Helping Design a Permanent Camp Course

[gkeberhart]

I am going to help some people I know that own the local camp to redesign their DG course with the hopes of making it permenant. I plan to put it in the woods and only start it as 9 holes. With that being said a majority of the kids that come to the camp during the summers are Middle School to early High School aged kids and have never played before.

I plan to keep it a fairly open shot with some technicality (not much). Mt objective is to keep the holes between 200-275ft I might put one in that is 300ft. Has anyone done a course like this before, and can you offer some insight?

All the work will be done by volunteers and when if and when tee pads go in they would probably be gravel or natural. I think they currently have portable Chainstar baskets out there which would be used for the poermanents eventually.

[Steve West]

Congratulations on your decision to ask for help. May I suggest you take it to the next step and hire a designer? They're pretty cheap for 9 hole camp courses. Look here. (http://www.discgolfcoursedesigners.org/discgolfwiki/index.php5?title=Main_Page)

Anyway, since it is my mission to make good designs happen (whether I am the designer or not), I will offer an insight. I've designed a couple dozen camp courses, and the first thing I'd suggest is to make the holes about half as long as you are thinking about.

Here are some results from some work I did with Boy Scouts.

http://stevewestdiscgolf.com/images/ScoutDiscGolfThrows.jpg

You would not believe how inaccurately these kids throw. You don't want to make some poor kid throw a disc 8 times to get near a 300 foot hole; they're going to spend enough time putting back and forth around the basket.

[Matthew boals]

You have an active club in Evansville get ahold of the president of the club to see if he will help you. My two cents....Your correct on the distances,I would make one 300 and another 325/350. You can put two tees for each hole. That will get the course alot more play,in return a better chance of getting the other 9. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

[wolito]

First off I have no experience in designing courses but I might suggest a few things. I think that if you are having younger kids that will paly the course, you have great opportunities to hook new players. Perhaps the first few holes on the course should be rather short maybe jsut over 100 feet and may get longer as the course wears on, up to 250 feet or so. I have taken other kids and if the excitement isn't there in a few minutes of starting, they lose interest quickly and may not try it again. Short holes will allow for a reward for the players instead of getting 10 over on the first two holes. Perhaps some kind of gimmick hole, through a hoop, hanging basket or something that is plain fun. The point is to make it fun and easy, not hard so that they won't want to come back.

[billnchristy]

Be like the Herm:
http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=1355&mode=hi

My 7yo enjoys playing this course...I do too actually.

[simpletwist]

I am no course designer, but I have coached kids in various sports. Design the course for the average player who will actually be playing the course. If its too difficult for a 12 year old with moderate athletic skills, they most likely won't be much interested. And those younger or less gifted won't want to play at all. I looked at the course suggestion of BnC. Sounds perfect. Dual tees are the way to go. With even the long tees fairly short. With some creativity even the shorter holes will be fun if not challenging for more seasoned players.

Your key mantra should be fun. At the age your talking about fun is the key.