Finally, Minnesota

[notapro]

Well, I am finally getting around to some MN disc golf in a few weeks. :thmbup:

It's looking like I'll be driving up Friday night, and playing Saturday thru Wednesday, and heading back to Chicago Wednesday night.

My initial thought is something like:

Fri Drive to East MN
Sat Play in East MN, Drive to St. Cloud
Sun Play in St. Cloud Area
Mon Play in St. Cloud Area/North MN
Tues Play in Greater MN
Wed Play in S MN, Drive Home

-----------------------------------------------------

The courses I'm looking at are, in no particular order:

Minneapolis
Bethel
Lakewood Hills
Elm Creek
Kaposia
Plymouth Creek
The Valley
Blue Ribbon Pines
Bryant Lake
Hyland
Oakwood
Red Oak
Brockway
Alimagnet
Crown College
Acorn

St. Cloud
Calvary Hill
Riverside
Hidden Lake
Millstream
Mayhew Creek
Becker City
Osprey
Sportsmans

Honorable Mentions
Somerset Too far NE
North Hibbing Way too far N
Kenwood Trails Pretty far S
Maiden Shade Way S
Cedar Creek Way S
St Marys Way SE
Todd Way S
Bancroft Way S
Bear Cave Way SE
Twin Creeks Way SE
Ham Lake N
CP Adams SE
Downs Farm SW, Super Private

-----------------------------------------------------

So, right now, just trying to narrow down a loose schedule based on the best or most unique courses. Any suggestions on what I already have or any that I might have missed??? I don't know if I want to head to the Austin area or not... I might just stick to the St. Cloud/Minneapolis area.

TIA!

 

[smarkquart]

What dates? This time of year is very active for tournaments, leagues, and tournament/league series. If you want to play a casual round, it is best to avoid the big tournaments. Conversely, if that is your thing, then we definitely want to point you in the right direction.

 

[notapro]

Definitely NOT trying to do any tourneys or leagues. I am all about quantity. I was going to do my research as best I could to avoid everything; with so many courses it should be easy.

I think my dates are Fri July 20th thru Wed July 25th. The only PDGA tourney I see is at Bear Cave, which is not even in my plans.

Always down to meet up with DGCR brethren of course. :thmbup:

 

[juju]

Notes added below, have fun.

Minneapolis
Bethel Skip
Lakewood Hills Meh, nothing special
Elm Creek Meh, bomber course
Kaposia Must play
Plymouth Creek Definitely skip this one
The Valley Must play
Blue Ribbon Pines Must play
Bryant Lake Funnest course you'll play in the cities
Hyland Meh, bring water
Oakwood Meh, bring garbage bag
Red Oak Skip
Brockway Skip
Alimagnet Skip
Crown College Hidden gem, spotters needed though
Acorn Meh, I say skip

 

[notapro]

^^^ All those courses are probably the minimum I'm going to play in the MN-SP area.

 

[mashnut]

I enjoyed Lakewood and Acorn anyway, nothing amazing but some fun holes on both that are worth playing.

 

[UnitedPuppySlayer]

Lakewood and Acorn are both worth it I think. Acorn needs a makeover pretty bad, though.

 

[TxDiscGolfBoy]

by the way...there's a new course....3-4 years old that's been severely updated. rinky-dink 9 now gone bad ass 18. tee pads, informative hole signs, long and short. in bemidgi. its truely outstanding.

 

[notapro]

by the way...there's a new course....3-4 years old that's been severely updated. rinky-dink 9 now gone bad ass 18. tee pads, informative hole signs, long and short. in bemidgi. its truely outstanding.

Ha, that is WAY too far north for me. Thanks though.

(Also, it's Bemidji, it took me a while to find that ).

 

[TxDiscGolfBoy]

i've got pics of the nine and the new 18...just haven't posted yet. some of you guys should make the drive. if's beautiful.

 

[UnitedPuppySlayer]

I have a few friends that go to school up there, been meaning to go up there to visit them. If I ever do I'll have to check it out.

 

[smarkquart]

^^^ All those courses are probably the minimum I'm going to play in the MN-SP area.

No sarcasm intended, but good luck hitting them all. Courses like Hidden Lake, HSSA, Kaposia, The Valley, and Blue Ribbon Pines are monsters in length (not just holes but additional walking too) and are time consuming.

It can be done, especially if the plan is to keep moving. The best I have ever done at BRP is 50 minutes because I was only carrying three discs and was doing a great job keeping everything in the fairway. A normal round with a group usually takes about 2 to 3 hours.

Again, not to be a dick about it or to rain on what will otherwise be an awesome several days of golfing, but with Minnesota's unpredictable weather and horrendous traffic in the Twin Cities, you may be forced to be pick either quantity or quality, which thankfully the state has numerous in each category.

 

[mashnut]

I did most of the MN-SP courses he listed in 2 days, he'll be just fine.

 

[notapro]

Again, not to be a dick about it or to rain on what will otherwise be an awesome several days of golfing, but with Minnesota's unpredictable weather and horrendous traffic in the Twin Cities, you may be forced to be pick either quantity or quality, which thankfully the state has numerous in each category.

Yeah, if the weather looks crappy, I can always choose another section of the country to visit.

And as far as the traffic, I am coming from Chicago. Piece of cake.

I'm probably looking at 5-6 courses a day, easy. It is nice that the courses are so close together up there; I might be able to surpass my record of 99 unique holes on multiple days.

 

[fergusoma]

Riverside in St. Cloud is one you want to play for sure.

 

[smarkquart]

Yeah, if the weather looks crappy, I can always choose another section of the country to visit.

And as far as the traffic, I am coming from Chicago. Piece of cake.

I'm probably looking at 5-6 courses a day, easy. It is nice that the courses are so close together up there; I might be able to surpass my record of 99 unique holes on multiple days.

Having unfortunately never been to Chicago, I will take your word on it. The best I can ever do right now is compare traffic in Saint Cloud versus here in the Cities. In Saint Cloud, no matter how bad it seemed, I could still get anywhere in the city in less than 15 minutes. For a while I taught in Saint Paul; living in Maple Grove it was a 45 minutes commute to school and often a 3 hour commute home.

If you are playing all day and schedule the trip right, you actually should not have a problem fitting in your list. The only ones I foresee having huge problems getting to are Lakewood Hills and Kaposia. Both suffer from massive road construction zones, especially if you approach Lakewood from the west or Kaposia from the north.

 

[notapro]

Having unfortunately never been to Chicago, I will take your word on it. The best I can ever do right now is compare traffic in Saint Cloud versus here in the Cities. In Saint Cloud, no matter how bad it seemed, I could still get anywhere in the city in less than 15 minutes. For a while I taught in Saint Paul; living in Maple Grove it was a 45 minutes commute to school and often a 3 hour commute home.

Three hours for a 30 mile trip? Oh geez... I didn't think I would have to worry about anything like that. I'll definitely plan to have short drives during peak hours in that case.

If you are playing all day and schedule the trip right, you actually should not have a problem fitting in your list. The only ones I foresee having huge problems getting to are Lakewood Hills and Kaposia. Both suffer from massive road construction zones, especially if you approach Lakewood from the west or Kaposia from the north.

Excellent, good to know, thanks for the tips! :thmbup:

The Twins will be on the road also, so that's good for me.

 

[smarkquart]

Three hours for a 30 mile trip? Oh geez... I didn't think I would have to worry about anything like that. I'll definitely plan to have short drives during peak hours in that case.




Excellent, good to know, thanks for the tips! :thmbup:

The Twins will be on the road also, so that's good for me.

When I taught in Saint Paul, it was only a short stint. I am not going into the reasons why I did not stay, but the commute was not the worst of the problems. I was there during December, so factor in that it was winter. That is why most of my commutes were so long. Most recently, when trying to get from Maple Grove to Fort Snelling, I thought I would jet down 35W from the north, thinking I was going into the city, not out of it, therefore the traffic would not be as bad. I was doing okay until I neared 94 near the Metrodome. It turned into a crawl at that point. Thankfully I was only 10 minutes late for league and the last group had not teed off yet. That was an hour commute, but most of that time was spent in a four mile stretch. Planning wisely should make it easier on you, especially since it looks like you are doing the Cities' courses during Friday and the weekend, right?

 

[JoshEpoo]

Minneapolis
Bethel- nice 10 holer with dual teepads on a really nice piece of land, but semi-private campus. Talk to Craton if you want to play it. He can really bomb and was a student there.
Lakewood Hills- nice 18, got a huge upgrade last year, recommended
Elm Creek- wide open bomber, sorta meh, but worth playing if you do the Three Rivers loop in one day
Plymouth Creek- standard 12 holer, meh
Blue Ribbon Pines- my home course, be happy to show you around. Isn't very close to other courses so it's a little tricky working into a road trip
Bryant Lake- overrated and busy but well groomed and picturesque. Easy course.
Hyland- another bomber with lots of hills
Red Oak- surprisingly nice 10 holer with dual teepads.
Brockway- standard 9 hole with dual tees, meh
Alimagnet- standard 12 hole, meh
Crown College- haven't played it but hear it's nice. Longer course but not very challenging
Acorn- solid 18 but easily the busiest course in the area. Play during off hours

The following courses make the best loop of 3 courses located close to eachother in the Twin Cities:
Kaposia- world championship caliber golf
The Valley- great course with a few meh holes
Oakwood- a step or two below the other 2 but really fun 18 holer

If you've got enough stamina and day light, you should add CP Adams on to that. It's the most underrated 18 holer in the area on this site, while Bryant is by far the most overrated.

I'd be happy to show you around while you're here. I play Lakewood, BRP, and Kaposia the most but I'd be down to play CP and/or Oakwood too.

 

[notapro]

I think I'm going to do the eastern/southeastern MN courses on Saturday, just because I'll have driven 7-8 hours friday night. Maybe hit up the less popular courses. Then Sunday in St. Cloud, hopefully that isn't too busy. Then I'll have Mon-Wed to tear through the rest of the TC.

Or something like that.