourself. I enjoyed holes #7 and #12 even though they aren't well planned. A few holes are well thought out. Like #15. It's the prettiest part of the course. A downhill, slightly wooded par three that's away from the other recreational activities. Unfortunately though, the lack of its own space of the course gets makes me not plan to ever return to it again. It was a viable option for a practice round before one of the rounds in the Magic City Mega Bowl because there are many opportunities to rip a driver while having to avoid a lot of OB. Good practice for the Magic City Mega Bowl, I'd say, but it's pretty far from courses like Civitan, Clay, and Greg Carter. While Oliver Park is closer to Inverness, it's very different from Inverness and wouldn't really prepare you or set the proper mentality before a tournament round at a course as difficult as Inverness is.
-There's a busy road in proximity. Holes 10 and 11 both play entirely too close. On the opposite side of the road of where you are playing, there is owned property. If you hyzer out too much and skip over the road, you'll be crossing someone's property to retrieve your disc. I had to retrieve mine on #11. #11 does not make sense to me. It plays fully along the side of the road on the right of it. There's a mando pole pointing to the right side; avoiding the likelihood of landing on or near the busy road, but a mando does not necessarily mean that you won't hit the road or that drivers won't have to keep a close eye if there are people playing this hole as they drive past. One of the pin positions is in the middle of a cluster of trees with unkempt limbs. Pretty aggravating hole in my opinion.
-Seems that there have been some additions. Several holes have two baskets in play. Mach pins and dynamic patriots. Several holes have dual pads. #5 was a fun uphill par four. To add to it, #5 does have a lot of it's own unused space. #9's original pin is tucked into the woods and plays as a nice hyzer from the long pad. The back pin is about 430' long and in the open, but not far outside the woods. If the field is being used, you do have the option to play the short pad since it is not in the field, but that hole is nothing but a plinko shot in the woods with no fairway.
-In order to have fun here, it can't be crowded. I have upvoted courses with safety hazards but that's because they were on school property, where the hours of operation are well defined. Or because they weren't as excessive or severe as they are at Oliver. With the busy road, the constant concurrency with other extracurricular activities, and playing near or even over possible parking areas (like on #3), it doesn't have that base need of a disc golf course: Land of its own. Plan accordingly. Expect to wait at least a few times before throwing. This is officially the most obstructive course that I have played. It's too hazardous.
17
0
wellsbranch250
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience:
10.3 years
658 played
638 reviews
Oliver Twist-Less 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Aug 26, 2020
Played the course:once
Pros:
(2.069 Rating) A typical sports complex course with a couple good elevation tee shots and some multi-use conflicts.
- BASIC AMENITIES - The core components for this course were done right. There are concrete tees, tee signs with distance indicated and new MachIII baskets.
- NAVIGATION - It's ok. Course map posted next to tee (1). Most will need to have a picture of this map to get around a couple times or have a navigational app.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - Not a beginners course, but most new players should not be over whelmed. Lots of open tee shots, but also a couple easy wooded holes to learn some accuracy on. Novice players will have numerous ace run opportunities.
- QUICK PLAY - It took me 42 minutes solo on an empty course and I photographed the entire layout.
- MAINTENANCE - The park maintenance for my visit was great.
- BASIC AMENITIES - The core components for this course were done right. There are concrete tees, tee signs with distance indicated and new MachIII baskets.
- NAVIGATION - It's ok. Course map posted next to tee (1). Most will need to have a picture of this map to get around a couple times or have a navigational app.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - Not a beginners course, but most new players should not be over whelmed. Lots of open tee shots, but also a couple easy wooded holes to learn some accuracy on. Novice players will have numerous ace run opportunities.
- QUICK PLAY - It took me 42 minutes solo on an empty course and I photographed the entire layout.
- MAINTENANCE - The park maintenance for my visit was great.
Cons:
Some safety hazards, flow gaps and less than stellar holes.
- MULTI USE HAZARDS - On hole (1) right away, the fairway plays over the meat of a baseball field. And thus instantly I got into the mindset that this layout isn't going to care about the surrounding park activities. Park roads and low use roads will come into play a handful of times. Ball fields that are in use could prevent a hole or two from being played. I personally had to skip my tee shot on both (7) and (9) as there was football practice going on. The amount of interaction is far too great imo and I took off a good quarter point to the score.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - The course has a nice introductory challenge to it. Novice players with around an 830 to 840 player rating will likely average around par out here. Players above a 900 rating will murder this course and won't really be entertained. Several holes are the duece or die type for skilled players. On the flip side, there are couple beastly holes like (7) and (9) which are both plus 350 feet.
- HOLE VARIETY - Overall I'd label the variety a bit below average. However, for a sports complex park like course it's not so bad. There are some ups and downs. There are a couple wooded holes and a couple bomb-it shots. Hole (11) is an honest 539 foot par 4 that's labeled as a par 5. Overall, nothing magical here, it's just a mediocre mix with a couple chocolate sprinkles.
- LAYOUT FLOW - There is some jumping around on this layout, especially between (9) and (10). be sure and take a picture of the map.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - Below average. Man-made features are in view the entire time.
- MISSED OPPORTUNITIES - I don't think the patch of woods where basket (17) is located got incorporated well-enough into the layout.
- MULTI USE HAZARDS - On hole (1) right away, the fairway plays over the meat of a baseball field. And thus instantly I got into the mindset that this layout isn't going to care about the surrounding park activities. Park roads and low use roads will come into play a handful of times. Ball fields that are in use could prevent a hole or two from being played. I personally had to skip my tee shot on both (7) and (9) as there was football practice going on. The amount of interaction is far too great imo and I took off a good quarter point to the score.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - The course has a nice introductory challenge to it. Novice players with around an 830 to 840 player rating will likely average around par out here. Players above a 900 rating will murder this course and won't really be entertained. Several holes are the duece or die type for skilled players. On the flip side, there are couple beastly holes like (7) and (9) which are both plus 350 feet.
- HOLE VARIETY - Overall I'd label the variety a bit below average. However, for a sports complex park like course it's not so bad. There are some ups and downs. There are a couple wooded holes and a couple bomb-it shots. Hole (11) is an honest 539 foot par 4 that's labeled as a par 5. Overall, nothing magical here, it's just a mediocre mix with a couple chocolate sprinkles.
- LAYOUT FLOW - There is some jumping around on this layout, especially between (9) and (10). be sure and take a picture of the map.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - Below average. Man-made features are in view the entire time.
- MISSED OPPORTUNITIES - I don't think the patch of woods where basket (17) is located got incorporated well-enough into the layout.
Other Thoughts:
This was the 100th course I played, just in the state of Alabama. I thought about making this milestone number a special destination play, but I had already played all the great courses in the state, and thus Oliver Park it was. The course was decent. It's one I would likely play weekly if I lived in town, but not one I would ever travel more than 30 miles out of the way to go play again. To players in the Birmingham area, this course has a lot of attributal similarities to Veterans in Alabaster. The top courses in Birmingham are far superior to this course.
