Bad single hole Design.

[Casey 1988]

I threw my nine-year-old Warlock into a sewer. :\ Creve Coeur Park has an old abandoned sewer system from some long-ago development on the course, and they have a basket set right behind an opening to the sewer. From the tee you can't see it; it's a short placement so I drove with the Warlock and it went right down in the sewer. I could see it, but it was too deep and I couldn't reach it. I was on a time crunch and had to leave it, and I don't live in St. Louis so I posted a "Farewell Warlock" thing to facebook. A guy I played league with 24 years ago who I see maybe once ever two years in passing got some equipment and fished it out of the sewer for me. Disc golfers can be awesome.

Of course now I have to run unto him to get it back, so that might take some time. I broke out an old "it says soft but you know it's medium" Warlock from when they were not selling mediums to take it's place while it is visiting my friend.

This post got me thinking what is the single worst hole you have ever seen in person/played. I know mine, it was the old hole 3 at Ohae Downstream state park's disc golf course, Powerhouse Ally. The hole had the basket on the other side of a road that people playing disc golf that I knew in 2003- early 2005 would try to hit car windows on cars that they would hit the driver side or they would if the person had a camper or pull behind camper try to hit those, few tried to hit those with boats behind the vehicle unless they had the small Alumacraft boats as those made an distinct sound when hit by a disc. My dad, brother and I as well as a then newer friend helped redesign the hole when the Park wanted us to add alternate tee pads in April of 2005. The head of park wanted hole 3 so players did not go over the road and was the first redo hole on the course with only one other hole getting added later.

I did get an ace on this old hole 3 in 2003 during my first year playing disc golf as the hole was ~198-201 feet with my only Disc Golf disc at the time a Rubber Putter. What happened was the wind help with an air bounce to the disc to keep disc higher in the air so it ended up landing in the basket, otherwise it was going to hit the pole at the bottom like it had a few times before.

 

[Three Putt]

I have played some really bad disc golf holes in my time. It would be really hard to decide which one was the worst. I do have this in a review of Tom Watkins Park in Springfield:

# 5 is a fine example of poor hole design. The tee was in right field of a baseball field and the hole played back toward the ball field. The basket was behind home plate on the other side of the backstop. The post on the third-base side of the backstop was a mando, so you are forced to throw AT people playing on the ball field. I thought this was weird but figured it out when I got around the backstop. The tee for six was between the backstop and the basket, so if you took the anhyzer route around the first base side of the backstop to avoid the ball field (which seemed logical,) you would throw right at the # 6 tee. Not that the other way was much better. The tee and the basket were so close that when my approach shot hyzered out a little it landed right next to the # 6 tee anyway. The whole thing was a perfect example of horrible course design.

I do remember standing there thinking "Wait, I have to throw AT the ball field?" It was just stupid. They have reworked the park and the course, so neither that hole or the ball field is there anymore.

 

[DavidSauls]

I can't top that.

Though I played a course in Albuquerque in the mid-90s that had 2 holes crossing a soccer field, and a sign that said that if the soccer field is in use, players should skip those holes. Yeah, right.

 

[DoWork]

There used to be a hole at the Bennington VT course that had the player teeing off directly at a basket located 20' from the door of a public restroom- obviously somebody could step out the door and catch a power drive to the teeth and it was taken out with their redesign last summer.

I can only think of a few terrible designs. One area course in particular has several but I'll refrain from starting any turf wars lol

 

[dr.chainslove]

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=1660 Posing this question to myself, I immediately thought of this course. At least half of the holes here qualify for worst ever. If you play here and DON'T kill any bystanders, it's actually a fun (yet totally ridiculous) play.

 

[chosenmatrix]

I can't top that.

Though I played a course in Albuquerque in the mid-90s that had 2 holes crossing a soccer field, and a sign that said that if the soccer field is in use, players should skip those holes. Yeah, right.

Any chance this was in Santa Fe? If not, if I remember correctly, there is a similar design on a course in Santa Fe....

 

[DavidSauls]

Any chance this was in Santa Fe? If not, if I remember correctly, there is a similar design on a course in Santa Fe....

Now that you mention it, I think it was. About a quarter-century ago, I visited both cities and played whatever courses were there. What's left of my mind may be placing courses in the wrong towns.

 

[DiscGolfCraig]

Marion DGC #9 in Marion, NC - 40 minutes east of Asheville. One of the 5-10 worst courses I've played. The basket is essentially in someone's backyard. And to boot, the day I played, the homeowners had their large dog tied up to a tree 20 feet from the basket. I didn't realize how close the dog was to the basket when I threw or I may have skipped the hole. Thankfully, I didn't throw long, but I also didn't focus too much on my putt.

NOTE: It may have been hole #6 with the dog. That's the basket in the background. Either way, a horrible course.

 

[ray1970]

One course I play brings a basketball court into play. The court is OB but you can't get from the tee pad to the basket without taking a line over the court. There hasn't been anyone playing basketball the times I've thrown that hole so my play is actually a long skip shot off the court. Not sure how I'd handle it if someone was playing basketball but it's a poor hole layout if you ask me.

 

[glassila]

I was passing through the Flint, MI area a few years back and stopped to play the Flint YMCA course. Everything was fairly normal for a 2 star course until I arrived at a 30 foot hole. When your tee shot is inside circle 1, that's bad hole design.

 

[JuanA]

The worst one I've played is Hole #10 at Sundance Trail Ranch DGC. When we were there, the basket was moved up from it's usual spot, to a very precarious perch with not much of a landing area, and a steep drop off down a rocky cliff if you missed. Just the hike to it was sketchy enough, there was no way I was throwing discs to it.

I hate to rag on this one hole, because the course itself was a lot of fun. We just skipped hole #10 for safety reasons, plus rain was coming in.

 

[brentjacobs]

...

That looks awesome to me, lol. Different strokes n'at. Leaning to play at Diamond X has made me a bit numb to those types of safety considerations.

 

[JuanA]

That looks awesome to me, lol. Different strokes n'at. Leaning to play at Diamond X has made me a bit numb to those types of safety considerations.

I should have mentioned that's actually a picture from the "Media Section" of that course review here on the site, and the number one reason I wanted to go play that course!

Unfortunately it wasn't like that when we played it. The risk/reward wasn't really losing a disc, but possibly falling down the ledge it was perched on.

Overall though, that course is one of my favorites on the Front Range here in Colorado.

 

[brentjacobs]

I'll have to get to that region at some point. Looks like a few gooders and I need to clear out the Cheyenne are too

 

[Monocacy]

From my review of The Eagle's Claw, an elementary school course:

Safety hazards everywhere. Hole 1 plays over a basketball court. Several holes play over or adjacent to the track and field areas and baseball fields. Hole 9's basket is squeezed between a grandstand and a back entrance to the school.

Hole 8 is probably the single most dangerous hole I have ever played - a semi-blind hyzer around a baseball backstop and over the running track. A decent drive would cross the track (again, partly blind from the tee) at runner's face height. Don't take my word for it, just check the course map which shows the preferred flight path directly over the running track. Yeesh.

Alternately you could throw a big anny over the baseball field, hoping not to fade early and hit an outfielder.

 

[Casey 1988]

I can't top that.

Though I played a course in Albuquerque in the mid-90s that had 2 holes crossing a soccer field, and a sign that said that if the soccer field is in use, players should skip those holes. Yeah, right.

Black Hills State has one that plays over the small practice field for the Football players, mainly for the line and defense to hit the dummies and not mess up the grass. I did see another the Running back and receivers using wind chutes and receivers catching balls from the machine that tosses footballs out.

 

[Casey 1988]

Marion DGC #9 in Marion, NC - 40 minutes east of Asheville. One of the 5-10 worst courses I've played. The basket is essentially in someone's backyard. And to boot, the day I played, the homeowners had their large dog tied up to a tree 20 feet from the basket. I didn't realize how close the dog was to the basket when I threw or I may have skipped the hole. Thankfully, I didn't throw long, but I also didn't focus too much on my putt.

NOTE: It may have been hole #6 with the dog. That's the basket in the background. Either way, a horrible course.

I played a bran new course that debued for a Tournament in 2008 in Mitchel South Dakota was finished the night before and had just enough time for the Concrete to harden before the tournament. Anyhow the park in Mitchel South Dakota had a guy living on a part of the park illigally in a sinlge wide trailer near one of the tee pads who has killed police and had his dog injure some to stop the city from moving the trailer off the park. Also one disc golfer found out the barb wire fence is electric by winding a cattle fence on the barb wire fence, plus the metal posts can give a tiny shock too just by being metal. The guy he yelled at every single group, entire group to move along in under a minute or you would have to answer to my Shotgun which the old guy who looked like he was in his 80's had a youth 20 gauge shot gun with the smallest legal barrel size to hunt with.

 

[nothinbuttree]

I was passing through the Flint, MI area a few years back and stopped to play the Flint YMCA course. Everything was fairly normal for a 2 star course until I arrived at a 30 foot hole. When your tee shot is inside circle 1, that's bad hole design.

Was par 1, 2, or 3?

Only being halfway sarcastic, because there is a hole in my region (about 120') that has PAR 2 on the hole sign.

 

[Vintage Folfer]

...Everything was fairly normal for a 2 star course until I arrived at a 30 foot hole.

No mando?

 

[ray1970]

No mando?

I think the mando is you have to be above the cage, below the band, and somewhere not left or right of the chains.