Austin TX Disc Golf Scene

[Riptide572]

Hey everyone,
I am currently in the Eastern Pennsylvania area and will be relocating to Austin TX in a little under a year. Currently, I have a half dozen or more of the best disc golf courses I've played located within a half hour of my current location. I decided to take a look into what is in Austin and it appears to have over 20 courses within 20 miles of the city. I am assuming (from the looks of it), that this is a very disc friendly city. Researching more, I found that DiscNation is also located in the Austin area (a retail that I have ordered from before).
Please forgive me, but for those that live in or are close to the area; I am going to bombard you with a ton of questions here.
1- Can anyone tell me what the DG community is like out there?
2- Are the majority of the courses out there decent? With such a large number, I guess I would be afraid that some are just thrown together.
3- Any courses I should steer clear of?
4- Is there any 'MUST PLAY' courses that I should check out when I first get there?
5- Is there any local groups to join for weekly tournaments or anything? (Currently, there is a weekly 9 hole 'shootout' tournament at a local course. I would like to see if there is anything similar there).
6- I am a 'mediocre' or intermediate player, is everyone there going to blow me out of the water in skill level?
Thank you for everything. I appreciate any responses to this request. Have a great day and keep discin'!

 

[Disc Nation]

Hey everyone,
I am currently in the Eastern Pennsylvania area and will be relocating to Austin TX in a little under a year. Currently, I have a half dozen or more of the best disc golf courses I've played located within a half hour of my current location. I decided to take a look into what is in Austin and it appears to have over 20 courses within 20 miles of the city. I am assuming (from the looks of it), that this is a very disc friendly city. Researching more, I found that DiscNation is also located in the Austin area (a retail that I have ordered from before).

Awesome! Here's a preemptive HOWDY from the staff of local Austin golfers :hfive:

1- Can anyone tell me what the DG community is like out there?

Well, today they're fighting about the exact formats and membership of our 2nd and 3rd Match Play series(es), run independently by local die-hards.
That is to say... it's awesome. The clubs are solid and run by good people. There are a number of experienced event organizers in the area. Our frisbee culture as a city runs deep, into the 70s, and you'll find a Freestyle jam every week with some of the same guys who raised the money for our first course, in ~1981. There are a few courses along major roads in town, so the public awareness of disc golf is incredibly prevalent. It's part of the culture in Austin to keep it weird, and disc golf is one of our weirdest institutions.

2- Are the majority of the courses out there decent? With such a large number, I guess I would be afraid that some are just thrown together.

Surprisingly, most of them are spectacular! With John Houck basing his operations here for the last umpteen years, we have a great number of Houck-designed courses. His protege, Mike Olse, has designed a number of excellent courses in and around town, and Mike tends to understand the modern Pro arm (having one), so his courses are especially punishing

3- Any courses I should steer clear of?

This one mainly comes down to personal preferences. You might wanna avoid, or visit daily, Zilker for its past-blasting pitch-n-putt league-friendly design. Same for Searight, purportedly the most heavily-trafficked course in the world, and the 18-hole equivalent of Cheers. Surely a few of the CenTex courses are straight-up duds, but you'll never hear them mentioned.

4- Is there any 'MUST PLAY' courses that I should check out when I first get there?

Several! Depends on your part of town. Southwest = Circle C, Southeast = Met Center, South suburb = Kyle/Steeplechase, Central = Roy G., West = Austin Bible Ridge (scenery mainly), East = East Metro Park (Manor), North = Old Settlers, Northeast = Wilco. Some of my south-Dallas (Round Rock) friends may have more detailed tips for the North.

5- Is there any local groups to join for weekly tournaments or anything? (Currently, there is a weekly 9 hole 'shootout' tournament at a local course. I would like to see if there is anything similar there).

You'll find a half dozen clubs scattered around, in addition to Leagues! There's a League (or few) every day of the week. Waterloo is the main club in the Austin area.

6- I am a 'mediocre' or intermediate player, is everyone there going to blow me out of the water in skill level?

They may out-drink you, but you'll find a solid competitive field in every part of the spectrum. Oddly, and this speaks to the ingrained culture of Austin, there is an insanely competitive Masters scene here. The old-school quotient is rich in these parts. For those players who are ridiculously good, they're friendly and helpful to the less advanced players. Lessons are easy to find here.

And we'd suck at this if we didn't mention you'll have access to the world's only fly-before-you-buy driving range with ~10,000 discs to choose from. We're not vending every dollar of disc in town, or yelling every START, but Disc Nation's contribution to the community is in providing an unreal pro shop experience and bringing a better understanding of gear to the beginners and advancing players in town.

Now, can you really wait almost a year?

 

[kerplunk]

Your biggest problem here will be crowded courses (one reason I prefer going to Manor), and since there are so many courses there is generally less of a "local" feeling. Otherwise the DG scene here is superb.

Also, I avoid HOTT tourneys b/c the one I played in had a horrible disc selection and the organizers were very unapologetic about it, but I am sure others have had better experiences.

 

[jenb]

As a Dallas area player, I would suggest avoiding the temptation to try and pigeonhole the Austin disc golf scene or its members. There is as much variety as everywhere else, and maybe then some. One thing you should probably expect, however, is some of the highest level of tournament competition available anywhere.

 

[MrDarkHorse]

I would recommend Cat Hollow, North Town, and Wells Branch up north as well.

Wells Branch is the easiest, then Cat Hollow, and North Town is a bit tricky, but pretty good.

 

[sidewinder22]

PA has far superior terrain for disc golf.

 

[jenb]

PA has far superior terrain for disc golf.

Too bad about all that snow.

 

[eegor]

Austin is year around disc golfing fun!

You're lucky! Bienvenido to Tejas Amigo!

 

[zj1002]

Austin Texas - the home of the 980-990 golfer!

 

[pablo.diablo]

The local club that I'm involved with hosts quite a gang of Intermediate-level players, both in our casual meetups and Spring & Fall 10-Week Leagues.

Info here: http://www.sintexdgc.com/

Check us out when you get down here, we play Sunday mornings. There are a bunch of great clubs such as Waterloo, Sin Tex, Disc Til Dawn, Double R, South Austin Ducks, and more. I suggest that you find one that you like to start getting some valuable experience with locals and up your game.

Also, I have started hosting specialty events scattered throughout the year such as the Legacy Ace Run, Vibram Birdie Bash, Millennium Challenge, Deadliest Dubs In Texas, Midrange Challenge, etc. So if you'd like to get into some fun events that have great Player Packs at great deals, there are plenty of opportunities.

As far as the top courses: Circle C, Austin Ridge, East Metro Manor, Roy Guerrero, Wilco are pretty much consensus top rung. Then you have other good courses with different terrains such as MET Center, Searight, Brushy Creek 9, Wells Branch.

Personally, my least favorite courses are Cat Hollow (poor flow) and Northtown (tees are horrible), but a lot of people LOVE them so don't go by my word. I just think those are probably the 2 lowest-rated, you could say, due to the course design. But they are still worth checking out.

Surrounding the Austin area you get into even more good courses such as Lion's Park Temple (badass!), Steeplechase Kyle, Moody's Red Rock, Twin Parks, Rivery Georgetown.

Most courses have a somewhat rocky terrain with a ton of cedar trees compared to other parts of Texas, but not all of them. Many of these courses you'd be wise to ditch the CE and other high-dollar drivers for normal Champion/Opto/Z, because they'll get shredded quickly in comparison.

 

[Riptide572]

Wow, such a great set of responses. Thanks for the input. Can't wait to get out there and throw some plastic.

 

[pablo.diablo]

Don't forget to visit DiscNation. Great folks, nice store. Close to Searight Park so you can get a round in immediately afterwards.

 

[Riptide572]

Most courses have a somewhat rocky terrain with a ton of cedar trees compared to other parts of Texas, but not all of them. Many of these courses you'd be wise to ditch the CE and other high-dollar drivers for normal Champion/Opto/Z, because they'll get shredded quickly in comparison.

Yeah, we have pretty wooded courses in PA so I'm used to shredding discs. Haven't had much problem with Star plastic, but Champion and Z are my preferred ones anyways. DX gets chopped up pretty well, i got quite a few that are in bad shape but I can't justify getting rid of any disc.

 

[pookie]

I think I got my nephew hooked this last week on disc golf. He lives in Pflugerville, is there any youth leagues or anything like that for a newbie in the area?