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Hobson Grove Park - Riverview DGC reviews
9
0
2+ years drive by
Reviewed:
Played on:Dec 23, 2009
Played the course:once
Pros:
Course Essentials:
-Baskets: Innova DISCatcher, single position. All in good shape.
-Tee Signs: No signs for disc course (signs only for ball golf course). Scorecards are available in pro shop that show hole location, distances, pin position, and general navigation around the course.
-Tee Pads: Concrete (tee from cart path), 3 positions per hole labelled as black, yellow, and red. Disc tees are noted on cart path with a stripe and the words "disc course". In most cases, the disc golf tees are on the cart path next to the corresponding ball golf tees.
General Course Design and Layout.
-Length By Tee:
Black (8512ft/945avg per hole)
Yellow (7486ft/831avg per hole)
Red (6100ft/677avg per hole)
-Elevation: Minimal (Holes 1, 3-5, 7-9), Moderate (2, 6).
The disc course is integrated into the ball golf course layout. You tee off from the cart path near the ball golf tees on each hole. The baskets are located off the sides of the fairways, and are installed in/around clusters of scattered trees where available. All tee shots (from all tees) are wide open with no obstacles to clear and no forced lines or routes. Most holes have at least a few larger trees in the disc golf fairway to contend with, but there is plenty of room to play around and avoid these areas completely. The course is so long, that trying to play through the trees to cut some distance off of the hole really doesn't offer much of a scoring advantage. Playing through the trees and risking the shot get knocked down (and potentially blocked by another tree) versus taking a slightly longer route but leaving a cleaner approach seems like a wash to me, about the same either way.
The mostly minimal elevation is not a big factor at this course. The majority of the holes are primarily flat with gradual changes in elevation. There is good variety in the length of the holes relative to the length of the course. By that, I mean that all the holes are long (as compared to a more standard disc golf course), but there is a good mix of both short (2,9), medium (3,4,5,7) and longer holes (1,6,8).
There is plenty of room to work the disc, so you can throw pretty much whatever type of shot you want. There are very few obstacles anywhere on the course that would force a specific line or shot type. I would consider all holes at this course open with no tight, technical shots required. Due to strategic pin placements around the available trees, some holes offer a better approach from one side of the fairway versus the other, but with the open fairways, placement is very easy and shouldn't be any trouble. The biggest challenge at Hobson Grove-Riverview is the length. Even the short tees at this 9-hole course are longer than many of the 18-hole courses in the area, with the only exceptions being Phil Moore and Franklin-Simpson (ProTees).
The course flow is okay, but the long walks between holes do seem to disrupt that. The course is comprised of one complete loop and does return back to the pro shop after hole 9. There is plenty of parking available on site. I would imagine the golf course gets pretty crowded on a nice day, so it would make playing a round of disc golf very difficult since disc golf plays much faster than ball golf, I would anticipate long wait times.
Maintenance:The course was very clean and well-maintained with no foliage or over-growth.
Navigation:
Using the scorecards provided at the pro shop, navigating the course was no problem. I wouldn't say the map is 100% accurate, but close enough that you can find your way around without any trouble.
Amenities: Drinks, carts, scorecards, and restrooms available in the pro shop.
-Baskets: Innova DISCatcher, single position. All in good shape.
-Tee Signs: No signs for disc course (signs only for ball golf course). Scorecards are available in pro shop that show hole location, distances, pin position, and general navigation around the course.
-Tee Pads: Concrete (tee from cart path), 3 positions per hole labelled as black, yellow, and red. Disc tees are noted on cart path with a stripe and the words "disc course". In most cases, the disc golf tees are on the cart path next to the corresponding ball golf tees.
General Course Design and Layout.
-Length By Tee:
Black (8512ft/945avg per hole)
Yellow (7486ft/831avg per hole)
Red (6100ft/677avg per hole)
-Elevation: Minimal (Holes 1, 3-5, 7-9), Moderate (2, 6).
The disc course is integrated into the ball golf course layout. You tee off from the cart path near the ball golf tees on each hole. The baskets are located off the sides of the fairways, and are installed in/around clusters of scattered trees where available. All tee shots (from all tees) are wide open with no obstacles to clear and no forced lines or routes. Most holes have at least a few larger trees in the disc golf fairway to contend with, but there is plenty of room to play around and avoid these areas completely. The course is so long, that trying to play through the trees to cut some distance off of the hole really doesn't offer much of a scoring advantage. Playing through the trees and risking the shot get knocked down (and potentially blocked by another tree) versus taking a slightly longer route but leaving a cleaner approach seems like a wash to me, about the same either way.
The mostly minimal elevation is not a big factor at this course. The majority of the holes are primarily flat with gradual changes in elevation. There is good variety in the length of the holes relative to the length of the course. By that, I mean that all the holes are long (as compared to a more standard disc golf course), but there is a good mix of both short (2,9), medium (3,4,5,7) and longer holes (1,6,8).
There is plenty of room to work the disc, so you can throw pretty much whatever type of shot you want. There are very few obstacles anywhere on the course that would force a specific line or shot type. I would consider all holes at this course open with no tight, technical shots required. Due to strategic pin placements around the available trees, some holes offer a better approach from one side of the fairway versus the other, but with the open fairways, placement is very easy and shouldn't be any trouble. The biggest challenge at Hobson Grove-Riverview is the length. Even the short tees at this 9-hole course are longer than many of the 18-hole courses in the area, with the only exceptions being Phil Moore and Franklin-Simpson (ProTees).
The course flow is okay, but the long walks between holes do seem to disrupt that. The course is comprised of one complete loop and does return back to the pro shop after hole 9. There is plenty of parking available on site. I would imagine the golf course gets pretty crowded on a nice day, so it would make playing a round of disc golf very difficult since disc golf plays much faster than ball golf, I would anticipate long wait times.
Maintenance:The course was very clean and well-maintained with no foliage or over-growth.
Navigation:
Using the scorecards provided at the pro shop, navigating the course was no problem. I wouldn't say the map is 100% accurate, but close enough that you can find your way around without any trouble.
Amenities: Drinks, carts, scorecards, and restrooms available in the pro shop.
Cons:
Lack of variety:
Every hole is pretty much wide open at this course. At first, it's kinda fun to just throw as far as you can and not worry about trees or obstacles, but the more holes I played, the more I realized every hole played basically the same. Throw 2-3 shots as far as you can, throw a longish approach, then putt for a 4 or 5.
Tee Pad locations unmarked/missing:
Most all the tee pads were marked clearly on the cart path, but I could not find the marking on all holes. Maybe they had faded and wore off in some places, but since they don't all correspond to the ball golf tees, and that is the only way you know where to tee from, it was difficult to know where to throw on some holes.
Too long from back tees:
I played the Red Tees (short), and it was very long. I can't imagine anyone playing the black/yellow tees, or what the purpose of these tees are. Unless you throw 500ft, I would just hop on up to the Reds and play from there, there is plenty of length left from there.
Every hole is pretty much wide open at this course. At first, it's kinda fun to just throw as far as you can and not worry about trees or obstacles, but the more holes I played, the more I realized every hole played basically the same. Throw 2-3 shots as far as you can, throw a longish approach, then putt for a 4 or 5.
Tee Pad locations unmarked/missing:
Most all the tee pads were marked clearly on the cart path, but I could not find the marking on all holes. Maybe they had faded and wore off in some places, but since they don't all correspond to the ball golf tees, and that is the only way you know where to tee from, it was difficult to know where to throw on some holes.
Too long from back tees:
I played the Red Tees (short), and it was very long. I can't imagine anyone playing the black/yellow tees, or what the purpose of these tees are. Unless you throw 500ft, I would just hop on up to the Reds and play from there, there is plenty of length left from there.
Other Thoughts:
I like the idea of integrating disc golf onto ball golf courses. I played ball golf for 15yrs, and there is certainly a lot of great layouts that could be utilized to create some very fun and challenging disc golf holes. Unfortunately, this layout is challenging due to the length primarily, not as much because of the layout itself. Long holes are good, open holes are good, but a mix of these is required for a great layout. A course with primarily long, open holes just doesn't really feel like disc golf, more like field practice with a basket at the other end.
If you are coming to Bowling Green with limited time and looking for a great disc golf experience, you'll probably want to skip this one and hit some of the other local disc courses. Bowling Green has a lot of disc golf to offer, and many great courses including Kerieakes, Lover's Lane, and the original Hobson Grove disc golf layout.
If you are coming to Bowling Green with limited time and looking for a great disc golf experience, you'll probably want to skip this one and hit some of the other local disc courses. Bowling Green has a lot of disc golf to offer, and many great courses including Kerieakes, Lover's Lane, and the original Hobson Grove disc golf layout.
9
0
ambroze
Experience:
19 years
239 played
26 reviews
Way too long, kills the fun.. 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Mar 1, 2009
Played the course:once
Pros:
It's on an actual ball golf course which makes it nice. Right next to the original Hobson 18 "real" disc golf course. Multiple tee areas.
Cons:
There's not much too actually say that is bad about this course except for the deciduous length of the holes. I have to somewhat disagree with the first review on this course about the fact that par 54 is in the past. I DO believe in some holes on a course that exceed 800 feet and make them either par 4 or par 5 I order to make the par over 54. But when you have a course like this that you find yourself doing nothing but throwing in the middle of a field over and over, now that takes the fun out of it completely. I left this course and played the original Hobson 18 and had much more fun. Whoever designed this course got it all wrong, sorry. There is plenty of space where they could have put 18 holes easily and still made it a respectively challenging course.
Other Thoughts:
Hole #1 from the black is 1,467 feet or 489 YARDS!! Come one now that's crazy....
