I don't understand DGCR reviews/ratings

[enragedmullet]

As an aside, I'm got a nastygram from a course designer because I blasted his course for poor flow/no tee signs. He told me to use UDisc to find my way around. This to me is unacceptable; I will cling to the old-school rules that if I can't show up and find my way around the course without a map or a guide, that is a problem.

I completely 100% agree with this.

 

[Three Putt]

The only exception I find acceptable is a truly private course that's of the "need prior approval to play there," ilk, where you're likely to be guided by the owner, or paired up with someone who knows their way around.

There are quite a few courses, that are technically private, but essentially open to the public (i.e. commercial entities like DG on a bolf course, or similar P2P venues). You shouldn't need a guide to navigate those. If it's at all tricky, they should provide a map on the score card, and sufficient signage to assist navigation.

I mean it's one of those sliding scale things IMO. I played Ozark Mountain many times where it was early spring and not only were there no signs but the tee markings were whatever leftover flags from the Fall Harvest survived the winter. We knew that, though. We knew that until the course prep for OMO in the spring happened we would have to go "I think the tee was over there" from memory several times. We knew after OMO was over we had three weeks before the tall grass ate the course up. It was what it was. If you wanted benches and tees and restrooms and manicured grass, you were in the wrong place. When I reviewed those courses, I reviewed the shots. I wasn't worried about rating amenities. Hell, there were no amenities to rate. Dinging Ozark Mountain over tee signs would have missed the point of the place entirely.

 

[HyooMac]

Of course relying on uDisc assumes that the distances (and pars) in uDisc are accurate. It's very possible they're not. And until the very recent change to accessing course maps and information, ANY user could go in and fiddle with it.

I trust permanent signs most. I trust paper-in-plastic-sleeves signs almost as much. I'm learning to trust my rangefinder.

...and then there's uDisc.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I mean it's one of those sliding scale things IMO. I played Ozark Mountain many times where it was early spring and not only were there no signs but the tee markings were whatever leftover flags from the Fall Harvest survived the winter. We knew that, though. We knew that until the course prep for OMO in the spring happened we would have to go "I think the tee was over there" from memory several times. We knew after OMO was over we had three weeks before the tall grass ate the course up. It was what it was. If you wanted benches and tees and restrooms and manicured grass, you were in the wrong place. When I reviewed those courses, I reviewed the shots. I wasn't worried about rating amenities. Hell, there were no amenities to rate. Dinging Ozark Mountain over tee signs would have missed the point of the place entirely.

Bogey's review of Ozark (Spencer Davis):
Pros:
Watching Three Putt and Tall Paul suck wind climbing the hills

Cons:
Owner said "the grass is "kinda tall, but it's playable." Grass was 3 freakin' feet tall. Had to make a separate trip to watch Three Putt and Tall Paul suck wind.

Chiggers and Ticks.

Other Thoughts:
The good news is the chiggers didn't affect my enjoyment while I was actually playing those courses. It wasn't until I got home that the damned chigger bites started driving me nuts.

 

[Monocacy]

Excellent navigation improves my enjoyment of a course; poor navigation detracts a smaller amount as long as there is reliable cell signal. Before UDisc, poor navigation would have been a much more significant demerit.

Speaking of navigation, why don't more courses use tape or a plastic sleeve on one of the basket spokes to point the way to the next tee? Seems like such a simple and effective way to improve navigation for new players and course baggers.

 

[Three Putt]

Excellent navigation improves my enjoyment of a course; poor navigation detracts a smaller amount as long as there is reliable cell signal. Before UDisc, poor navigation would have been a much more significant demerit.

Speaking of navigation, why don't more courses use tape or a plastic sleeve on one of the basket spokes to point the way to the next tee? Seems like such a simple and effective way to improve navigation for new players and course baggers.

Multiple placements. You move the basket and now the tape is pointing the wrong way. Lining up the sleeves of the placements so that it works involves getting everyone on the same page. The last course I worked on had set half the sleeves before anyone sent me a message that they had gotten there and started early. :\ So much for working out the tape thing.

 

[DeanMoriarty]

Multiple placements. You move the basket and now the tape is pointing the wrong way. Lining up the sleeves of the placements so that it works involves getting everyone on the same page. The last course I worked on had set half the sleeves before anyone sent me a message that they had gotten there and started early. :\ So much for working out the tape thing.

At that point, they might as well turn it into a gimmick course and just advertise it as a maze-style course where the object isn't so much actually shooting at the baskets but more so finding the next teepad.

 

[Three Putt]

Bogey's review of Ozark (Spencer Davis):
Pros:
Watching Three Putt and Tall Paul suck wind climbing the hills

Cons:
Owner said "the grass is "kinda tall, but it's playable." Grass was 3 freakin' feet tall. Had to make a separate trip to watch Three Putt and Tall Paul suck wind.

Chiggers and Ticks.

Other Thoughts:
The good news is the chiggers didn't affect my enjoyment while I was actually playing those courses. It wasn't until I got home that the damned chigger bites started driving me nuts.

It's very strange that there has been only one time in my disc golf career that I was so tired that I laid down to die, and when I didn't die right away I opened my eyes to find that Tallpaul had also laid down to die.

BTW, the fact that you said "You better get up because I'm not giving mouth-to-mouth to anybody" was more reassuring than motivating. If you had sounded like you were considering giving me mouth-to-mouth, I would have gotten off the ground much more quickly. :|

Unspoken is the horrible case of Montezuma's Revenge I got from the rando bucket of water that I happily drank from after running out of drinking water that day. Goddamn that was a fun day. :thmbup:

 

[Monocacy]

Multiple placements. You move the basket and now the tape is pointing the wrong way. . . .

Ah, thanks. Another beautiful theory slain by an ugly fact.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Excellent navigation improves my enjoyment of a course; poor navigation detracts a smaller amount as long as there is reliable cell signal. Before UDisc, poor navigation would have been a much more significant demerit.

Speaking of navigation, why don't more courses use tape or a plastic sleeve on one of the basket spokes to point the way to the next tee? Seems like such a simple and effective way to improve navigation for new players and course baggers.

I agree with everything you said, but I don't want to give poor nav, lack of signage any less of a ding because of U-Disc.

Completely agree with painting or otherwise adorning basket spokes to point toward next tee. Can even be done fairly well for dual tee courses. It's a simple, elegant, low cost solution.


...but it gets tougher on courses with rotating basket placements or other complex layouts. I can't recall what course it was in my travels, but I remember playing a course with rotating pin placements, and the tape on the spokes was completely misleading, because whomever moved the baskets didn't bother to making the takes spoke in the general direction of the next tee. :doh: Seems obvious to us as players, but who knows if anyone told the person who had to do the work?

Harder still with rotating pins and dual tees.

Misleading nav is far more frustrating than bad nav.


3P beat me to it.

 

[Countchunkula]

I've only used the U-disc navigation once, at Northwoods Black, and it was off by more than 100'. Ended up wandering around looking at basket and tee sign numbering until I figured out where I was supposed to go. The place I got lost was near where the two courses border one another.

Small sample size for sure. For all I know it works everywhere else. I usually don't have trouble figuring out where to go, so I don't have the opportunity to test.

 

[davetherocketguy]

I've only used the U-disc navigation once, at Northwoods Black, and it was off by more than 100'. Ended up wandering around looking at basket and tee sign numbering until I figured out where I was supposed to go. The place I got lost was near where the two courses border one another.

Small sample size for sure. For all I know it works everywhere else. I usually don't have trouble figuring out where to go, so I don't have the opportunity to test.

Don't put the blame on UDisc. Its really a limit of the technology itself. GPS signals can be degraded by all sorts of things like foliage, buildings and all sorts of large objects. Not only that don't forget that UDisc locations are user submitted so if the original user has a poor signal they'll be submitting a inaccurate location. So if the original submitted location is inaccurate and your phone is inaccurate 100' off is not surprising to me in the least.

 

[Three Putt]

I've only used the U-disc navigation once, at Northwoods Black, and it was off by more than 100'.

Sounds like one of my drives.

 

[nothinbuttree]

Sounds like one of my drives.

Or the first of your three putts?

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Regardless of technical limitations, or whatever...

Any designer/installer whose plan for players navigating the course is for them to use U-Disc, ought to be tied to a post 25 feet in front of the tee in a longest drive competition.

 

[WD09]

I'm got a nastygram from a course designer because I blasted his course for poor flow/no tee signs. He told me to use UDisc to find my way around. This to me is unacceptable; I will cling to the old-school rules that if I can't show up and find my way around the course without a map or a guide, that is a problem.

This confirms my fear that some are relying on players having UDisc when they design a course. This is bad for new players who haven't reached that level of App-centric life in disc golf, and also for guys like me who want to get away from the hassles of electronic life while discing.

Also, it creates more of the comic scenes I often see, where a group of players is wandering around with their heads down, using a glowing rectangle as a divining rod, while ignoring the obvious trail or even the giant wooden arrow pointing the way to the next tee pad.

 

[Three Putt]

Regardless of technical limitations, or whatever...

Any designer/installer whose plan for players navigating the course is for them to use U-Disc, ought to be tied to a post 25 feet in front of the tee in a longest drive competition.

I mean I get it. I had a course in the ground for 11 years before it got tee signs. There was no money. I'm actually shocked that it got tees and signs before it got pulled.

I knew it was a problem, though. When people called me on it, I didn't go "Well, I paint the tees and flag them every week so that should be good enough for you", because it wasn't good enough. The course needed some damn tee signs. I spent 11 years trying to make it happen. The guy could have just said "we don't have the money for tee signs but I'm working on it" and that wouldn't change my rating but it would soften my review. Acting like it's my fault for not using an app when your course has no tees is what ticked me off.

 

[davetherocketguy]

Regardless of technical limitations, or whatever...

Any designer/installer whose plan for players navigating the course is for them to use U-Disc, ought to be tied to a post 25 feet in front of the tee in a longest drive competition.

What??? There are people who do this???

Totally agree on the punishment...that's asinine

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Three Putt mentioned in post #137, some designer who said that.

 

[chris deitzel]

The course is extinct. I'm the one that reported it cause I was so glad it was gone.

That makes no sense to me as I played it a few months ago and had one of the best disc golf experiences of my life.