Veteran's Park - Original reviews
12
0
King of The Hill 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Jan 6, 2018
Played the course:once
Pros:
(3.137 Rating) A short and technical layout cherished by its locals.
- ACEABILITY - Several chip shot woodsy ace runs in the sub 175 foot range. Players are probably 2 or 3 times more likely to ace here than at a normal course. This course has probably produced more than its fair share of new disc golf addicts as well.
- CHARACTER - Solid amenities. To start, adequate 4 by 10 concrete tees. Adequate tee signs and lots of shade at the tees. At least half of the holes had duel tees, but a couple were not well maintained. Lots of multiple basket placements. Seating at 75% percent of the tees. Restrooms and shelters are nearby as well.
- ELEVATION - This course is truly blessed to have a 50 foot hill located at the heart of the layout. It's used very well on many tee shots thankfully. Several holes have a 30 foot grade change or more. Hole (2) front tee is a 40 foot up shot that plays a whole lot longer than the listed 120 foot hole length.
- UNIQUENESS - In addition to elevation, I'd say the variety is above average. Mostly short and technical, but there are a few open shots and two 400 footers. Water is sort of in play on (5) and there are lots of great shot shaping opportunities as well with fairways cutting all sorts of directions.
- SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY - Although the course is short. The variety, elevation and technical nature of the woods portion is going to have many higher skilled players entertained.
- QUICK PLAY - Had it not been for running into a league halfway thru, I think I would have had this one wrapped up in an hour solo. After pairing up with the league, I threw the second half in just under an hour, so I'm going to say two hours or less for a foursome.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - A lovely sloping park setting with an alluring greenscape . Pleasing elevation changes and a few picturesque water views. IMO, the best of the three Veterans Park courses in terms of beauty.
- LOCATION - As just mentioned above, there are three courses located in Veterans Park. The Thunderchief layout starts on the north side of the parking lot from the Original layout and Music Bend is located across the street of Veteran's Memorial Blvd. In addition to the courses, Elvis's Birthplace is located across the street on the south side of the park.
- ACEABILITY - Several chip shot woodsy ace runs in the sub 175 foot range. Players are probably 2 or 3 times more likely to ace here than at a normal course. This course has probably produced more than its fair share of new disc golf addicts as well.
- CHARACTER - Solid amenities. To start, adequate 4 by 10 concrete tees. Adequate tee signs and lots of shade at the tees. At least half of the holes had duel tees, but a couple were not well maintained. Lots of multiple basket placements. Seating at 75% percent of the tees. Restrooms and shelters are nearby as well.
- ELEVATION - This course is truly blessed to have a 50 foot hill located at the heart of the layout. It's used very well on many tee shots thankfully. Several holes have a 30 foot grade change or more. Hole (2) front tee is a 40 foot up shot that plays a whole lot longer than the listed 120 foot hole length.
- UNIQUENESS - In addition to elevation, I'd say the variety is above average. Mostly short and technical, but there are a few open shots and two 400 footers. Water is sort of in play on (5) and there are lots of great shot shaping opportunities as well with fairways cutting all sorts of directions.
- SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY - Although the course is short. The variety, elevation and technical nature of the woods portion is going to have many higher skilled players entertained.
- QUICK PLAY - Had it not been for running into a league halfway thru, I think I would have had this one wrapped up in an hour solo. After pairing up with the league, I threw the second half in just under an hour, so I'm going to say two hours or less for a foursome.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - A lovely sloping park setting with an alluring greenscape . Pleasing elevation changes and a few picturesque water views. IMO, the best of the three Veterans Park courses in terms of beauty.
- LOCATION - As just mentioned above, there are three courses located in Veterans Park. The Thunderchief layout starts on the north side of the parking lot from the Original layout and Music Bend is located across the street of Veteran's Memorial Blvd. In addition to the courses, Elvis's Birthplace is located across the street on the south side of the park.
Cons:
The King would have been pound of this one.
- NO LONGER 27 HOLES - Over half of the reviews are from when this course was 27 holes instead of the current 18. Apparently in 2013, the open part of the old 27 hole layout was parceled off for the Thunderchief layout. I'm fairly certain I would have rated the 27 hole layout a weak 3.5 as the variety factor would have greatly increased.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - The difficulty is the course's only soft spot. The course most closely aligns to the recreational level. Sure there are some needle lines and smacking trees on consecutive throws is going to occur, it's just so short that the putter play from tee is going to occur too many times for many skilled players. All stated, round scoring is going to vary wildly out here. Advanced players could throw 12 -14 down and then follow it up with a 4 down.
- PINE BEETLE - I saw several newer downed trees on my round. I was told by a local that a pine beetle outbreak has wiped out a lot of trees in the past year. A signature 5 foot wide basket guarding tree on (14) has fallen, completely changing the hole.
- CHAINS - Mach 3s that I think are showing their age a bit, One was moderately damaged (15). A local told me it was damaged in fall 2017. Perhaps it will be repaired by the next review.
- TERRAIN - A couple good hikes up (2) and (6), plus lots of trees down along fairways. One of the guys in my group had a cart and it just didn't seem worth all the hassle.
- NO LONGER 27 HOLES - Over half of the reviews are from when this course was 27 holes instead of the current 18. Apparently in 2013, the open part of the old 27 hole layout was parceled off for the Thunderchief layout. I'm fairly certain I would have rated the 27 hole layout a weak 3.5 as the variety factor would have greatly increased.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - The difficulty is the course's only soft spot. The course most closely aligns to the recreational level. Sure there are some needle lines and smacking trees on consecutive throws is going to occur, it's just so short that the putter play from tee is going to occur too many times for many skilled players. All stated, round scoring is going to vary wildly out here. Advanced players could throw 12 -14 down and then follow it up with a 4 down.
- PINE BEETLE - I saw several newer downed trees on my round. I was told by a local that a pine beetle outbreak has wiped out a lot of trees in the past year. A signature 5 foot wide basket guarding tree on (14) has fallen, completely changing the hole.
- CHAINS - Mach 3s that I think are showing their age a bit, One was moderately damaged (15). A local told me it was damaged in fall 2017. Perhaps it will be repaired by the next review.
- TERRAIN - A couple good hikes up (2) and (6), plus lots of trees down along fairways. One of the guys in my group had a cart and it just didn't seem worth all the hassle.
Other Thoughts:
Its petty cool to have three courses all in one place. If I could rate the entire conglomerate of the three courses in one, I'd probably have it around a 3.75 rating. If I lived in town, I could easily see myself never wanting to leave town as the three at this park are really good. It seems like this course gets a lot of love and play from the locals. On my visit here I got stalled out a bit as a shotgun league round started by the time I hit hole (10). So I ended up finishing this one with three friendly locals. I also met Precious, a parrot who was one of the groups trained pet birds. Precious is the most awesome and chill bird that I've ever met.
- NAVIGATION - Its ok I guess. I don't recall much in the way off directional cues along the layout, however the flow was somewhat intuitive and I never ended up making a wrong turn. Perhaps I got lucky. Also note, no next tee call outs on the hole signage and the DGCR map link on Thunderchief (which shows both layouts) is better than the DGCR map link for this course.
- REVIEW NOTE - My 200th review. A big thanks to Dylan, Daniel and Mark for letting me tag along for part of their league round and getting to learn about the history of disc golf in Tupelo.
- NAVIGATION - Its ok I guess. I don't recall much in the way off directional cues along the layout, however the flow was somewhat intuitive and I never ended up making a wrong turn. Perhaps I got lucky. Also note, no next tee call outs on the hole signage and the DGCR map link on Thunderchief (which shows both layouts) is better than the DGCR map link for this course.
- REVIEW NOTE - My 200th review. A big thanks to Dylan, Daniel and Mark for letting me tag along for part of their league round and getting to learn about the history of disc golf in Tupelo.
