Found a course not listed on DGCR

[Countchunkula]

In my opinion, people shouldn't list courses here unless they have personally played them - or at least will be personally playing them within the next couple of days. That basically prevents the issue with duplicate courses getting listed, among other reasons. But that's just my $0.02 and I know this debate has happened before on other threads.

To address the OP, adding a course is easy to do.
1. Search the course map, checking the options to show temporary courses and practice areas as well as the permanent and seasonal ones (for bonus points, also use the non-map search to find any matching Extinct ones - this actually happened to me once).
2. If nothing pops up, the course does not exist on here. Click "Add a Course" (under the Courses tab) to add it.
3. Fill out all the info.

Like sisyphus said, we should also make sure that we have the owner's permission to add it if the course is private. I don't like seeing courses that are never open to the general public (i.e. a random person cannot even call and set up a tee time) being listed here, or UDisc for that matter.

There's a 3 hole course(?) very near me that I'll never be able to play. It's at Argonne National Laboratory behind a high fence with armed guards at the gates. The lab property is surrounded by a forest preserve that my family has been visiting since I was a kid. So frustrating to know that there's a (probably lousy) course right there that I'll never play.

I don't know that we shouldn't list them here, because some people can gain access and play. It's just a tiny slice of the population, but if I could play it, I'd definitely want to check it off the list here. Imagine others would too.

By far the best premium perk on dgcr is the hide already played filter. Seeing that **** Argonne course pop up right down the road when I've cleared the rest of the Chicago area is a thorn in my side. I know it's silly, but I'm trying to play 'em all, **** it!

Maybe hide them unless you check a box or something?

 

[thrembo]

Waterfall Glen! Used to hang out there myself in my younger days. Did you ever go hemp harvesting? It was a right of passage when I was a high schooler (BHS) around there. Also I have a crazy Argonne story that I can't publish here lol

 

[DFrah]

There's a 3 hole course(?) very near me that I'll never be able to play. It's at Argonne National Laboratory behind a high fence with armed guards at the gates. The lab property is surrounded by a forest preserve that my family has been visiting since I was a kid. So frustrating to know that there's a (probably lousy) course right there that I'll never play.

I don't know that we shouldn't list them here, because some people can gain access and play. It's just a tiny slice of the population, but if I could play it, I'd definitely want to check it off the list here. Imagine others would too.

By far the best premium perk on dgcr is the hide already played filter. Seeing that **** Argonne course pop up right down the road when I've cleared the rest of the Chicago area is a thorn in my side. I know it's silly, but I'm trying to play 'em all, **** it!

Maybe hide them unless you check a box or something?

There are no easy answers to these questions, for sure.

I guess I need to walk back the part of my earlier statement that you bolded a little bit.

If the person who added that Argonne course is someone who also played the course before/soon after adding it (which appears to be the case here), then I'm fine with it existing in the directory.

But I agree that it should not show up in the default view. There should be an "Unavailable to the Public" check box or something like that. And courses with that characteristic should be hidden from the listing and search results by default - the way that extinct courses are. Or at LEAST the way that temporary courses and practice areas are.

I think that having that course show up in the default search results and maps does more harm than good. I believe that it increases the likelihood of someone trying to trespass to play it. Whether it's a completion-ist like you or I, or just someone who didn't read the course description/notice that it's strictly a private course.

 

[wolfhaley]

By far the best premium perk on dgcr is the hide already played filter. Seeing that **** Argonne course pop up right down the road when I've cleared the rest of the Chicago area is a thorn in my side. I know it's silly, but I'm trying to play 'em all, **** it!

Lulz!!!

I'm well aware of Argonne too. Lonely blue basket on my map.

 

[Countchunkula]

Waterfall Glen! Used to hang out there myself in my younger days. Did you ever go hemp harvesting? It was a right of passage when I was a high schooler (BHS) around there. Also I have a crazy Argonne story that I can't publish here lol

Never saw that growing there, but maybe I was looking in the wrong spots.

The waterfall is actually artificial. It was called rocky glen way back when. After a tornado came through, CCC (or some similar group) cleaned the place up and stacked the stones to form the waterfall.

 

[Mike C]

This discussion is reminding me about a lake side 18 hole course I haven't been able to play.

Camp Thunderbird, a YMCA facility in Lake Wylie, SC, next to Charlotte NC.

It was an 18 hole course with some pins 10' from the water. Looked like it'd be real scenic.

I paddled up to it one time when I took my kayak out to a nearby boat launch. Brought an Ion and a Crave. Had someone drive up on a golf cart and, in a friendly way, boot me before I could tee off.

So I tried visiting the office and asking for permission. No one there was qualified to give me an answer. Offered to come whenever I'd interfere least with camp activities, offered to pay, etc.

Finally got the email address of the guy who designed it and maintains it. He said a few holes were removed due to construction and the course will be redesigned, likely in the fall of this year.

Offered to help with the construction and the design in exchange for being able to film a single round. Fingers crossed.

 

[thrembo]

Never saw that growing there, but maybe I was looking in the wrong spots.

The waterfall is actually artificial. It was called rocky glen way back when. After a tornado came through, CCC (or some similar group) cleaned the place up and stacked the stones to form the waterfall.

To get to the "hemp" fields you had to park on the outskirts of Lemont and hike into the woods, cross the tracks and cross an old canal or something on a sketchy fallen tree. We hung out on Bluff RD too among other places...

 

[Countchunkula]

To get to the "hemp" fields you had to park on the outskirts of Lemont and hike into the woods, cross the tracks and cross an old canal or something on a sketchy fallen tree. We hung out on Bluff RD too among other places...

I'm sure I've been very close to the area you're describing. If only I was in the know back then.

 

[Mike C]

 

[MikeK]

There are no easy answers to these questions, for sure.

I guess I need to walk back the part of my earlier statement that you bolded a little bit.

If the person who added that Argonne course is someone who also played the course before/soon after adding it (which appears to be the case here), then I'm fine with it existing in the directory.

But I agree that it should not show up in the default view. There should be an "Unavailable to the Public" check box or something like that. And courses with that characteristic should be hidden from the listing and search results by default - the way that extinct courses are. Or at LEAST the way that temporary courses and practice areas are.

I think that having that course show up in the default search results and maps does more harm than good. I believe that it increases the likelihood of someone trying to trespass to play it. Whether it's a completion-ist like you or I, or just someone who didn't read the course description/notice that it's strictly a private course.

I changed the course type to practice area for the reasons you cited, and also because I believe there is a minimum standard at DGCR of six holes to be considered permanent. With Tim G replaced by a less-hands-on owner, it's up to the participants left at DGCR to improve the information here.

 

[MikeK]

As a matter of fact, when someone clicks on "Add a Course" on this website, it gives the person the following warning:

"DO NOT add courses that are in the planning stages, still actively under construction (no baskets, marked tees) or are otherwise unplayable, they will be removed."

I would say a private course with armed security qualifies as "unplayable".

 

[DiscGolfCraig]

As a matter of fact, when someone clicks on "Add a Course" on this website, it gives the person the following warning:

"DO NOT add courses that are in the planning stages, still actively under construction (no baskets, marked tees) or are otherwise unplayable, they will be removed."

I would say a private course with armed security qualifies as "unplayable".

There are multiple courses here in the Carolinas that are on military property. They are off limits to civilians unless accompanied by credentialed personnel. Of course, they're all listed on UDisc, with several listed here as well.

 

[dreadlock86]

and there's no reason for them not to be listed.

i would want to know if there is a course on a military base because getting on base with an enlisted person is well within the realm of possibility.

 

[HyooMac]

Sidebar Question for Course Adders:

Tell me if I'm doing this wrong. When I add a course I've played and I'm entering hole information, there's a wide range of options for. "Measurements acquired by." The most obvious ones are "Tee Sign", "Course Map", "Scorecard" (though the last two are few and far between).

The remaining choices seem to imply something I've done to measure it myself ("GPS", "Laser", "Paced Out", "Tape/Line", "Wheel"). In cases where I'm adding a course that I found on uDisc and there are no tee signs, cards or maps, I just enter the distances as they are in uDisc, and select "GPS."

I've created course maps in uDisc, and I know how hard it is to make that map be true to the actual length of a hole. So I know that "uDisc distances" are a bit slippery.

So when I'm adding a course here, and relying solely on uDisc because there's no other information available, I select "GPS."

So, am I doing it right?

 

[DFrah]

when I'm adding a course here, and relying solely on uDisc because there's no other information available, I select "GPS."

So, am I doing it right?

I'm interested what others say to this because I have borrowed distances from UDisc as well.

I have never created a layout on UDisc. I was under the impression that someone has to walk around the course and plot points for tees and baskets as he/she goes. So I have been selecting "Paced Out".

But I'm very open to selecting "GPS" instead in these situations if that is the consensus.

 

[HyooMac]

I'm interested what others say to this because I have borrowed distances from UDisc as well.

I have never created a layout on UDisc. I was under the impression that someone has to walk around the course and plot points for tees and baskets as he/she goes.

Yes, somebody, sometime has to do something accurate. In the cases where I built the uDisc maps, I had played the courses multiple times, and the course had signage based on the designer having used a wheel.

So my job was to match up the correct lenghts, guided by landmarks I could see on the overhead photo. It was REALLY tricky to get the exact lengths to show up, mostly because the interface is kinda clumsy. But I smiled every time I got the right number.

 

[HyooMac]

I have borrowed distances from UDisc as well.

I've always wished that "UDisc" was among the selections.

To be clear, when I'm bagging a course, I tend to trust uDisc ("seems close enough"), and on very rare occasions I pull out my rangefinder when it seems off. I don't pace it off or make measuring the course part of my bagging routine.

But then when I'm adding the course, I realize I've been relying on uDisc when adding the hole information.

 

[sisyphus]

I don't use UDisc, but it's my understanding that it uses GPS, so I'd say GPS.
Just know that hole distances are USUALLY way off: our local course that had been in place for nearly four decades had a hole that said 320' ...probably measured by wheel in 1982, along a line around trees that no longer exist, and down to the ravine bottom and back, because we measured it using a 300' tape, and got 256'.

 

[knobby325]

On the UDisc "borrowed" distances, I've used GPS. More so on courses that are here, but without the hole info. I will sometimes use my range finder to see if these seem close. So sometimes it's a mix.

As for the adding courses...I won't add a course unless I've played it. wolfhaley actually beat me to adding a course in eastern Iowa by a day or two. I'd played it, he had not yet. That's what I follow, but I would also rather have the info out there. If I drive by some baskets, I'd like to know. Now, if it's totally private, especially if the owners don't want it listed, then don't list it. If it's going to be listed, a mark of unavailable to the general public would be a nice add. I know I struggled to find the only free and publicly available course on Oahu, Hawaii. We have a few here in Iowa that are at privately owned campgrounds that you can only play while camping there. I would make sure that if you list such a place, that that info is prominent. We're helping others to make a decision where to play, it behooves us to give as much information as possible. It's why I've been trying to fill out info on all the Iowa courses I've been bagging....

 

[DiscGolfCraig]

I've always wished that "UDisc" was among the selections.

To be clear, when I'm bagging a course, I tend to trust uDisc ("seems close enough"), and on very rare occasions I pull out my rangefinder when it seems off. I don't pace it off or make measuring the course part of my bagging routine.

But then when I'm adding the course, I realize I've been relying on uDisc when adding the hole information.

I select 'tee sign' when I take my info from UDisc. I figure by using the UDisc app, it's a mobile tee sign/scorecard for me.