• Discover new ways to elevate your game with the updated DGCourseReview app!
    It's entirely free and enhanced with features shaped by user feedback to ensure your best experience on the course. (App Store or Google Play)

Tullahoma, TN

Sunrise Rotary DGC

2.835(based on 15 reviews)
Filter course reviews

Filter reviews

Filter reviews

Sunrise Rotary DGC reviews

Filter
10 0
Cerealman
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 15.8 years 590 played 179 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Additional nine is more woeful design

Reviewed: Played on:Jan 5, 2024 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

The shortcomings of the original 18 holes of Sunrise Rotary are well documented, and the recent addition of nine more holes that are mostly heavily wooded and profoundly flawed does little to alter the reputation of the Tullahoma course.

My rating is a verdict on the entire course, but this review mainly focuses on the last nine holes (#19 to #27).

+++

A new challenge has been issued. The final nine holes definitely increase the difficulty as the dense woods combine with an increase in length, resulting in a home stretch that threatens to impose bogeys and worse upon your scorecard. This section includes four par 4s and three holes that are over 400 feet, including the lone open hole that exceeds 500 feet.

The final nine features new, level teepads. Most of them are covered by turf, which is different than concrete teepads on the first two-thirds of the course. Detailed signs haven't been added, but a small sign with hand-scrawled info indicating the hole number, distance and par appears at each hole.

Navigation is fairly straight-forward and intuitive on the last nine. A couple directional signs are displayed when the next teepad isn't immediately seen.

A few of the new holes are an enjoyable addition. Hole #22 is a wide-open par-4 with a grassy fairway. A line of trees guards the entrance road on one side and woods on the other. The basket isn't visible from the teepad and the hole requires turning right most of the way without overcooking the drive and approach. Hole #25 is a straight ahead toss with an opening on the left side that sets up perfectly for a drive of about 275 feet followed by a gentle fade.

Cons:

The word woeful in the title to describe the course fits both definitions: as an adjective meaning bad or deplorable and also meaning "causing sorrow or misery."

Unfortunately, the design of the final nine is similar to several of the holes on the first nine with narrow fairways, punishing rough and misshaped fairways … except it's worse. The holes are longer, the angles of the fairways are more crooked, and the rough is much stickier to escape from. Some of the holes appear to be using a previously existing walking path.

Several of these holes are so poorly designed that it's questionable whether they have redemptive value. Even with tons of play and beating in, the fairway deviations are so extreme in spots that they might not be fixable. The last nine layout has more similarity to alphabet soup than disc golf fairways. Hole #19 requires about a 100-foot throw, then a sharp left. Hole #21 is designed similar to a backwards question mark. Hole #24 features a narrow fairway and low ceiling coupled with an unrealistic turn halfway to the basket. Several of the holes are a reminder that "discs don't fly this way" and drives (or second shots) that reach the circle will likely need an enormous amount of luck or the perfect tree deflection.

The areas off the fairways are fairly dreadful to recover from. Not only are there tons of thick forestry just off the edges, but in creating the new holes, branches and small trees were tossed into this area as well. On several holes, the areas in the fairway are overpopulated with timbers too. For example, on Hole #26, I recall being on the edge of the fairway about 150 feet from the basket and yet there wasn't a gap available to hit that was wider than my wingspan.

The baskets are old Mach 3s that don't want to catch anymore. Maybe I was unlucky on the day, but I had three gross spit-outs in one 27-hole round.

Other Thoughts:

Other users have described the new holes with these descriptions: "no practical line to the pin," "absolutely no fairway or tunnel to even hit" and "could use a little chainsaw work."

The last nine holes could have been a saving grace for Sunrise Rotary DGC. Instead, the new holes have cemented its standing as a collection of poorly designed, unrealistic holes.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
6 2
RayRay
Experience: 19.9 years 156 played 35 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Weird Course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 20, 2015 Played the course:once

Pros:

- Challenge: You'll need 500 ft airshots as well as 130 ft putter drives that must land in extremely tight spaces.
- Cool wooded and open par 4's
- Decent teepads and signs

Cons:

- Some holes have so many small trees in the fairway that there is no real route, making the 2 impossible but the 3 fairly simple. I've never played a course with so many bizzare "par 3.5" holes
- Rough is very rough on some holes

Other Thoughts:

The front 9 feels like putt-putt but was enjoyable in a novel way. A fun course to play once but just too weird to respect.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
Top