"The Farm" Riverton, MI

[DirtyMittenDG]

Not trying to be a hater here, but is "The Farm" really on the same level as Flip City, Idlewild, Beaver Ranch, ect.?

Now theres two "5 disc" reviews? It's 9 holes!!

The course description dosn't sound to special either. Are there even tee signs or tee pads? any maps? Signature holes?

It sounds like you just go there and get so drunk you start to think its a 5 disc course (best of the best?).

[humchris85]

That was what I was wondering. Usualy a 5 star review would need a course to be epic. With holes you can't find anywhere else in the world. From the sounds of it, it sounded like a prety typical private course, maby a little boring from the discription.

[harr0140]

From what I understand of it . . . it is simply about the game . . . it even says in one of the reviews is this a five disc course . . . but is it about the experience of the game. I would go expecting it to be awesome, but I bet if you played witht he guys that built it and play it you would enjoy yourself! Just my opinion and only time will tell what people who play it really think of it . . . wait for a few more reviews before deciding if it is worth trying to get invited there!

[tomjulio]

oh well. until you are invited to play you will have no idea. and with the pessimism and negativity that some show you probably won't be able too. It's almost like Wendy trying to fly in Peter Pan...just believe.

200+ disc golfers camping (including many top ranked pros) ON the course and in the apple orchards for three days over labor day should give a hint to it's magic. It is the perfect compliment to the nirvana that is Flip to the south too...it is about the people, the spirit, the sport. least you not forgot why you started playing disc golf?

you can fly Wendy, you can fly.

[harr0140]

I have always heard being told to not do something always makes you want to do it more. I want to go there sometime, I just hope I am able to mee tthe guys who could host me there!

[tomjulio]

harr...from the passion and addiction you have for our sport, I do believe you will get it. :)

[DirtyMittenDG]

200+ disc golfers camping (including many top ranked pros) ON the course and in the apple orchards for three days over labor day should give a hint to it's magic. It is the perfect compliment to the nirvana that is Flip to the south too...it is about the people, the spirit, the sport.

It Sounds like a great place to camp and meet some cool people. Any thing that leads you to pro's and course designers is a big plus! I'm just wondering if thats enough to call a 9 hole course, "the best of the best"? I might seem pessimistic to you, but I think you should rate courses for more factors than just your personal experiance at the course. Is the layout even anything close to a 5 disc layout?

I'm not trying to change your mind because I know I won't, i'm just making conversation. ;)

[Greg Layton]

It Sounds like a great place to camp and meet some cool people. Any thing that leads you to pro's and course designers is a big plus! I'm just wondering if thats enough to call a 9 hole course, "the best of the best"? I might seem pessimistic to you, but I think you should rate courses for more factors than just your personal experiance at the course. Is the layout even anything close to a 5 disc layout?

I think I'm with you on this one, Valk. You can have a great time with your buddies on any course but that doesn't necessarily mean the course is worth 5 stars because of it. Seems a little silly to me and it also seems to reinforce the negative stereotypes that some folks have against the "flippies."

Guess this means I won't get an invitation from the cool kids... oh well.

[tomjulio]

1...I'm getting the feeling that some over think the simplicity of this sport a bit too much.
2...try not to tell the children that the tooth fairy ain't real.
3...what is truly a review? what are truly the requirements? who says that course design is the reason that a course is the best of the best? Isn't a review based on a zillion factors and it's the reviewer who gets to choose? Otherwise it would just be a bland and boring template to follow.
4..."reinforce" negativity against flippies? I don't think "flippies even care. I sure don't.
5...if you are worried about the cool kids in this sport, well then you have already missed the spirit of this sport. the passion.

...sometimes there isn't a little man behind the big magical curtain.

[harr0140]

You guys have kept me entertained while I nursed my allergin filled head! I can't wait to see where else this might go! I just cant make up my mind as to who is the cool kid.

[tomjulio]

...in disc golf no one is the cool kid, and that's why we throw round plastic objects at chains bolted to the ground out in the woods. it's those that think there are cool kids who ain't the cool kids. :)

[Greg Layton]

For what it's worth, none of this is meant as any disrespect. I'm one of the only people that gets in silly internet pissing matches with you around here that's actually played with you and I know you're one of the good guys out there, and a talented player to boot. Who knows what a few more years and experiences may do for me, but for now I just don't feel like I'm playing the same sport as you... and I'm ok with that. All I can do is keep having my idea of fun while playing new courses and meeting great people and see where life takes me.
--

I'm glad my rambling can be of assistance to you, Mike. Hope you get back to feeling 100% soon. How many more new courses do you think you can get in before the end of the year? My goal is to finish the year at 110 before winter sets in. Doesn't look like I'll make it to Wisconsin to bag my 20th state until next year, though. Hope to be able to get in a round with you sometime in the future.

[harr0140]

I am shooting for 125 course hopefully I do have three months left but it is also my busiest time of yer for landscping work . . . however my golf tourneys slow down so I can play more disc golf but the other issue is the next closest course I havent played is at least 50 miles away. I alread have a couple weekend trips planned out for 5-7 courses again I just dont know which weekends I am going to be able to do them. In July my goal was 100 but I went on like 4 day trips and played like 25 courses in three sunday in August!

Tom is a good guy (I have played quite a few round with him too at league) and I do appreciate his input and opinions of this sport and "The Farm" It seems like I may have been hooked harder than many other people although it is popular thing to do get hooked on this game immediately. I also know the other reviewer of "The Farm" who is a good friend of Tom's and he also plays in league with us.

Gsklein adds this nugget "The people you can sit down and have a drink with and talk DG till the sun comes up." That means it is less about the course and more about the people who host you there. The course may not be 5 discs, but the experience of playing with these guys sounds like it is awesome.

Tomjulio adds "Is this "truly" a five star course, no. Is it what the sport is about?" Even he admits it isn't baout the course, it is about the experience and the people and just playing the game even if you throw from a barn, around a corn crib, through a pig coral. Its about being hooked and being able to appreciate the things around you . . . its about meeting genuine people who also suffer from the same afflication (an addiction to the game) . . . am I addicted well lets see It is mid September and I started on January 1st 2009, never touched a disc before never threw frisbee before (well never regularly) since I have played 103 courses in 7 states and I have averaged nearly 18 holes per day since January. I hope to hit 125 courses or more by the end of my first year. I have probably put on 2000 miles on all of my little disc golf trips usually ocurring on Sunday mornings. I have woekn up at 4:30 or 5:00 to get to that first course at dawn . . . even if I went out the night before. I have played most of these rounds alone although I have met some cool people along the way and also a few guys off of this site. I look forward to continuing my personal addiction by playing more and more courses, getting to as many of the top 10 courses while they are top 10 courses. Do I think "The Farm" will make the top 10 . . . possibly but probably not because there are bound to be people going to the course thinking it is incredible and just not being able to take in the experience as well as the nuts and bolts of the course. I think tomjulio and gsklein lay it out there in their reviews so hopefully only the diehard addicts go to play this course, my guess is the 2 disc d-bag is not going to get an invite.

I look forward to whenever I can make it to Western Michigan, it sounds awesome, I spent a lot of time in many of these cities as a kid and there certainly was a different feel in Western Michigan than there is in Eastern WI. Its 90 miles across a lake but it is a different kind of people and a different kind of place.

I just thought I should add the the conversation, I have enjoyed seeing it go back and forth. I think everyone should keep an open mind until they have actually played the course if they get the opportunity and have the desire . . . just go into it with that open mind and realize it is about the experience and the people and less about the course.

[tomjulio]

see Wendy, you CAN fly!!!!!

(I always knew you could)

[DirtyMittenDG]

It's gonna be a shame in a few years when i've bagged every course in Michigan except for one, and the reason being because I never got an invitation. :(:cool:

Atleast I won't be missing out on anything special. :eek::rolleyes:

[harr0140]

I guarantee there are courses you do not know about . . . I have already found some on the PDGA directory not listed here . . . and vice versa . . . and I know there are courses not listed on here that do exist. You battle to have played every course in MI will forever be unfinished I regret to inform you because there are always courses being built and ones that remain out of public eye. I printed off the map of WI with all the courses posted at the time (on this site) and I have already had to add about 5 courses that didn't show up when I did the map in April. I keep highlighting them when I play them so I can see pretty pink across the entire state of WI, but I am afradi it will never be complete especially if one goes in up north (7 hours away from me in Milwaukee. If you lived in a small state it would be possible but not in MI, WI, TX, etc. because if a new one pops up we might have to drive too far to get to it . . . and I am not headed 7 hours away for one new course that pops up, even though I am an addict.

[DirtyMittenDG]

I know the owner of discraft has a private course around my way (my buddy played it), its not listed though and it shouldn't be! Peoples private little backyard courses that you need permision to play shouldn't even count, yeah Flip City is a private backyard course but you can still show up pretty much whenever you want without calling, so thats kind of different. I do hope to play every "Public" course in Michigan though.

[humchris85]

I don't mean to sound like an @$$ hole, but just becuse its a fun course to go have some beers and party with friends on thier private land doesn't make it the best of the best. A 5 disc rating means that it is absolutly perfect in every way, there is nothing that could be improved uppon. There are lot's of unlisted courses around here, many private like this one that you need to have permission to go play. They are all fun courses and I enjoy myself on some of them more than realy well designed courses that are overpopulated, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to give them a 5 disc rating. I've played 51 diffrent courses, mostly in CA, and have still yet to give out one 5 star rating. Personaly I think a course like this probably shouldn't be listed, considering that you need an invite to even go out there. JMHO.

[DirtyMittenDG]

Personaly I think a course like this probably shouldn't be listed, considering that you need an invite to even go out there. JMHO.

I agree!! Not just the Farm either, in my opinion any course you need permision to play shouldn't be listed on a public online course directory.

[harr0140]

I think all courses should be on here . . . why shouldnt they be listed? Dont you want to know there are other courses out there. Are private courses to you like the high end country clubs that exclude certain people? I want to know where courses are in hopes of one day playing them.

Please keep in mind 5 of 5 means different things to different people obviously not everyone will understand that, and in the end if other disc golfers play this course and do not see the value in it that others see the overall rating will be lower. It is interesting as I have seen some courses range from a 1/2 disc rating to a 4 disc rating by different people. That means not everyone liked it and the average will reflect it.

[DirtyMittenDG]

....why shouldnt they be listed? Dont you want to know there are other courses out there.
Whats the difference if you cant play them? If you know the people who own the private course you wouldn't need to look it up on here, and the people who do look it up arn't gonna be able to play it.

Are private courses to you like the high end country clubs that exclude certain people?

No they're more like small golf courses in peoples back yards that you can't play because its their property. LOL;)

[humchris85]

No they're more like small golf courses in peoples back yards that you can't play because its their property. LOL;)

That's what I was thinking. I have friends with private courses, 1 of them has his course listed even though you have to make an apointment with him to play it, but he wants people to play his course, some people don't.

[harr0140]

noone has a "small golf course" in their backyard maybe a practice green they hit shots to but that does not make a golf hole . . . whereas if you have woods and a few hundred feet you could have a kickass disc golf hole (still maybe not a course but it could be a great hole).

I would list a private course for sure if I had one. . . I just want people to know that they should either clear it with me or make a contribution either way.

[humchris85]

I would list a private course for sure if I had one. . . I just want people to know that they should either clear it with me or make a contribution either way.

The problem with that, is that people arn't allways good about doing either of those. There was a private course that got listed on here, that shouldn't have been (I won't point fingers). The course started getting way more people on it than it used to have, with maby about half of them dontaing to the box, and way less checking before they came out. The course was eventualy taken off of this site at the request of the owner and the local disc golf club.

And I have met people with ball golf courses in their backyards. :p