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Rockland Park reviews
7
2
It's the little things 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Mar 29, 2019
Played the course:once
Pros:
This is a nice course nestled into a cute little park. It has everything that you'd want from a course: beautiful bright baskets, clear signs complete with the footage, multiple permanent concrete teeboxes, and some great ideas for holes. I was able to navigate the course quite easily. (I did ask a couple of locals if there were any tricky spots, and they did let me know that the jump from 5 to 6 could be tricky if you weren't paying attention.)
Cons:
Despite all the pieces being present for a great course, I found that there were several little to medium-sized things that made the course ultimately frustrating.
-The teeboxes were a good size, but the majority of them were oriented badly. The one on 2 was about 45 degrees off.
-The course was nicely wooded, but there were some really clear fairways and gaps to hit with some riskier lanes for we gamblers who love our risk/reward throws. However, I must've hit 3 or 4 "hangers" on my drives. You know, those little 1/2" branches that stick out 3 or 4 feet from the side of a tree. Some people may disagree with me, but I think these make a course worse. To me, having these hangers in your fairway creates the dreaded effect of "spray and pray." Reward your players for hitting their lines by getting rid of these little puppies.
-I really felt like the course was "forcing" holes in a few places. Hole 6, for example, has this really cool, nasty... I guess I'd call it a pit. Clearly the designer(s) wanted to use it, but they didn't do a very good job. This hole, unlike the others, didn't have a real fairway, but the basket is in such a place that you're forced to throw over the pit. Holes 5 and 7 were similar in that they had a neat feature or two each, but the feature of each hole is kind of thrust on you rather than being a natural part of the hole.
-In a similar vein, I felt like the course designer(s) were trying to force their idea of "par" on us. I know that this question of what par should be in disc golf is a huge debate, and I understand that I may be picking a scab here. However, I felt like some holes were unnecessarily long or had a ridiculous first or second throw simply to make a hole a par 4 or 5. A really clear example of this is hole 5 which is a par 5, but it's only about 340 feet from the longs. I threw a four on it, even with a goofed approach. Again, I get that what you throw is what you throw, but forcing a par on the player is unnecessary.
-These last two are particularly small, but even my non-disc golfing wife was scratching her head about them. The first one is the sign location on the holes. They have beautiful signs, but they put them directly between the long and short teeboxes, making them inconvenient for everybody. Either choose one teebox or put a sign at each one. The second thing is flags. The baskets were a beautiful, bright orange color making them super easy to see. But there were two different times when I threw to the wrong basket because of a slight elevation change that hid the target basket from my sight. I'm always amazed that more courses don't use flags. They're such a little thing, but they're so useful and make a big difference for the golfer.
-The teeboxes were a good size, but the majority of them were oriented badly. The one on 2 was about 45 degrees off.
-The course was nicely wooded, but there were some really clear fairways and gaps to hit with some riskier lanes for we gamblers who love our risk/reward throws. However, I must've hit 3 or 4 "hangers" on my drives. You know, those little 1/2" branches that stick out 3 or 4 feet from the side of a tree. Some people may disagree with me, but I think these make a course worse. To me, having these hangers in your fairway creates the dreaded effect of "spray and pray." Reward your players for hitting their lines by getting rid of these little puppies.
-I really felt like the course was "forcing" holes in a few places. Hole 6, for example, has this really cool, nasty... I guess I'd call it a pit. Clearly the designer(s) wanted to use it, but they didn't do a very good job. This hole, unlike the others, didn't have a real fairway, but the basket is in such a place that you're forced to throw over the pit. Holes 5 and 7 were similar in that they had a neat feature or two each, but the feature of each hole is kind of thrust on you rather than being a natural part of the hole.
-In a similar vein, I felt like the course designer(s) were trying to force their idea of "par" on us. I know that this question of what par should be in disc golf is a huge debate, and I understand that I may be picking a scab here. However, I felt like some holes were unnecessarily long or had a ridiculous first or second throw simply to make a hole a par 4 or 5. A really clear example of this is hole 5 which is a par 5, but it's only about 340 feet from the longs. I threw a four on it, even with a goofed approach. Again, I get that what you throw is what you throw, but forcing a par on the player is unnecessary.
-These last two are particularly small, but even my non-disc golfing wife was scratching her head about them. The first one is the sign location on the holes. They have beautiful signs, but they put them directly between the long and short teeboxes, making them inconvenient for everybody. Either choose one teebox or put a sign at each one. The second thing is flags. The baskets were a beautiful, bright orange color making them super easy to see. But there were two different times when I threw to the wrong basket because of a slight elevation change that hid the target basket from my sight. I'm always amazed that more courses don't use flags. They're such a little thing, but they're so useful and make a big difference for the golfer.
Other Thoughts:
This course has a lot of promise. My 2.5 rating is labeled "decent/typical," and I think that's fair. I could easily see it jumping to a 3 (good) or 3.5 (very good). I'm sure it's a huge pain to move baskets around, and obviously permanent concrete tee boxes are just that, permanent. However, some of the other things could really make for a better experience for the disc golfer. I would definitely play here again next time I'm hiking out in the park or tubing the Shenandoah.
