Courses With Manicured Turf

[jeffmonty]

Grass does inevitably need to be cut. That being said any course that looks "manicured" as opposed to simply maintained is a HUGE turnoff for me.

I'm into rough courses with a very real element of environmental hostility. So regardless of a course's actual difficulty level being manicured gives it a wimp aesthetic.

I'm with you. Although, not a huge turnoff, as I don't mind throwing off cut/manicured grass or playing courses in well maintained parks, I just don't prefer them. Nor am I a fan of courses on bolf courses.

But in the spirit of this thread, here is one of our local courses that permanently went in this spring. Nothing but manicured fairways.

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=8981

 

[curmudgeonDwindle]

What an amusing thread.

Given my background, my immediate response is that this idea of extant disc golf courses which are 'manicured' is patently ridiculous. After a thought, I realize like a lot of things in life, we are actually speaking about a spectrum of possibility or a standard distribution, if you will.

The vast majority of disc golf courses reside on the far left side of the 'manicured' spectrum. Period. Mown turf hardly counts as 'manicured', even if it done so at regular intervals. Moreover, even within the ball golf world there is a 'manicured' spectrum. For example, compare your local public ball golf course with Augusta National and you see my point.

But I guess if it's mown and fairly filled in with green plant material, that counts as 'manicured' in the disc golf scene. Any disc golf courses out there with a $500K or $1mil annual budget solely for course maintenance? Ever heard of bonsai?

Now that's 'manicured'...but maybe by the time I die, I can look forward to a really well kept disc golf course. I sure hope so...

 

[jskew113]

The course closest to my house always has the grass in the park mowed properly during the growing season. The course is almost unplayable this time of year due to the posion ivy that is everywhere. Keeping the grass cut is a start, but there is more to it. Doesn't help the city is all but actively against course improvement.

The ECU course is fantastic. That whole complex is top notch.

 

[TheBogeyMan]

Fox Run at Smuggler's Notch, Vermont! Played a tournament there this past weekend, and was thoroughly impressed with the course. The grass was perfectly manicured and the turf tee pads were amazing as well!

 

[armiller]

I hadn't seen this thread before. But when the title popped up, I immediately thought of Branson Cedars (Treehouz) because I just played it this past weekend. Funny that the OP mentioned it as well. It wasn't so much the fairways, but the novel use of preexisting golf greens that made me think of it.

If your course has grass, it's better cut than not. As a side note, I prefer courses where the fairways are better manicured than other parts of the park. Milo seemed to do this in the recent BSF 2017, and Treehouz was similar. When the park is so manicured that it's impossible to be off the fairway, that's definitely not a plus.

Negatives of manicured: 1) allergies stink when playing freshly mowed courses, 2) cut grass gets everywhere and can make for an annoying round when combined with rain or dew, and 3) those darn chiggers seem to love manicured grass! (scratch, scratch, scratch...)

 

[DavidSauls]

Negatives of manicured: 1) allergies stink when playing freshly mowed courses, 2) cut grass gets everywhere and can make for an annoying round when combined with rain or dew, and 3) those darn chiggers seem to love manicured grass! (scratch, scratch, scratch...)

I can attest that chiggers love tall grass on a decidedly un-manicured course, too. I'm waiting for the welts to callous into something they can't bite into anymore.

 

[armiller]

I can attest that chiggers love tall grass on a decidedly un-manicured course, too. I'm waiting for the welts to callous into something they can't bite into anymore.

Lol true. Suddenly those Arizona or high California desert courses seem like the way to go. Next time let's go with a flamethrower instead of a lawnmower while carving out a course. Or maybe just astro-turf it up.

If chiggers will be a problem on any course with grass, at least manicured courses are a little less hospitable to ticks.

 

[Chaz58]

Grass does inevitably need to be cut. That being said any course that looks "manicured" as opposed to simply maintained is a HUGE turnoff for me.

I'm into rough courses with a very real element of environmental hostility. So regardless of a course's actual difficulty level being manicured gives it a wimp aesthetic.

There's a course very near me that was opened last year (put in and "maintained" by the park district of that town). The grass/weeds off the fairways is between 2 to 4 feet high right now. Took a group of 4 of us several hours just to complete the 18 holer because we spent easily over an hour just searching for any discs that happened to miss the fairway. Even a disc just a couple of feet into the rough was a 50/50 chance of finding it at best. I lost a driver (never found) but found 2 other discs in my search. The place will soon be empty if they don't get their act together and cut down some of that rough because it is a great place for losing discs (again - the place is maintained by a park district and not volunteers). All you see are peeps out there searching for their discs if they have had a shot that missed the fairways. We won't be going back any time soon. My guess is that if you walked all the rough areas just to look for lost discs for a day you might be able to find enough to fill out a bag. This course was put in where an old farm field used to be so when it has been rainy for several days in a row the course will also stay VERY muddy for a good couple of weeks as well. Think there is a lot of clay underneath the topsoil that keeps the water from soaking in so you can also find yourself ankle deep in water in the middle of some fairways while playing if it hasn't been a couple of weeks for the course to dry out. Should also mention that a lot of the trees on the course are the old farmland type with the 2 inch thorns on them. That should be a rough enough course for ya. Also - no porta-johns, benches, garbage cans there either.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Burchfield Pk (Devils Den course) near Lansing, MI has well maintained cut grass. I probably mentioned it in my review.

Memorial Park in Frankenmuth, MI is wonderfully maintained by the parks crew. Since it is a city park the crews are there mowing frequently during the summer months. The mowers are even respectful of the disc golfers, waiting until you clear the area before moving in with the mowers. At least that has been my experience there.

I agree with both of these, but have to add Hudson Mills, Indy Lake, and Rolling Hills to this list of courses in SE MI. Most of the Metroparks and both Wastenaw County Parks do decent job staying on top of mowing, but around hear Hudson Mills really sets the bar when it comes to consistently having fairways well mowed and looking great.


Kensington... not so much. :\