Home Course: Getting started

[Naenae]

We live in rural MN on a 12 acre lot. Of that, 3 acres are swamp and roughly 3 acres are homestead/yard/gardens/etc, leaving about 6 acres to work with. It was formerly farmland, but over the past 25 years I have planted about 500 trees--mostly to define the limits of the yard, but with some planting and self-generation in the old fields to give them some character, sequester a bit of carbon and attract birds.

I want to build a small practice course to play at home. Given my available space, I can see a 3-4 hole course, which could be made more interesting by adding extra tees and/or using a single basket for multiple holes. Things in my favor to get started:

1. My next door neighbor takes hays whatever reasonably flat space I have available to feed his cows, currently about 4 acres, meaning plenty of territory that doesn't need to be otherwise maintained to interrupt field succession.
2. 25' of vertical rise/drop
3. A small Christmas tree farm on one corner of the property which I ended up letting go wild.
4. No HOA or other restrictions.
5. Semi-retired...plenty of free time
6. Plenty of storage space (pole shed)
7. Kubota 7500 with belly mower, bucket and brush hog
8. I can probably afford to add one permanent basket and one improved tee box per year (say $3-5k over 5-10 years)
9. I have one practice/putting basket now (Axiom Pro HD)
10. I should be able to get free wood chips fairly regularly from roadside clearing, but I don't get to pick when they show up.

At this point, my main question is whether I should get a permanent basket or 2-3 more practice baskets. The latter probably won't hold up as well against the elements and certainly won't play like a course basket. I would certainly go for used but not wrecked course baskets if they were available, but I'm guessing they get snapped up pretty fast. Thoughts?

 

[biscoe]

Unless purely dictated by economics I would not bother with practice-style baskets. Get real, heavy duty baskets that will both be more pleasurable to use and last many times as long. Unless you anticipate potential theft as an issue get them on stands rather than putting in sleeves for permanent installation.

 

[ru4por]

This thread should be a gold mine of experience, guidance and mentors.

Executing The Dream

 

[Naenae]

Unless purely dictated by economics I would not bother with practice-style baskets. Get real, heavy duty baskets that will both be more pleasurable to use and last many times as long. Unless you anticipate potential theft as an issue get them on stands rather than putting in sleeves for permanent installation.

I should be able to use stands on flat-ish ground, but I assume I'll still need installables + sleeves for baskets on a significant slope?

 

[elmexdela]

I should be able to use stands on flat-ish ground, but I assume I'll still need installables + sleeves for baskets on a significant slope?

if you are tryin to figure out what you want i personally would invest in some axiom/mvp portable baskets until you can nail down the layout/design (also can later sell to get a little cash back roi if you decide to upgrade to better down the road)

really depends on how "permanent" you want it to be as well

i creeped on your played courses and c and a soaring saucers does some things right and could be used for inspiration

however if i was you i would also take some of that free time and hunt down some close by backyard courses to see what you like/dont like about them

some top of the head quality homemade/backyard ish ones within striking distance of you roughly would be

maiden shade
tjader acres
axldog acres
chains edge

 

[biscoe]

I should be able to use stands on flat-ish ground, but I assume I'll still need installables + sleeves for baskets on a significant slope?

Depends on the slope, you can mitigate a good bit of slope by digging out a flat spot or by using something under it to level. I am mostly advocating for the flexibility a portable will give you to get going.

 

[DavidSauls]

I should be able to use stands on flat-ish ground, but I assume I'll still need installables + sleeves for baskets on a significant slope?

Depends on the slope, you can mitigate a good bit of slope by digging out a flat spot or by using something under it to level. I am mostly advocating for the flexibility a portable will give you to get going.

Absolutely. We have a private course with portable baskets on pretty steep slopes, and leveling is no big deal. Portables give flexibility to change things, and the labor involved in setting a collar isn't worthwhile.

Just remember not to grab one for balance. They'll name you and your basket "Jack and Jill".

As for the rest, for myself, I'd sink money into good baskets, and not worry about tees to begin with.

 

[dmoore1998]

I have a home course. I started out with cheap portable baskets and I'm very glad I did. I had the portables out there in Iowa over the winter and they were still fine. It allowed me to lay out the holes I thought I wanted, test the flow, play it a bunch of times, and continue tweaking the locations (I also have some holes you play to multiple times, which meant lots of little tweaks as I imagined new holes but then preferred the basket to move by a foot or two for the new location). If you buy a permanent basket, that leaves you with 2 baskets (one portable, one permanent). You'll end up dragging the portable one to all the different locations you want to try. My advice would be to buy the cheaper portable baskets this year, get them laid out, and then slowly replace them with permanents (or with the very nice/expensive portables). That also means you don't have to wait multiple years just to have 3-4 holes to play by buying permanents 1-by-1. You can also likely sell the cheap portables for close to what you paid for them to get back some of that money as you sell them off and put in permanents.

Baskets are a lot more important than tee pads IMO. I'm also assuming you know other people who play, who might like to come play your course? That's probably going to be a lot of the fun you have, which means having more than 2 baskets available (even if they're cheap ones) should be a lot more fun than 2 baskets.

IMO there's a LOT more enjoyment by having at least 3-4 baskets. That allows you to set them up and play from one to the other in multiple combinations. 2 baskets means playing back and forth from each (or walking around to find a new spot to play from). The downside of having crappy baskets is a lot less of a downside than only have 1 nice basket in that first year.

 

[DavidSauls]

My first advice to anyone building a private course is to remember your primary audience -- which is almost certainly, you. Please yourself.

In the early days of our course we started with some cheesy portable baskets, and upgraded them as we could. Now, all of the holes have quality baskets, but those cheesy portables are still around for warmups and putting practice. Some have been outside for 15 years or more and, though they're rusty, they still work as well as they ever did. Which was never that great, but it works for putting practice....and we recently put one in an alternate position on a hole, and decreed that in casual play, if it spits out a disc that would have stayed in a better basket, count it good.

 

[biscoe]

Junk baskets catch better when rusty.

 

[Naenae]

Has anyone here ever putted on a Rad Ace pro-level basket? My local store (GGGT) sells them and they are quite a bit more affordable (~$375) than other PDGA approved baskets, but there is apparently nearly nothing written about them.

 

[Naenae]

IMO there's a LOT more enjoyment by having at least 3-4 baskets. That allows you to set them up and play from one to the other in multiple combinations. 2 baskets means playing back and forth from each (or walking around to find a new spot to play from). The downside of having crappy baskets is a lot less of a downside than only have 1 nice basket in that first year.

My first advice to anyone building a private course is to remember your primary audience -- which is almost certainly, you. Please yourself.

In the early days of our course we started with some cheesy portable baskets, and upgraded them as we could. Now, all of the holes have quality baskets, but those cheesy portables are still around for warmups and putting practice. Some have been outside for 15 years or more and, though they're rusty, they still work as well as they ever did. Which was never that great, but it works for putting practice....and we recently put one in an alternate position on a hole, and decreed that in casual play, if it spits out a disc that would have stayed in a better basket, count it good.

Great advice. I ran into Charlie Hutchinson--owner of GottaGoGottaThrow--at their winter courses at Brookview (spoiler: really good) on Saturday. He echoed a lot of what you're saying here. He pointed out that if I'm making the course almost entirely for my own use and if I can live with Mach 2's, I could get about twice as much done per year.

I don't think Mach 2's belong on most courses, but for dinking around on the back 40? The worst that can happen is that I become a better putter, and I won't have to worry about replacement (unless I feel like bumping up later).

I'm thinking of pushing the budget just a tad and getting four of them, and messing around with layout a lot before nailing anything down.

 

[Naenae]

Oh, and I got a truckload of free, fresh wood chips from the county tree trimming crew today. I heard the chainsaws nearby and chased them down.

There is a company out there--ChipDrop--that tries to match chip donors to chip recipients, but there's nothing like being able to just find the crew and ask them to put them down right where I want them.

 

[Naenae]

First basket arrived today. And with it, two challenging holes:

#1: Downhill to a pond side basket, with the pond protecting the front right side. 295 feet with a 25 foot elevation drop. There is a possibility of moving the tee back ~20 feet to force a double mando between a couple of spruce trees, but some pruning will be necessary. My first attempt was a turnover shot with a Diamond, unfortunately leaving me about 45 feet of work. Par ensued.



#2 Same basket, approaching from the left side of #1. 230 ft straight shot (pond still on right), starting through a 10 foot gap about 35 feet beyond the tee. I parked a LSD "The Dome" with a hyzer flip settling just 15 feet behind the basket. An ace would have been nice...

With a little cleanup, I should be able to pull the tee back about 40 feet, making the gap pretty tight and opening up a tempting but nearly suicidal hyzer route.



My local store is out of baskets, but I'm working on getting 3 more shipped in. I'm not setting anything in concrete until I've figured out exactly where to put the baskets for the greatest challenge. I'm trying to make birdies rare and fun.

 

[elmexdela]

First basket arrived today. And with it, two challenging holes:

#1: Downhill to a pond side basket, with the pond protecting the front right side. 295 feet with a 25 foot elevation drop. There is a possibility of moving the tee back ~20 feet to force a double mando between a couple of spruce trees, but some pruning will be necessary. My first attempt was a turnover shot with a Diamond, unfortunately leaving me about 45 feet of work. Par ensued.

View attachment 332910

#2 Same basket, approaching from the left side of #1. 230 ft straight shot (pond still on right), starting through a 10 foot gap about 35 feet beyond the tee. I parked a LSD "The Dome" with a hyzer flip settling just 15 feet behind the basket. An ace would have been nice...

With a little cleanup, I should be able to pull the tee back about 40 feet, making the gap pretty tight and opening up a tempting but nearly suicidal hyzer route.

View attachment 332911

My local store is out of baskets, but I'm working on getting 3 more shipped in. I'm not setting anything in concrete until I've figured out exactly where to put the baskets for the greatest challenge. I'm trying to make birdies rare and fun.

hell yah lmk if you want a visitor sometime

 

[chevis]

i would say keep the baskets portable, unless you're worried about theft