Eagles Crossing Skins Match

[brutalbrutus]

Man... that course is amazing

 

[elmexdela]

course looks like a 4/5

come on brutus

opcorn:

 

[smoothplayer]

I would say 4/5. Some good holes, but the rocky paths with OB stakes everywhere looks goofy and not needed. Don't need the OB at all in the woods.If guys throws 80 feet away from the basket, just make them throw it. Don't take it to 25 feet and knock it in. Some of the long wooded holes could be really good with a little wider defined fairway, no OB and just call it a par 4, not par 5. Guys throwing OB every hole isn't enjoyable to watch nor does it even make sense.

Enjoyed the Stokley shot though. Even that hole is a bit goofy. To have to throw that shot or a BH roller to get lucky through the trees is a bit silly.

 

[reezyF]

I was really looking forward to making a trip to EC after hearing all the hooplah when it opened. After watching this skins match footage I am a little let-down to see what the course really is - OB fest. A very scenic OB fest.
Down the stretch several holes were impacted by someone being inches out of bounds in an area that had no obvious reason for being OB. I commonly play solo and just ignore OB but it seems like many holes at EC have the 'fairways' completely defined by OB stakes. It seems that if the insane amount of OB lines are ignored (as i like to do) many holes transform into wide open, or overly tree filled, fairwayless, 700' bombs/poke-and-prays.

Surely these guys own a couple chainsaws right? and If they could plant grass in the 'fairways' surely they can plant a couple trees on the wide open holes right?

And then there's the ponds..... This isnt ball golf where losing a ball in the drink every hole is an inconvenience - this is disc golf where losing a disc can have a huge impact on the round. I get the thrill and beauty of water carries and water danger but it seems overly used here. Placing water carries or water OB on so many holes feels like a guaranteed lost disc or three. I plan to bring a dozen backup drivers to donate to the ponds whenever I do make it there. I still hope to go play Eagles Crossing, but may put EC a little further down the list behind Caliber, Lake Marshall, or even Diamond X.

The skins match itself was interesting. I havent watched Scott much. I too like to forehand the Reverb so that was neat to see - despite Calvin and Brodie mocking Scott for throwing the reverb every hole. Was all the better to see him hit the epic forehand with the reverb in their faces. Perhaps Scott is a loner and walked by himself but I never saw him walking with or really chatting with the young guys - it all had a weird vibe. Almost like Scott was old guy that the other players kind of ignored. And then when he hit the shot it seemed even more awkward - wait- the guy who's not supposed to be here just won????.
I'm not sure how to feel about scott but the emotion in the moment was awesome.

How can vinny be so incredibly skilled but also rarely win? this shoulda been a lock

I dont root for brodie much but still felt bad for him going into the last hole - perhaps woulda been better if he got skunked....

 

[ru4por]

The course is beautiful and looks like a challenge to every level of golfer. The small attention to detail is amazing. I hope they continue and get some real "resort" type amenities built and make this a vacation destination type course. I think the OB there is a bit redundant. I mean 400 ft approach shots in moderate+ wooded holes with OB greens and OB 40 ft past the basket is not needed. Holes 11, 12, 13, 14 are some examples of the top of my head.

 

[Guurn]

In general the course looks like it is coming along nicely and I really enjoyed the skins match. I could see dragging the wife there for a weekend.

Surely these guys own a couple chainsaws right? and If they could plant grass in the 'fairways' surely they can plant a couple trees on the wide open holes right?

And then there's the ponds..... This isnt ball golf where losing a ball in the drink every hole is an inconvenience - this is disc golf where losing a disc can have a huge impact on the round. I get the thrill and beauty of water carries and water danger but it seems overly used here. Placing water carries or water OB on so many holes feels like a guaranteed lost disc or three. I plan to bring a dozen backup drivers to donate to the ponds whenever I do make it there. I still hope to go play Eagles Crossing, but may put EC a little further down the list behind Caliber, Lake Marshall, or even Diamond X.

The skins match itself was interesting. I havent watched Scott much. I too like to forehand the Reverb so that was neat to see - despite Calvin and Brodie mocking Scott for throwing the reverb every hole. Was all the better to see him hit the epic forehand with the reverb in their faces. Perhaps Scott is a loner and walked by himself but I never saw him walking with or really chatting with the young guys - it all had a weird vibe. Almost like Scott was old guy that the other players kind of ignored. And then when he hit the shot it seemed even more awkward - wait- the guy who's not supposed to be here just won????.
I'm not sure how to feel about scott but the emotion in the moment was awesome.

The open fairways with just stakes gave me the impression that they aren't done with them yet. A few rows of bushes mixed in with some trees would make them very interesting. Basically a pick the gap. Trees need time to grow though and it's unfortunate they aren't already existing. The water stuff? Well this isn't meant to be a beginner course and there are alternate teepads with shorter carrys. When I end up there it's unlikely that I'll try to carry the big water, there is just no point. For tournaments it will help with separation. I assume they will fish stuff out regularly. It would be nice if they would call any disc with a name and number on it and let you venmo the shipping cost plus a small fee to get it back. I'm a dreamer.

I've casually followed Scott for a long time. He seems to be doing just fine towards his current goals. Good on him for keeping it going.

 

[Ryan P.]

I love the aesthetics of the course (at least how I see it on video). It's beautiful, and the concrete animals/cake hole/seeded grass/manicured tees/etc make it really nice. The cabins to stay in make it feel like a resort. (Well, like a disc golf resort. I don't want to pay $1k a night for an over the top resort just to play DG, but that's me).

There are a few holes I like (the train hole, maybe it's hole 5? comes to mind). And there are a few nice features I like on some other holes (the "tree bunkers" before the green on 4, the two par 3s that are water carries).

None of them seem like great holes, and some of them seem flukey or poorly designed from a strategic standpoint. I've never been to the course, and walking on a course provides much more nuance, so maybe what I'm about to say is off because I don't know the nuances of the holes, but the artificial OB and just "here's some trees that we randomly left scattered" leaves me thinking that they made it look like a really nice course without actually being a really nice course.

Good hole/course design takes a lot of work, and this course seems like a smack in the face to all of the designers who've worked hard at their craft and put in thousands of hours of work, sometimes tens of thousands of hours. It's definitely not intended to be that way, but the more I watch it, the more it seems like a worse version of the DDO courses.

 

[Luckj]

Good hole/course design takes a lot of work, and this course seems like a smack in the face to all of the designers who've worked hard at their craft and put in thousands of hours of work, sometimes tens of thousands of hours. It's definitely not intended to be that way, but the more I watch it, the more it seems like a worse version of the DDO courses.

McCormack, the designer, isn't exactly some random guy designing the course. I'm sure he's put in as much time as almost any other designer out there and he's designed a bunch of courses, including a handful that have a 4+ rating on here.
Not saying EC is perfect and I'll withhold judgement until I (hopefully) get to play it, but I think it's heading in the right direction. It's a course that acknowledges that disc golf should have a wooded element but also accommodates spectators, which could help keep the DGPT off of ball golf courses. I'd love to see less artificial OB, but for now I choose to hope that it's still a work in progress.

 

[ChrisWoj]

In general the course looks like it is coming along nicely and I really enjoyed the skins match. I could see dragging the wife there for a weekend.

This was my thought too. If the cabins are any good, and if there is some nice hiking, like national/state parks, or museums within an hour or so I could see myself getting something for my wife and I. Any time she decides to take a nap, I get to step outside and play some disc golf.

 

[dmoore1998]

The skins match itself was interesting. I havent watched Scott much. I too like to forehand the Reverb so that was neat to see - despite Calvin and Brodie mocking Scott for throwing the reverb every hole. Was all the better to see him hit the epic forehand with the reverb in their faces.

Just for reference, the forehand through the woods on his winning shot wasn't the reverb. It was his Orange Big Z Force. That's also my forehand disc, so happy to see a forehand legend throwing it as well.

 

[ChrisWoj]

I definitely agree with everyone saying the OB seemed excessive. The course doesn't need a lot of it, especially in the woods.

 

[VictorB]

OB did seem excessive for sure. A lot of those shots looked hard enough without having added OB.

As for a destination/vacation spot - it's 5 hrs to Highbridge for me and 6 to EC. If they really want to be that place, having more than 1 course would be great to see. If I'm driving 6hrs I'm going to Highbridge, Minneapolis, or somewhere I can play a ton of courses. As of right now it didn't look like enough to draw me out of that's the only course.

 

[dmoore1998]

In regards to the OB, a few thoughts:

1. It made the coverage less enjoyable if only because on some holes I had no idea what I was looking at when I saw the tracking shots of the throw. All I see are white stakes everywhere and I have no idea at a quick glance which ones are marking which lines.

2. Some of them just seemed super unnecessary. A 5 foot path across the middle of the fairway...doesn't feel like a good use of OB.

3. A significant portion of the OB seemed to mark off areas that would otherwise be difficult to throw from anyways. Let someone go off-track into the forest, or down a hill, and just play from there. They weren't marking off big open areas to keep bombers from throwing unintended lines.

4. For the skins match, I didn't mind having more OB than usual though. It made things a bit more interesting and separated. So often in these matches I see a hole and immediately think "they'll push this one pretty easily, it's an easy birdie for everyone involved". The biggest downside is that at some points I (and I think Luke, and at time some players) had absolutely no idea what anyone's score on a hole was. Is this putt for the skin? For a push? Is it irrelevant because someone else is going to putt next to score 2 less strokes on the hole?

On a general note, I'm glad the big set of skins was won the way it was. A really tough shot for the win. I can't imagine if it had been won on the hole where Scott & Simon ended up blowing putts on the basket on a rock. Another hole where I had no idea who had what score for the most part because everyone was throwing OB past the basket, missing putts, seemingly giving up or upset because they'd blown their shot only to have another shot when someone else messed up too.

 

[ChrisWoj]

OB did seem excessive for sure. A lot of those shots looked hard enough without having added OB.

As for a destination/vacation spot - it's 5 hrs to Highbridge for me and 6 to EC. If they really want to be that place, having more than 1 course would be great to see. If I'm driving 6hrs I'm going to Highbridge, Minneapolis, or somewhere I can play a ton of courses. As of right now it didn't look like enough to draw me out of that's the only course.

If the cabins are nice - Eagles Crossing is the place I'd go with my wife.
Highbridge Hills is the place I'd go with my disc golf friends.

 

[nothinbuttree]

And then there's the ponds..... This isnt ball golf where losing a ball in the drink every hole is an inconvenience - this is disc golf where losing a disc can have a huge impact on the round. I get the thrill and beauty of water carries and water danger but it seems overly used here. Placing water carries or water OB on so many holes feels like a guaranteed lost disc or three. I plan to bring a dozen backup drivers to donate to the ponds whenever I do make it there. I still hope to go play Eagles Crossing, but may put EC a little further down the list behind Caliber, Lake Marshall, or even Diamond X.

The other issue with the water that may not show up in coverage as much is the down-sloping greens that are near water as well, so your approaches to the green can easily slide or sail into water as well. That is a nice skill element to force very precise up shots for pros, but for us sub 900ers, it can just be lost plastic. I know my limits on drives, and laid up/bailed out on the long water carries where needed, but those approach shots can sneak up on you.

 

[Tyler V]

OB did seem excessive for sure. A lot of those shots looked hard enough without having added OB.

As for a destination/vacation spot - it's 5 hrs to Highbridge for me and 6 to EC. If they really want to be that place, having more than 1 course would be great to see. If I'm driving 6hrs I'm going to Highbridge, Minneapolis, or somewhere I can play a ton of courses. As of right now it didn't look like enough to draw me out of that's the only course.

I think they mentioned a second more wooded course is in the plans for the property. Even with two courses, from what I know about Highbridge, I'm not sure if it competes with that property yet.

It's about an hour and 20 from Harmony Bends if you want to make a loop, and it's on the edge of the St. Louis area if you want to loop that way, though I don't think anything in St. Louis is a 5/5, though New Melle, La Vista, and potentially Bunker are 4.5s in my opinion.

 

[Monocacy]

. . . New Melle, La Vista, and potentially Bunker are 4.5s in my opinion.

I may be passing through that area at some point, so thanks for the recommendations!

Off-topic request: Bunker's DGCR hole info page lists the course length as 113,822 feet, including one hole measuring 65,535' and another 42,012'. Remarkably, par is only 63. Course info page lists course length at a more conventional 6,587'.

Would one of you St. Louis folks kindly correct the (presumably) erroneous distances on the hole info page? Thanks!

 

[Three Putt]

I think they mentioned a second more wooded course is in the plans for the property. Even with two courses, from what I know about Highbridge, I'm not sure if it competes with that property yet.

It's about an hour and 20 from Harmony Bends if you want to make a loop, and it's on the edge of the St. Louis area if you want to loop that way, though I don't think anything in St. Louis is a 5/5, though New Melle, La Vista, and potentially Bunker are 4.5s in my opinion.

The road warrior run would be Foundation-110ish miles to Eagles Crossing-70ish miles to Harmony Bends.

Actually do it the other way around and you can start with bar hopping in Columbia the night before. If I was still in my 20's, I'd be all-in. :thmbup:

 

[Tyler V]

I may be passing through that area at some point, so thanks for the recommendations!

Off-topic request: Bunker's DGCR hole info page lists the course length as 113,822 feet, including one hole measuring 65,535' and another 42,012'. Remarkably, par is only 63. Course info page lists course length at a more conventional 6,587'.

Would one of you St. Louis folks kindly correct the (presumably) erroneous distances on the hole info page? Thanks!

I'll take a look. I know they have new signs on site - I haven't gotten around to going back to take pictures.

 

[seedlings]

I kinda disagree about too much OB for Pros. This card was throwing off the tee knowing there are three other guys who can push. If this were a tournament, tee shots would be placed more carefully and they would be more practiced on lines.

For the casual player, I don't ever want to see OB.