This is Higher Ground

[Texconsinite]

I have some land in Northern Wisconsin that I am building a course on, so I totally sympathize about the shoestring budget. Also, I am very interested in economical homemade baskets like yours. What kind of barrels did the local carwash give you that were a good size for basekts? I need to get my hands on some.

Also, in light of the chain (steel in general) prices going up, do you find that the weight of the chains makes a big difference in how the basket catches?

 

[ShannonHG]

Personally, I like the Black (original) layout the best. I love water holes and that layout has the most holes that play over or near water. With the pond in the middle Higher Ground is very scenic and peaceful. Shannon and Joy are also very friendly and hospitable folks.

Overall, coming up with 3 layouts in that amount of space was very creative.

P.S.- I also have good memories from the one Piedmont Random Doubles Tour event that I played there. I was paired with Leslie Herndon (former U.S. Woman's Champion), who was touring with Cameron Todd at the time. Leslie even gave my young daughter a quick lesson!

Yes Olorin I like the Old Course the best myself. I had to make the other two layouts so that we could play loaded tournaments here and be able to play in just one direction without much interference.
The first big tournament I had here in '99, the Homegrown, that was all I had so I let everyone play the front nine twice (back to back), then the second round we played two times around the back. That was pretty neat having a chance to throw a better drive, or have another chance at a deuce on a hole you might not have done so well on the first time around. We still got two rounds of 18 and everyone had a blast.

Thanks for reminding me...I should have mentioned before that I've had not just one, but two World Champs, play my course (in a tournament) and they both enjoyed it very much. They had no gripes about anything. Cam and the rest of the Team Flying Eye gang even stayed around and we all played a fun round of night golf afterwards. We all had a great time and Cam went on to take the Championship away from Climo just a month or so after that. Ken hasn't made it by here yet but he told me he would get down here sometime when he's in town. We did have a great time together though, up at the Country Course in Louisburg in '97. Me, Climo, and my cousin Bob got grouped by ourselves for 25 holes in the first round. That was awesome getting to play my favorite course in a tournament with the Champ! The Champ really enjoyed playing with us because my cousin Bob was also a former world champ (in hi diving and trampoline) so we didn't act all giddy like some people do around him. We just had a great time and got some great tips along the way. Ken, of course, went on to win the tournament and told Bob to look him up next time he was in Clearwater. Bob lived not too far away in Clewiston, and had also come all the way from Fla just for the event. He stole the show by skydiving down onto the course right before the tournament...lol. I'll have to get some pics up from that! It was way cool! Climo really dug it!

 

[ShannonHG]

I have some land in Northern Wisconsin that I am building a course on, so I totally sympathize about the shoestring budget. Also, I am very interested in economical homemade baskets like yours. What kind of barrels did the local carwash give you that were a good size for basekts? I need to get my hands on some.

Also, in light of the chain (steel in general) prices going up, do you find that the weight of the chains makes a big difference in how the basket catches?

The ones I use are 55 gallon drums. I only use ones from car washes or other clean sources, you never know what's been in some barrels yo might find laying around.
I've found that the white ones work best. You can put a light on the top for night golf, and with it shining down through one of the two holes they have in the top, the whole basket glows and is very easy to see. I've got my whole course set up with solar powered lights on the baskets now, and they light up just at the right time, and go out when the sun comes up, and charge the rest of the day. It comes in real handy when it starts to get dark, then suddenly the baskets light up all by themselves.
Darker barrels will work too but tend to be more reactive to sunlight, and can warp if the plastic wasn't evenly injected to form the barrel. You cut into some barrels and they can be up to a half inch thick on one side, then only 1/8" on the opposite side. Those require steel hoops riveted to the inside to keep them straight. For that I use galvanized tensioning bars for chain link fences.
I used to make and sell these baskets for $150 apiece, and was doing pretty good til those cheap smaller gauge steel baskets and the Skillshots came out for around the same price or less. With the ones I was selling, the total material cost was up near $50 to $75 apiece and they were very time consuming if you wanted them nice. It takes at least half a day to build just one, even if you already have everything figured out and have patterns to go by. I set up a couple of courses and then it kind of petered out. Occasionally I still build one for someone on request.

Here's a cool one I did for a good friend of mine who's a fellow Earnhardt fan...(Todd Gillihan...the guy who was behind the Piedmont Random Doubles tour).

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[ShannonHG]

Texconsinite I forgot to mention the chain info....

Yes the heavier chains do make a big difference in the way they catch a disc. The kind I have been using is less expensive than the "2/0 straight link" chain that Innova uses. I was buying it by the 1000' barrel and it was a lot less expensive than even the nickel plated straight link chain, which is all you can get unless you buy huge quantities, like Innova does, of the galvanized chain.
The nickel plated stuff is the same weight and catches almost the same, but it will eventually rust, unlike the galv. It usually runs ( or did last I checked) around .90 a foot to 1.50 depending on where you get it. I was paying .49 a foot last time I bought the proof coil chain.
It's a little heavier than some people might like, but I would rather have that, and be able to trust an ace slamming in there from 300', than possibly have it bounce out, or slip through the slippery finished 2/0 nickel chain that you can get at lowes or the hardware store. I putt hard and straight at the middle anyway so it doesn't bother me to have a heavier chain.