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New Gloucester, ME

Pineland Farms - Minuteman

45(based on 6 reviews)
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Pineland Farms - Minuteman reviews

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15 0
Chucklehead
Experience: 16 played 3 reviews
4.50 star(s)

Great Course drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Feb 11, 2023 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

It's a beautiful spot, a mixture of wooded and open holes. It's situated on a large farm and small college campus. A good variety of elevations and strategy. A steep uphill as well as a steepdown hill. Sometimes you'll come across some wildlife, baby deers and turkeys. The pro shop moved all the way to the end of the road but the employees are friendly and they have some discs. The farm store has everything, drinks and amazing sandwiches and things. If you come early in the day they have premade croissant breakfast sandwiches that are fantastic. It's a pretty walk through the woods with a challenging course but easy pars. They move holes 9, 10 and 11 in the winter to shorter tees. They have an honor box right at hole 1. It's not too hard to find walk to the left across the grass field and follow the trail down. It's a good course for beginners and long time players. It's been $5 for awhile, not sure if that will change anytime soon.

Cons:

There can be some places where you do not want to lose it. Hole 10 off to the left contains a brook surrounded by several different varieties of thorn and pricker bushes. It's also down a steep hill. The steep downhill hole 13 has a densely wooded valley off to the right. It can be very hard to find discs there when everything is grown in. If there is soft snow in winter you can lose them easily. Some of the elevations are very steep and not ideal to climb if you struggle with inclines.

Other Thoughts:

The pros outweigh the cons, it's a popular course, and it can get busy during warmer times of the year. But most of the year it's fairly quiet. They have lots of other stuff going on, LL Bean outdoors classes, farm tours, cows, cheese, snowshoeing and skiing and biking trails. There's a bare bones cabin you can rent over night I believe. Don't be alarmed by the gunfire you hear off in the back of the course, after awhile you get used to it and it doesn't interrupt your drives. The farm store has a lot of cool things inside, it's huge. It's a much easier course and compared to the Patriot course at Pineland.
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8 0
Upshawt1979
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 20.9 years 550 played 429 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Cherry atop the Pineland Sundae 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 18, 2021 Played the course:once

Pros:

Minuteman is loads of fun. Birdies sitting there for the taking on every hole. The elevation change is usually extreme and the distances usually aren't. The long hole is 10 at 445'. There are 5 holes between 278'-313', and the rest are 225' or shorter. Nice design that switches up some lefts and rights, and ups and downs, with good flow from hole to hole. Finishing under the posted par of 60 should be a breeze for experienced players, even if you goof up on a couple of holes.

Tees are rubber mats on stable, flat foundations. There are nice tee signs, and good baskets. Great scorecards with course map are available in the office, along with discs, other gear, snacks and beverages. I played on a Saturday in late summer, and there was a vendor with adult beverages on the patio. Very nice touch.

Hole 1 is a fun starter, downhill, with quite a few trees, playing to a basket mounted on top of a stump. There are 3 or 4 open holes, but the vast majority have shot defining trees. The open holes range from long and very slightly downhill (until you near the pin) on 10, to descending 40' over 313' distance and backed by a tree line on hole 13. Some holes only have one or two strategically placed trees guarding the basket, like hole 9. Others are more densely wooded, and may have the pin in a precarious spot, like hole 12. I overshot the pin and slipped down the steep hill behind it into the brush, not an easy recovery. 18 may be the best actual hole if you're balancing the difficulty of hitting the line through multiple trees, uphill and across distance. It is a par 4, but you could drive the pin with a killer drive. One of the few the requires a driver to reach, it is a nice finisher.

Cons:

The nominal fee will require you to pry open the old billfold and fork over a few bucks. This course was a lot more crowded than the Patriot. I played through 4 groups at least, but they were all courteous enough to let me pass as a solo.

Long walk between 15 and 16 along the fence next to Morse Rd. The par of 60 is gifting you a few birdies on a cumulative distance just over 4100'. I would say this would be par 54-56 by most standards. A putter and a fairway driver could get you around the course, but it was nice to have more options.

Other Thoughts:

Shooting a 52 (-8) was nice after taking a beating from the Patriot first thing in the morning. I made bogies on hole 1 and hole 12, but a run of birdies on 3-9, as well as 13, 16 and 17 got me right on the scorecard.

Such a cool spot. Really well equipped and maintained with one championship caliber course, and one that is short and sweet.
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3 0
slippingdiscs
Experience: 27 played 27 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Campus Full of Fun 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 12, 2020 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Mostly wooded holes
Generous pars
Great location with store and cafe, barns and animals
Interesting history (Google it!)
Good signage

Cons:

Finding Hole #1
Some ravines to throw over
Wind! (Seems to be at every ME disc golf course)

Other Thoughts:

This is a great location. You can eat before, in between, or after your rounds. There are 2 courses - Minuteman is the easier of the 2. Hole #1 is a little tricky to find. Don't be fooled by the tee pad across from the Outdoor Center. That's for the Patriot course. There are mostly wooded holes, which are my favorites. There are some open ones, one with tall stalks that you don't want to get lost in. If you visit this course, make sure to drive around the campus. Also, Webber Cemetery is located about a half mile away and is worth the trip, as it contains a memorial to people taken from Malaga Island (Google it!)
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8 0
BallyMan
Experience: 50 played 2 reviews
4.00 star(s)

It's so nice, I played it twice. 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 7, 2020 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

It's a great workout for a short course. There are 5 ravines on the Minuteman that you throw over and have to climb down and then back up to cross. On a hot day with a full bag it is a pretty good workout, and as I said in the title, I usually like to play it twice in a day. To me, that workout is a good thing.
The layout uses the widely varied terrain very well. There is a great mix of shots required. Up and down hills, dog legs left and right. Baskets on mounds or the edges of steep sided ravines. Mostly well defined fairways on the wooded holes, but a couple of tight lines. A few wide open field shots, but mostly Maine woods Golf at its finest. The pars are generous, but appropriate to the designer's intentions. This is a beginner/intermediate level course at a facility where there is a monster sleeping right next door.

Pineland's facilities are great and the food is wonderful compared to what you can get at most courses. The staff at the Pro shop is always friendly and helpful, and I think the deserve a lot of credit for the extra effort they make to return lost discs promptly. They have called me every time I have lost a disc there. The sell Innova and Trilogy, which happen to be what I throw so I have bought several of discs there, and I find their prices quite fair. In short, Pineland is managed by a Disc Golfer who understands the game.

I primarily throw RHBH.

Hole 1. Par 3. Short, straight, steep down hill toss with a basket obscured by trees. Spin that disc or you will fade out too hard.
2. Par 3. Sharp little hyzer off a slightly elevated tee. You'll need a skip to get all the way to the Pin, but the roots and rocks may get you first.
3. Par 3. Gentle anny through some tight trees and up over the crest of a small hill. Basket is on the back side of the slope. This one of the toughest lines on the course.
4. Short, up hill par 4 with the pin tucked between a few trees. If you clear the early trees on the left you should have an easy Birdie.
5. Par 3. First ace run. Pretty open, short and straight. Just don't fade it too much and you should be looking at a Bird
6. Par 3. Love this hole. Sling a sharp anny out over the marshy gully and be sure it stalls and banks hard right or you will not have enough glide to get to the pin, which is right on the edge of the gully.
7. Par 4. First open field shot. It is a 300' pump up a decent sized slope to a basket on a mound at the very top of the hill. It's usually pretty windy so that factors into the equation here.
8. Par 4. First ravine. This is a stall shot with a stable disc. Hang it up there and let it fade hard left. You want to cross the ditch and clear the first ridge, but since the basket is on the back side of the down slope, you can easily over shoot and the thicket is very nasty. Plenty of death putts available if you don't get it close.
9. Par 3. Second ravine. Just a fun little putter or mid range toss. Over a steep sided trench, with a V shaped tree in the middle of the line. Definite Ace run.
10. Par 4. The bomber hole. At 445' it lets you uncork one, but don't fade it too much or you will be revisiting the aforementioned ravine. The pin is also right on the edge of said ravine. 50 foot roll-aways are almost guaranteed if you blow by the basket.
11. Par 3. Another short, straight one. This time with a low ceiling and ravine 3 to carry. Pin is on the peak of the next hill so anything long is long gone into the nasties.
12. Par 3. Another gentle turnover shot, through a small gap to the Pin out in a field. This one is over a "ravinette" A large clump of small trees obstructs the view to the basket.
13. Par 4. This one is seriously downhill, with the basket nestled at the bottom near the edge of some really nasty woods. It is an easy birdie if you can stick the landing, but there is almost no shot once you enter the woods.
14. Par 3. What do you know? Another ravine. This sign on this one says the distance is 190 but the sign is wrong. The distances on 14 and 15 are reversed. This is the shorter of the 2 and should say 150. 15 says 150 something and is actually more like 190. At any rate, you have to shape an anny over a deep gulch and land it gently or you are way down the back side of the hill.
15. Par 3. Pretty similar, but the shot is longer and the death putt is less scary when you overshoot.
16. Par 3. A cool open shot to a pin on top of a haystack shaped hill. Ace run but the swirling winds make it tougher than it looks.
17. Par 3. Another fun, sharp anny through the woods. Basket is behind a little stream bed and sheltered by a couple of guardians. Tons of spin can park your disc, as long as you don't turn it too soon.
18. Par 4. This one requires a pretty decent uphill crank. A mild hyzer that clears the debris field gets you a long look at an Eagle. A good finishing hole, but not spectacular.

Cons:

My cons are all pretty minor. The rubber mat tee pads do slide away with steady use and have to be dragged back into place now and then. They don't always mow the fields as much as I would like. I have lost a couple of discs in the tall grass in a wide open field because it was a couple of feet tall. This is a fairly new course and is well maintained but there are a few places where it is nearly impossible to find a disc. Who do you blame when you huck your disc into the weeds? I usually blame the idiot who threw it.

Other Thoughts:

The place is beautiful. Both course are great designs and make fantastic use of the land. The people are top notch. The price is very reasonable. The facility as a whole is exceptional, not because of the Disc Golf courses, but still it is great to have good food and nice restrooms. The Pro Shop is small, but has plenty of Discs at fair prices. I, for one, couldn't ask for much more.
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5 0
markmcc
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 12 years 278 played 254 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Very Good Shorter Course 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 23, 2018 Played the course:once

Pros:

This is the newer "Beginner Friendly" course at the Pineland Farms complex. With the other course (Patriot) being an absolute beast, the complex decided to build a second, shorter course that is more beginner/intermediate friendly.

You begin by checking in with the friendly folks at the sports center and paying your $5 (single round) or $8 (all day). Nice selection of discs in the shop, and you get sturdy scorecards for the courses that include elevation information and decent course maps on the back.

With holes lengths averaging just 228' over the 18 holes you can see that this is a short course indeed. As you would expect there are plenty of ace runs and lots of birdies to be collected, but the woods and elevation have some teeth if you miss the line. Course pars are generous with everything over 250' set at a Par 4. Here is your chance at an Eagle!

With few exceptions these holes require you to hit lines and gaps in order to score well. All holes shapes are represented including dead-straight as well as gentle bends and doglegs in both directions. There are a few open holes that are typically longer, including the "bomber" 445' Hole 10.

The original course description was "mostly flat" but I've changed it to "moderately hilly" as there is plenty of elevation with many of the holes playing up and down at 10% grades.

Baskets are Dynamic Veterans which are in great shape and catch well. Tee pads are various combination of rubber mats which were flat with decent texture. Tee signs at each pad include the expected information including hole number, length, par, and a "next tee" arrow. Hole diagrams were too general to be particularly useful (see cons).

Very good navigation with well-developed trails and abundant "next hole" arrows. The scorecard map ended up being unnecessary.

Cons:

While there are some nice technical holes, this is primarily a short putt & approach course. So while it is excellent for practicing driving with putters/midranges it is really not a well-rounded course. If you are looking for a place to practice "normal length" drives look elsewhere.

Many of the rubber tee pads were ponding water the morning I played, making it difficult to use their entire width or length.

Tee signs are nice, but the hole diagrams are oddly generic. They might show a slight left or right turn, but don't accurately depict the amount or location of turn on most of the holes.

Several of the holes have baskets that are not visible from the tee, and with the vague hole diagrams you'll find yourself walking up a ways to locate the basket.

Other Thoughts:

This seems to be a great addition to a public complex that previously had only a championship level course. Considering that this is the kind of place where folks might come to rent discs and try disc golf for the first time, this course is a much better fit.
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2 1
Im_Ryno
Experience: 14.9 years 379 played 19 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Fall round 2017 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 17, 2017 Played the course:once

Pros:

Gorgeous course that's up to the Pineland standard you'd expect!

Nice place for beginners to learn the ins and outs of the sport but complex enough for replayability by the intermediate players.

Beautiful grounds, well built bridges and paths, excellent signage and all the amenities Pineland has to offer.

The only chance some of us will have at saying we came under par at Pineland!

Cool, thoughtful use of landscape.

Cons:

Although they're packed very well and are all level, dirt tee pads. But that's really the only negative thing I could say about the course.
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