Top Courses of 2016!

[Stardoggy]

It would be nice to get rid of the "driveby killer" reviews for this ranking. You've got Idlewild, Phantom Falls, HB Blueberry and HB Granite among others stuck with one or two reviews more than 2.5 standard deviations below their overall average without them.

That 1.5 on Granite hurts my heart.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Wisconsin has the most courses on the list (7) where much credit goes to the course proprietors. However, 5 of their 7 were designed by Minnesotans. I'm surprised NC has so few courses in the top 50. Are they tougher reviewers or are the courses tougher than reviewers passing through would like?

 

[timg]

Wisconsin has the most courses on the list (7) where much credit goes to the course proprietors. However, 5 of their 7 were designed by Minnesotans. I'm surprised NC has so few courses in the top 50. Are they tougher reviewers or are the courses tougher than reviewers passing through would like?

I played a bunch of courses in NC (mostly Charlotte area) and if you don't like heavily wooded, you won't like their courses. My favorite ones tended to be further out,courses like Ashe Country Park and Rolling Pines where things open up a bit.

In Minneapolis I only got to play a few courses but I loved Bryant Lake. That's the type of course I gravitate towards and will usually go with stuff like that on trips and avoid heavily wooded courses unless I don't really have other options. Skimming the 50 courses in the list, you don't really see a lot of heavily wooded ones so I'd guess that most disc golfers (or at least reviewers) might lean that way.

 

[Noill]

huh... I guess I'm in that minority then as I prefer heavily wooded courses by far... that also may be because I'm not a big arm thrower

 

[Stardoggy]

I'm just used to heavily wooded, living in WI...but you can find nearly anything you'd like in our area.

 

[Tripper]

I played a bunch of courses in NC (mostly Charlotte area) and if you don't like heavily wooded, you won't like their courses. My favorite ones tended to be further out,courses like Ashe Country Park and Rolling Pines where things open up a bit.

In Minneapolis I only got to play a few courses but I loved Bryant Lake. That's the type of course I gravitate towards and will usually go with stuff like that on trips and avoid heavily wooded courses unless I don't really have other options. Skimming the 50 courses in the list, you don't really see a lot of heavily wooded ones so I'd guess that most disc golfers (or at least reviewers) might lean that way.

It does seem that many reviewers deduct for heavily wooded courses. It is a shame because if you can play well here, you can play well anywhere. There are a few more "open" courses here, you just have to know where to look. Ashe County and Rolling Pines are two of my favorite in the state. However, the East Carolina Univ course is very similar to WI courses (at least that is what my buddy from WI that just visited and played it with me says), Patriot, & Cedarock are a couple of other "open" courses. The three I listed are almost completely open while Ashe and RP that Tim mentioned are "moderately wooded". There are tons of moderately wooded courses here too.
My buddy that visited always loves visiting at Christmas due to the good chance of having a 70 degree day playing in shorts and t-shirts (several mid-high 60's days too).

 

[Tripper]

I'm just used to heavily wooded, living in WI...but you can find nearly anything you'd like in our area.

That is odd. My buddy from around Madison tells me you guys have way more open courses than wooded. He always struggles with the trees for the first couple of days when he visits. Apparently, based on the new PDGA rankings he is the #1 rated Am in WI so its not that he is a poor golfer.

 

[Cgkdisc]

I think we (MN, WI) might produce wider fairways on our best heavily wooded holes than in NC, possibly due to the mix of trees available for clearing. Plus, the courses in the top 50 are mostly private where trees can be removed more easily and with less permission than say Mecklenberg county (Charlotte) where it appears much of the work on these public courses had to be done by the legendary mule (Stan) and his steadily increasing number of apprentice designers and volunteers. As one of the most accurate mid-range throwers ever, Stan's designer eye, gold level skills, slight evilness and the fact he might have to do the chainsaw work probably lead to tighter fairways.

What's somewhat surprising is the high ranking of heavily wooded Rollin Ridge (which really needs a few more trees to come out). But I can see where reviewers must have been swayed by the great amenities and structures the owner has built onsite that I'm not sure any other owner has truly matched.

 

[NDABRUSH]

I played a bunch of courses in NC (mostly Charlotte area) and if you don't like heavily wooded, you won't like their courses. My favorite ones tended to be further out,courses like Ashe Country Park and Rolling Pines where things open up a bit.

In Minneapolis I only got to play a few courses but I loved Bryant Lake. That's the type of course I gravitate towards and will usually go with stuff like that on trips and avoid heavily wooded courses unless I don't really have other options. Skimming the 50 courses in the list, you don't really see a lot of heavily wooded ones so I'd guess that most disc golfers (or at least reviewers) might lean that way.

I figured you liked moderate or lightly wooded courses since you liked Ford park so much. To be honest, from the 1st tee of the first round that I played at Ford, I looked around and said "Beautiful".

 

[timg]

My one trip to WI we were chased out of Rollin' Ridge by massive swarms of mosquitoes. I've never seen anything like it. I need to come up with a reason to go there again sometime.

 

[Stardoggy]

That is odd. My buddy from around Madison tells me you guys have way more open courses than wooded. He always struggles with the trees for the first couple of days when he visits. Apparently, based on the new PDGA rankings he is the #1 rated Am in WI so its not that he is a poor golfer.

Has he not played Rollin' Ridge, Stoney Creek or Winter Park? Those are all WI courses, but a couple hours from Madison. The Madison courses have some wooded sections, but not nearly as tight as the courses mentioned.

My one trip to WI we were chased out of Rollin' Ridge by massive swarms of mosquitoes. I've never seen anything like it. I need to come up with a reason to go there again sometime.

They fog for skeeters these days. Much nicer than it was a few years ago. I live about 35 mins away...isn't that enough reason to visit?

 

[Tripper]

My one trip to WI we were chased out of Rollin' Ridge by massive swarms of mosquitoes. I've never seen anything like it. I need to come up with a reason to go there again sometime.

Good thing you didn't visit Goat Island in the Charlotte area. I spike my 40% Deet Deep Woods Off with 99.7% Deet Maxi Deet and the mosquitos still ran us off.

 

[Tripper]

Has he not played Rollin' Ridge, Stoney Creek or Winter Park? Those are all WI courses, but a couple hours from Madison. The Madison courses have some wooded sections, but not nearly as tight as the courses mentioned.

Not sure if he has played them. He does not have them listed as played but he also does not keep up with his DGCR profile. Safe bet is he has not played them though.

 

[Stardoggy]

Has he not played Rollin' Ridge, Stoney Creek or Winter Park? Those are all WI courses, but a couple hours from Madison. The Madison courses have some wooded sections, but not nearly as tight as the courses mentioned.

Not sure if he has played them. He does not have them listed as played but he also does not keep up with his DGCR profile. Safe bet is he has not played them though.

The terrain changes pretty quickly the further north you get in WI.

 

[PMantle]

Interesting that Lake Claiborne is rated so highly. I would not have it in my top five in the State of La.

 

[hawk12]

I have some ideas for the lists, such as eliminating drive-bys from the rating if a course has more than X amount of reviews and a few other things. It's something I'll probably experiment with in the coming months.

THat's a very good idea. There are a few courses and reviews that are basic outliers, and nearly all are the drive by reviewer.

It really really bothers me one one review by one person drags down the average and negatively reflects a course perception. Especially when that reviewer has logged one once to bash that course and never ever posted or reviewed another course before or since.

A specific example would be Iron Hill, 65 reviews and 2 very serious outliers, one 1.5 and one 2.0 - nothing else under 3.0 (and most of those were in the first year and outdated a bit now as well).

The 1.5 reviewer of Iron Hill logged on ONCE to DGCR, bashed Iron Hill with a very low rating and has never ever logged on since. I mean really, we are going to count that in the average?

The other 2.0 actually had a few rating, but by the look of them and knowing the courses had no sense of evaluating and just rating it on how he played 9 homes in the rain... Maybe this review stays as he dig review other courses, and had played a few so he wouldn't be a drive by. But come on, play the course at least?

These 2 single reviews bring down the statistical average for a great course from 4.35 (which is still very under rated) to a 4.25 and is no where near accurate IMO. I've played 4.7+ courses that are not nearly as well designed or as well maintained. But hey, they had nice views....

Simply removing the one time log on to bash the course would improve this one courses rating by .04ish overall. Not much of a move, but another course nearby has 3 drive by reviews, and those are 3 of the 7 lowest reviews as well.... That course would move up by .12, and in the grand scheme of things both these courses are underrated currently partially due to statistical bashing drive bys....


Yes the ratings is very very subjective, but these outlier drive bys could be eliminated to give a more accurate impression of the average.

I love this idea.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

How about a weighted scale?

Non-TR thumbs count as 1
Bronze TR thumbs count as 2
Silver counts as 3
Gold counts as 4
Diamond counts as 5

I see no problem with a Diamond TR having 5 times the influence of Joe drive-by. :|

*pot stirred*

opcorn:


*doesn't care that this means thumbs would have to get re-tallied every time a reviewer's TR status changes*

Spoiler

Gotcha!

 

[The Last DJ]

I was fortunate enough to play three of those this year. Harmon Hills was a real treat. The land owners are very hospitable and I got to make a top ten course a part of my summer vacation! Deer Lakes seemed overrated for me although a very nice course. The layout I played was a bit repetitive. I feel like 12-15 holes all finished left which was frustrating for a sidearm player. Idlewild wore me out. I've player her several times and it is deserving of a top ten spot in my book but those long pins are more pain and punishment than pleasure. What a course!

 

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Suggestion - For every 20 reviews the program drops the high and the low review, so after 100 reviews the rating has "self corrected" 5 times, averaging the score for the course. This will not solve the problem, but it will negate many of the high and low outliers for any given course.

 

[Tripper]

The terrain changes pretty quickly the further north you get in WI.

Yes he came down for 4th of July so we took him to Asheville. Played Richmond Hill, Sandhill NTDGC, Ashe County and Rolling Pines in 2 days. After killing his legs like that I was pleasantly surprised he came back for Christmas. We did not go back to the mountains though. Played moderate elevation all week.