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Sandy Knoll - Original reviews
16
0
Hell Yeah, THIS is Disc Golf. 2+ years drive by
Reviewed:
Played on:Sep 11, 2020
Played the course:once
Pros:
Sandy Knoll is a challenging, delightful 18 hole course with lots of high-quality golf, a pro shop on site, and has got even more in the works.
1) Variety: Tons of it. All but 1 hole had 2 tees, and all but another had 3 basket locations (which rotate periodically). Great mix of open and wooded holes, and the rotating basket locations give you a good mix of L-R and R-L lines. Course skewed a bit RHFH friendly in its current configuration.
2) Quality of golf: really stellar. Every hole is challenging, and will force you to play your A game, utilize your whole bag, and execute many, if not all of the shots you have. Even the open holes are no gimmies - you need to hit a precise line just about every time you tee off. Short tees seem to play intermediate to advanced amateur, and the longs appear to be pro/Open level difficulty.
3) Baskets: big, yellow-banded DisCatchers. Love them, love how they catch.
4) Navigation: a few long walks between holes, but every basket has an arrow marker pointing you in the direction of the next tee, and indicators of next tee are on all tee signs, which BTW, are all clearly brand new, and replaced older, crummier signage.
5) Upkeep/Maintenance: clearly very good. What prairie grass was present was not too much a bear, and the underbrush in the wooded parts of the course was quite manageable. Disc loss risk isn't zero, but is pretty low on average (still: yours truly managed to lose a Zone on a blind spike hyzer)
6) Natural Beauty; holes 13 through 18: my goodness. The whole course is appealing to the eye, and I'd love to see it in fall, but this six hole stretch was simply magical. In the woods, but a high tree canopy, tough but fair lines to hit on fairways, skippy ground, and a "carpeting" of small green tree saplings off the fairways that made you feel like you were in an enchanted forest, but they were not nearly big enough to swallow up your disc. As soon as I got to 13, I said to myself: "Hell yeah, THIS is disc golf."
7) Extras: Just about everything you need. Pro shop on site (the proprietor Josh Hamm is super cool and helpful), a port a potty, practice basket, community board at the shop, benches at many holes, and solid trash can coverage (more cans on back 9 than front 9)
1) Variety: Tons of it. All but 1 hole had 2 tees, and all but another had 3 basket locations (which rotate periodically). Great mix of open and wooded holes, and the rotating basket locations give you a good mix of L-R and R-L lines. Course skewed a bit RHFH friendly in its current configuration.
2) Quality of golf: really stellar. Every hole is challenging, and will force you to play your A game, utilize your whole bag, and execute many, if not all of the shots you have. Even the open holes are no gimmies - you need to hit a precise line just about every time you tee off. Short tees seem to play intermediate to advanced amateur, and the longs appear to be pro/Open level difficulty.
3) Baskets: big, yellow-banded DisCatchers. Love them, love how they catch.
4) Navigation: a few long walks between holes, but every basket has an arrow marker pointing you in the direction of the next tee, and indicators of next tee are on all tee signs, which BTW, are all clearly brand new, and replaced older, crummier signage.
5) Upkeep/Maintenance: clearly very good. What prairie grass was present was not too much a bear, and the underbrush in the wooded parts of the course was quite manageable. Disc loss risk isn't zero, but is pretty low on average (still: yours truly managed to lose a Zone on a blind spike hyzer)
6) Natural Beauty; holes 13 through 18: my goodness. The whole course is appealing to the eye, and I'd love to see it in fall, but this six hole stretch was simply magical. In the woods, but a high tree canopy, tough but fair lines to hit on fairways, skippy ground, and a "carpeting" of small green tree saplings off the fairways that made you feel like you were in an enchanted forest, but they were not nearly big enough to swallow up your disc. As soon as I got to 13, I said to myself: "Hell yeah, THIS is disc golf."
7) Extras: Just about everything you need. Pro shop on site (the proprietor Josh Hamm is super cool and helpful), a port a potty, practice basket, community board at the shop, benches at many holes, and solid trash can coverage (more cans on back 9 than front 9)
Cons:
Honestly, when I think about it, there really wasn't much I could knock Sandy Knoll for. Most of these are nitpicks.
1) Elevation: Not a ton. First 2 holes have some rolling hills, and there's some gentle slopes here and there, but this course did not have much going on in the way of elevation.
2) Turf Tees: This was my 1st time playing on turf tees, and I'll be honest, I didn't love them. Kind of slippery (it had rained all week prior, to be fair) and I could see them suffering damage a lot faster than concrete. Wouldn't want to play winter golf on these. Better than natural tees for sure.
3) Tee sign distances: I don't have a big arm at all, but hitting the distances these signs said the holes were made me feel like an absolute beast. Like, I put a forehand drive pin high on a listed 385' hole, flat elevation, on a single step drive with no run up? Wish I had that kind of power every day lol. Lot of these listed distances seemed gut feeling-wise to be 10-20% longer than how far they really play.
1) Elevation: Not a ton. First 2 holes have some rolling hills, and there's some gentle slopes here and there, but this course did not have much going on in the way of elevation.
2) Turf Tees: This was my 1st time playing on turf tees, and I'll be honest, I didn't love them. Kind of slippery (it had rained all week prior, to be fair) and I could see them suffering damage a lot faster than concrete. Wouldn't want to play winter golf on these. Better than natural tees for sure.
3) Tee sign distances: I don't have a big arm at all, but hitting the distances these signs said the holes were made me feel like an absolute beast. Like, I put a forehand drive pin high on a listed 385' hole, flat elevation, on a single step drive with no run up? Wish I had that kind of power every day lol. Lot of these listed distances seemed gut feeling-wise to be 10-20% longer than how far they really play.
Other Thoughts:
I spent a few minutes chatting with Josh at the pro shop, and he told me there is even more in the works here (9 more holes!), which is amazing, considering how far Sandy Knoll has come in such a short time. This was a 9 holer with natural dirt tees (I believe?) just 2 years ago, and wasn't even a course 4 years ago. 27 holes here? Shut up and take my money!
It's P2P here ($5 county park entry fee), but if you'll be back with any regularity, the annual pass is a no brainer at $30. I believe the annual gets you into sister Washington County course Heritage Trails as well.
Overall, SK is a course I'm glad I took a day of PTO to go shoot, and it was worth every minute of the hr+ drive each way. I'd call this one worthy of significant travel to, even more so, once there's more golf and some of the stuff there working on is finished (2's short tee, for example). I'd love to see the pros tackle this bad boy, it's got that kind of vibe where it'll challenge the best disc golfers out there.
It's P2P here ($5 county park entry fee), but if you'll be back with any regularity, the annual pass is a no brainer at $30. I believe the annual gets you into sister Washington County course Heritage Trails as well.
Overall, SK is a course I'm glad I took a day of PTO to go shoot, and it was worth every minute of the hr+ drive each way. I'd call this one worthy of significant travel to, even more so, once there's more golf and some of the stuff there working on is finished (2's short tee, for example). I'd love to see the pros tackle this bad boy, it's got that kind of vibe where it'll challenge the best disc golfers out there.
