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Piney Lake DGC reviews
8
0
More like Magnolia Lake 2+ years
Reviewed:
Updated:
Played on:Oct 21, 2018
Played the course:once
Pros:
This is a super difficult course to get onto. You have to be either a UNCG student or a guest of one. UNCG seemingly forgot about this property for a few years and didn't do much with it but lately there's scuttlebutt that they're doing more with it and that includes making the disc golf course accessible to the public more often. Hence why I got to play it during a tourney.
It's actually got the bones to be a very decent course. I'd certainly play it regularly not just b/c it's the closest course to me but b/c it is a fun course to play. Holes 1-4 are tight, magnolia tree-lined fairways with more ivy than Wrigley if you leave the fairway. I mean walls of magnolia trees, super impenetrable foliage that instantly adds a stroke when you go into the rough. They play a little up or downhill depending on the hole.
Hole 5 is a neat, tree-lined dam between the two lakes. So it's a water hole but it feels more like a tunnel hole. Holes 6-9 are probably my favorite stretch. The holes are wooded as usual but the fairway contours are much more navigable. Hole 8 is kind of the exception with a very poke and pray fairway but would be a nice hole if trimmed up a bit.
Holes 10-12 are kind of filler-esque but there's a nice creek running through them and the terrain is lush and green since it's below the lake. 10 is a severe dogleg left is only easily deuced if you hit a small gap in the foliage as the crow flies but you'll pay dearly if you miss it. Hole 13 is a very short, extreme right-turning hole.
Holes 14 through 18 are mostly within the "piney" portion of Piney Lake but like the first 4 holes has plenty of magnolias and tight, treacherous lines. More tunnels to pure from start to finish until you get to hole 18 which ends in a wide open lawn in front of the private residence on the property.
Overall the fairways are there, just unruly and wild. I thought most of the greens were good locations. Most of the holes if not all of them had a tee sign somewhere that did a decent job of illustrating the fairway shape. The lake is really nice but doesn't effect play much so it's mostly aesthetic. But it does give the course a sense of variety that is better than most courses.
There are bathrooms between the first and last hole.
Baskets are in pretty good shape overall, a couple looked like they had been a little bent by a falling tree perhaps. They are non-banded types, DGA Mach III's would be my guess.
It's actually got the bones to be a very decent course. I'd certainly play it regularly not just b/c it's the closest course to me but b/c it is a fun course to play. Holes 1-4 are tight, magnolia tree-lined fairways with more ivy than Wrigley if you leave the fairway. I mean walls of magnolia trees, super impenetrable foliage that instantly adds a stroke when you go into the rough. They play a little up or downhill depending on the hole.
Hole 5 is a neat, tree-lined dam between the two lakes. So it's a water hole but it feels more like a tunnel hole. Holes 6-9 are probably my favorite stretch. The holes are wooded as usual but the fairway contours are much more navigable. Hole 8 is kind of the exception with a very poke and pray fairway but would be a nice hole if trimmed up a bit.
Holes 10-12 are kind of filler-esque but there's a nice creek running through them and the terrain is lush and green since it's below the lake. 10 is a severe dogleg left is only easily deuced if you hit a small gap in the foliage as the crow flies but you'll pay dearly if you miss it. Hole 13 is a very short, extreme right-turning hole.
Holes 14 through 18 are mostly within the "piney" portion of Piney Lake but like the first 4 holes has plenty of magnolias and tight, treacherous lines. More tunnels to pure from start to finish until you get to hole 18 which ends in a wide open lawn in front of the private residence on the property.
Overall the fairways are there, just unruly and wild. I thought most of the greens were good locations. Most of the holes if not all of them had a tee sign somewhere that did a decent job of illustrating the fairway shape. The lake is really nice but doesn't effect play much so it's mostly aesthetic. But it does give the course a sense of variety that is better than most courses.
There are bathrooms between the first and last hole.
Baskets are in pretty good shape overall, a couple looked like they had been a little bent by a falling tree perhaps. They are non-banded types, DGA Mach III's would be my guess.
Cons:
The tees are basically just marked off natural spots. A lot of them could stand to be improved vastly, in terms of both location and flatness. The TD said they are looking towards putting in concrete tees so that would boost the rating considerably. I opted for a gazillion forehands b/c the combo of technical fairways and bad footing made backhands dicey.
The roughness of the rough is the other major con, which you can expect with a course that is hardly played. Lots of ivy, probably the poisonous kind also in the warm months (I saw warning signs for it) and tons of tree debris that needs to be picked up. To be honest I was expecting much worse. It's playable but you need to be eagle-eyed at all times.
I'm not going to be too critical with the design b/c without clean, well-traveled fairways it's kind of difficult to really judge. I will say that it seems very lefty friendly. If it wasn't a "lefty hole" it was a nobody-friendly hole. A big part of why I was also opting for so many forehands. The two guys in my division that finished better than me? Yeah, they had the Devil's handedness. But even they were struggling occasionally. Some of the fairways just seemed to jump-cut at hard angles like a RB that didn't trust his O-line. Most if not all the holes were par 3 distances but b/c the fairways were so jagged and tight they made getting deuces highly implausible.
Some of the greens and tees were close enough to each other that you ought to wait if there's a group in front of you.
The roughness of the rough is the other major con, which you can expect with a course that is hardly played. Lots of ivy, probably the poisonous kind also in the warm months (I saw warning signs for it) and tons of tree debris that needs to be picked up. To be honest I was expecting much worse. It's playable but you need to be eagle-eyed at all times.
I'm not going to be too critical with the design b/c without clean, well-traveled fairways it's kind of difficult to really judge. I will say that it seems very lefty friendly. If it wasn't a "lefty hole" it was a nobody-friendly hole. A big part of why I was also opting for so many forehands. The two guys in my division that finished better than me? Yeah, they had the Devil's handedness. But even they were struggling occasionally. Some of the fairways just seemed to jump-cut at hard angles like a RB that didn't trust his O-line. Most if not all the holes were par 3 distances but b/c the fairways were so jagged and tight they made getting deuces highly implausible.
Some of the greens and tees were close enough to each other that you ought to wait if there's a group in front of you.
Other Thoughts:
I played a layout for the tourney that I believe shortened some of the holes so keep that in mind. Specifically, holes 10, 11, and 18 from memory. This course is seemingly in the middle of nowhere; even though it's very close to hwy 421 you have to get off on a country road and take a circuitous route to get there.
I really do hope that this place gets opened to the public more often and that UNCG disc golfers are able to improve upon it b/c it is definitely worth keeping up and improving. I just want to thank UNCG and Jacob Barrera for running the tourney out there and giving me and others the opportunity to play it.
I aced hole 14 with a C-PD flick. Perhaps the only ace ever recorded?
I really do hope that this place gets opened to the public more often and that UNCG disc golfers are able to improve upon it b/c it is definitely worth keeping up and improving. I just want to thank UNCG and Jacob Barrera for running the tourney out there and giving me and others the opportunity to play it.
I aced hole 14 with a C-PD flick. Perhaps the only ace ever recorded?
