Lefty-friendly courses. HONESTLY.

[Martin Dewgarita]

Loved the course, I'd play it again in a heartbeat. The reason it sticks out in my mind to make this list is the steep drop off to the left on nearly every hole, a rhbh could fade off into oblivion, too conservative on your rhbh anny and send a roller down the hill. I played overly conservative with a rhfh off many tees because I did not feel like making the trek down the hill.

 

[tampabay]

I really think an important distinction is LHBH friendly courses. If you have a decent FH or a turnover, then dogleg left holes won't be as oppressive.

I probably throw 65% RHFH, 35% RHBH, I also throw thumbers or FH rollers when necessary. I've only found a few courses that ever stuck out to me as being a poor balance. I'd be curious to your thoughts on this OP.

 

[BennettUA]

I've only found a few courses that ever stuck out to me as being a poor balance. I'd be curious to your thoughts on this OP.

I see a lot of favorability on private courses and first-time designer courses, especially at school properties, where the designer builds to favor their game rather than test/improve their skill.

I'm always looking for balance in design at every course I play. By balance I don't even mean 50/50 righty vs lefty. If a course has 4 holes that favor LHBH/RHFH, I consider that a win.

I think most courses in and around Charlotte are well balanced.

I mentioned earlier that my first (rated) tourney of the year will be SC Doubles Championship this weekend at Grand Central Station. I LOVE this course, the property, and the designer(Brian Schaupp). But the course is going to use alternate pins/tees for much of the tourney, and those alternates heavily favor RHBH. The holes that favor LHBH are eliminated, changing them to either straight or right-to-left holes. Some of the straight or double-line holes are being changed to longer and right-to-left, again favoring RHBH. The signature hole is shortened to a blind easy righty hyzer.
(Also of note, with the way the course is layed out, I couldn't think of many options to balance the alternates, without just making ridiculously short holes. I would prefer just use the course as-is for the length of the tourney.)

 

[Cgkdisc]

The lefty or righty balance on a course can be more pronounced on older school courses that were primarily par 3s. Once you get a good mix of par 4s and 5s in a layout, any bias gets reduced due to placement options for the second, third and recovery throws.

 

[BennettUA]

Still hoping to catch more insight on lefty-friendly or -biased courses. So far we barely have a dozen!

 

[gdub58]

I would consider Idlewild very LH friendly. There are only three holes where a RHBH is the preferred throw from the tee (6,8,11), and seven where LHBH would be preferred (2,3,4,7,10,13,17). The remainder are fairly neutral.

A couple of holes (1,15) are wide open, so anything goes on those two. Others (5,9,12,14,16,18) are very straight but require varying degrees of accuracy from the tee (although some turn one way or another once in the fairway).

I know one of the criticisms of Idlewild in some reviews is the lack of holes where you can really throw your tee shot all out. I think that's actually one of its strengths - when you see the top pros play the course, their ability to place their throws is rewarded and their extra distance is valued on many holes. To me, seeing several of them get all the way to the basket on #1 is remarkable. There are absolutely none of the holes you see all too often in tournament videos - the 500-600' fairly open holes where 95% of the field gets their 3 and moves on, and only #9 is one that would be considered an easy 2 for all of the top players...

 

[DannyThunders]

The lefty or righty balance on a course can be more pronounced on older school courses that were primarily par 3s. Once you get a good mix of par 4s and 5s in a layout, any bias gets reduced due to placement options for the second, third and recovery throws.

Huntington Beach Disc Golf Course (2nd course in the world) suffers from this old school right handed favoritism. There are two "Lefty Holes" (According to the locals) One is which (Hole 3) is actually better on a right hand turnover shot because you wont skip out. Only one hole (hole 8) favors lefties because the only RHBH line is an S curve around a group of trees where the LHBH route is a straight shot that fades behind said trees.

 

[_MTL_]

The lefty or righty balance on a course can be more pronounced on older school courses that were primarily par 3s. Once you get a good mix of par 4s and 5s in a layout, any bias gets reduced due to placement options for the second, third and recovery throws.

I think this has some merit but can be done incorrectly quickly.

The original pin at hole 4 at Zebulon is a classic example of a par 4 that people argued was neutral b/c the tee shot was a RHBH hyzer and the upshot was a LHBH hyzer but it was very lefty friendly.

Here is the course.

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=2045&mode=hi#

The pin used to be tucked over to the right behind the softball field.

Even with a perfect drive, a right handed player would have to throw a roller, sidearm, thumber or a very flippy disc. Be close to the fence and there was no good option. Be far left you had a very low ceiling left to right shot.

Now the tee shot was a pretty easy RHBH hyzer, but the key to scoring on par 4's is the 2nd shot. The ideal landing zone on a tee shot could easily be missed by 75 feet in any directon - including backwards - and a left handed player would have a good chance of making three.

If you miss your upshot by 75 feet, not only are you outside the circle on 3 of 4 directions, the 4th direction is out of bounds.

 

[BennettUA]

I think this has some merit but can be done incorrectly quickly.

The original pin at hole 4 at Zebulon is a classic example of a par 4 that people argued was neutral b/c the tee shot was a RHBH hyzer and the upshot was a LHBH hyzer but it was very lefty friendly.

Here is the course.

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=2045&mode=hi#

The pin used to be tucked over to the right behind the softball field.

Even with a perfect drive, a right handed player would have to throw a roller, sidearm, thumber or a very flippy disc. Be close to the fence and there was no good option. Be far left you had a very low ceiling left to right shot.

Now the tee shot was a pretty easy RHBH hyzer, but the key to scoring on par 4's is the 2nd shot. The ideal landing zone on a tee shot could easily be missed by 75 feet in any directon - including backwards - and a left handed player would have a good chance of making three.

If you miss your upshot by 75 feet, not only are you outside the circle on 3 of 4 directions, the 4th direction is out of bounds.

It's not that way anymore...

Righties got their way, lefty advantage removed. :doh:

Now it's very much a RHBH hyzer-favor hole. :wall:

 

[sgamerp]

Shore Acres Park


I remember playing with a team who had a lefty on his team saying that 10 of them are perfect for him and the rest are either straight flight or a turn over would work.

 

[BennettUA]

Shore Acres Park


I remember playing with a team who had a lefty on his team saying that 10 of them are perfect for him and the rest are either straight flight or a turn over would work.

Most of the reviews say it's a balanced course. Only one review said the wooded holes favored left-to-right, but that the course itself was balanced.

Though it does look on the map that some of the wide-open holes may be slightly more wide-open for a LHBH.

 

[sgamerp]

I haven't played it in about a year or so, but I remember 11 holes favoring backhand and the rest being straight.

 

[_MTL_]

It's not that way anymore...

Righties got their way, lefty advantage removed. :doh:

Now it's very much a RHBH hyzer-favor hole. :wall:

Oh I know, trust me, it's righty heaven now....It was just the first par 4 where the tee shot favored RHBH and the upshot favored LHBH I could think of that I would call a lefty hole

And no, it's not b/c righties got their way. The park re-did the walking path throughout the park (on the sign as "sidewalk) and the old pin was right beside the sidewalk. The parks required the pin be no where near the original location.

As much I hated the hole before and thought it was a terrible terrible hole for the reasons mentioned in the original post plus multiple things (pompass grass in the fairway, softball field right, access road to back portion of the park in the fairway and hole 6's green close to where a RHBH hyzer tee shot lands), it's now even worse. You have all of things in play still and now throw in an actively used walking path and a pin tucked in the woods near the next hole's pin and hole 6's tee....

 

[BennettUA]

Anyone else with lefty-friendly or biased courses?