Murray Park reviews
8
0
A Seven Acre 9 Holer 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Nov 23, 2018
Played the course:once
Pros:
(1.579 Rating) A beginner friendly course squeezed into a small city park.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - An ideal beginners course. No water or overgrowth to contend with. The odds of losing a disc will be limited to forgetting to pick up or lodging one high in a tree. The distances on a few holes will encourage length development and a couple holes require shot shaping. The course would be perfect night golf too, although I'm not sure if the park is open.
- NAVIGATION - Adequate. Nice course map near tee (1). Tee signs are a bit too diagrammatic and it took me the entire round to finally discern if the one tee sign per hole was for the Red layout or the Blue layout. It's the Red layout. No next tee direction on the signage and I only noticed one directional cue. All stated, what makes this course easy to follow is the open nature of the park.
- QUICK PLAY - From a baggers perspective this course is golden. I had it wrapped up in under 25 minutes and checked off course 319.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - An ideal beginners course. No water or overgrowth to contend with. The odds of losing a disc will be limited to forgetting to pick up or lodging one high in a tree. The distances on a few holes will encourage length development and a couple holes require shot shaping. The course would be perfect night golf too, although I'm not sure if the park is open.
- NAVIGATION - Adequate. Nice course map near tee (1). Tee signs are a bit too diagrammatic and it took me the entire round to finally discern if the one tee sign per hole was for the Red layout or the Blue layout. It's the Red layout. No next tee direction on the signage and I only noticed one directional cue. All stated, what makes this course easy to follow is the open nature of the park.
- QUICK PLAY - From a baggers perspective this course is golden. I had it wrapped up in under 25 minutes and checked off course 319.
Cons:
Lots of issues with Murray Park
- SPACING - Way too much course is jammed into a small setting. I have heard from others, that a good rule of thumb is that an adequately spaced average length course, needs about 1 acre per hole. This course only has seven acres and there's a few other this going on in the park. I've seen worse examples, but Murray Park bought off more than it can chew. Roads are in play on a couple shots as well as a walking path and a ball field fence. Discs will find other fairways often and players need to be aware of other disc golfers the entire time.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - Perhaps the best way to add difficulty to a course is to limit play to windy days where the temps are 35 degrees like I experienced here. Mostly lightly wooded and no hazards or listed OB. Advanced players finding ideal conditions will be able to average 12 down over 9 holes at the listed par of 34. Maybe hole (9) Red tee being uphill will be hard to deuce for an Advanced played. Rec players should shoot in the mid to upper 20s.
- TEES - In bad shape. Natural tees using pavers to mark the tee line and with lots of lane pitting. Some of pitting was approaching several inches deep. I teed to the side of the markers on just about every hole as the pits were filled with ice on my appearance. I'd consider bumping the rating to a low 2 with concrete tees on both layouts.
- CHARACTER - In addition to poor tees, the course doesn't have the niceties like those seen on the well-established and well-funded courses. No seating, no alt basket and no practice baskets. There are multiple tees on 5 holes, but the extra tees also show pitting. No finishing shelter and the restrooms were locked in late November.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - There is nothing that makes this park stand out from any other park. A spattering of trees and mowed grass. Those features are enough to garner about a 1.75 out of 5 in my beauty rankings, but I took off a little more as manmade features are in view the entire time. I scored the course a 1.375 for beauty.
- UNIQUENESS - A standard issue city park 9 without the natural features or size to produce an inspiring layout. There are no water features, elevation change maxes out at 20 feet and there are no heavily wooded plays. Hole distance vary from mid 100s to mid 400s. There are three listed par 4s and two listed par 5s, but I only gave credit for one par 4 being that hole (9) is an uphill mid 400 foot look.
- SPACING - Way too much course is jammed into a small setting. I have heard from others, that a good rule of thumb is that an adequately spaced average length course, needs about 1 acre per hole. This course only has seven acres and there's a few other this going on in the park. I've seen worse examples, but Murray Park bought off more than it can chew. Roads are in play on a couple shots as well as a walking path and a ball field fence. Discs will find other fairways often and players need to be aware of other disc golfers the entire time.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - Perhaps the best way to add difficulty to a course is to limit play to windy days where the temps are 35 degrees like I experienced here. Mostly lightly wooded and no hazards or listed OB. Advanced players finding ideal conditions will be able to average 12 down over 9 holes at the listed par of 34. Maybe hole (9) Red tee being uphill will be hard to deuce for an Advanced played. Rec players should shoot in the mid to upper 20s.
- TEES - In bad shape. Natural tees using pavers to mark the tee line and with lots of lane pitting. Some of pitting was approaching several inches deep. I teed to the side of the markers on just about every hole as the pits were filled with ice on my appearance. I'd consider bumping the rating to a low 2 with concrete tees on both layouts.
- CHARACTER - In addition to poor tees, the course doesn't have the niceties like those seen on the well-established and well-funded courses. No seating, no alt basket and no practice baskets. There are multiple tees on 5 holes, but the extra tees also show pitting. No finishing shelter and the restrooms were locked in late November.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - There is nothing that makes this park stand out from any other park. A spattering of trees and mowed grass. Those features are enough to garner about a 1.75 out of 5 in my beauty rankings, but I took off a little more as manmade features are in view the entire time. I scored the course a 1.375 for beauty.
- UNIQUENESS - A standard issue city park 9 without the natural features or size to produce an inspiring layout. There are no water features, elevation change maxes out at 20 feet and there are no heavily wooded plays. Hole distance vary from mid 100s to mid 400s. There are three listed par 4s and two listed par 5s, but I only gave credit for one par 4 being that hole (9) is an uphill mid 400 foot look.
Other Thoughts:
An unremarkable layout that should offer enough to Ripon locals to appease the addiction. I haven't played Riggs County Park course in town yet, but I have to hold on to hope that that course is superior to this one despite a similar ranking on DGCR. Other than the easy going unassuming element and the "check I've played it" notion, there is nothing Murray Park can other to disc golfers. I could not recommend this course to those outside a 30 minute drive, it's just not worth the travel.
