Multi-tee/-basket

The Rolling Ridge

Signage, navigation, practice area, building

Multi-multi-tee/-basket

The Bog

2/3rds of the course plays up/down/cross a rolling ridge, providing a nice variety of shot shapes, elevation changes, and distances, under/around mostly tall hardwoods. 1/3rd of the course is set in what is just a step above a bog, with, at times, trees so thick that throws are of the poke-n-pray variety.

I am a fan of multi-tee/-basket courses - provide the players with options for level of difficulty! At times, however, there can be too much crammed into too little space, resulting in tee/basket positions sometimes not offering much of a difference between them.

I am also a fan of 18+ hole courses, but sometimes, the space available reaches its peak at a lesser number, and cramming too much in lessens the overall package.

The building, parking, and practice areas are top-notch, as are the teesigns and navigational aids. When holes were too close together, barricades were built to protect tee areas from throws from other holes. When holes were in lower-lying, sometimes planks were provided to offer walking paths from basket-to-tee.

The holes on the ridge were very good, while those in the bog, less so, and while some holes had very good spacing between them, others were quite close together.

This course does many things very well, but attempts too much in too little prime space.

Aesthetic-- area is 100% disc golf exclusive. You will NOT run into any non-discgolfers out here so just watch out for your fellow golfers.

Teepads-- 3 tees per hole (some shared), all concrete, all in great shape. The "foul line" could have been better notated (it may have been on the score card?) No complaints here.

Teesignage-- Tee sign at every pad showing all three basket positions. Teesigns appear to be a work in progress as they seem temporary.

Baskets-- 3 sets of baskets per hole. red, orange and black. The black baskets are a bit hard to pick out in the woods and are mostly blind (as they are the longest layout).

Routing and nav-- super easy. Next tee signs are abundant. I can't even think of a tricky spot.

Amenities-- what isn't here? Driving cage, pro-shop, bar, pool table, bathroom, shower, campground area, this place pretty much has everything to pamper the discgolfer before and after they are throwing.

Unique factor-- the man-made structures, the teeboxes built into the bridge, the bridges themselves all add to the unique factor. As I said under amenities, the disc golfer is well taken care of.

Water/ Risk/ Reward/ Challenge-- having 9 layouts the challenge factor here is whatever you want it to be. the water on the first two holes only adds to the risk v reward aspect of the course.

Multipin/ Multipad-- 9 layouts is insane to think about. but you can literally spend an entire week playing this course and not really run out of variations.

Upkeep/ on-course amenities-- the upkeep here is nice. Grass fairways are immaculate and there are garbages and benches at each hole/pad. Not much garbage around.

Drainage issues-- the low holes have serious spongy fairways that are way more than distracting. Not only are they unavoidable but they can almost take your shoe off if you're not careful.

Repetition-- there are some repetition issues here, mostly on the front 9. The back holes saved the day, in my opinion.

Hole 3-- I get it, a place to really open up your arm, however, it really kind of seemed out of place on this course. Everything else is more about placement and accuracy, to have a 500+ footer that is WIDE open seems a little uninspired.

So, I walked into the bar, flipped my Flip City mini on the bar and said, "whats up." All I got was a death glare.

In reviewing this course, I understand now why you can't really review based on amenities or the passion of the owner ( in the case of private courses) . I had a very hard time figuring out where my rating was going to land and went with a 4.5. This is truly a destination course in every sense of the word. You can pretty much live here for a while and disc your ass off.

This place may as well be a mega-resort for disc golf. Not all inclusive, but a resort exclusively for DG. I would say that this course breaks into the commercialism that can be anything as long as it's presented that way.

I will say that there were numerous HUGE groups of discgolfers on the course the day we were there but we never really ran into them. One of the biggest things I look for in a great course is the ability to get lost in my game and experience solitude while throwing. This is not really possible here with the huge groups and a lot of distraction.

Updating 3 years later:

We visited Rollin' Ridge again this past weekend and not a lot has changed. The drainage issue is still a huge issue.
The course itself, as it was pointed out by my travel buddy, is really small compared to other courses that are "of this caliber," which makes it somewhat dangerous for errant discs. One other observation I touched on during my previous review was the that the teepads are close and don't always add a unique view of the hole, rather just add distance. The same can be said for some of the baskets. If we judge RR on just the course and strip away all the lipstick from this pig (ammenities), it truly is a slightly above average course. I'm not dogging on the course, rather stating that this course needs some reinvention and some overhaul to keep up with the evolution of courses these days.

Hoping to see improvement and change if we play again.

First things first, this course is awesome. It has everything you'd want in a destination -- a pro shop, clubhouse, showers, a batting cage turned warm up cage for DG.

The multiple tees and pin placements certainly add to the experience. The tee pads are large and tapered -- they're great.

The man-made structures are a nice addition to the course, but they don't add as much challenge as I think they might hope them to.

This course will make you use every shot in your bag for sure. It's a welcome change from many of the repetitive courses I've played.

Overall, it's well taken care of. It's well groomed, managed fairly well and is an absolute must play.

Some of the wooded holes are still a bit of "throw and pray." I think for a course to be a championship caliber course, it should have specific lines you're expected to hit. They can be tight, but they should be available. There are a few holes that don't have distinct lines to hit. They're very "par-able," but doing nothing to improve the scoring distribution. It's unlikely that anyone would birdie these holes on a regular basis, as no line has been given to make that an option.

The "tee signs" that are up at this point just don't cut it for me. They're not very accurate and they're cheap. A course that has had this much time spent on it deserves top grade tee signs. EDIT: The signage has improved significantly, but they still don't seem to be accurate.

2021: Update--the drainage is still a significant issue, the "shared" teepads that were supposed to, at some point, become un-shared are still shared. The lines are still a significant issue...except for the addition of new baskets, it does not feel like this course has improved or been updated in a number of years now.

The baskets are nice -- they're older Mach 3's -- but I would like to see an upgrade at some point in these. A course this nice should have top tier baskets. I would love to see custom Discatchers here -- red bands, RR logo on the band....

EDIT: Two more sets of baskets have been added, both Mach Xs. Color coded to match tee pads. The black can be a bit tough to pick out, but a nice addition to the course to add more variability for multiple round days/weekends.

I want to be able to give this course a 5, but at this point, I [still] can't.

Courses can be challenging, but they have to be able to be beaten -- at least by someone. There are a handful of holes (the ones mentioned in the Cons) that even the top pros wouldn't birdie consistently, because there are just too many trees in the fairway.

Without better scoring distribution, Rollin' Ridge sits at a 4 in my book. It's an awesome course. Well maintained with high end touches, but I still want to see more before I give it a perfect score.

2021 Update: While this course has significant amenities, nothing seems to have changed or improved in years. It's a nice course, but it's not worthy of being in the top ten on this site anymore. I know that people just dislike any review that disagrees with theirs, but there are many other courses better than Rollin' Ridge now. Until they deal with some of the drainage issues, finish the teepads they're missing and really dial things in, I'm downgrading this review to a 3.5