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Ray Richards Golf Course reviews
8
0
Stressful, geared toward advanced players 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Jun 24, 2020
Played the course:once
Pros:
- You can expect near perfect mowing and other maintenance as it's on a ball golf course.
- Plenty of parking and friendly staff.
- Actual sand traps add a quirky, fun addition to disc golf. They're not positioned where landing in one would really affect your footing, but still fun 'hazards'.
- Challenging, but still fair, water/marsh hazards.
- Carpet tees - kind of odd, but they worked fine.
- More topography in play than any other course in Grand Forks.
- #18 is a signature hole: a slightly uphill, open, 400ft shot over a long water carry to a basket set between trees and a sand bunker by the clubhouse, with plenty of room to go for lower risk to the right. The basket placement really draws you to go for the high risk line over the pond, even if you know you can't throw it that far.
- Plenty of parking and friendly staff.
- Actual sand traps add a quirky, fun addition to disc golf. They're not positioned where landing in one would really affect your footing, but still fun 'hazards'.
- Challenging, but still fair, water/marsh hazards.
- Carpet tees - kind of odd, but they worked fine.
- More topography in play than any other course in Grand Forks.
- #18 is a signature hole: a slightly uphill, open, 400ft shot over a long water carry to a basket set between trees and a sand bunker by the clubhouse, with plenty of room to go for lower risk to the right. The basket placement really draws you to go for the high risk line over the pond, even if you know you can't throw it that far.
Cons:
- Extremely STRESSFUL to play - by the fifth hole I could already tell my game was off due to the constant stress of watching out for errant golf balls and having my head on a swivel the entire time as we tried not to get in the way of the ball golfers. It was constantly "Make sure you can throw", "Make sure you're out of the ball golfers' way", "Should we throw, or wait for the ball golfers to tee off?"...
- Very Beginner UNfriendly - my playing partner, a beginner, had an equally stressful round not because of the usual reasons which are in play here (water hazards, very long distances) but because of the constant audience of strangers: the ball golfers. She became really self conscious being watched, and elected not to continue play on #5 when an errant throw ended up in the ball golfers' way. She also didn't play the water carry holes and would not play #17 as it closely parallels a busy road. At that point you're pretty much paying $1/hole to play only half the course, which obviously isn't worth it.
- Pay to Play - $7/person. Based on other courses here on DGCR, seems to be $2 to $5 bucks more expensive than other pay courses in the midwest.
- Course Layout - holes #2, 3, 11, 12, 13, and 18 all directly cross over ball golf holes. A terrible decision in my book, because though everyone's nice about it, it causes the two sports to frequently get in each others' way and causes both to go much slower.
- Navigation - no course map (yet) and no next tee signs made for a good bit of searching for the next tee. This too was stressful because you don't want to just wander the golf course in order to find them, as that would get you in the way of the ball golfers. Really needs next tee signs or at least the little stickers on each tee sign indicating where to go next.
- Grand Forks Wind - even though we went on a "still" day for Grand Forks, wind still was a factor. A slight breeze turned an already poor throw on #15 into a lost-disc throw.
- Very Beginner UNfriendly - my playing partner, a beginner, had an equally stressful round not because of the usual reasons which are in play here (water hazards, very long distances) but because of the constant audience of strangers: the ball golfers. She became really self conscious being watched, and elected not to continue play on #5 when an errant throw ended up in the ball golfers' way. She also didn't play the water carry holes and would not play #17 as it closely parallels a busy road. At that point you're pretty much paying $1/hole to play only half the course, which obviously isn't worth it.
- Pay to Play - $7/person. Based on other courses here on DGCR, seems to be $2 to $5 bucks more expensive than other pay courses in the midwest.
- Course Layout - holes #2, 3, 11, 12, 13, and 18 all directly cross over ball golf holes. A terrible decision in my book, because though everyone's nice about it, it causes the two sports to frequently get in each others' way and causes both to go much slower.
- Navigation - no course map (yet) and no next tee signs made for a good bit of searching for the next tee. This too was stressful because you don't want to just wander the golf course in order to find them, as that would get you in the way of the ball golfers. Really needs next tee signs or at least the little stickers on each tee sign indicating where to go next.
- Grand Forks Wind - even though we went on a "still" day for Grand Forks, wind still was a factor. A slight breeze turned an already poor throw on #15 into a lost-disc throw.
Other Thoughts:
- Would rate it higher than 3 stars on hole layout alone, but it intermingles with the ball golf course way too much and is too stressful an experience to rate any higher.
- There was no recommended protocol for who takes the right of way between disc golf and ball golf. My playing partner and I elected to always give the right of way to the ball golfers, who were all very courteous and amusingly curious about what we were doing. However, it still added stress as you felt rushed to throw and walk quickly so you weren't holding them up.
- We played when the ball golf wasn't busy (like 1 set of golfers on every third hole). I can't imagine playing here when the ball golf course is busy, would be a nightmare.
- A couple of weeks ago it was open only to disc golf, no ball golf. If that ever happens again, that's the time you'd want to try this course.
- There was no recommended protocol for who takes the right of way between disc golf and ball golf. My playing partner and I elected to always give the right of way to the ball golfers, who were all very courteous and amusingly curious about what we were doing. However, it still added stress as you felt rushed to throw and walk quickly so you weren't holding them up.
- We played when the ball golf wasn't busy (like 1 set of golfers on every third hole). I can't imagine playing here when the ball golf course is busy, would be a nightmare.
- A couple of weeks ago it was open only to disc golf, no ball golf. If that ever happens again, that's the time you'd want to try this course.
