Course Review Yahoo Group & Course Guides

[Olorin]

I also have a Course Review Yahoo group called "DG Course Reviews". (Catchy name, huh? I did have the name first!) It's at
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/DGCourseReviews/

In the Files section I have 2 course guides
1) NC course guide for every public and private course in NC.
2) U.S. course guide. By no means complete. It has information about courses that I've played or heard about in states other than NC. There are also several tables about good courses, difficult courses, great holes, long holes, etc...

You have to join the group to get access to the files, but I hope they help.

The main feature are my files with more in depth reviews of the courses I've played. There are some very detailed hole by hole ratings that may be of interest to course designers and course pros.

I'm a PDGA course evaluator, and my review files have some similarities to that system, but have differences too.

[Olorin]

I'm a PDGA course evaluator, and my review files have some similarities to that system, but have differences too.
Correction: I should have said that I "was" a PDGA course evaluator since that system is now defunct. It was a good idea but it had some fatal flaws.

[solomon.trenton]

Correction: I should have said that I "was" a PDGA course evaluator since that system is now defunct. It was a good idea but it had some fatal flaws.

what happened to it? can your review sheets work to upload info to the group? im a member but have a hard time accessing it unless i am recieving an email. help?

[the_lung]

Correction: I should have said that I "was" a PDGA course evaluator since that system is now defunct. It was a good idea but it had some fatal flaws.

The PDGA Course Evaluation Program as it existed from 2004-2007 (and was led by Nick Kight) never made the migration to the new PDGA website earlier this year because it was no longer being supported and in many cases contained outdated data. All the dead links to previous evaluations and information about the program itself were removed from the PDGA Course Directory and PDGA website. The information probably still exists on the server but you would likely need to contact Dave Gentry to retrieve it.

I have no idea if a new PDGA course evaluation process is in the works, but it would have to be something more user friendly. The previous program attempted a "Dead Poet's Society" approach where the evaluation of a course was measured on a scale by giving each individual course element a number. Rating each individual element was a tedious process and doing an evaluation took several hours if not half a day, and the end results did not intuitively seem very accurate - some courses commonly viewed as world class venues and the best our sport has to offer strangely ranked below what most would consider very average pitch-n-putt designs. The program seemed primarily focused on establishing detailed rankings to compare all courses to each other, which arguably served less of a purpose, and some found the idea of such mathematical criticism to be ridiculous, in the same manner as mathematical literary criticism for poetry in the Dead Poet's Society movie was seen as an abomination.

The current process at DGcoursereview.com uses a simple "5 disc" system but it's definitely a little too far to the other extreme - there are very few guidelines and tips given for rating courses objectively, and I suspect most users do not have a good feel for how to evaluate design. While there is a "Trusted Reviewer" program which you can sort the reviews by, reviews may focus on things like elevation, scenic views, water hazards and other interesting terrain features, as well as simple amenities. Without exposure to design concepts, people may be judging courses over the way it makes them feel and not necessarily about the design unless there is something glaringly wrong like safety. As designers know all too well, you work with the land you are given. I have seen great things done with some very flat & uninteresting pieces of property, and conversely I have seen amazing pieces of land spoiled by poor designs. A lot of casual golfers don't know the difference.

[timg]

The primary questions that the reviews on this site answer for the most part are "is it fun to play?" and "is it worth your time to play here?". Most traveling players (or players in general) are more concerned with those questions when choosing a course to drive to than the intricacies of course design. DGCR definitely caters more to the massive amount of casual/non-competitive disc golf fanatics out there than the tournament crowd. The community dictated what they think is important when it comes to course reviews and the fact that they focus on elevation, views, water hazards, etc. obviously means that those are key factors that many people feel makes their round at a course more enjoyable.

You can't expect people to look up and familiarize themselves with design principles, it'll never happen. It's the same way anyone can share their opinion of a movie, you either like it or you don't and everyone will have their own reasons for why. You don't necessarily need to understand the intricacies of what the director was trying to do to judge the final product.