Disc golf of golf courses: the future of disc golf? & Sequoyah State Park in Oklahoma

[Dan H.]

Disc golf of golf courses: the future of disc golf? & Sequoyah State Park in Oklahoma

I played the Sequoyah State Park course in Hulbert, Oklahoma yesterday and was totally blown away. Check out my review.

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=5795&mode=ci

Has anyone else played disc golf on a course that was built on top of a functioning golf course? I found the experience to be quite enjoyable and I'm thinking this could be huge for our sport if it catches on at more golf courses. The prestige of playing disc golf on a golf course is something we could all enjoy and could propel the sport to the next level. Disc golfers and our courses deserve the respect that golfers and golf courses get and this could be a great way to get there.

 

[mashnut]

There are a lot of those courses out there already, and as golf suffers in popularity with the current economy I think we'll probably see more. There are some inherent challenges to designing a good disc golf course on a golf course. If you follow the same flow, you end up with a lot of long open holes but if you use the property more creatively you end up with conflicts between the two sports.

 

[Dan H.]

There are a lot of those courses out there already, and as golf suffers in popularity with the current economy I think we'll probably see more. There are some inherent challenges to designing a good disc golf course on a golf course. If you follow the same flow, you end up with a lot of long open holes but if you use the property more creatively you end up with conflicts between the two sports.

I totally see what you mean there. As I listed on the cons in my review the course is very long and wide open. I still think the overall experience is a positive one though and perhaps with minor tweaks we can figure out a way to perfect it.

 

[thrembo]

We have a new course down here on a ball golf course (Bird Bay in Venice) and they have gotten it right. For one, it has 3 sets of tees, which is critical as other dg on bg courses that I have seen are way to long for the avg/rec type player. Its a little more open than the wooded courses down here. It was a nice change, stepping out of the jungle and playing on a well maintained and nicely mowed course. I even liked using a cart more than I thought I would. The course follows the bg course, and you could have dgers and bgers competing in the same groups.

 

[Dan H.]

We have a new course down here on a ball golf course (Bird Bay in Venice) and they have gotten it right. For one, it has 3 sets of tees, which is critical as other dg on bg courses that I have seen are way to long for the avg/rec type player. Its a little more open than the wooded courses down here. It was a nice change, stepping out of the jungle and playing on a well maintained and nicely mowed course. I even liked using a cart more than I thought I would. The course follows the bg course, and you could have dgers and bgers competing in the same groups.

Yeah that sounds very much like the Sequoyah State Park. It's pretty fun to play and I think it's exciting for our sport to be growing in this way!

 

[KniceZ]

While I agree that DG's image would benefit from better lanscaping and amenities; I'm not sure just overlaying with golf makes good DG. My local course is a 18 hole couse on an old 9 hole course. While it doesn't use most of the old golf tee it does use some of the old greens and it is still mowed and it ia a lovely walk. But after a few rounds it is BORING - wide open holes with virtually no obstacles. We are in the process of completely redoing the course to add some challenge; using the trees between the fairways. and pretty much avoiding all the old fairways.

Long open hole after long open hole doesn't interest me, I don't care how pretty it is.

 

[KniceZ]

BTW - Yellow (gold) is supposed to be the toughest not the easiest.

And the par doesn't match the PDGA recommendations at all : a 930ft par 4 red tee. Par 5 ends at 850 for red. But maybe this will resolve the issue of getting par is too easy in DG.

 

[nevets4433]

There is a course near me, Eagles Landing, that is built on an old, retired ball golf course. It is a lot of fun, but it actually took some creativity to make the 9 hole loop. Disc golf and ball golf have extremely different terrain demands. Hazards that come into play for one are generally obsolete for the other unless the baskets are placed nowhere near the real greens..

At a retired course though, it was really cool to see how fun baskets can be when incorporated into existing green complexes.

 

[KniceZ]

Sorry for the multiple posts but - I just looked at the pics: baskets made from old tires - really? Are the golf cups old soup cans? If I'm paying to play I want real baskets.

 

[scarpfish]

Overlaying a disc golf course on top of a ball golf layout to me makes about as much sense as a multipurpose baseball/football stadium does. That looks like it would be fun for about three holes and then just tedious and redundant after that. If the notorious Oklahoma wind was blowing, I think I'd enjoy it even less.

 

[New013]

I want to see a billionaire dg fanatic buy an old failing golf course and landscape it into a dg course.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I end up playing ball golf once a year when our company has its golf outing. Man, are there some sweet-looking Disc Golf windows/lines all over the place in the woods to the left and right of the open ball golf holes!

I've played a few ball golf turned to Disc Golf courses. One was UNC Chapel Hill. They did a very nice job using the woods in conjunction with a few places where you can tell it was a ball golf area decades ago. Another was near Warsaw, IN, which plays concurrently with a functioning ball golf course. It's good where it uses the trees available.

Our sport's "sand traps" are more centered on its vertical obstacles...

 

[Cgkdisc]

Parts of the first four Highbridge courses use stretches of the first nine holes of the ball course that never got completed.

 

[Steve West]

I want to see a billionaire dg fanatic buy an old failing golf course and landscape it into a dg course.

Wouldn't take a billionaire. The nine-holers and par 3's often go for under a million. That's including the clubhouse/restaurant.

Without, you can get down to about $150.000, but it would be harder to get financing.

 

[notapro]

Sorry for the multiple posts but - I just looked at the pics: baskets made from old tires - really? Are the golf cups old soup cans? If I'm paying to play I want real baskets.

I quite enjoy Re-Tire targets. They are real, PDGA approved baskets and are better than a LOT of baskets out in the world.

 

[Kenny53691]

Overlaying a disc golf course on top of a ball golf layout to me makes about as much sense as a multipurpose baseball/football stadium does. That looks like it would be fun for about three holes and then just tedious and redundant after that. If the notorious Oklahoma wind was blowing, I think I'd enjoy it even less.

That's a great point, and a concern for a potential course being built in my neck of the woods. I think as long as it doesn't play the path of the golf course, it could be made into a decent course, but I don't see myself playing more than 9 holes on a golf course before I started ripping my hair out. I like a little more variety in the holes.

 

[Dan H.]

I quite enjoy Re-Tire targets. They are real, PDGA approved baskets and are better than a LOT of baskets out in the world.

Yes! Don't knock the re-tire baskets until you try them. They catch really well and look better than you think. Plus it's recycling!

As far as the super long and wide openness that results from putting a disc golf course on top of a golf course, I do agree that it's not the optimal layout but it's a step in the right direction. It will help popularize the sport and give it some more dignity.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

1) That course just seems obscenely long - I can only assume that's because there might not be much challenge to it otherwise.

2) It's one thing to to convert a ball golf course to disc golf, or for two separate and distinct ball and disc golf courses to coexist on the same general property, but for them to overlap on the same section of that property seems to be inviting too many compromises for either to be truly good... but I suppose it depends on the parcel of land and the amount of traffic involved.

 

[discNDav]

Salisbury, MD (south of Delaware) now has 2 disc courses on ball golf courses, Horse Bridge has been in a few weeks and Wood Creek opened just last week!

 

[ohtobediscing]

I realize the pictures are wintertime, and if you're starved for DG almost anything will suffice, but the course looks long and boring to me. On the other hand, my two main areas of participation [Pacific NW, MS coast] are both woodsy compared to most places, and my noodle arm starts to quail when faced with 650 footers, so what do I know?