Rapid Run reviews
7
0
Sorry it’s gone (for now) 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Jul 28, 2012
Played the course:2-4 times
Pros:
It's nice that the GCFDA occasionally sets this park up as a temporary course for the Course Challenge Series. There's a sense of nostalgia for some of the more 'seasoned' players to remember when the park played host to Worlds events. Situated in a beautiful semi-urban park with hills, playgrounds, walking paths, a ball field, benches, picnic tables, a shelter house with restrooms and drinking fountains, all centered around a large reflecting pond, the opportunities to set up some feature holes of disc golf could not be overlooked.
The feature hole is the big finish #18, which comes back downhill 340' over the center of the pond toward the shelter and meeting area. For us Recreational level players, we almost have to go for it, despite the fact that many shots fall short (OB, in the pond). The last couple of times this park held tournaments, there were volunteer (and even mercenary) youngsters helping to retrieve our plastic (the dollar is worth it, and all in good fun).
The course set up uses the hills and obstacles extremely well to require a variety of shots. No hole is excessively long. The longest we played today, #16, ran downhill 520'. One hole (#5) ran to a length of 450' uphill. There were nine holes under 400', seven under 300', and this event and park are popular enough we had 119 attendees for today's event, and four more shorter holes were added to accommodate the crowd. Even these were cleverly situated to provide risk/reward opportunities: go for the ace around the occasional branch, and perhaps miss the deuce chance.
The out-of bounds rules mostly made very good sense, protecting parallel lanes from too many errant throws (though these did sometimes occur with the numbers of players who came out). Sometimes the OB was added to raise the difficulty level of a given hole.
The benches and picnic baskets near throwing lanes were marked off today with caution tape so casual park users (who amazingly might not have realized they were in the middle of a disc golf event) would not inadvertently settle down in a danger zone. Seems like it would be a little obvious, but it was one of the many really intelligent things the Tournament Director(s) and the crew did very well today.
In all, the course layout was very fun, and separated the best players (who shot in the mid to upper 50's! on this 22 hole layout) from the rest of us, for whom a 70 was a decent score.
The feature hole is the big finish #18, which comes back downhill 340' over the center of the pond toward the shelter and meeting area. For us Recreational level players, we almost have to go for it, despite the fact that many shots fall short (OB, in the pond). The last couple of times this park held tournaments, there were volunteer (and even mercenary) youngsters helping to retrieve our plastic (the dollar is worth it, and all in good fun).
The course set up uses the hills and obstacles extremely well to require a variety of shots. No hole is excessively long. The longest we played today, #16, ran downhill 520'. One hole (#5) ran to a length of 450' uphill. There were nine holes under 400', seven under 300', and this event and park are popular enough we had 119 attendees for today's event, and four more shorter holes were added to accommodate the crowd. Even these were cleverly situated to provide risk/reward opportunities: go for the ace around the occasional branch, and perhaps miss the deuce chance.
The out-of bounds rules mostly made very good sense, protecting parallel lanes from too many errant throws (though these did sometimes occur with the numbers of players who came out). Sometimes the OB was added to raise the difficulty level of a given hole.
The benches and picnic baskets near throwing lanes were marked off today with caution tape so casual park users (who amazingly might not have realized they were in the middle of a disc golf event) would not inadvertently settle down in a danger zone. Seems like it would be a little obvious, but it was one of the many really intelligent things the Tournament Director(s) and the crew did very well today.
In all, the course layout was very fun, and separated the best players (who shot in the mid to upper 50's! on this 22 hole layout) from the rest of us, for whom a 70 was a decent score.
Cons:
Temp course only 
so tee areas (sometimes a path, but often just grass) and baskets (volunteered for the event) are variable.
There was only one area where the tournament OB had folks a little frustrated, and that was along the path behind the shelter. The first hole essentially had the path as the fairway, and OB was on or to the right, forcing all to hit a narrow strip of grass between the path and the thick shrubbery on the left. But again, it's a tourney, and what would a tourney be without a challenge?
so tee areas (sometimes a path, but often just grass) and baskets (volunteered for the event) are variable.There was only one area where the tournament OB had folks a little frustrated, and that was along the path behind the shelter. The first hole essentially had the path as the fairway, and OB was on or to the right, forcing all to hit a narrow strip of grass between the path and the thick shrubbery on the left. But again, it's a tourney, and what would a tourney be without a challenge?
Other Thoughts:
Check the Cincinnati disc golf club's web site before planning to play this course, because you won't usually find a course here: it's just a temporary, after all! But if you find yourself in town having withdrawal pains, we've got some adequate fixes for you. Mt. Airy is just around the corner.
