Anyone have experience hiring a course designer?

[hanger129]

Does anyone here have experience hiring a course designer, specifically to consult on a design? A friend and I have the opportunity to design a course on private property. We're not wanting to hire someone to design a course from scratch. We hope to find someone locally, or perhaps regionally, to give feedback and insights to the overall design process.

We're simply trying to get a rough idea on costs at the moment, and while I don't expect something like consulting on disc golf course design to be standardized, I'd be interested to hear other folk's experiences that have worked with designers. Thanks in advance!

 

[Cgkdisc]

Here are members of the Disc Golf Course Designers group, hopefully some in your area.

 

[biscoe]

Where are you located?

 

[Steve West]

Make sure the designer understands and agrees to what you actually want.

Some designers will only provide their "brand name" style of course. Specific baskets, holes lengths, tee pad materials, etc.

Many designers will work to provide the type of course you want, but will want final say in the design to protect themselves. They don't want their name on a course with crossing fairways, for example. As landowner you can still throw out the design and install whatever you want, but that's on you because you departed from the design. If you know what you want out of a course, get a designer who will tailor the design to your goals, but let them do the design.

It sounds like what you are looking for is a designer who will let the design be yours, but will point out places where is could be improved, and why. Expect this service to cost at least as much as a regular design. Probably more, because it is a lot less efficient (for the designer) than creating a design from scratch. If it is really important that you can say YOU did the design, do this. I've been the consultant designer in this position, and it works out fine.

 

[BillFleming]

One suggestion....find local players who are a mix of abilities from novice to pro - 4 to 8 players. Set up temporary tee pads and baskets. Ask the people to play the course and provide feedback. Create a survey sheet for them; it can have specific questions, like - overall, how did the course appeal to you? And then a section for comments. Provide each player a survey and pencil to fill it out. Any 'ratings' should be 1 (best), 2 (okay), 3 (bad) - I believe the more options = the more subjective. Also, for each 'ratings' question also provide a box for comments. The survey does need to have their 'ability' listed....a novice might rate a hole 3 and a pro rate it 1. You need to be able to build for all levels of players - it might mean separate tee pads or different basket locations.

Doing this, will give you a true idea of what the course will be like for all levels of players. Using temporary tee pads and baskets will let you adjust it and try again if needed.

 

[biscoe]

It sounds like what you are looking for is a designer who will let the design be yours, but will point out places where is could be improved, and why. Expect this service to cost at least as much as a regular design. Probably more, because it is a lot less efficient (for the designer) than creating a design from scratch. If it is really important that you can say YOU did the design, do this. I've been the consultant designer in this position, and it works out fine.

I will do a walkthrough and point out glaring problems for a fraction of the cost of a full design. If close enough to home I will do it for free.

 

[hanger129]

Where are you located?

The potential course would be located about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta

 

[Steve West]

I will do a walkthrough and point out glaring problems for a fraction of the cost of a full design. If close enough to home I will do it for free.

Yes, I expect a lot of us would. Once.

I was referring to sticking with it through the many iterations of the design, being on call for weeks or months, making several site visits, etc. With a contract so the client does not hesitate to make repeated requests.

 

[hanger129]

It sounds like what you are looking for is a designer who will let the design be yours, but will point out places where is could be improved, and why. Expect this service to cost at least as much as a regular design. Probably more, because it is a lot less efficient (for the designer) than creating a design from scratch. If it is really important that you can say YOU did the design, do this. I've been the consultant designer in this position, and it works out fine.

This is more or less true. We're not so much tied to saying WE designed the course as we are to installing the best course that can be designed for the property and within a certain budget.

I think at this stage of the game we're trying to assess where a course designer would fit into the overall budget. I have no clue what it cost to hire a designer to build a course from scratch, or what it would be to simply have someone review a design and give some input.

Additionally, it would be great to get insights like "if we take out X number of trees that are roughy Y big, it will take Z of hours" and be able to factor that into our costs.

 

[Billipo]

As was mentioned there is a course designer group. Maybe check out names on list, find someone who has designed an appealing course that best matches your property.

I have designed courses, but only one for pay. I have always been given control of the projects with some constraints or needs such as staying out of certain areas, number of holes, limitations on number, size, or type of trees cut, certain skill levels ( yes property owner gets to decide this! Not local players).

For the course that paid for design....

I charged a nominal per hole design cost, plus mileage charge for x number of trips. All labor was performed by owner.

I sense that a hired designer for your project is not to design the course but more to pick their brain telling you which of your ideas are good or bad. Are you looking for a designer or consultant?

My opinion is that certain individuals are cut out to be course designers, not always being best player makes a person a good designer, but it helps if designer has at least skill level of course.

Red level player is unlikely able to design a great gold course.

Hope this helps.

 

[johnrhouck]

As was mentioned there is a course designer group. Maybe check out names on list, find someone who has designed an appealing course that best matches your property.

That's pretty sound advice.

I don't have experience hiring a designer, but I do have experience as the one being hired. Please let me know if I can help.

 

[biscoe]

My opinion is that certain individuals are cut out to be course designers, not always being best player makes a person a good designer, but it helps if designer has at least skill level of course.

Red level player is unlikely able to design a great gold course.

I gotta disagree with the bolded. Playing and designing are 2 completely different things. Being skilled at one is tangentially related at best to being good at the other. John H. hasn't played a PDGA event in 20+ years as best I can tell. His design work seems to hold up OK.

 

[Billipo]

I gotta disagree with the bolded. Playing and designing are 2 completely different things. Being skilled at one is tangentially related at best to being good at the other. John H. hasn't played a PDGA event in 20+ years as best I can tell. His design work seems to hold up OK.

I think maybe my comment was misunderstood. I agree that good play and good designer abilities don't always have direct correlation.

Regarding skill levels, I was only indicating that new players/ new designers can get out of their league if trying to design courses that exceed their personal skill level and don't just assume the highest rated player is the best design resource.

 

[txmxer]

Who will be playing this course? All skill levels? Tournaments? Private/small group?