Pharaoh's Tomb at White Bank Park reviews
10
3
Disc Golf Fail 2+ years drive by
Reviewed:
Played on:Aug 7, 2012
Played the course:once
Pros:
Layout - The big plus here is multiple tees for each hole and the diversity in hole types.
You weave in and out of sparse woods and there is a good range of holes between long and short. There's only one big bomber hole (18) but you can let some discs fly in places.
The course does a solid job of forcing different shots and giving you different looks from each tee. They mixed up placement holes with gap hitting holes pretty well.
They incorporated a lot of vertical gaps in to the course, usually making you throw low under thick branches. I threw a roller more than once here.
There's a bit of elevation here, it's used with moderate success on a few holes.
Equipment - The baskets were in okay shape. There is a course map at #1 and there was also printed out course maps/scorecards you could grab. The print out also had individual hole layouts shown.
Atmosphere - Looks like an average community type park. A lot of picnic areas and a playground; looks like a good place to bring the family.
You weave in and out of sparse woods and there is a good range of holes between long and short. There's only one big bomber hole (18) but you can let some discs fly in places.
The course does a solid job of forcing different shots and giving you different looks from each tee. They mixed up placement holes with gap hitting holes pretty well.
They incorporated a lot of vertical gaps in to the course, usually making you throw low under thick branches. I threw a roller more than once here.
There's a bit of elevation here, it's used with moderate success on a few holes.
Equipment - The baskets were in okay shape. There is a course map at #1 and there was also printed out course maps/scorecards you could grab. The print out also had individual hole layouts shown.
Atmosphere - Looks like an average community type park. A lot of picnic areas and a playground; looks like a good place to bring the family.
Cons:
Layout - Where do I start? The first thing I noticed was how incredibly bad the upkeep has been on this course. #1 had 4' grass going down the fairway as well as bunch of debris. The entire course wasn't like this but there was more than one place where work needs to be done.
The second thing I noticed was how incredibly terrible the flow of this course is. You literally do tiny little circles everywhere through it and backtrack a lot. This brings numerous fairways near each other and there are a few occasions where baskets are close to each other.
Then there's the abundance of holes that play over or very close to parking lots, roads, picnic areas, multi purpose fields. I played very early morning but if there were people there I can see how this course might be unplayable.
There are some straight up dumb holes here, holes that make you make you wonder what the designer was thinking.
There is a massive overuse of shots where you throw under limbs. A few is fine but it goes overboard here.
There's several spots where baskets are in dumb places. I'm talking right by other park facilities or 4' from a massive drop off in to super thick woods right next to a lake.
Don't let that lake part confuse you, the lake is in no way involved with the course with the exception of the hole where missing 4' right makes you lose your disc.
I was amazed at how many 200'-300' blind shots could be put on one course. We went searching for the basket on numerous occasions and that's with a map in our hand.
Equipment - Some tees are natural with colored boards marking their location, some tees are spray painted on to the ground, some tees are concrete, one tee is mostly concrete with the back 20% unfinished because they ran out of concrete while they were pouring it.
The natural tees were okay in some places and not okay in others. Oh yeah one tee that is spray painted on the ground has the colored board right in the middle of it... yeah wtf.
The map/scorecard is great but much bigger signs giving that info would be way better.
Atmosphere - There's to many holes that need to be manicured very badly. There's trash and debris all piled up in some places.
It's normally a plus when a park has trashcans but this one had a trashcan so rank I almost vomited.
The second thing I noticed was how incredibly terrible the flow of this course is. You literally do tiny little circles everywhere through it and backtrack a lot. This brings numerous fairways near each other and there are a few occasions where baskets are close to each other.
Then there's the abundance of holes that play over or very close to parking lots, roads, picnic areas, multi purpose fields. I played very early morning but if there were people there I can see how this course might be unplayable.
There are some straight up dumb holes here, holes that make you make you wonder what the designer was thinking.
There is a massive overuse of shots where you throw under limbs. A few is fine but it goes overboard here.
There's several spots where baskets are in dumb places. I'm talking right by other park facilities or 4' from a massive drop off in to super thick woods right next to a lake.
Don't let that lake part confuse you, the lake is in no way involved with the course with the exception of the hole where missing 4' right makes you lose your disc.
I was amazed at how many 200'-300' blind shots could be put on one course. We went searching for the basket on numerous occasions and that's with a map in our hand.
Equipment - Some tees are natural with colored boards marking their location, some tees are spray painted on to the ground, some tees are concrete, one tee is mostly concrete with the back 20% unfinished because they ran out of concrete while they were pouring it.
The natural tees were okay in some places and not okay in others. Oh yeah one tee that is spray painted on the ground has the colored board right in the middle of it... yeah wtf.
The map/scorecard is great but much bigger signs giving that info would be way better.
Atmosphere - There's to many holes that need to be manicured very badly. There's trash and debris all piled up in some places.
It's normally a plus when a park has trashcans but this one had a trashcan so rank I almost vomited.
Other Thoughts:
"I hate this course." I said that and heard that multiple times throughout the round. It's one of those courses where you keep asking how much longer until it's over. Hole after hole you find another thing to make you hate it.
It started with #1. They pad was screwed up, you couldn't see the basket because of debris, there was super tall grass... we knew then.
#15 is the prime example of the entire course's faults. It should be a great hole, the signature hole. It's a good valley shot with the lake out on the right. BUT... right behind the basket is a building with privacy fence, right next to the basket is a giant drop off in to jungle and water, at the bottom of the valley which is a treacherous walk lies a crap ton of broken up cinder blocks.
The park has a lot of good space to work with it's just done terribly. There's to many forced in holes. It looked like the space was just misused. I could see a really well designed 9 holer being here, either way it needs to be redesigned.
It started with #1. They pad was screwed up, you couldn't see the basket because of debris, there was super tall grass... we knew then.
#15 is the prime example of the entire course's faults. It should be a great hole, the signature hole. It's a good valley shot with the lake out on the right. BUT... right behind the basket is a building with privacy fence, right next to the basket is a giant drop off in to jungle and water, at the bottom of the valley which is a treacherous walk lies a crap ton of broken up cinder blocks.
The park has a lot of good space to work with it's just done terribly. There's to many forced in holes. It looked like the space was just misused. I could see a really well designed 9 holer being here, either way it needs to be redesigned.
11
1
Disappointing 2+ years drive by
Reviewed:
Played on:Apr 23, 2010
Played the course:once
Pros:
It is a disc golf course with good baskets and multiple tees. There is a good mix of heavily wooded, tight shots and some more open long shots. Park has picnic areas, bathroom and room for other famly activities. The back 9 offers some opportunity to avoid the other park users.
Cons:
Course layout. There was some sort of community event going on so the picnic areas and parking lot were full. Several of the fairways were unplayable since they were being used as a flag football field. #3 plays through an area with some gazebos and picnic tables. One good bounce off a tree and you can send people scattering from their tables. #4 was unplayable due to the cars parked around the parking lot. I might have been able to throw over them, but it wasn't worth the risk. Between cars and people it just isn't a good spot for a basket. #5 had a flag football game going on and enough pedestrians around the bathrooms that I decided to skip that one too. #7 was the same story. Might have been a good round with no one else on the course, but I'm not psychic, so I wouldn't know when to play this course. On #9 I got the special treat of watching a guy urinate on a tree 5 feet from the basket. Skipped that hole too. I didn't have my Gore-Tex shoes on. Didn't want to get wet.
Oh yeah, the course has natural tee pads marked by white and red wood in the ground. they weren't bad, but they weren't concrete either.
Oh yeah, the course has natural tee pads marked by white and red wood in the ground. they weren't bad, but they weren't concrete either.
Other Thoughts:
Any course with good baskets is worth having, but the way this course works around the rest of the park facilities makes it a tough play. It might be decent when no one is around, but driving there would be a risk. I really enjoyed some of the holes, but the non-golf factors were enough to guarantee that I won't go back. I did see a few of the cats and did like the gorge, but none of that will be enough to bring me back. I'm sure it's great to have a local course, but this one is not for tourists.
