So this is a course understanding lightbulb moment. I played a course last week that would be described as lightly wooded, and is on DGCR. There are few trees in the actual fairways, so that is aptly described I guess. But many of the fairways were lined with your typical thick and thorny rough. It was so bad, that after 3 stray drives/skips between us, we abandoned the course, deciding to come back in the late fall. Another course played recently had tall grass off the fairways, which too can easily hide your disc forever.
Today, we played Handyman Ace, which is described on DGCR as heavily wooded. In my mind, when I look at courses, I have always thought I preferred light or moderately wooded courses, mostly because the disc-looking-for risk was lower. But I quickly realized that even though it is true most holes here are heavily wooded, the ground level of the woods is actually fairly thinned out, meaning finding discs is pretty easy. It reminded me of some pine woods courses I have seen on coverage--like WR Jackson and Brewsters.
My lightbulb moment was realizing it was not necessarily tight lines or lots of trees I did not like, but having to look for discs that were just off the fairway (whether the fairway was a field or already in the woods) for up to 10-15 minutes at a time. I am actively re-assessing what I want to play, where rough--thickness, prevalence, position, etc is a bigger factor than number of trees, especially in the summer months.
I think that is why I always thought I just didn't like woods DG as much, because I started in eastern KY and WV, where most courses have real thick and often thorny rough throughout the woods--especially courses like Indian Rock and Wine Cellar. But playing a course with reasonably wide fairways, even though right in the middle of otherwise thick woods, BUT with sparse undergrowth, was really enjoyable today. Hitting that one nice flex shot that misses all the trees is really a cool feeling.
So now as I read reviews when traveling (have 2 trips coming up), I will now also focus on this aspect--how thick and prevalent is the rough? I never realized how bad rough can be that borders the edge of fairways on these "lightly" wooded courses. On courses like that, until I can throw better, I almost look forward to getting into the actual woods, because the undergrowth is usually thinner.
One of my top 5 courses is Toboggan, which is way out of my league but the hills are awesome. But it also has THE worst rough of any course I have played. I bet there are hundreds of discs on that course somewhere right this second. 60% of the discs we have lost in the last 2 years have been there, although we have only played it 6 times total. That is with us spotting each other on some of the big downhill shots. Contrasted with Idlewild (also played about 6 times), which is much more heavily wooded, but we have only ever lost one disc there.
