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Vassar, KS

Pomona Lake - Wolf Creek

2.55(based on 5 reviews)
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Pomona Lake - Wolf Creek reviews

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Pevio
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 12 years 189 played 120 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Is it mowed or is it not?

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 17, 2023 Played the course:once

Pros:

Wolf Creek is a unique course with intentionally punishing rough, challenging holes even without extreme distance, and some tough doglegs. It has a cool campground feel (but stays away from the actual campground on every hole but one), easy navigation, and decent tees and signs. Hole 18 is an easy place to practice putting.

The rough is tall most of the year, and that forces shots on most of the holes. Par is set super high and that is on purpose; playing down the fairways is relatively difficult and requires a lot of touch. I don't know if the rough is meant to be OB, but it would make sense. Regardless, you're supposed to not be throwing 400 feet on every drive, and you probably don't want to try.

The doglegs that are formed by nothing other than tall grass play a big role here. Hole 4 is the best example of this, but the lines on 6, 7, and 16 aren't clear from the tees, so placement shots are important, and you'll be thinking of things other than just distance and accuracy. The basket is sometimes right behind a tree, so spike hyzers are sometimes a good option, or you can lay up to the larger part of the green. Also, staying on the fairways creates some low ceilings on 8 and 13. For a course that is pretty open, you certainly can't always air it out.

Hole 18 is a fun way to finish the course. Being uphill, you can rip a drive a little harder, and with the basket not near tall grass, you don't have to worry about grass and ticks as much.

Cons:

The fairways are narrow and the rough is tall - most of the time. Be prepared to throw short midrange shots half the time. And when I say narrow, I mean real narrow. There's knee-high grass within ten feet of several baskets, and within twenty feet of most of the rest. Use a spotter whenever possible.

Even on the more friendly holes, there's not a lot of challenge. There aren't many trees at all, and they're frequently easy to throw around. Hole 10 has a bunch of pine trees, but it's hard to see where that basket is, and you may end up throwing over 11's fairway. Once you're back in the prairie grass, the course becomes so much more unfun, as you realize you still have seven more holes to avoid losing discs.

The par 3's - and there aren't many of those - end up not being all that fun. Hole 9 is super easy, even if you don't have much distance, and hole 15 is just too punishing with the guardian tree right by the basket. Hole 1 is okay, but it still feels like a two-shot hole, unless you're tossing a short S-curve around trees and tall grass on your first shot.

Hole 5 is the only time the campground infrastructure comes into play, and that hole is real bad. It plays basically on top of one of the playgrounds and near some bathrooms. That hole should be shortened to a par 3.

Other Thoughts:

Let's examine the two possible courses here. The first is the one with long rough. I don't think it's great because you're laying up constantly, but there are still eagle opportunities everywhere. If a beginner comes, who might be shooting par or worse normally, they'll be frustrated by losing discs on most every hole.
Alternatively, if the rough is cut short, which it probably should be, the course is way too easy. The par shrinks by 1 on almost every hole, and a lot of the design decisions don't make much sense. All the spiciness that is in the course normally just goes away.

As a result, while the course was intentional with par and where to place baskets, no version of the course ends up being very impressive. This is not how Disc Golf is meant to be played. The course still is not bad; if you're careful, you'll still have fun, just don't expect a world-class course simply because it's labeled par 71.

Long story short, keep the rough tall, but double the width of the fairways and adjust the pars a bit. That would fix everything with the course and merit a 3.0 or 3.5 rating.
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