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Hyland is my 2nd favorite Massachusetts course after Maple Hill, but I wouldn't adjust your schedule to get there when the brewery is open. With all the elite breweries in New England, I'm not sure if Pioneer would make a top-50 list.
If this is a beer trip, I assume you've got the Vermont trifecta of Lawson's/Alchemist/Hill Farmstead on your radar? Lawson's Double Sunshine is to beer as Maple Hill is to disc golf.
Just met and played w/discjnky at our little par 3 course...although I wish he had a shot to play nearby Nocky it was still fun to play with him and his girl. I showed him how to griplock and he showed us how to win and take our money. Was a gorgeous morning and I am imagining Tyler will be perfect conditions as well.
I had a great time playing with Optidisc at Sellersville. The course was really fun, and playing it with the designer (Opti) and his friends was even better.
Tyler was great. I really wish the pins were in the long positions (or even better -- and I rarely think this is a good idea -- having permanent long and short pins). I feel as though I missed out on some cool holes because most of them were in the shorts. I was certainly on my game at Tyler, shooting -11 on the 27 with a few bogeys and several missed putts (several missed drives too).
I will post a full list of everything that went down as soon as I have time to do it. Thanks for all your suggestions everyone!
DSCJNKY
PS. Disc Fiend - sorry I missed you (unless that was you that I randomly played with)
No didn't play with me, but I was out there yesterday. The reason why a lot of the holes are in the short pins is because the Ace Race is this Saturday so they have it set up for that.
I'm going to post several posts over the next few days, breaking everything down from the roadtrip: from the courses, to the cost for hotels, to the breweries, and other sights to see.
Here's the Courses:
B) Iron Hill, in Newark, DE. This might be my favorite course of the entire trip! Extremely demanding, HUGE, fairly wooded, placement golf, with extreme punishment for bad shots. I played the longs while my girlfriend played the shorts and we never missed a beat.
C) Mercer County Park in Princeton Junction, NJ. This might be my least favorite course of the trip. terrible design, with seemingly no knowledge of disc flight incorporated into it. It is right off the exit, and directly over the border if you're just looking to bag the state and are nearby. There was a phenomenal Thai restaurant down the street!!!
Day 2:
D) New York City and a little freestyle frisbee action with the God of Freestyle Frisbee Joey Hudoklin, Rob Fried and some other bad ass jammers from NY:
Day 3:
E) Cranburry Park in Norwalk, CT. I remember enjoying this course. The holes were solid, with a few exceptionally great ones. There was a big castle of a house on Hole 18 that made the round's conclusion feel more special. Amazing Vietnamese food nearby in a sketchy neighborhood.
F) Ninigret Park in Charlestown, RI. Was way better than the reviews and disc score made it seem. I was going to bag this course regardless (as it is the only course in RI), but it was bordering on special for me. I thought the course was tough, but fair for what they wanted you to do -- execute shots.
Day 4:
We hung out in Newport RI all day. No golf.
Day 5:
G) Maple Hill... Was all that I hoped it would be. I played the longs and shot +3 with several OB's and missed putts. I certainly can't complain about that! I think it definitely ranks within my top 10-ish courses I have ever played. The maintenance was phenomenal, navigation a breeze (for all they had out there), and was an overall great disc golf experience. And, I got to be the first person to play the NEW hole 15, as the proprietor Dave was cutting the fairway as I arrived on the tee-box and had barely opened up a gap wide enough for a disc to fly through -- And I LACED it!
Pyramids. I had Maple Hill on my mind and was really just bagging the course. I didn't much care one way or the other about the course as it was pouring down rain and I just wanted to check it off the list. I didn't even go in the pro-shop beyond the front desk (it looked amazing though).
Day 6:
H) Sabattus. Eagle and Hawk. Y'all are going to have to wait for my review... I got some things to say!
Day 7:
I) Bretton Woods High Alpine DGC in Bretton Woods, NH. This property has so much potential it's not funny. But they're catering to kids and families staying at the resort and therefore the course sucks. The only thing positive about the course for me was that it was in New Hampshire (and that gave me another state), that it was directly on the highway on my way to Vermont, and that the scenery along that highway was amazing. Another positive is that the baskets and tees are not permanently located, and so if someone convinced them, there might be able to be an amazing course there in the future.
J) Base Camp Outfitters in Killington VT. Was super cool. I enjoyed my time there. I shot a 49 with 6 missed putts and 2 bogeys (and was told at the desk that the course record was 44)... so it was there for me. The course had several swampy areas that could be troublesome for bad shots and produce hella mosquitoes in the summer.
Day 8:
K) Joralemon in Coeymans, NY. Super fun course on a unique piece of property with crazy outcroppings that made for some extremely great pin positions. The middle 9 was wonky, with crazy tight unrealistic fairways. Spray and Pray type stuff. Definitely detracted from the course for me a little, but the last 9 were back on track and fun enough.
L) Brakewell Steel / Warwick in Warwick, NY. Amazing complex. The blue course was phenomenally challenging and fun. There were some extremely long walks that seemed somewhat unforgiveable too. But the course was phenomenal. I gotta find my score card, but I think I shot even par.
Brakewell Steel / Warwick - Wolfe Woods. I was fairly wore-out when I played this course and still had a blast. Lots of water shots and shorter holes to give your arm a rest. I only brought my putter and roc and had fun. If this complex was a young players home course, they would be set.
Day 9:
M) Sellersville in Sellersville, PA. I got to play with optidiscic and his crew of locals during their weekly at 10:00 am. I four putted on the first hole and made an ass of myself, before settling down and playing some decent golf. I enjoyed the hell out of the course with all the OB.
N) Tyler State Park in Newtown, PA. I was really looking forward to this course as it is ranked in the Top 10. Unfortunately for me, the pins were in the shorter positions and I did not get to experience the--what I would consider to be the--5 disc worthy layout. I rarely say this about courses because I think it can lead to clutter and ugliness on the course, but Tyler needed permanent longs and permanent short pins. OR it needs the pins in the longs permanently, with multiple tee-pads so players can determine their level. Too many times the hole would be 260' in the "A" position rather than 685' in the "C" position with a dogleg at 300. I saw shots I wanted to throw, but didn't have the option to. Otherwise, it was a phenomenal course. I shot -11 on the 27 with 4 missed putts and 2 bogeys... I wanted to go to war with a championship level course, not destroy it.
Just some thoughts about the courses I played. For what they're worth.
I'll start writing reviews as soon as I catch up on my work work.
DSCJNKY
I cant believe you played Mercer that is a pretty bad course. I rarely play it and I could walk there from my house. It wasn't designed by a disc golfer and it obviously shows in the hole designs. When it was first put in I tried to like it, because of the proximity of it to me, but I just couldn't. You should of hit me up I would have taken you to a private, un-listed course right by there and showed you some good Jersey disc golf.
Hey FYI I wasn't gonna mention the 4 putt and you werent gonna mention my 7 over....good stuff I'm glad my directions out of town were helpful...did you by chance eat or drink anywhere good on saturday?
This past Sunday I played both Hyland and Maple Hill, look for my reviews within a week or so. Hyland was very worthy, I didn't expect such a workout playing the course. A few holes reminded me of Nockamixon with the rocks and up and down terrain. In 2012 I have now played Idlewild (3 years in a row), Flip (5 years in a row) and now Maple Hill (1st time since 2006) and think Maple Hill is my favorite course overtaking Flip which just sounds crazy!
I usually tie in some brewery visits to my travels. Here's a list of the breweries I visited and my brief review of them:
Newport Storm (RI): The brewery tasting room was in the warehouse where you can watch them make beer. However, the beer was awful. They only had 4 beers to taste and NONE of them were good.
Long Trail (VT): Probably the most famous brewery I visited, and it showed by the number of people that were there. The place was packed at noon on a Thursday. The beers were OK, not my favorites... but way better than Newport Storm! The food was pub food, I'd recommend the burger. They had a self-guided brewery tour which was cool... AND the brewery is only 10 miles away from Base Camp Outfitters DGC.
Shipyard (ME): I got to this brewery at 9:00 am... so I didn't drink. I just checked out the location and ordered a beer off the tap from a restaurant down the street for lunch. The brewery looked awesome though - a somewhat run-down looking warehouse in the downtown / port area of Portland Maine. IPA is solid.
Heartland (NY): I visited the Heartland Brewery in Times Square in NYC. It was a fancier restaurant that had several beers on tap. I went for the Hefeweisen - it was extremely unfiltered... so cloudy you could not see through the glass! That is the way Hefe's should be. Calamari was decent.
Portsmouth (NH): Probably the best brewery I visited. Their IPA was fantastic. Very floral and "west-coast" like. We ate the calamari, and it was OK. But the beer was great! In a nice touristy section of downtown Portsmouth too.
Brown's (NY): great restaurant brewery in Albany NY. The food was great! The beer was OK. I had an IPA. It wasn't as good as Portsmouth's IPA, but it wasn't bad either.
I haven't kept as good of track of my "Breweries Visited" numbers as my Disc Golf numbers... but I would imagine this puts me somewhere in the 80 breweries in 15 states range. Anytime you can play a few new courses and cap the night off with a visit to the local brewery... it's a good day!
DSCJNKY
