Creating artificial obstacle/trees ?

[LeewayeDiscGolf]

Try asking your local power companies for used telephone pole donations. They make terrific fake trees and will stand up to weather and getting smacked by discs. The chain link idea previously mentioned works well too. Try looking up the Brent Baca course in New Mexico. They use a lot of man-made obstacles there. They had a chain link circle around a basket. They used warehouse shelving around another.
While real mature trees are always the best sometimes it just isn't workable in the type of terrain or within budget. Some fast growing sagebrushy type bushes may also work and take very little water.

 

[donnyv]

Try asking your local power companies for used telephone pole donations. They make terrific fake trees and will stand up to weather and getting smacked by discs.

When I bought my house the previous owner left 7 huge telephone poles laying down and hidden in tall grass. I was like, how in the hell am I gonna move these things...

They are super heavy and you have to be careful if you cut them since they have that chemical stuff on them. And DO NOT try burning them. Bad idea (I didn't) if you breath that stuff in.

I was able to borrow a tractor with forks and the poles are now used for parking bumpers

 

[1978]

Recently I inquired around here. 40, 40' power poles quoted at ~$600. Boom! Take that Obama.

 

[biscoe]

Our local power company will generally give them to you as long as you can transport them.

 

[Scootman78]

Recently I inquired around here. 40, 40' power poles quoted at ~$600. Boom! Take that Obama.

Yes, because when you think of inflation and high price power poles, you think of President Obama...and not President Reagan (you know, the dude in power when the national debt quadrupled while wages stayed the same). Boom!

Power poles would be a good idea - especially if you have wire to string together between them. You would need heavy machinery to install them though. For $600 though, hopefully your course is covered under great insurance when the damaged power poles fall on unsuspecting players or pedestrians. You're not getting high quality power poles at $15 each ($600/40). And opting for unsafe obstacles just because they're cheap wouldn't be President Obama's fault either....that would be on you.

 

[BCDan]

I like the idea of creating bricks circling the basket creating an island hole . But, people who never played disc golf don't understand O.B or Mando's really, but, they understand trying to avoid hitting a tree or obstacle, as that will stop them from being closer to the basket.

 

[joecoin]

The chain link fence sounds good, use wild grape vines instead of (or in addition to) ivy. Wild grapes will grow anywhere, I hate them.


Or maybe get a bunch of boulders.

 

[DavidSauls]

The material and installation costs of these alternatives is skyrocketing. A couple of more pages of this thread, and planting trees will seem like a real bargain.

But I'll join in, and mention that we've considered using roundbales of hay or straw as artificial obstacles.

* They would look fine in our country setting---and not even look terribly artificial.
* Around here, we can get them for about $35 apiece.
* They make a pretty substantial obstacle---bigger to putt around than a pole---yet neither damage discs, nor are damaged by them.
* They are portable, so if we don't like where they are, we can move them.
* Environmentally friendly.

 

[djcadence]

You could always use bamboo like they have at Winthrop. It's a cheap renewable resource that's easy to work with.

 

[loki the trickster]

In Penn Valley, CA some rapscallions broke down a dead tree that was part of the fairway. Jeff Stoops and his gal at the time (Nancy) replaced the tree with a large metal pipe(cemented in) and Nancy painted it like a totem pole. I liked it! Artsy and effective.

I was going to mention this. If i remember correctly some of the totem poles out at penn valley are the long tree stakes they very well could all be metal. They are spaced around 6" apart so a disc cant make it through the gaps to hit th saplings behind it.

I would also recommend doing a bit of everything that has been posted. bamboo walls like what the usdgc has done in the past or the tripple mandatory that they are doing now. Rope off some boundaries. couple of sheets of lattice can protect saplings as well.

You could see about making artificial ponds or streams (they dont have to be that deep) lined with wood to protect the edges from collapsing and use the dirt to build a berm in front a basket or two, just make it tall enough to see the top of the basket and far enough away so that if the shot does not make it over that the putt is difficult. Or the dirt could be used to make elevated platforms(Circle, square, pyramid).

 

[Noill]

I like the disc tree idea...

I've mulled over using camo netting to prevent shots I don't want ppl to do...
Either as a barrier to localboy routes that defeat the hole design or to actually help keep a disc out of some real bad schule area..
I have used it on one hole where it just might be possible for an errant shot to hit players on a different tee... in this case it acts as a barrier for the tee

 

[Tafe19740]

I always thought a cool tourney-make the hole tougher for the day idea would be some of those promotional flag-banner type things. Especially tall ones like they use at surfing comps. It would be really cool if they were placed into large pipes in the ground so they could swivel with the wind.

 

[JedV]

I imagine a course like this where you acquire random objects - imagine old broken down cars, like a bunch of cadillacs stood up on end to make "carhenge" surrounding a basket, or whatever kind of cars you can get your hands on, It probably wouldn't take too much effort to find people wanting to get rid of their cars that don't work, strip the motors out first and bam, unique hole. Or how about old construction equipment, a big back hoe or dump truck could make a cool obstacle... or I don't know, I bet if you scoured craigs list or went to some auctions you could come up with all kinds of crazy obstacles for relatively inexpensive..

That works until local kids find out about it, and trash the installation. Sounds like a good place to have bonfires, blast off some shotgun rounds, etc.

More natural looking would better stand the test of time in my opinion.

 

[Puckstopper]

Yes, because when you think of inflation and high prices, you think of President Obama.

Damn right I do. It's amazing how my wages have gone up slightly, but my buying power and standard of living have gone down during Obama's presidency. Thes things happen when you create an absurd health insurance scam that places more of a burden on working class people than the lazy scum of the earth, and tax the hell out of people who work to give that money to the same lazy, low class, uneducated wastes of resources who have made the choice not to pay their own way.

Back to the thread, bamboo seems like a winner. It's fairly cheap, super fast growing, durable, and natural. The only down side is that it is a pain in the butt to keep under control.

 

[sumo21]

PVC and CPVC could be your answer. CPVC is smaller than PVC and could be your branches and they have PVC up to 12 in diameter, but that will cost a pretty penny. 2" is more affordable and easier to get (Lowe's, Home Depot, local Ace).

 

[sumo21]

And if the angled elbows don't suit what you're looking for, you can drill holes in the main PVC and angle them manually.

 

[discoriented]

Mentioned in another thread but I'll repeat that artificial Christmas trees work great as obstacles. I have a hole on my course surrounded by seven fake trees and one live arborvitae. Most first timers don't even realize they're artificial. People are constantly giving them away for free on Craigslist, especially just prior to,and after, Christmas. They can also be found dirt cheap at garage sales and Goodwill stores. Installation is as easy as driving a larger diameter pipe in the ground about 20 inches and placing the tree in the pipe. Construction site dumpsters can be a good source of cheap materials such as pipe, rebar etc.

 

[Gblambert]

Here's one made out of a dead oak tree, some telephone poles, and some recycled welding cylinders. The poles were free from my power company and the cylinders were $10 each. A horizontal pole could probably be used in lieu of the tree. The cylinders have ringers in them so if you hit one it sounds like a church bell. Pretty easy to make and the total cost was under a hundred bucks.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I love the Christmas tree idea, discoriented, and just copied/pasted it to a private course-owning friend of mine. Genius.

 

[joecoin]

I love the Christmas tree idea, discoriented, and just copied/pasted it to a private course-owning friend of mine. Genius.

I read that as "disco oriented" and I was looking for a mirror ball. Hey, a giant mirror ball as an obstacle!