Describe Your Perfect Course

[Monocacy]

For me a “perfect” course is all about the quality and variety of the disc golf and the beauty of the course. I prefer playing in the woods, but with a variety of fairway widths, shapes, hazards, obstacles, and elevations. Extreme elevation can be fun but rolling hills are fine. Throwing downhill and walking uphill is better than the opposite.

Good tee pads are important. Lack of crowds and feeling like you have a beautiful bit of nature to yourself is a big positive. Bonus points for good tee signs (including pin position indicators) and for not needing a map to navigate the first time through.

A perfect course allows you to play it as anything from a high-quality pitch-and-putt to an epic distance monster. Some days you want to battle the ultimate challenge, and some days you want a round full of challenging birdies and ace runs. This can be tough to design on one layout, so two courses on site would check this box for me.

Dog-friendly is a bonus for me. And for my dog.

A course that can be played year round is closer to perfection than a course that is only playable seasonally. A perfect course does not have excessive ticks, biting insects, or poison ivy.

I have zero interest in disc golf courses becoming more like ball golf courses. Also zero interest in amenities like bag hangers, trash cans, etc. Different folks will value different things. I’m OK with that.

[ThrowBot]

Agree with a lot of what's been said already. A few more thoughts:

With regards to water:

Water hazards add some scenic value, and also a certain type of challenge, but nobody likes playing the rest of their round without a favorite disc that unfortunately found its way into the drink. Roped off OB in an open field accomplishes a challenge that is technically similar, but the risk of a lost disc is much lower. (However, also not nearly as pretty, and unnatural roped OB is often considered too "contrived".)

A good compromise would be water that is shallow enough to wade in and find your disc in a few minutes. Maybe some long rakes available that can be used to retrieve discs within 10-15' of shore. I'm sure that are better options here, but my point is that an ideal course would have the aesthetic of water hazards without the punishment of losing your disc.

With regards to tee areas:

Some of the amenities that I'd like to see at every tee:

• Broom to sweep off leaves/snow/whatever
• Shovel for thicker snow and ice. Heck, maybe a bucket of salt in the winter.
• Garbage Can (ok, maybe every other tee, or every 3rd tee would be sufficient)
• Boot scraper/cleaner would be pretty sweet.
• Bench, or maybe even 2 benches.
• Maybe structures over the benches, to provide shade in good weather and keep the precip off in worse weather.
• Signage (obviously)

This level of infrastructure is one of the reasons why I'd advocate for alternate pins rather than alternate tees. Just installing the tee itself is not all of the work, there are other costs to finish out the tee area, and ongoing work (emptying trash, shoveling) for each tee.

With regards to the "ideal" amount of elevation:

More is almost always better, in my opinion. Diamond X has holes with 200' elevation drop; no one ever gets bored of stepping up to those tees. It's true that you can only really have one hole like that in an 18 hole round. And also true that it's quite a hike getting down. And also true that you have a number of smaller uphill holes (or hikes between holes) to pay off that one massive drive.

But all that having been said, it's so worth it.

Also, having a lot of elevation doesn't just mean the overall change from tee to basket. You can have a hole with zero net elevation change, but plays over and down the backside of a hill...or across a large valley...or with an aggressive side-slope the entire way. Lots of interesting choices can be created with elevation change incorporated into green designs. My point is, elevation can create a vast array of fun and unique challenges; it doesn't all boil down to "throw uphill!" and "throw downhill!"

With regards to hole lengths and distribution of pars:

I agree with Knice (and probably others) on having the distribution slanted towards the Par 3's, including some ace runs. You can have legit ace run opportunities that include risk/reward decisions, so they don't just play as gimme 2's. I like the idea of nine 3's, six 4's, and three 5's for a total of 66.

Also, the Par 4's and 5's had better have some well defined fairways and landing zones. A wide open and flat hole would have to be pretty dang long to justify a par of 5, but that hole also sounds like a bunch of repetitive throws. Not that fun in my book.

Don't get me wrong, huge bombs in wide open spaces can be fun, but a bunch in a row doesn't sound like good golf. A multi-throw hole can include at least one open bomb shot, but that should come before/after some sort of technical line or placement challenge. (Or, both before AND after some sort of technical line or placement challenge. Now we're talking good golf!)

Random idea to make filmed rounds better:

This next idea is my response to the dichotomy that's becoming obvious as more and more tournament coverage becomes available. It seems like there are 2 types of courses: courses that are too wide open but relatively easy to film, and cool/technical courses that are hard to film well.

One way to get the best of both worlds would be designed areas to locate cameras. These would be spots that have good views down throwing lanes, or maybe strategically located at corners in the fairways. Elevated structures would be awesome. Obviously, camera zones need to be located so that they don't obstruct fairways. These spots might need to be otherwise protected (mandos?) so that the designed filming lanes don't become unintended alternate fairways.

[wolfmandragon]

This
The highlands surrounding Eilean Donan Castle on the Isle of Skye

[Treeplant]

Originally Posted by wolfmandragon

This
The highlands surrounding Eilean Donan Castle on the Isle of Skye

It's got an okay pro shop.

[thatdirtykid]

Par 72
2 holes sub 300'
1 multiple routes to the basket but steepish hill by the pin, you have to control speed/angles
1 tighter fairway with dense rough
5 or 6 par 3 in the 300-400' range
Some are good 3s some are gold level must gets.
Rest of par 3s are decently difficult 400+ holes that are mixed openish/wooded.
Par 4s and 5s force some sort of line or landing zone, but no 90* fairway bends.

[thrembo]

Originally Posted by thatdirtykid

Par 72
2 holes sub 300'
1 multiple routes to the basket but steepish hill by the pin, you have to control speed/angles
1 tighter fairway with dense rough
5 or 6 par 3 in the 300-400' range
Some are good 3s some are gold level must gets.
Rest of par 3s are decently difficult 400+ holes that are mixed openish/wooded.
Par 4s and 5s force some sort of line or landing zone, but no 90* fairway bends.

Sounds like you are describing Addison Oaks in Michigan. https://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=473

[air show]

Four 9 hole courses with a club house in the center so one could play one 9 and decide which of the other 3 nine hole courses to play depending on weather, or other circumstances. Or play 27 or all 36 holes. Also would want to safari through out all 4 courses.

[thrembo]

Originally Posted by air show

Four 9 hole courses with a club house in the center so one could play one 9 and decide which of the other 3 nine hole courses to play depending on weather, or other circumstances. Or play 27 or all 36 holes. Also would want to safari through out all 4 courses.

Turkey Lake course in Orlando, minus the clubhouse.

[Sunday Mike]

First of all I would like to see a nice piece of property when I pull up. A practice basket by the parking lot is also nice.
Then I'd like 2 sets of concrete tees per hole, and have multiple pin locations.
As for the course I want enough trees to make it interesting, but not enough to turn it into plinko golf. There needs to be some elevation changes, but not too many. Maybe a small waterway running through the park, but not enough water to make it daunting. I also want holes around 320' and less. Hey, I have a noodle arm. A few birdies would be nice.
Finally, nice new baskets with a deep tray and no yellow band around the top.
Yeah, that'll do pig.

[knettles]

Originally Posted by DavidSauls

You've got 3 general categories there: The land, the design, and the amenities.

For the land---as much variety as possible. Big elevation and level spots. Open areas, old growth woods, dense woods. Water, both creeks and ponds. And trickiest of all---lots of unique features: boulders and rock outcrops, twists in the creeks, huge trees, steep slopes.

But I like wind, and hope to have some significantly windy spots. They add challenge, particularly mental challenge.

For the design---This is affected by whom the course is designed for. Designing for everyone (multiple tees) involves compromises; better to design for a target skill level. In this case, your skill level, since you're the one who will care most. People a step better or worse will also enjoy it. Compromise on anyone else.

Unless you have room to create more than 1 layout. My ideal course has multiple layouts; but that's more money and a lot more work.

Ideally, a layout that loops back to the parking lot mid-round.

For the amenities---don't really matter to me. But I suppose a clubhouse/store, and an outdoor deck or lounging area, would be included.

*

Have fun with your search and subsequent project. Look for the best land, then let that land dictate much of the rest. Luckily, the best disc golf land is often the worst land for other uses, and thus cheaper.

Do you think that's always the case? In general, I'd say experienced golfers are more picky about course design than beginners. So, I feel like there's a lot of expert level courses that could/do play perfectly well for beginners just by having a set of short tees. It doesn't affect the experienced players any, and works well for beginners.

Now I would agree that trying to add long tees to a course designed for beginner/intermediate players often makes sacrifices in quality, but I think it's perfectly fine to do the other way around. Just curious on your input.

Also, for my perfect course, the key is variety. Variety with EVERYTHING. Length, elevation, foliage, water hazards, shot type, etc.