It kind of stunk having the easier more open courses front-loaded this season. But we've had plenty of variety as a whole. Toboggan is nearly perfect when it comes to "open" courses that play tighter than they seem on film. Ideally more courses would have that best of both worlds. Overall I'm really happy with the mix of courses this year.
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Lets talk tournament trends
- Thread starter KniceZ
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2009
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- 15,771
This is going to sound a lot like homer bias, but I'm glad you see Toboggan that way. As wonderful as some of the coverage is, it doesn't always really convey how a course feels or plays.
I'm so familiar with Toboggan that I can tell where camera man was standing when I watch the coverage. Makes it impossible for me to get a feel for how someone who's unfamiliar with it, perceives it when watching video coverage.
But since that balance between distance accuracy seems obvious to you, I guess the video does a good job conveying that.
Simon and Eagle's comments during their practice round were quite revealing/interesting. The elevation was more extreme than they expected, and they didn't understand just how important placing your tee shots was... and I'm sure they've seen and heard about it before they got here for DGLO.
R-Ogre
Double Eagle Member
I haven't watched much lately, but the first couple events of the season the LVC and whatever the one is in Arizona are pretty lame. Then we skipped the west coast swing that has places like DeLa and Milo, and went to the flat open Midwest courses. So part of it is just it hasn't been a normal season.
wims
Double Eagle Member
DeLa is an amazing historic course, yet when they go there they have most of the tournament on that godawful ball golf course. Horrible IMO. Keep DG in the woods please.
The original "you wouldn't want this to be your home course" design is Winthrop Gold and so far as Pro events go you see the influence on those courses, but for practical day-to-day play course those design elements are not super common. It's more of the influence those things have on tournament set-ups and the need to "trick out" a course for a C tier that confuses me.
In 2010 GDS was paid to design our local course (Lion's Club DGC) and the point of the design was for it to be a tournament design. It's supposed to be a ready-to-go B tier course, and really it IS a ready-to-go B tier course. 950-rated guys throw at best mid-50's rounds on it when it's used as-is.
It's almost never used as-is, though.
There is always this need to move holes around and add some "tricked out" element to the course for a C-tier. It doesn't need it; the course is tournament-ready. Put the baskets in the all-long positions and you are done. The regular holes were designed by a guy who installed dozens of courses. The "tricked out" holes are designed by local guys going "I know, lets make everybody try to hit this 20 foot wide strip of a fairway on a 600' hole." They are never an improvement.
People seem to like 600' holes with a 20' wide strip of mowed grass between a pond and deep shule, though. When we played it I thought it was stupid, but people still talk about it and want to set it up so they can throw it again so what do I know?
In 2010 GDS was paid to design our local course (Lion's Club DGC) and the point of the design was for it to be a tournament design. It's supposed to be a ready-to-go B tier course, and really it IS a ready-to-go B tier course. 950-rated guys throw at best mid-50's rounds on it when it's used as-is.
It's almost never used as-is, though.
There is always this need to move holes around and add some "tricked out" element to the course for a C-tier. It doesn't need it; the course is tournament-ready. Put the baskets in the all-long positions and you are done. The regular holes were designed by a guy who installed dozens of courses. The "tricked out" holes are designed by local guys going "I know, lets make everybody try to hit this 20 foot wide strip of a fairway on a 600' hole." They are never an improvement.
People seem to like 600' holes with a 20' wide strip of mowed grass between a pond and deep shule, though. When we played it I thought it was stupid, but people still talk about it and want to set it up so they can throw it again so what do I know?
A lot more than most.
perklc
Birdie Member
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- Aug 24, 2015
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- 301
Only 1 of 3 rounds is at the golf course.
Half woods, half open.
Superbford
Birdie Member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2020
- Messages
- 321
I like when courses are a good mixture of things.... a few easier holes to give some birdie attempts.... longer par three or fours that make you throw consecutive good shots to make par.... some risk reward type holes where you can decide if its best to play it safe or not... some open drives... some tight drives...
Location and topography can play a part of course, but a good designer should be able to incorporate those things just about anywhere...
(I'm fine with no long carries over water for the most part.... discs are just too expensive to possibly lose that way for a lot of us... golf balls are cheap in comparison)
Location and topography can play a part of course, but a good designer should be able to incorporate those things just about anywhere...
(I'm fine with no long carries over water for the most part.... discs are just too expensive to possibly lose that way for a lot of us... golf balls are cheap in comparison)
coldsweat
Birdie Member
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- May 22, 2012
- Messages
- 383
Seems easy enough to vote with viewership. There is tons of coverage out there these days. Just cherry pick where you toss the views. I love watching wooded golf. So I typically watch a lot of the local Central Coast Disc Golf stuff and a lot of North Carolina footage. I don't bother with Ledgestone or the hyzer olympics.
biscoe
* Ace Member *
IMO this trend has likely peaked and will do nothing but decline as more attractive properties become available to exclusive disc golf usage. Disc golf has never been able to pick and choose but that time is coming (and Covid has moved the timeline forward).
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2008
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- 2,233
Do you think that will be happening in the private or public sector ? Single course layouts or multi-course complexes ?
Private (more so than the private : public ratio is now) and "however much land the entity has to dedicate to it". Twenty plus years ago I thought 'free' was great, but times change - as do people's expectations - and IMO "pay to play" has more potential to produce better courses.
ballgolfconvert
Eagle Member
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2019
- Messages
- 886
I have recently given up on my local club for the very same reasons. They always try to trick up every course when it comes to tourneys. Usually the changes are done the night before the tourney, which is what really gets me irked, no chance to practice or properly prepare, which in turn de legitimizes the event in my mind. I have less issue if the changes were done at the beginning of the week, but the surprises are enough for me to lose my desire to play. I still help out the club, donate, etc. but way less than i did in the past. I was also a big part of the "they", but won't be for the most part going forward. Makes me sad, but tourneys and leagues are a big part of why I play and if you ruin them for me, I don't have much reason to do much else.
Our club is having a flex start event this weekend and I was planning on playing UNTIL I saw the call for baskets on Facebook. They are going to add holes, which means longer rounds and stupid holes. I'm out.
I appear to be in the minority here, though. People seem to love to play five-hour rounds. :\
they are asking for additional baskets so they can "trick out" the course?
This time they aren't doing anything to the course except adding holes. Adding additional holes might fall under "trick out" or it might not depending on how you define it. Sometimes we have added holes simply to be able to extend the field and let more people play, so the intent really wasn't there to "trick out" the course. In this case with the flex starting times they didn't need the extra holes to be able to extend the field, they are doing it because they think it makes the event more fun. A lot of people seem to agree with that and they keep doing it, but to me the extra holes are pretty dumb. There are one or two that are decent, the rest are contrived/gimmicky shots or just really long for the sake of being really long. There is a lot of use of artificial O.B. because roads and sidewalks come into play. They tend not to be marked well, the ground rules are not well understood, and they don't flow well so you add a lot of wandering around time to the round. I fail to see what they really add quality-wise to the event; we have a very good 18-hole course. To me the events run easier when we just play the course we know, but the club wants to add something "special" to the event. I don't really fault them for trying to do something special, I just think the whole thing falls flat. It's a lot of work just to make a round of disc golf worse.
Popular event, more holes = more players = more money for the club?
oldmandiscer
Banned
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- Jun 22, 2020
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- 1,718
Player skill levels have increased rapidly the last 5 years. With the basket remaining the same size from the 70's, in fact it has gotten bigger. So to make scores higher they add artificial OB everywhere, raised baskets, place baskets on mounds or simply course designers make ridiculously narrow "fairways" through the woods. Even the pro commentators say well you through it through this gap and hope to miss this tree (in the middle). Then they place raised baskets 5 feet from OB as well. All silliness that isn't needed if the baskets were properly sized for the skill level of current players.
biscoe
* Ace Member *
Private without a doubt. There will be some single course spots but multi-course complexes are going to be popping up more and more often. In general if you have the resources for one premium course a second does not cost much more. Baskets are going in on the second course at Raptor's Roost on Friday or Saturday.
