Enough with the alternate pins!!

[waynewf]

In ball golf, the pins can be moved around on the green to give a hole a slightly different finish.
Disc golf should be the same. If your alternate pins are more than 20 or 30 feet apart, they suck.
Alternate pins that can change the distance on a hole by more than 50 feet are just stupid, and more than 100 are absolutely asinine.
How about make 18 good holes before figuring out dozens of alternate ways to play.
Also, if you have more than one alternate pin, then that hole sucks and needs to be completely redesigned.
Sorry, but I wasted a day off today playing a ****ty course and this was just one of its many problems.

 

[ru4por]

I can't agree. I really like the idea of alternate pins. If they give the hole, and the course, a whole different look, even better. The advantage to the locals is a couple completely different courses. Setting them a few feet apart doesn't make much sense, to me.

Now, the downside is to the traveling player that cannot determine which position the pin, is in. Forcing you to walk down each fairway to see. There are some great tee sign solutions to this. The best, I think I have seen is a letter designation for each location, then some kind of nut and bolt set into a legend on the sign.

Sorry you wasted a day, playing disc golf. Of course, I am a bit confused by that concept, as well. :\

 

[wolfhaley]

Alternate pins less than 30 ft apart suck imo. What's the point?

I agree with ru4por about the signs. This makes holes with multiple pins much more enjoyable, not having to guess or walk the fairway by having something to show what pin is in play on the sign. Sadly, the majority I've played don't have this.

But it's still disc golf. Always better than work.

 

[Countchunkula]

I remember that avatar. Welcome back!

Tend to agree with the other guys. Alt pins can really add to a course when done right. Signage is key and as mentioned some sort of current pin location indicator is needed.

I do think that clearing wooded area for multiple pin locations can reduce the challenge of each individual placement. Bad shots that manage to find one of the alternate "greens" can have significantly better lies and approaches than they deserve.

Regarding having the alt pins within 20 or 30 feet, I think you would need significant elevation change or a defined gap to make putting in another collar worthwhile. If it's a flat, open green, what's the difference which end the pin is on? One good scenario would have a pin on top of and at the bottom of a big boulder. The other type of hole that comes to mind is a tight, wooded, gauntlet style hole. You could have pin locations to the left and right of the alley. I'd probably want to have them a bit farther apart though.

 

[ejvogie]

Now, the downside is to the traveling player that cannot determine which position the pin, is in. Forcing you to walk down each fairway to see. There are some great tee sign solutions to this. The best, I think I have seen is a letter designation for each location, then some kind of nut and bolt set into a legend on the sign.

The courses I played in Cincy used a drywall screw. Much quicker to change out than a nut and bolt, and just as easy to see.

 

[Jugular]

The best argument I've seen for alternate pins, and one that requires gaps of at least 30 ft, is to rest the land around the basket. By changing the pin compaction can be reduced and gives the trees some chance of surviving the root trampling they get.

I agree that really large differences in pin location changes the hole so much that you figure they'd be better off making a new hole out of it.

Where possible I think it's nice to create a symmetrical pin placement so you can switch pins to be more righty or lefty friendly.

 

[wolfhaley]

I just don't see how having multiple pin positions is ever a negative. Everything I play has maybe 2, on some holes. Better than only one no matter how you slice it. Move to WY and play bison as moving mandos and lets talk.

 

[thrembo]

 

[thrembo]

This might be the record for most pin placements on a hole.

 

[Jugular]

This might be the record for most pin placements on a hole.

Are they alternates or permanent placements?

 

[DavidSauls]

The O.P. lost me with the first 3 words.

 

[thrembo]

Are they alternates or permanent placements?

Alternates. Almost all the holes there have at least 4 placements.

 

[aclay]

While I disagree with the OP that multiple pin positions are bad, I do think multiple tee pads are WAY better than multiple pin positions. If the basket doesn't move, I always know where it is and can choose the tee pad I want to play. My group usually plays two rounds in a day and we have been known to play short tee pads one round and long tee pads the next. We basically get to play two courses in one day at one location. That's not possible with alternate pin positions.

 

[Jay Dub]

Alternate tees are bad when all they do is add distance. #16 at Osage is an example of this. The first 2, 3 or 4 throws are in an open, flat field then you start playing the hole. The longest tee to longest pin there is I think 1600ft.

Besides that as long as the tee signs give out all the info I like alt pins/tees.

 

[mojorooks]

I just don't see how having multiple pin positions is ever a negative. Everything I play has maybe 2, on some holes. Better than only one no matter how you slice it. Move to WY and play bison as moving mandos and lets talk.

I guess maybe lack of signage could cause problems. If I can't find the pin I'm going for I guess I could get frustrated. Mind you, spending a day looking for pins is still better than being at work...

 

[Timber]

Alternate cup positions on a ball golf green allows the surrounding grass to recover from foot traffic and also avoids creation of a four foot diameter low spot where everyone steps to retrieve their ball from the cup.

Alternate basket placements on a disc golf course reduces prolonged soil compaction and allows the unused pin placement area some time to recover. This is even more important on wooded courses where foot traffic first exposes then kills tree root systems. Further separation, if possible, is required when you consider that tree root systems are as large or larger than their canopy.

On older courses where baskets never move I call the surrounding area the "brown" rather than the "green" because there is nothing left but dirt, mud or exposed gravel, etc. around the basket.

 

[mojorooks]

This might be the record for most pin placements on a hole.

I guess I get this being frustrating. If I'm at the teepad, how can I tell which pin I'm throwing to? Do I have to walk out and figure out which basket every hole? I like to know where the pin is before I tee off (so I can shank it off into the woods and miss it completely)

 

[Cgkdisc]

This might be the record for most pin placements on a hole.

Just add two more holes, each with six pin placements, then install baskets in six pin placements on all three holes to have a small footprint for an "18-hole" course.

 

[HyooMac]

This might be the record for most pin placements on a hole.

I'll see your River City, and raise you a Morley #13....

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I disagree with most of the OP

In ball golf, the pins can be moved around on the green to give a hole a slightly different finish.

The difference is that ball golf putts out on the surface of the green, where small differences in location can make a HUGE difference in how a putt rolls to the hole. Reading a golf green can be exceedingly complex in terms of gravity's effect on the shot, as well as the grain/cut of the grass.

Other than the possibility of a bad rollaway, DG doesn't have anything like that. Relatively minor differences in pin placement simply won't have the same impact in disc golf that it can in golf, because what the green does between your lie and the pin has zero impact on how your disc gets to the basket.

How about make 18 good holes before figuring out dozens of alternate ways to play.

You make a good point here. A good course doesn't need alt tees and pins if it's designed well. Alternate layouts can enhance a good design, but they can't necessarily make a bad course good.

A meh course with additional layouts, is just enhanced meh. Better meh is still meh.