Vince,
I saw Opti at the Lehigh Valley Open and he was a little modest about his Sellersville course...other folks that I've talked to who have played it say that it's a really really nice course, one of the best 9-holers they've ever played, and made just about the most perfect use possible with the land available. I really can't wait to get down there and see it myself.
Bear Creek on the other hand...let's just say that I never seen land with so much potential turn out to be such a steaming pile of crap. You pick an aspect of course design, ANY aspect, and they blew it at this course. The wooded holes on the front nine are just about the most ridiculous I've ever seen, and they play dangerously down walking / mountain bike trails which come out of nowhere all over this section of the course. Fairways? They apparently never heard of them. Hole#2 is okay, but it's almost impossible on hole#1 to throw a drive which doesn't end up either wet or in the poison ivy woods unless you throw a putter 100 feet off the tee...and this goes for both rightys and leftys, backhanders and sidearmers. Who wants to deliberately throw their first drive into the poison ivy woods to avoid losing a disc?
Many of the back nine holes simply just play straight up the mountain...they are eerily reminiscent of the first Campgaw layout. Once Dan Doyle saw some other ski area courses and realized that ski area course holes should tick-tack their way up the mountain and use the woods and not just play straight up the hill, the later versions of Campgaw were much better. Plus, Dan realized that not everyone was a marathon runner like him with that kind of physical fitness. Holes#10,11,13 & 14 are just so gosh darn BORING in the way they play straight up the hill.
The only thing that saves this Bear Creek course from being one of the worst I've ever played is the last four holes...holes#15, 17, and 18 persuaded me to believe that whoever designed the course actually played at least one other disc golf course before attempting this design, because up until that point I was convinced that the designer had never touched a disc golf disc before in his life. The only thing that could save this course is a complete and total re-design of every single hole up to #14. I work literally 10 minutes away from this course and you could not pay me enough money to play it again unless we climbed up to hole#15 and just played the last 4 holes. And at least then we could park at the lodge and wouldn't have the asinine walk back up to our car at the tee of hole#1. I don't know who the pinheads reviewing this course and giving it 3-4 stars are, because this course rates a half star at most.
