Panther's Lair @ Potomac Middle School - Dumfries, VA

[G Bud]

Panther's Lair @ Potomac Middle School, 3130 Panther Pride Drive, Dumfries, VA 22026

This course will be set up temporarily for public preview on July 10th (11 - 7) and July 11th (9 - 5).
Please come play our design and tell us what you think.​

We are very much down the development road on this one. The above picture is not installed but the property is marked and we are moving towards installation. The club Forum where you can find the course thread is: http://dgcnv.manaze.com/forum/index.php This is the Northern VA DG Club forum and you might have to register to view the forum. This course thread is under the "Other Courses" Menu.
The property consists of three elevations with the school on the highest, a good 40 - 50' lower is the football field and finally a similar drop to the soccer field. Because of the fields, trees don't come into play much. Yellow OB are 8' Chain-link fences. The white tee #6 would be our signature hole. (in pic #3, the tee is on the hill behind the bleachers.) When finally installed, the course will not be playable during school hours or after school activities.
I am the music department chair and teach orchestra & guitar at the school. We don't have very much DG going on here in Prince William County, VA. I know of two other middle schools in county that have DG courses. I mentioned this to the PE department chair in passing one day in April. She presented it to the Principal and 24 hours later, I found myself with the task of designing a course on campus. I owe a ton of thanks to Dave Steger and Tim Beron for their help and expertise on this project. We probably won't be this close without them. :clap:
The Principal is funding the project and we are working with the EDGE organization in purchasing the equipment. These folks have been great and we are just waiting for the books to open on the new school year to place our equipment order with them.
The design was near complete prior to the end of school so I couldn't resist but to get some kids on the course. We found out that the elementary school across the parking lot had Frisbee Golf targets (that's what is on the box) and we borrowed these just to get play started. They are little more then a big fish net on PVC piping but they were definitely better then nothing. My 8th graders were really jacked with the activity and most came out the four days we played. Some pic are attached.

Upon follow up with EDGE we found that the DisCatcher Pros are on back ordered until September but they will send us the installation sleeves so we can get the major part of installation done in the next few weeks. Tees will be natural and have to be under the mower line. So they will be a basic toe-line with a 4' pressure treated half round flanked by tee colored pavers with tee number & distance. Tee installation will begin next week.
So as mentioned at the front end, we are impatient and are gathering baskets to set this course up to be played by the public. It is designed to be player friendly from beginner to pro level players. We even have a super secret Blue Tee layout. We don't plan to get to that until what you see in the current picture is complete. So plans for growth are already in the works.
This will not be our only preview week this summer. But we hope if you are in the MD/DC/NoVa metro area, you'll stop by and check us out. :thmbup:

 

[G Bud]

Preview Weekend Recap

Our temporary set up, though attended by just a few, went very well and people came back to play a second day. We were up against a good size area tourney so many top, competitive players were unable to attend. We are considering setting up the design again next Sunday (7/18). If the interest to play the course is there, I think we will go for it. PM me if this applies to you.

Not much action from the green tees but the best scores were a -7 from the red tees and a -6 from the white tees. But the really best score was seeing that the design is solid and people enjoy playing it. Can't wait until it is permanent.

 

[Radarx]

I will be playing Giles run next Sunday in the Lorton area next weekend, Should have enough time to run down a couple exits to Dumfries. Think its about 15-20 min drive from Giles.

 

[G Bud]

I will be playing Giles run next Sunday in the Lorton area next weekend, Should have enough time to run down a couple exits to Dumfries. Think its about 15-20 min drive from Giles.

Even quicker if traffic is good. Hope we'll see ya!

 

[G Bud]

No Play On Sunday

Just got the word from my Boss and we will not be able to open the course this Sunday, 7/18. For now our efforts will focus on Installation. :thmbup:

Stay Tuned! opcorn:

 

[G Bud]

Installation begins

Spent the weekend stenciling bricks for the tee markers.

We're going with natural tees basically with a toe line. Add a 4 ft piece of 2X4 pressure treated and here's what the final product should look like.

The exposed wood will be painted white once installed. Installation begins tomorrow.

I also spoke with the folks at EDGE. They are confident they will be shipping us equipment later this week and we should start getting it late next week. So the ball is rolling and we enter the next phase - Installation.

 

[G Bud]

1st day of Tee installation.

This is a little tougher task than I thought it would be. But it still needs to get done. Knocked out #1 on Tuesday & #2 today. With the Virginia heat and humidity, my body will not let me do more than three at one shot. So we'll just do one hole at a time. Sure glad it's only a 9 hole. Hole 3 on Friday.

Here's what they look like once in the ground. I think they will work great!:thmbup:

1st one in!

Then came red.

The White tee for 1 is on the side walk so it has a little different set up. But here is the white tee 4 which was in the area.

The fun continues on Friday with Hole #3. opcorn:

 

[chrishysell]

How much did the bricks set you back? I have been wanting to do something like that at Dorey Park.

 

[G Bud]

Tee markers

How much did the bricks set you back? I have been wanting to do something like that at Dorey Park.

The bricks are retaining wall caps. I think Lowe's calls them Castle wall caps. They run about $1.84 a brick. (54 bricks in all to do three tees for nine holes.) My principal was worried about kids pulling them up but the bricks are a good 3 inches thick and the rough sides I hope will help to set them in the ground and make them harder to pull up.
Then 8 ft pressure treated 2X4s cut in half for 4 ft toe lines. (14) The paint I had sitting around the house so no cost there. All totaled was about $175.00 for materials.
I went with this due to the fact that any tee stuff had to below the mower cut line and we couldn't put signs or raised materials around the playing fields. This was a good cheap solution. Let me know if you need some help or have more questions.

 

[chrishysell]

That #4 is huge. You would need bigger blocks if you had an 18 hole course. I'm going to do something similar. I think i'll skip the board at the end. It will become a nuisance eventually.

 

[G Bud]

The hole number is a 6" stencil & the distance are 2". I'm sure you could go smaller with a 4" or 5" number for double digits.

 

[Tortuga]

Any update about this course? I live in the NOVA area and would like to play it when everything is up and running. Thanks in advance.

 

[G Bud]

The latest

Hey, sorry for the delay in keeping things updated. I'm back teaching school and I pulled a ligament or something in my heel and it has slowed both course work and DG play. But I think I'm healed enough to get back to the course work. SO I am hoping to get back at it this Friday after school by doing the three tees for #6. Since football & soccer practice has started, I can only do course work on the weekends.
As for our targets, we are stuck in the politics of a school division who with budget cuts are a bit short handed. First it took us a while to find out who to contact to place the work order. We got bounced around from dept. to dept. until finally we got our contact. I actually heard from our contact today and it looks like we are waiting for Risk Management to give the go ahead. They will be looking at the two middle schools currently with courses in the county to see if they find any issues. I'm am confident that our design is solid and issues, if any, will be minimal.
If the installation of the targets continues to be delayed, I'm going to talk with my principal to see if we can do another temp set up weekend to keep the buzz going. Thanks for your interest on our project.

 

[G Bud]

Even More Latest

So I was given a message this monring to call Risk Management and so I did. They wanted to come check things out and see a demo of DG. I passed on my planning periods and and set up two of the Traveler on hole #1 and #5. At 12:20 my RM contact arrived and the tour and demo began. He was very much impressed with what we have done to this point and gave us the Risk Management Thumbs up. :thmbup: He seemed to show an interest in DG and we chatted for quite a while about the sport.
So we are good to go from a saftey stand point. I asked what the next step was and he said to email him the Work order number and the link to EDGE. He would then give the dept. with the work order a call and let them know that they have gaven their blessing and to procede with the installation of the targets. :thmbup:
So now we are back to the waiting game to get the targtes installed but at least we have crossed one more huddle towards our goal. :hfive:

 

[G Bud]

The wheels move so slow sometimes.

Wow, we've been waiting a while on this one. :wall: The latest was about two weeks ago when I heard from PWCS which said that we had the blessing of risk management to go ahead and install the targets. They also recommended a contractor to do the job. We've been waiting for weeks just to get a pat on the back and a good luck!?! We really just need someone to come dig the holes. The installation sleeves are a fairly easy task in comparison. SO I called the suggested contractor and asked for two price quotes. One for a full install of the targets and one for just digging holes. My principal wants both quotes and since she pays the bills she gets the final word. She is getting as impatient as I am which is good. :thmbup:
On other news, the tee marker installation has been going just as slowly but has been moving forward. Recently installed a couple more and we are currently 7 of 9 holes with tee markers on all three tees. Only 2 more holes and 6 more tees to go. This part of the project may be completed this weekend depending on the weather. Definately by the end of the month we will have places to throw from. Now if we can just get some movement on the targets we'd be good to go. :wall: opcorn:

 

[G Bud]

Phase II near complete

We've been having some great weather here in VA and it was all I could do not to go push some plastic. :\ But I was a good boy and so the tee markers for #8 went in on Saturday. One more hole and three more markers and phase II (tee installation) will be complete.
Still in a holding pattern about the target install but I'll be focusing all efforts in that direction next week. We're getting close.
Close enough that I will be asking the Principal next week if we can do another temp set up weekend like in July. Should be real easy with the tee markers in and the baskets already lined up. I'll be asking for Nov. 13-14 so keep an eye out for that announcement. Geeze, I hate baby steps!

 

[G Bud]

Temp set up is a go! Come play 11/13 &14!!

:clap:The Panther's Lair will be open for play on November 13th & 14th from 9AM - 4PM :clap:
This is not a tournament, just a chance to play a new course.​

Yes! we are going to do a temporary set up weekend of the Panther's Lair while we continue with the bidding process on target installation. ALL of our tee markers are in :hfive: and we just need targets to start playing. So out come the portables and let the plastic fly! Come at your leisure between 9 - 4 and play a few rounds at the Lair, if you dare.......

Potomac Middle School
3130 Panther Pride Drive
Dumfries, VA 22026

Panther's Lair DGC is located to the rear of the building. When entering the parking lot, do not go forward, that is the bus lane that will just horseshoe you around the two schools. After you make the right into the schools, make your 1st left to enter the parking lot.

 

[G Bud]

Come Play Uncle Timber's Super Secret Somewhat Sick & Simply Silly Blue Tee Set Up!

:clap:The Panther's Lair will be open for play on November 13th & 14th from 9AM - 4PM :clap:
This is not a tournament, just a chance to play a new course.​

Yes! we are going to do a temporary set up weekend of the Panther's Lair while we continue with the bidding process on target installation. ALL of our tee markers are in :hfive: and we just need targets to start playing. So out come the portables and let the plastic fly! Come at your leisure between 9 - 4 and play a few rounds at the Lair, if you dare.......

Potomac Middle School
3130 Panther Pride Drive
Dumfries, VA 22026

Panther's Lair DGC is located to the rear of the building. When entering the parking lot, do not go forward, that is the bus lane that will just horseshoe you around the two schools. After you make the right into the schools, make your 1st left to enter the parking lot.

That's right! As part of this weekend's activities at the Lair, at 1:30 both days, we will take a tour and play a round on our blue tee set up that will be our project next summer. It's gonna be beautiful weather and a perfect time to check out this course. Bring family and friends, we'll have plenty of discs for borrowing if needed. If your in the NOVA area, hope you'll check us out.

 

[G Bud]

Some Blue Tee Numbers

It was another gorgeous day today so after school I thought I would do a rough stake out of the blue tees in prep of this weekend's preview. Take these distances with a grain of salt. I basically paced them to the white tee and just added the distance. The exceptions are #7 & #9. The Blue tee line was nowhere near the white tee so I just paced these. This also does not consider elevation changes which occur on 7 of 9 holes. Here goes:
#1 - 380 ft.
#2 - 489 ft.
#3 - 311 ft.
#4 - 589 ft.
#6 - 610 ft.
#7 - 345 ft.
#8 - 325 ft.
#9 - 330 ft.
Total: 3739 ft.

 

[G Bud]

Still another day to play!

What a gorgeous day at the Lair on Saturday! I hope whatever you were doing you were doing it outside. Saturday saw our usually Friends of the Lair: Larry, Tom & Rory. The rest of the day saw: Art, Greg, Dave, Bryan & Daniel come enjoy the course. Oh, and I got to participate in my first rounds on the course as well. :thmbup:
The comments on the tees markers were positive and the new players enjoyed the design too. Thanks guys!! We did figure out that the course favors lefties. The records are still in tack. -7 from the red & -6 from the white. Larry came close but basket banging putts won in the end. A handful of discs found the other side of fences but were easily recovered now that I possess a key. No one was interested in playing the blue tees by 1:30 but we pointed them out as we went around. Except at the end of the day when "just one more" was heard many times as the bags were emptied off blue #5. It is just too pretty a spot not to just let em fly.
Another day at the Lair awaits! :clap: Gotta go stretch out the soreness of Saturday and go set up the course in prep of another great day. Think I'll tackle a round of blues in the morning while the ibuprofen is still working. Hope to see ya!!