2023 Innova Blue Ridge Championship at North Cove (DGPT Silver)

[ToddL]

Re: Hole 18 and stroke-and-distance

Hole 18 only plays as stroke and distance if you choose to throw your disc over OB. True stroke and distance says that if you land OB, you rethrow from your previous spot. This hole says that if you land OB, you throw from your last spot IB on the fairway. You are 100% in control of where your last spot IB in the fairway is. If you choose to throw a hyzer over OB the whole way, that's your choice, and is not very different than having a lie at the edge of a pond, throwing directly into the pond, and having to rethrow from the edge of the pond again.

direct link to image: https://i.imgur.com/Bz6HkuK.jpg

 

[ToddL]

I heard one of the announcers say that hole #1 Boulders used on one of River Run's holes for the Silver.

River Run 18 was used as Boulders 1 for the FPO.

I also heard from the Kansas team that the Collegiate tournament is moving to South Carolina next year. Anyone know where ?

https://www.pdga.com/major-disc-golf-events
Rock Hill

 

[BrotherDave]

I like the baskets that are way less accessible unless you are on the correct side. Good way to emphasize the approach game without adding penalties. According to one commentator or another one of A. Duvall's main goals with the course was to force difficult shots of less than 300 feet. This is something we don't see much of on tour and I think in general the course does a good job of that.

3 is one that I don't like very much due primarily to the irregular green that is hard to see from any distance away. I think i would like 16 better with the OB at the top of the slope instead of the bottom- seems like a lot of opportunity there for shots that are the same to receive way different results. The entire second card yesterday hit out and rolled back in if i recall correctly.

Less accessible, yes. Impossible, no. There are places within the bullseye on hole 1 where you don't have a putt. That's a bit extreme IMO and too much like having a windmill ala mini golf.

I heard one of the announcers say that hole #1 Boulders used on one of River Run's holes for the Silver.

I thought that looked different. I think it's safe to say that with Duvall involved there's always going to be USDGC-esque tinkering going on. So some more hybridization between the 3 courses is a safe bet.

 

[ToddL]

I thought that looked different. I think it's safe to say that with Duvall involved there's always going to be USDGC-esque tinkering going on. So some more hybridization between the 3 courses is a safe bet.

Course maps as an FYI: https://www.thenorthcove.com/_files/ugd/9894f6_2a1d031cad7e4eeea9a849948dfe911b.pdf

The only difference from the standard layouts for this weekend was FPO RR18/B1. Normal Boulders 1 is just a simple downhill shot across open land, bunker to the right of the basket, river behind the basket.

 

[ballgolfconvert]

Island green less than C! wide is the kind of stuff that doesn't help disc golf one bit. They must be getting some pretty good stuff to smoke, to come up with a hole and OB rules like this. I wish the players would show up in force to protest this type of stuff but there seems to be big screws loose all over the sport. I hope at some point rationality prevails and one day we get good, fair, and challenging layouts for the best players to showcase their skills.

 

[Mando]

https://www.pdga.com/major-disc-golf-events
Rock Hill

Three courses down to one for 800 players ?

 

[ToddL]

Three courses down to one for 800 players ?

There's a lot of courses in Rock Hill.

 

[nothinbuttree]

I like the baskets that are way less accessible unless you are on the correct side. Good way to emphasize the approach game without adding penalties.

This is exactly my thought as well. Not just another stock hyzer, where if you are off a bit, you just have a longer putt. Not here--you have to land in a certain area to get that birdie look.

That said, There seem to be quite a few holes where the OB seems very punitive. Taking a penalty stroke is fine, but all those drop zones where saving par is very unlikely seems harsh. A couple per round, sure. I personally like hazard areas more. One stroke penalties for a less than perfect placement seems reasonable.

The other thing of note on this course is while placement shots are emphasized, you still also need a big arm to score very well. There were a few holes I noticed (just as an example) Isaac Robinson pushing to try to reach circle one (the one 496' par 3 slightly uphill comes to mind), and basically having to throw 100% power to do it, which of course resulted in bogeys.

It was actually one of the more enjoyable courses to watch, hopefully they can make a few player-suggested tweaks and keep this on tour next year. Power and precision required in one course is a good combination.

 

[Mando]

There's a lot of courses in Rock Hill.

Yep, but 14 out of 19 are 7-12 hole school courses and Riverbend is the only course rated over 4. Huge downgrade over North Cove, imo.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Yep, but 14 out of 19 are 7-12 hole school courses and Riverbend is the only course rated over 4. Huge downgrade over North Cove, imo.

Maybe they're reviving the Eagle temp course next to Winthrop and have 3rd temp site nearby in mind. Nothing like having the event on a college campus.

 

[Mando]

Maybe they're reviving the Eagle temp course next to Winthrop and have 3rd temp site nearby in mind. Nothing like having the event on a college campus.

To each his own. Personally, three courses at North Cove paired with 30 holes at Sugaree trumps anything rock Hill has to offer...and it's not like Sugaree wasn't offered and close enough at 25 minutes.

 

[DanJon]

Island green less than C! wide is the kind of stuff that doesn't help disc golf one bit. They must be getting some pretty good stuff to smoke, to come up with a hole and OB rules like this. I wish the players would show up in force to protest this type of stuff but there seems to be big screws loose all over the sport. I hope at some point rationality prevails and one day we get good, fair, and challenging layouts for the best players to showcase their skills.

Re: Hole 18 and stroke-and-distance

Hole 18 only plays as stroke and distance if you choose to throw your disc over OB. True stroke and distance says that if you land OB, you rethrow from your previous spot. This hole says that if you land OB, you throw from your last spot IB on the fairway. You are 100% in control of where your last spot IB in the fairway is. If you choose to throw a hyzer over OB the whole way, that's your choice, and is not very different than having a lie at the edge of a pond, throwing directly into the pond, and having to rethrow from the edge of the pond again.

direct link to image: https://i.imgur.com/Bz6HkuK.jpg

In case you missed it BolfConvertible.

 

[billmh]

Son played the event and was very impressed with North Cove (he had one warmup round the weekend before). Course is thoughtful and puts a premium on landing 200-250' upshots in the right places, both for par and for birdies. As noted by many, there's not a lot of layouts that are demanding such at the top tier these days, and nobody can argue with Gannon's success at playing blistering, well-rounded golf. Add the wow factor of the land and it's a premier location for a championship event at the same time that the Pro Tour is settling for a number of mediocre courses and venues. Tweaks will be welcome with a handful of holes (key one: open up the backstop on 18, which he took a 9 on Saturday) but he called it a whole lot more interesting than most courses that he's ever played, and he has played a few.

 

[Mando]

Son played the event and was very impressed with North Cove (he had one warmup round the weekend before). Course is thoughtful and puts a premium on landing 200-250' upshots in the right places, both for par and for birdies. As noted by many, there's not a lot of layouts that are demanding such at the top tier these days, and nobody can argue with Gannon's success at playing blistering, well-rounded golf. Add the wow factor of the land and it's a premier location for a championship event at the same time that the Pro Tour is settling for a number of mediocre courses and venues. Tweaks will be welcome with a handful of holes (key one: open up the backstop on 18, which he took a 9 on Saturday) but he called it a whole lot more interesting than most courses that he's ever played, and he has played a few.

So, in 2024 North Cove is promoted to Elite Tour and Music City drops back to Silver ?

 

[Countchunkula]

There's enough land to lengthen the gorge enough to reduce the amount of artificial OB if they figure out how to hybridize the Gorge with the River Run course, the White level course that's not used at all in this event.

I'm not a fan of the baskets completely blocked by boulders or bushes in certain directions. Like if they raised hole 1 Gorge's basket enough where like half of the basket is above the tallest boulder I think it's fine. Holes 3 and 16 are goofy. My other big complaint are the raised baskets on skinny poles. Lack of depth perception (both playing and viewing) and IMO at least the bullseye should be relatively flat under a raised basket. Some of these greens are just as sketchy laying up to then actually running the putt.

I was fine with the boulder blockers as a design element. The result is a very memorable green and everyone knows where not to land.

Agreed that the 7' pole extension on 16 or 17 was stupid. I'm not a fan of artificially elevated baskets for aesthetic reasons* and I think this one was both too tall and the green was tight enough (with ob) that you didn't need the added challenge of the tall pin.

It was a fun course to watch on coverage. Which is something I almost never say about dg courses all or partially on golf courses. 18 is a crazy finishing hole.

Spoiler

Would have been way more interesting as a fan if someone more aggressive than BW was 1 back going into 18.

*As dg pet peeves go, it's a really minor one for me.

 

[foxdawg10]

I was fine with the boulder blockers as a design element. The result is a very memorable green and everyone knows where not to land.

Agreed that the 7' pole extension on 16 or 17 was stupid. I'm not a fan of artificially elevated baskets for aesthetic reasons* and I think this one was both too tall and the green was tight enough (with ob) that you didn't need the added challenge of the tall pin.

It was a fun course to watch on coverage. Which is something I almost never say about dg courses all or partially on golf courses. 18 is a crazy finishing hole. Would have been way more interesting as a fan if someone more aggressive than BW was 1 back going into 18.

*As dg pet peeves go, it's a really minor one for me.

I'm not sure it would have mattered much. The top 6 finishers all took bogey or worse on hole 18 in the final round.

 

[The Mickstar]

Very anti-climactic ending.

I loved the course for the most part, but it would have been nice to see something more on hole 18.

Finally had a chance to watch the post-production. The lead card (and fans) really got screwed by the weather on the last hole. :\

 

[ballgolfconvert]

In case you missed it BolfConvertible.

Exactly. If you need 5 pictograms to figure out how to penalize players on a hole, something is seriously wrong.

 

[foxdawg10]

Finally had a chance to watch the post-production. The lead card (and fans) really got screwed by the weather on the last hole. :\

True. I would love to have seen how it played out in decent conditions instead of a torrential downpour. I suspect BW would have played it the exact same way.

 

[Steve West]

Performance Tracks for top ten finishers and top ten rated.

One thing to note is that I was able to use the same scale for both FPO and MPO. That's rare. Usually the FPO scale has much higher scores than MPO.

Spoiler