Fort Snelling, MN

Fort Snelling - Old Layout

3.075(based on 21 reviews)
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Fort Snelling - Old Layout reviews

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bigbeano
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 18 years 34 played 28 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Very little value here 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 15, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Longest course in the Twin Cities
-Baskets are new and very nice
-Large number signs on each basket that are visible from the tees so you know which basket you're throwing to
-It's on a golf course so the grounds are obviously well manicured
-Nice scorecards
-If you're interested power carts are available
-Clubhouse has food and beverages

Cons:

-It's on a golf course so you have to yield to ball golfers (and watch out so you don't get killed by a golf ball)
-There is nothing but distance here, no technical shots are required at any point
-The mandos are poorly labeled and pretty much pointless
-The tees can be extremely difficult to find despite the fact there are tee signs and arrows pointing towards the tee from the previous basket
-It's right next to the airport so it's constantly loud
-There is very little to stop the wind from whipping around, and trust me it does. There were gusts pushing 25-30 MPH consistently during the round and there were no trees to stop it.

Other Thoughts:

There were only a couple of ball golfers out on the course during my round, however we still almost got hit by one of their drives. It literally went right through the tee box and would've hit me if I had been teeing off; of course they didn't yell "fore" either so it really just seemed like they could've cared less. Even if the rest of the course was awesome (which it was not), I still would not come back here because of this safety issue.
Despite the scorecard having a decent map, arrows pointing to the next tee from the baskets, stakes in the ground where the tees are, and signage at the tees we still had a very difficult time finding some of the tees. We were playing the golds, and we had to tee off from the blues a couple of times because we could not find the gold tees. This is simply unacceptable for a pay-to-play course. If I'm paying money to play at a course it needs to have adequate navigation.
There's a handful of mandos on the course, but they are so poorly labeled and pointless it doesn't add any technicality to the course. This is another area where this course fails; it has nothing but distance. The land is absolutely flat with no elevation changes, trees are only really even in play on a couple of holes, and there is not really any water in play even though there is a one pond on the property. If you want to air it out and it doesn't matter if you throw it straight, then by all means come here because it really doesn't matter if your throw is not on a line here.
Also of note, the pay to play was $5.30. Not an even $5 or $3 like all the other ones I can think of; so don't come here with just a $5 bill.
To conclude, I am glad I came here because it's a new course and I'm always down for trying a new course; but it literally stops at that point. This course has very little redeeming value and I highly doubt I'll be coming back. If I really want to air out some drives I'd rather go to Hyland Hills or The Valley or just about anywhere else.
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8 4
coolbrees15
Premium Member
Experience: 19.1 years 1986 played 15 reviews
2.50 star(s)

A Nice Idea, Poor Execution 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 11, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

Fort Snelling is a well-maintained disc golf course. The fairways on the course were excellent and finding your disc was always fairly easy to do. In addition, the course really demanded distance on your throws and provided some of the longest holes in the Twin Cities. The baskets are in excellent condition and were fairly easy to spot. The scorecard provided a nice map of the entire course. For me there were not a lot of pros to this course. The faults just kept rearing their ugly head and kept lessening the disc golf experience.

Cons:

Fort Snelling has many faults. While the idea of incorporating a disc golf course on to a ball golf course is not bad in theory the execution here was poor. Almost every hole on the course played either down or across the ball golf fairways. This is not a good thing. Multiple ball golfers did not wait for us to clear the hole before taking their shot and we had more than one ball land within 10 feet of us. I have played other ball golf courses that have incorporated disc golf into and all of them did a better job of placing the disc golf course as not to interfere with the ball golfers.

When we played there were little to no signage. The tees are not clearly marked and the only identifying mark is to small circles in the color of the tee you are playing placed in the ground. This lead to us spending a great deal of time looking at the map and going the tee should be somewhere around here.

The tees are grass, which in my book is a negative. While the grass was well kept, it did not provide the best footing for throwing. This was especially true with the length of the holes. You really had to rip it on several of the holes and there was just enough dew on the grass to make this a risky proposition.

While the baskets were easy to spot to many times more than one basket was clearly visible from the tee. This lead to pulling out the map and going which basket is it? Nothing frustrates a round more than nailing a great drive to what you believed to be the correct basket and than walking up to it and realizing that it is not the correct basket.

I also though the overall design of the course was poor. Almost all of the shots were basically just rip it as far as you can and as straight as you can. There was not any real need for shaping shots just chuck it hard and even if you are off on the accuracy, there was no real punishment.

Other Thoughts:

I found the course to be lacking in anything that would keep me coming back. Other than distance, there was no real challenge to the course. While I applaud the city for trying to create a disc golf course on a ball golf course I do not feel this course should be there after playing it. The course is poorly laid out and creates a safety hazard for disc golfers. In addition due to the way the course is laid out there is a lot of congestion and long waits will occur. The waits are not caused by other disc golfers but are instead caused by waiting for the ball golfers to finish up a hole.
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