Iowa (Ames/Des Moines) April 29-May 1

[periferalFinn]

Every Spring a group of us travel out of the confines of Mpls/St Paul to some midwest DG destination. We've done Highbridge, Telemark, Des Moines, St Cloud and Duluth/Biwabik.

This year we're thinking we might make our first repeat trip. In 2009 we headed to Des Moines and it was by far our best trip. We played Big Creek/Walnut Ridge on Friday, Pickard/Ewing on Saturday and then played Grandview before we headed back on Sunday.

We're thinking about making a similar trip back this year and are trying to find a way to fit in some of the other courses and be sure we hit Walnut again since we only got one round in in '09. So we were thinking of staying in Ames and playing those 2 courses to get the 'new course' variety. Also we were considering McHose as well but would like some advice. Obviously we'll be spending at least 2 rounds at Walnut again since we all loved it. I think Pickard is out just because we're not sure we want to head that far south again.

Problem is, I read the Des Moines thread recently posted and there was a comment that said the Ames courses weren't even worth playing. So now we're second guessing things. I'd like to see if this is a common opinion? Is there another solid Iowa option worth doing?

 

[grodney]

The Ames courses aren't that bad at all.

The ISU course is flattish after the first few holes. But the holes are pretty good all the way through. It has 2 sets of tees AND 2 sets of PERMANENT pins (at least that's how it was when I was there). Long-to-long isn't going to give 1000-rated players any troubles, but it's certainly more than a birdie-fest for most players.

Gateway has a lot more elevation. It is wooded on the front, and opens up a bit more on the back. 2 sets of tees, the shorts are pretty darn short but the longs provide ample challenge.

The thing about these courses is that they are almost all 1-shot holes. I think ISU is 16 1-shot holes and 2 2-shot holes. I think Gateway is all 1-shot holes. What this means is: Since neither course is stupid-tight, and neither course is stupid-open, these courses are actually "fun". They aren't the multi-hour bruisers with gigantic and arduous walks that will suck the air out of you.

Having said that, one of the biggest problems is that both of these courses will probably be very crowded. Hit them early in the day and you'll be okay. Both are DG-only areas, so you don't have to deal with picnics or playgrounds or walkers or anything -- just a bunch of other players.

 

[periferalFinn]

Fun is definitely good. Since we plan on playing McHose and Walnut Ridge as well I think we can handle 1 shot holes for the most part.

We typically play from longs at all courses, at least the first round. When we came down 2 years ago and played Ewing we played 2 rounds from the longs and then a round from the shorts.

Another question I didn't ask. Typically we play some sort of team game (best disc, alt shot, etc) With that much traffic should we scrap that idea when we play these courses?