Elkridge, MD

Rockburn Branch - Old Layout

3.525(based on 66 reviews)
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Rockburn Branch - Old Layout reviews

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3 0
dandther
Experience: 48.9 years 47 played 18 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Good parts are good; Bad parts are bad 2+ years

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Mar 5, 2017 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Some really creatively designed holes
-Good use of hills, I enjoyed the blind shots
-Multiple basket locations. This is a huge plus if you play the course regularly (which I don't since I don't live anywhere near here).
-Text file in the files section of this site helped tremendously with finding our way around the course. This leads me to the bads...

Cons:

-Navigation is terrible. Many of the tee signs are broken, and they don't give you enough reference to figure out where the basket is, or where the next hole will be.
-Fairways for 3 and 5 are so close together that you could hit someone on the other fairway.
-Baskets should have numbers on them so you know where you are. There should be signs telling you where the next tee is. The navigation is bad for a first-time visitor.
-The rubber tee pads are very slippery. The astroturf pads are even worse. I fell down once teeing off.
-We played in early spring, before there were any leaves on the trees. The narrow fairways on many of the wooded holes were challenging in the conditions. In the summer, they'd be almost unplayable by recreational players.

Other Thoughts:

Overall, a good layout and a good course. My rating would be 3 if there were cement tee pads, and if the broken signs were fixed. Some navigation signs would also help. It would take just a small investment to fix the signs.

Even though this is the closest course to my son's house, I'm not sure I'd come back, especially in the summer when the leaves are full. I liked the holes that were more open, but I'm not a fan of disc golf in the deep woods.
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0 5
KimBrennan
Experience: 43.6 years 161 played 12 reviews
2.50 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 23, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

Variety of holes. Nice on an autumn day. Rough was relatively easy to deal with. Fairways are clear of trees.

Cons:

Worthless tee signs. Difficult to find the next holes. Be sure to have the map of the course with you the first time.

Other Thoughts:

Tees are acceptable (first time I've played on rubber/astroturf tees). Alternate permanent tees/pins would be nice.
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3 3
Jaxon
Experience: 1 played 1 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Slightly Disappointed 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 12, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

A great mix of open field throws and very narrow wooded target practice throws. Some holes are extremely challenging and rewarding. Also, knowing how and when to roll a show can be very helpful on this course. If I lived near this course, I would play it every day.

Cons:

Being a traveler for business, I try to get in as many rounds as possible. I look for courses ranked 3.0 or higher with at least 18 holes. The two biggest cons of this course is signage - far too often, it's just not clear where you need to go to get to the next tee. This was extremely frustrating and I almost walked off without finishing. Other than that, most of the tee were fine gravel or sand. Not a big con, but some tees are pretty much "holes" now and it's was difficult getting footing.

Other Thoughts:

If you're a first timer, print and bring the map, otherwise you'll be extremely frustrated if you're note guided by a local. If you have the time, walk the course as some pins you cannot see until you're almost standing next to them (#1, #11 and more!) For instance, I had a great drive (said some locals) on the first hole. From my lie, I could see the pin beyond the next ridge and I knew the hole was one of the longer holes, so I threw a long distance driver. Turned out the pin I laid up next to was the #2 pin and when I walked over that ridge, the #1 pin was right there. I ended up with a 4 on #1 due to not knowing exactly where the pin was.

Otherwise, I'm sure if I was guided, or played with locals, this is probably a pretty good course.

Just a little paint, cement, wood and paper would raise the rating on this course by 1.5 stars, easy.
The grass was trimmed well and the weather was near perfect. But this course needs a single fundraiser tournament where 50% of the proceeds goes towards the improvement of the course. It shouldn't take much. The money and 2-3 volunteers could improve it over two weekends. IMHO.
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4 4
kuhlbeans
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 19 years 50 played 29 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Lost potential 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:May 21, 2009 Played the course:once

Pros:

The course definitely has a few fun holes and shots. #15 is definitely the signature hole where you throw downhill towards/over a stream with a nice view. The few holes before that play around the same area and are equally fun, scenic, and provide a decent challenge. Multiple pin positions give you some replayability and there's good use of the open and wooded areas of the park that work your shot selection. All the holes are signed and most (if not all) baskets have a marker pointing the way to the next tee.

Cons:

Unfortunately, the course is hampered by too many cons to let the pros really shine through.

As others have mentioned, the course layout at times is just terrible. Without the course navigation notes here I never would have made it through. There are a few places where, even with the pointed direction, you are unsure of where to go or you pass a tee pad that is not the proper hole.

The tee signs have the length and par (I think) on the signs along with a hole diagram. These diagrams are fairly crude though and may not be to accurate scale, so they often don't give a complete feel for the hole. On the day I was there water had gotten on the insides and misted it enough so that sometimes I could not see the hole layout properly. The signs and sign posts mark that there are multiple basket positions, but unfortunately there is no indication as to which location actually has the standard for the day/week/month (whatever frequency the positions are changed). While I have no problem with blind shots, these factors make the ones here a little frustrating.

There are a couple of parallel fairways, but 1 and 2 was the only place that really bothered me. After you throw a blind tee shot on one over the hill you will see two baskets in the distance, fairly close to each other. The closer is 1 and the further 2, but you may not realize this without the navigation guide; it would be easy to believe the course, rather than rotating basket positions, has a basket at each all the time. Also, with the arrangement of the fairways, it seems like the second shot landing area for #1 and the driving landing area for #2 are very close for average throws. What makes this even worse is that some holes *do* appear to have multiple baskets present at one time.

The thing that probably bothered me the most is the underbrush/growth. The early holes in open fields either have large swaths of uncut grass or (around 4 & 5) this odd area of low and tightly growing shrubs/bushes. Much of the rest of the course if you don't hit the fairway you'll be in *very* thick vegetation and thorn bushes. These can make it extremely frustrating when you have a disc go off the fairway because of the time and effort it takes to find and the strong possibility of losing it if you aren't watching closely. This was really the worst part about this course from my viewpoint.

Other Thoughts:

The course is in a park that has a playground, basketball courts, picnic shelters, and such. It appears the course has a doubles night once a week and a trailer from a local store is occasionally in the parking lot selling gear on the spot.
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