2023 The Open at Austin presented by Lone Star Disc

[@CD-]

The Open at Austin is the fourth stop on the 2023 Disc Golf Pro Tour. It takes place in Austin, TX, March 17th-19th. The tournament is a new Elite Event in 2023 and will take place at The Open Course at Harvey Penick.

Temporary course at a Golf course. Caddy book w/ more hole detail is currently a dead link off https://www.dgpt.com/event/the-open-at-austin-2023/ but the spectator map is up. https://theopendgc.com/ has last year's Open at Belton hole diagrams still.

https://udisclive.com/live/austin2023
https://udisc.com/courses/harvey-penick-golf-course-5dNW

MPO layout - 8727ft
FPO layout - 7984ft

 

[@CD-]

Connor O'Reilly, Nate Perkins, James Conrad testing out and tweaking the layout over the winter.

Weather in Austin will be 30-50 degrees F with relatively low winds Sat/Sun (5-10mph). Fri has 15-20mph in the morning and dropping off in the afternoon. FPO will have the worst conditions in the AM and the feature card MPO teeing off mid afternoon Fri will benefit from lesser wind.

 

[biscoe]

After watching the Brodie and Ezra practice round on the front 9 it seems like there are a few par 3's that are going to wind up with very few if any birdies (1,5,9) unless conditions are near perfect.

 

[Cgkdisc]

After watching the Brodie and Ezra practice round on the front 9 it seems like there are a few par 3's that are going to wind up with very few if any birdies (1,5,9) unless conditions are near perfect.

They sound like weak par 4s with lots of birdie 3 potential?

 

[biscoe]

They sound like weak par 4s with lots of birdie 3 potential?

great white+ level par 4's imo.

 

[DannyS]

On the flip side, I was surprised to see that there are 6 par 3's less than 355 feet.

 

[DanJon]

That course looks incredibly boring and hastily thrown together.

 

[Steve West]

They sound like weak par 4s with lots of birdie 3 potential?

Don't you think "unbirdie-able par 3s" would sound worse; to spur a redesign?

 

[biscoe]

DGPT has a tendency to want to tweak things when they arrive. I wonder if any of that went on last week.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Don't you think "unbirdie-able par 3s" would sound worse; to spur a redesign?

Depends on who cares about the design and their priorities. If a par 3 hole is shown to be birdieable less than 5%, in theory the easiest way to increase the birdies is to reduce its length. I believe this is psychologically harder for the course owner to accept than if the hole were originally called a par 4 that turns out to be "too soft" and needs to be longer/tougher. This is likely easier to sell as a way to fix it, Texas style.

 

[Steve West]

Notice anything unusual?

 

[biscoe]

Notice anything unusual?

I assume you are talking about the FPO hole being a par 4 and longer than the par 3 MPO hole.

 

[seedlings]

I've watched a couple of practice rounds. I kinda like the pros not exactly knowing how/what to throw off of several of the tees. In other words, the layout makes them think way more than a stock power hyzer. I especially liked the Clemons/McMahon round where neither of them lefty righty FH or BH knew what to throw off the tee. Between the two of them, they have every shot in their pocket.

I do hope there are some sort of taller OB markers once play starts, because the OB lines are not intuitive.

 

[BuiltTooLong]

The approach to the green for the FPO hole 1 looks like it could ruin several ladies' rounds right off the bat.

 

[Monocacy]

Notice anything unusual?

I assume you are talking about the FPO hole being a par 4 and longer than the par 3 MPO hole.

If this is unusual, it shouldn't be. I often find that playing a longer tee / basket suits my noodle arm better when the regular hole is a "tweener" distance for me.

 

[_MTL_]

If this is unusual, it shouldn't be. I often find that playing a longer tee / basket suits my noodle arm better when the regular hole is a "tweener" distance for me.

It's becoming more common.

The Worlds at the Emporia Country Club (hole 4) had it.

There were several instances of it at the DGPT championship.

It's the best solution to soft par 4s with men and women playing the same course.

 

[denny ritner]

They sound like weak par 4s with lots of birdie 3 potential?

Po-tate-o, po-tot-o

 

[seedlings]

Po-tate-o, po-tot-o

far threes



(wait for it)

 

[Shallows]

Course design is "an absolute disaster" according to the Jomez practice round guys.

 

[Ryan P.]

Course design is "an absolute disaster" according to the Jomez practice round guys.

That's funny, because Brodie and Ezra were singing its praises by the end of their practice round.