Do You Like Hybrid Ball Golf/Disc Golf Courses?

[air show]

For a change of pace a nice ball golf course can be very fun to play. Sequoyah State Park in Hulbert, OK is my favorite. From long tees the course measures over 16,000 ft. with much elevation. If you like airing it out this course is a blast. Only $5 all day green fees... carts run around $20... and if you just like working on distance one can zoom around the course and launch the whole bag from whichever holes become your favorites. Also at Sequoyah you play the same tees the ball golfers use and i have found these manicured grass tees are my favorite surface from which to launch a disc from.

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=5795

 

[biscoe]

i have played on one and actually enjoyed it more than i expected. i designed 2 courses at pendleton golf club for an event last winter. pendleton is a scottish links style course and has lots of elevation and small berms and is cut out of the woods for the most part so there were plenty of opportunities for involving trees in the dg courses. i was very happy with the way the courses turned out. pros played one course for the event and ams the other so i only actually played one of the two.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

The three I've played have been reasonably well executed and pretty good... Questionable as to whether or not worth the price they charge. I don't mind paying to play, but the ones I thought the ones I've played charged a bit too much for what the offered.

 

[ru4por]

Seems like most people I run into really like playing hybrid ball/disc golf courses, or tournaments set up on a ball golf course for a weekend etc.

It's a bit of a thing of mine that I really hate these layouts and it drives me nuts when a good tournament is hosted at a ball golf course. I think maybe it's because I'm a semi-serious ball golfer as well, but the whole process feels bastardized.

My main thing is that ball golf courses are architecturally designed to funnel each tee to the green. The 18 greens are the focus of the entire layout, and as disc golfers, we're not allowed on them. It's like going for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory and being told that the cheesecake is off limit and that you're not even allowed to look in the display case.

If baskets were on the greens I'd feel differently, but every layout I've personally played has the greens as OB and the baskets tucked into the fairway/bush lines for the most part.

Also, in my experience disc golfers are absolutely horrendous with golf course etiquette, and while I'm not normally a big etiquette guy, the last couple of rounds have driven me a bit nuts with people not allowing others to play through, taking multiple throws from the same spot in the fairway, driving their carts literally everywhere (including somehow onto and over elevated tee boxes) and generally not having any understanding/appreciation of/respect for traditional ball golf course etiquette.

That said, I played a course in Washington (Tall Firs) that was an old golf course that was purchased and redesigned into pure disc golf course, and I loved that. As ball golf declines and more courses are sold off around the country, I'd love to see a few bought and converted to true disc golf courses. Those would be great places for tournaments.

Wondering how others feel about this? Am I just turning into a curmudgeony old man?

The greens on a golf course are the feature, due to the properties and characteristics they have, in regards to a ball. I have to desire to putt a disc to a difficult undulating green or one with a difficult false front, that have zero impact on my disc.

I have a hard time believing that disc golfers paying golf course/cart prices are oblivious to golf course etiquette. That is a shame really.

My issue with golf courses is they are generally long boring disc golf courses.

 

[Treeplant]

The greens on a golf course are the feature, due to the properties and characteristics they have, in regards to a ball. I have to desire to putt a disc to a difficult undulating green or one with a difficult false front, that have zero impact on my disc.

I have a hard time believing that disc golfers paying golf course/cart prices are oblivious to golf course etiquette. That is a shame really.

My issue with golf courses is they are generally long boring disc golf courses.

Yeah, obviously the greens don't factor in the same way being that you don't roll the disc. The greens themselves isn't the point - the point is that the property is landscaped with the green as the end goal. The course has been designed to lead you to the green, but with disc golf baskets stuck on the course in unnatural places you go against the design of the course.

The overall point is that most disc golf courses are designed to best utilize the landscape of the available area. On a ball golf course, course designers are forced to avoid logically intuitive areas for the sake of minimizing impact on the greens and ball golf activity.

 

[lyleoross]

Houston has three. One great, one average, and one below average. None are active bg courses. It's a matter of how you do it IMO. However, nothing matches something like an Idlewild, or a Maple Hill IMO.

 

[Mr. Butlertron]

Carts are fun, but the shot selections are boring and usually repetitive.

 

[Peterb]

SF Bay area has 3 now, and all 3 are really fun courses. Gleneagles is the crown jewel and its 18 holes are a unique challenge of distance, elevation changes, and plentiful trees/death putts to worry about. Lake Chabot is unique with tighter fairways with dela like canyons to either side of them, plentiful OB, distance, scenery. Emerald Hills (Em-rolled Hills) is the hilliest of them all, has some decent distance, death putts galore, but a bit more open than the other two. All in all I really enjoy playing on them and most folks around here like them too. Great addition to the sport and definitely not boring...at least here in the bay

 

[Nasty Nate]

Anyone remember multipurpose baseball/football stadiums? Ever notice that we're getting away from that?

Don't the Raiders still play on a baseball field? It's the dumbest thing ever. Nothing better than rolling around in some dirt.

Walnut Hill DGC here in Columbus was installed on an old 9-hole golf course and although it is a nice disc golf course, it is pretty brutal. Nearly every tee shot is 400-500+ feet (shorts and longs) and a lot of low hanging branches come into play so the game is all distance-placement shots. It's tough as hell. It also means that you end up throwing drivers 90% of the time, which gets really tedious.

It's a large course and takes hours to play, which can be difficult in the heat when you're trying to rip distance shots all day (and maybe toss back a few cold ones .) Just getting to hole 5 seems to take forever, so you can get pretty beat by the time you get to the back 9.

However, the upside is that no one is ever up your butt on the course, and they are making constant improvements. It's in a kind of trashy area, but hopefully the disc golf course will help revitalize things.

 

[Tripper]

Mountain Lake in Pembroke, VA is an abandoned golf course that has been re-purposed for disc golf. Some of the holes follow what was once the fairway and others have been made specifically for disc to offer the challenges associated with disc golf. I find the course to be very enjoyable and it would be more so if carts were available (particularly since there is a 1.2 mile walk from the parking area to the first tee.
The Rock at Stonewall in Germanton, NC is a course I used to play 20 years ago before I knew about disc golf and I always enjoyed it. I've played it twice and I think they did a great job of utilizing the elevated tee pads to make most tee shots into bombers that you can watch your disc fly for a long way. The fact that the baskets are strategically placed in the woods or on a hillside, near OB means you can't just grip it and rip it if you want to score well. Shot placement is very important if you want to be lined up for your approach. Carts are required for ball and disc golfers to maintain the flow of play. The hills are just much too frequent and extreme to walk them. Ball and disc golfers coexist nicely here and there does not seem to be a problem with etiquette. I doubt the carts could even make it up onto most tee pads and the ball golfers allow discers to play through redily enough.
Ponderosa DGC in Cameron, NC is the one I played last weekend and I enjoyed it as well. Designed by Ken Climo and Chuck Connelly, they did a good job of utilizing the woods off the fairways to create true disc golf holes. That being said there were a lot of shots that played across the golf fairways to get back and forth into the woods. There were a few holes that followed the fairways and they were executed well also.
I find the hybrid courses a novelty, worth playing occasionally but I would not play them regularly. I agree that using a cart helps keep the legs fresh for additional rounds however, the length of the courses make the arm less than fresh for additional rounds. Played 2 rounds at Ponderosa last Sat. At 9,427', if I could throw directly from tee to basket ( I can't) I would have thrown a disc 3.6 miles. Given my tendency to not get from tee to basket on the shortest line, I probably threw 4 miles. My arm and shoulders felt it on Sunday. Walking a course seems to balance out the upper and lower body fatigue for me.

 

[Major Tomahawk]

I couldn't answer the poll either. I don't like dg on bg courses that much and I really don't want to play tourneys on them either unless the course is devoid of ball golfers and I get to design the course.

During the US Masters this past year, my brother was putting out on a hole and a golf ball actually hit the chains. It came from the back 9 that doesn't have any baskets on it. Potentially, the incident could have been painful.

I did not mind playing the DeLaveaga BG/DG course 2 years ago at the Masters Cup. It was fairly well designed, but still kinda boring and too open at spots.

 

[bnbanbury]

I think they're fine but I don't have any desire to see disc golf gravitate towards having a ton of these. My ideal round of non-tourney golf is deep in some shady woods where I don't see another person for 30 minutes at a time. A round at the country club is a pretty far cry from that.

 

[TimSyl]

Played "ball" golf for over 30 years before taking up disc...play both now but way more disc than ball. This being said, I have zero interest in playing disc on ball courses. Too open, too boring, too many baskets on little hills near a bunker and/or green.

 

[BrotherDave]

I'm surprised people like carts that much. The fee to use one for disc golf doesn't really make up for a mobile seat and extra beer storage IMO. On a typically flat ball golf course, I'd rather have a tricycle or something for DG since I could probably roll up to where my disc lies more often since carts aren't allowed near greens and such and not use up any fuel. I'm probably in the minority on this one though.

 

[Casey 1988]

I do not mind if the course is well designed but often is not. I have seen better on some ski courses though.

 

[Magiken]

My 3.5 cents: I've played 5 in NorCal and 1 in SoCal and enjoyed them all. I do agree, it's all about the design, which is the case for any course, really. The bonus of using the existing 'ball' land is that it's already cleared/maintained and frequently has incorporated interesting features (e.g. ponds, streams, vineyards, tree line shapes, etc.). Throw in the other amenities (e.g. restrooms, food/drinks, carts, etc..) and the overall 'experience' of playing is a bit more enjoyable. I would definitely love to see this level of investment on a disc only course but, as we all know, the money's not quite in the game yet, so these seem like reasonable and successful compromises to me.

 

[araytx]

Anyone remember multipurpose baseball/football stadiums? Ever notice that we're getting away from that?

Yeah, let"s not repeat that mistake.

...

But the owners (not we) are getting away from that is because of money. A shared multi-major sport stadium means the owner of the stadium gets a larger share of revenue than the other owner who is "renting"... since these billionaires have become so successful and their sports now so profitable, they can pressure local taxpayers to fund a portion of their stadium so they don't have to share revenue with anyone. So that's not about design; it's about the Benjamins. In the days of shared baseball/football stadiums, the money was way different.

Don't the Raiders still play on a baseball field? It's the dumbest thing ever. Nothing better than rolling around in some dirt.

....

And they will be the Las Vegas Raiders soon because the Bay Area taxpayers wouldn't fund them a new stand-alone stadium, and the Vegas taxpayers ones would.

Seems like most people I run into really like playing hybrid ball/disc golf courses, or tournaments set up on a ball golf course for a weekend etc.

It's a bit of a thing of mine that I really hate these layouts and it drives me nuts when a good tournament is hosted at a ball golf course. I think maybe it's because I'm a semi-serious ball golfer as well, but the whole process feels bastardized.

My main thing is that ball golf courses are architecturally designed to funnel each tee to the green. The 18 greens are the focus of the entire layout, and as disc golfers, we're not allowed on them. It's like going for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory and being told that the cheesecake is off limit and that you're not even allowed to look in the display case.

If baskets were on the greens I'd feel differently, but every layout I've personally played has the greens as OB and the baskets tucked into the fairway/bush lines for the most part.

Also, in my experience disc golfers are absolutely horrendous with golf course etiquette, and while I'm not normally a big etiquette guy, the last couple of rounds have driven me a bit nuts with people not allowing others to play through, taking multiple throws from the same spot in the fairway, driving their carts literally everywhere (including somehow onto and over elevated tee boxes) and generally not having any understanding/appreciation of/respect for traditional ball golf course etiquette.

That said, I played a course in Washington (Tall Firs) that was an old golf course that was purchased and redesigned into pure disc golf course, and I loved that. As ball golf declines and more courses are sold off around the country, I'd love to see a few bought and converted to true disc golf courses. Those would be great places for tournaments.

Wondering how others feel about this? Am I just turning into a curmudgeony old man?

It's all about design. Spring Valley DGC in Spring, Texas is owned by a disc golf course designer, who is also a ball golfer. Not a busy ball golf course, but it is still one nonetheless (9-hole for bg). They have a disc golf course layout, and "Power 9" long disc golf on the ball golf course, which is integrated to both can actually co-exist simultaneously ... or you can play the whole 27-hole layout. And it's as well done as I've seen.

 

[ranger]

Only played one and liked it a lot.

They did an awesome job of not letting it be all wide open shots, which is impressive.

 

[LukeF]

I prefer tight and technical woods golf and don't have the arm for all the wide open bombs needed on a ball golf course. Still can be fun on occasion, but considering the increase in price for green fees and cart rental I usually pass on the hybrid course tournaments.

 

[GMcAtee]

I've played two that were designed on former ball golf courses and those were decent. Only played one on a current ball golf course that I liked. It included holes of the beaten path of the ball golf course, which was nice.

Most tournament layouts on ball golf courses are just bomber holes and extremely repetitive. Too boring for me.