Non-Natural Courses

[gregwil2]

There was a new course installed in the St Louis area by Dave McCormack that recently opened. Since this park wanted to make use a lot of the wide open spaces it had to make there own non-natural OBs and obstacles.

For some examples see http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=5936

Hole 11 for some man made ball golf like bunkers and small hill/raise toward the basket. Then Hole 12 has the same type of protective bunker in front of the basket. Hole 13 (not really able to see in pictures) is currently using stick markers for OB lines to create a fairway that must be followed. In the spring the grass will be mowed higher to more define the lines. Then hole 17 has both the man made fairways and bunkers with a protective man made hill before. And finally hole 18 creates a man made island style hole similar with wood stakes.
The bunkers are all played as OB, almost like small water hazards. Then the made fairways were played as re-throws with stroke if missing the red stakes (left side) and OB but take the distance and pull back in-bounds with stroke for the green stakes (right side).

It seemed to have a polarizing affect on people. Some loved the idea of making the open areas more challenging by adding the man made obstacles. Others didn't like the gimmick or ball golf like aspect of it. Since this is less than a couple weeks old, it may grow on people. Didn't know if others had similar courses or what they think of the course design.

[Subwire]

I've always thought about a indoor course with a driving rage either attached to the outside or inside.

[notroman]

I saw that course pop up on DGCR and I'm actually happy to see this working its way into designs. I always wanted golf-style bunkers somewhere on the fairways of wide open holes. It takes a boring hole and adds some danger to it making you think twice about your shot selection. I always enjoy the course more if the holes require me to think about my shot before throwing.

[joshmo65]

I don't really care for artificial OB, but I love to see bunkers where a bunch of rocks are placed in a large circle in the fairway to prohibit a run-up and force a shorter or less accurate shot, similar to bolf.

[bcr123psu]

I always wanted to convert an old steel building into a course. Well, not always but for at least the past three years.

[zenbot]

There was a thread about making an indoor course.

[zenbot]

Rabbit Flats has become a dumping ground for all the tree waste in the city. The city comes and dumps giant piles of mulch. It actually works out pretty well because the course is constantly changing.



The course also has a ring of rocks that serves as an island for the pin placements inside the ring and a lake for the pin placements outside.

[scarpfish]

My home course has always had a handful of sandy bunkers, similar to ball golf bunkers, (albeit without ball golf course maintenance). We also have non sandy areas that are "designated bunkers". If you're disc lands in one of these, you are required to throwyour next shot with your thumb on the bottom (this is to simulate chipping in ball golf).

[harr0140]

I knew I should have gone back to play that course when i drove past it! Darn . . . another missed opportunity. SO many courses to be played so little time.

[Sadjo]

Speaking of artificial buncers, the newest course I helped get into the ground now has a burning trash pile on the fairway for #3. The city, in all their glory, decided to dump a bunch of trash and burn it. When i asked what the ??? was going on, they said it was easier than transporting everything to the county dump.

I'll post pictures soon.