Building new par 3 course in Darlington, sc

[Steve West]

The attached website is the parcel description. It's 14.8 acres and I'm sold on trying for 18 holes. From there you can click the map and see the site. You can click roads, aerial view, measure and design holes or at least see what length of holes you could put on the land. Really hilly for SC. Go have fun and screenshot some designs. Then maybe send them to my email.. [email protected].

Anyone know how much a desig would cost? do they sit on sight while the trees are cut and paths made or do they give a design and a 3rd party cuts the holes as drawn on a the blue prints?



https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/A...geTypeID=4&PageID=7158&KeyValue=164-16-01-012

They will do whatever you contract with them to do, at the price you negotiate. For design-only, think of it as investing 10%-15% of the total costs to make sure you get your money's worth out of the other 90%-85%.

The first thing they would do is talk about the goals you have for the course and the resources or constraints. That will go a long way to getting you the best course possible for your needs.

 

[Gardnerbp]

It's been a busy day. We have scheduled a onsite visit for the 14.8 acres for this coming Tuesday. Hopefully we will get some favorable news about being able to do a full 18 hole course. The hills make it possible in my mind.

I'm going ahead with the 10k for the small course, pending council approval. The designer agreed to walk it and help with hole selection tweaks on Tuesday as well.

If we go through with it. We are going to have a Innova designed 18 hole course, baskets and me throwing it. So I hope they're as good as the reviews say..? And a little putting course of maybe 9 holes.

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Anyone ever played there designed courses?

 

[DavidSauls]

Innova? Everyone's played their designed courses!

 

[BrotherDave]

It's been a busy day. We have scheduled a onsite visit for the 14.8 acres for this coming Tuesday. Hopefully we will get some favorable news about being able to do a full 18 hole course. The hills make it possible in my mind.

I'm going ahead with the 10k for the small course, pending council approval. The designer agreed to walk it and help with hole selection tweaks on Tuesday as well.

If we go through with it. We are going to have a Innova designed 18 hole course, baskets and me throwing it. So I hope they're as good as the reviews say..? And a little putting course of maybe 9 holes.

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Anyone ever played there designed courses?

Yes, their courses are the bane of my existence. I shouldn't say 'their,' I really like Harold Duvall's work. I specifically loathe Russell Schwarz and his many botched designs of randomly dumping baskets in the woods, L-shaped holes of dumb distances, boring open field holes, holes where the tees are in a hole for no f*$#ing reason, holes where the tees hug one side of the fairway awkwardly for no reason, and holes where the woods are used terribly.

The main Innova guy for the Carolinas was Schwarz the last time I've heard. So if you get Schwarz, watch him like a hawk. Actually, just don't get Schwarz, at all. This website could crowd source a way better design than anything he'd come up with. Stay away from Russell; I'm currently working on fixing one of his trademark hatchet jobs actually.

Oh and as a general rule you want an acre per hole for a decently long course.










Russell Schwarz sucks.

 

[DavidSauls]

Let's not poison the well....I haven't played too many of his designs, but the ones I've played have been fine. Assuming that's who they're sending in the first place.

 

[Gardnerbp]

Dang, tell me how you really feel. Well I was doing it on my own and that was good enough. So I went with who our recreation director new and happened to be the Innova guy. So I guess I hope you're wrong and he can make a decent course for us.

 

[brutalbrutus]

I wouldn't worry to much, as long as there isn't any obviously dangerous tee areas because of pedestrian traffic. Just remember, one man's goofy hole is another guy's heaven on earth...

 

[BrotherDave]

Let's not poison the well....I haven't played too many of his designs, but the ones I've played have been fine. Assuming that's who they're sending in the first place.

Creekside was a hot mess when it first went in. NE Park is a crime against disc golf. Bell and Howard sucks. Rotary is boring with dumb holes. Scotland County was so bad the locals redesigned it completely AFAIK. The Patriot is massively stupid considering the land available. Tyger River is half stupid. Anderson has lots of really dumb holes.

He is terrible. A little birdie once told me that he has had so many complaints that his designs have to be ran by Duvall first.

 

[Steve West]

... his designs have to be ran by Duvall first.

So, we're good, then.

 

[BrotherDave]

So, we're good, then.

No, you'll get at worst a boring course like Patriot or Rotary.

 

[brutalbrutus]

Maybe a boring course is exactly what they need... This is the first course in that town. Having a gold level course doesn't really sound like a good idea to build up the local rec scene.

 

[DavidSauls]

Maybe a boring course is exactly what they need... This is the first course in that town. Having a gold level course doesn't really sound like a good idea to build up the local rec scene.

Exactly.

 

[DavidSauls]

Creekside was a hot mess when it first went in. NE Park is a crime against disc golf. Bell and Howard sucks. Rotary is boring with dumb holes. Scotland County was so bad the locals redesigned it completely AFAIK. The Patriot is massively stupid considering the land available. Tyger River is half stupid. Anderson has lots of really dumb holes.

He is terrible. A little birdie once told me that he has had so many complaints that his designs have to be ran by Duvall first.

11 4-star courses, 24 3+ star courses, a bunch of school courses.....

My experience is different. Admittedly, I've only played one course you cite. But Pipeline is great, Chester, The Sarge, Tom Triplett, are all fine.....and so is Tyger River.

Perhaps it's a matter of taste. Heck, I know someone who hates John Houck courses, too.

And that's assuming that Russell Schwarz is the Innova person going to Darlington. It could be someone else.

As Brutulbus says, Darlington doesn't need genius. They're not aiming to be a world disc golf destination. They just need someone with a some experience, coming into a relatively disc-golf-free area, to avoid the major pitfalls that inexperienced designers are prone to, and to look at the land with fresh eyes.

 

[Gardnerbp]

My number one goal is the player who has never played in my town walking away wanting to buy discs at their first round at home.

My second goal is all you purest who are about to cost my city some real money beyond my original 10k. So I told him red tee, fun course that's easier. Blue tees a hard fun course.

So I hope we can like what Russel from Innova comes up with.. I'll be happy to post a preliminary drawing and give anyone who wants a chance to walk the property a chance to influence my suggestions. . Beyond that I can't make everyone happy and my main goal is the citizens of Darlington and picking up a few players from surrounding communities.

But considering are two nice course in the PeeDee are 9 holes and we have one long 18 pay to play. I think what ever we do will be huge for disc golf and the PeeDee.

 

[Gardnerbp]

My par three course, the original dream... I'm thinking we set up a "putting course" on that property. It will give us something to do until the real course is built.

 

[TheOtherBill]

11 4-star courses, 24 3+ star courses, a bunch of school courses.....

My experience is different. Admittedly, I've only played one course you cite. But Pipeline is great, Chester, The Sarge, Tom Triplett, are all fine.....and so is Tyger River.

Perhaps it's a matter of taste. Heck, I know someone who hates John Houck courses, too.

And that's assuming that Russell Schwarz is the Innova person going to Darlington. It could be someone else.

As Brutulbus says, Darlington doesn't need genius. They're not aiming to be a world disc golf destination. They just need someone with a some experience, coming into a relatively disc-golf-free area, to avoid the major pitfalls that inexperienced designers are prone to, and to look at the land with fresh eyes.

The Sarge was about the most difficult piece of property I've ever seen a course installed on, and it is a fun and challenging one to boot.

I don't always agree with some of his design ideas, but Russell works hard to serve both masters - the DG community and the people paying for the course.
A lot of the complaints about his work are directly due to the 'input' from local parks people or city council members who have never held a disc, and mostly it is finances that get in the way of putting in the time and effort to make a truly great course.

I forgot he did Tom Triplett, that's another favorite and a 'must play' if you are in Savannah.

 

[Gardnerbp]

The Sarge was about the most difficult piece of property I've ever seen a course installed on, and it is a fun and challenging one to boot.

I don't always agree with some of his design ideas, but Russell works hard to serve both masters - the DG community and the people paying for the course.
A lot of the complaints about his work are directly due to the 'input' from local parks people or city council members who have never held a disc, and mostly it is finances that get in the way of putting in the time and effort to make a truly great course.

I forgot he did Tom Triplett, that's another favorite and a 'must play' if you are in Savannah.

Well dang, I asked about the time line. He says we go lay it out and y'all approve and then it's done. So I was like this is where we tweak it. And he was like yep. So sounds like this guy nail it right on the head. Because this councilman already dreamed of giving it his own twist. Maybe I can find a couple people this site trust to walk it with me. Before WE give it the final design ok...?

 

[Carolina Crushers]

I love playing Pim Farms in Darlington, SC. If you haven't played it, you should scope out their design. It's a really good course to play.

 

[Gardnerbp]

When have you played it last? Because I went out there recently. The holes are awesome. But I found it really hard to follow 2 or 3 of the tee boxs and or basket placements..?

This is something that doesn't happen in golf and that's not only the down fall of pin farms, it's Coker, and the one by Francis Marions campus too. For the courses I played. It's sometimes hard to follow the flow of the course.

The course we are thinking of building will be like the tree sections of pm farms. It won't be open field lay out.

 

[Carolina Crushers]

I played Pim Farms about a year ago, it was challenging to figure out where the next tee was. Coker, I play roughly 5 times a week, navigation is extremely easy there. The pro tee's all have signs, and am tees, are roughly 60 feet before the pros, marked with white post with red tape. I actually just updated some of the photos on Coker page a week ago.