Also, the Bookstore on campus sells discs, so check it out if you are in need of some plastic. Follow the main road into Campus (Inner Loop) past the front parking lot. Enter the double-doors of the first, all-glass building you see on the right. The bookstore is on your right as soon as you enter the doors.
The new nine holes across the street are a totally different feel, and since they are fairly far way from the normal 18 hole course, I refuse to consider them part of the same course. Nobody plays them as 27 holes by finishing each round on the 18 with a walk over to the new 9. It's doable, but a bit too far to make sense, especially when, from hole 18, you have to walk by Tee 1 to cross the street to new holes anyways, hence its a separate course, IMO. Also, the plan is to expand the new 9 to a full 18 by year's end, so once that happens, it will be a distinct, different course, and thus deserve a entry in DGCR and a separate review. Until then, its more like a Bonus 9 on the original course, but still deserves some kind of special treatment, which brings me to:
BONUS 9 "Prairieside" REVIEW (3.0/5.0)
Nice new baskets are in good shape, same double-chain style as original 18. A few of them are numbered. Dual tees are dirt. Long tee's marked with worn spot in the ground, and a wooden stake and/or orange flags. Short tees are harder to find, marked with faint orange "]" spray painted on ground, usually worn grass is also telltale sign.
This is a totally different feel from the front 18. This area plays up and along a large hill, with scattered trees and bushes on the fairways, and fields of prairie grass for rough (hence the name), very different than the thick wooded canopy you are used to in the other 18.
Its more open than the regular course, but also longer. Like the wooded course, Prairieside is very well designed to force a variety of shots, and the wind is a factor on every hole.
Despite it's generally more open nature, trees are in play on every hole here, and many of the baskets on Prairieside are well-protected with multiple short trees, forcing a variety of spike hyzers and curves. Also present are several blind tee shots and hillside pins, even a forced mando around a giant dead tree. The hill that half the holes on this course shoot up or down brings more drastic elevation changes than anything present on the Woods course.
From the short tees, this course is like a longer UW-Whitewater, but with more drastic curves and better protected pins. From the longs, it is all that plus a great opportunity to flex your Max-D, which the woods course does not really allow, while still forcing control and some variety of shots. On this course, its about placing your drives, similar to holes 1-4 on the Woods course, but with shule on both sides of the fairway, vs an open field
On the whole, it is less technical than the Woods, and not as difficult overall. However, the holes are fun and fairly interesting in their own right, and offer a nice change of pace for those frustrated with shooting through all the narrow windows across the road.
If Prairieside were a separate course, I would give it 3 out of 5 discs. A good, fun, well-designed 9-hole course, but not as challenging or memorable as the original. However, if you're here, it's definitely worth your while to check out these new 9 for the different look and feel they provide.