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The River Course reviews
14
0
Makes The Badly Designed Courses Look Like Masterpieces 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Mar 16, 2020
Played the course:once
Pros:
So bad I'm going to start with the cons and come back with the few pros later on.
Cons:
(1.237 Rating) A challenging urban park course that plays along high traffic walkways and the 500 foot wide Chattahoochee river.
- DESIGN - After playing this course, I had to re-evaluate in my head on what I thought a poorly designed course looked like. If the worst designed course I had played was a zero out of ten, then surely this course was a negative six. The issues are colossal and constant. The problems start right away on hole (1) too, which crosses fairway's (2) and (18) and has a high traffic sidewalk inside the circle. Then hole (2). This one throws directly over the top of basket (18). Hole (3), which was a cool shot that was ruined on my play as a fisherman left their baby stroller next to the basket! The basket on (3) is also next to the river. Hole (4) I played timid as the river was at its banks and there was a fisherman near the basket. Hole (5) was swept away in a recent river flood because it was placed too close to the water's edge. Hole (6) is between a busy walking path and the river. It also plays up (15's) fairway. I could go on with my play by play, but I didn't want to write a 100 page report. Just know that non disc golfers and property will come into play on every hole. Hole spacing is terrible with baskets and tees often within 30 feet of each other and there are numerous shared fairways. Disc loss potential will be extraordinarily high when the river level is up. Whomever designed this should never be allowed to design another course. I would advise the city to pull the basket and place them in storage until a new suitable site is found.
- SAFETY HAZARDS - For those that skipped reading my long design con, yes there are safety concerns to both players and non players.
- LOOSE DISC OPPS - Extremely high when the Chattahoochee is at its banks.
- NAVIGATION AND SIGNAGE - It's not possible follow this one without a navigational app. I did not see a course map on site. There are no navigational arrows. The tee signs only provide a hole number and distance, with the distances well off in many cases. Four tee signs were missing on my play.
- TEES - The tees are mostly natural and without a defined throwing line.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - This course is not beginner friendly or even friendly to those with thirty to forty rounds under their belt. Way too many chances to lose a disc or grip lock one into a pedestrian.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - The course is actually really beautiful in a couple of spots with views of downtown Columbus on the other side of the river. This stated, the amount of trash, lack of maintenance and immense river damage far canceled out all of the positive aspects.
- PARKING - Pretty much no parking next to the course
Pros: Stating the below pros is about worthwhile as making the following statement while the ship is going down. "Well... at least it's a nice sunny day."
- CHAINS - 16 of the baskets were in good shape and could be donated to another park to put in a disc golf course.
- CHALLENGING - The water and pedestrian obstacles make for some heart thumping lines. I put the disc back into the bag a few times because I had the common sense not to throw.
- WEATHER - It was a nice sunny day.
- DESIGN - After playing this course, I had to re-evaluate in my head on what I thought a poorly designed course looked like. If the worst designed course I had played was a zero out of ten, then surely this course was a negative six. The issues are colossal and constant. The problems start right away on hole (1) too, which crosses fairway's (2) and (18) and has a high traffic sidewalk inside the circle. Then hole (2). This one throws directly over the top of basket (18). Hole (3), which was a cool shot that was ruined on my play as a fisherman left their baby stroller next to the basket! The basket on (3) is also next to the river. Hole (4) I played timid as the river was at its banks and there was a fisherman near the basket. Hole (5) was swept away in a recent river flood because it was placed too close to the water's edge. Hole (6) is between a busy walking path and the river. It also plays up (15's) fairway. I could go on with my play by play, but I didn't want to write a 100 page report. Just know that non disc golfers and property will come into play on every hole. Hole spacing is terrible with baskets and tees often within 30 feet of each other and there are numerous shared fairways. Disc loss potential will be extraordinarily high when the river level is up. Whomever designed this should never be allowed to design another course. I would advise the city to pull the basket and place them in storage until a new suitable site is found.
- SAFETY HAZARDS - For those that skipped reading my long design con, yes there are safety concerns to both players and non players.
- LOOSE DISC OPPS - Extremely high when the Chattahoochee is at its banks.
- NAVIGATION AND SIGNAGE - It's not possible follow this one without a navigational app. I did not see a course map on site. There are no navigational arrows. The tee signs only provide a hole number and distance, with the distances well off in many cases. Four tee signs were missing on my play.
- TEES - The tees are mostly natural and without a defined throwing line.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - This course is not beginner friendly or even friendly to those with thirty to forty rounds under their belt. Way too many chances to lose a disc or grip lock one into a pedestrian.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - The course is actually really beautiful in a couple of spots with views of downtown Columbus on the other side of the river. This stated, the amount of trash, lack of maintenance and immense river damage far canceled out all of the positive aspects.
- PARKING - Pretty much no parking next to the course
Pros: Stating the below pros is about worthwhile as making the following statement while the ship is going down. "Well... at least it's a nice sunny day."
- CHAINS - 16 of the baskets were in good shape and could be donated to another park to put in a disc golf course.
- CHALLENGING - The water and pedestrian obstacles make for some heart thumping lines. I put the disc back into the bag a few times because I had the common sense not to throw.
- WEATHER - It was a nice sunny day.
Other Thoughts:
What a disaster. It's courses like this that make me question my review methodology. Clearly I don't take off enough points for poor design and safety cause the course felt like a solid 0.5 when leaving. This is the second course I've played in the area (Dinglewood, which I scored a 1.766) and I'd pick off and eat the berries on that small niner again before I'd play this one again. I could not recommend this course to anyone other than to hardcore course baggers. Perhaps a course reviewer will enjoy The River Course too, but only for the fun write-up afterwards.
