Two Courses in Rolla, MO

[odysseus81]

Thought you all might like to know that there are 2 courses coming to the "disc golf black hole" of Missouri (South-Central MO). A nine hole course will be in Ber Juan park and it should be playable within a month or so. The budget was VERY limited from what I have heard from the city, but it is a great starting point.

The even bigger news is that Lions Club Park is moving forward with what should be a wonderful 18-hole championship caliber course by April. We are in the beginning stages of the process, but it definitely appears to be moving forward.

Growing up in St. Louis I played disc golf a ton growing up, but since I left for college (I am now 28) everywhere I have lived in MO has been a disc golf wasteland. Rolla is a great place for disc golf and I am certain the community is going to embrace it. I am pretty pumped about getting these courses going....

 

[Three Putt]

Interesting. Ber Juan had an 18 hole course laid out several years ago with posts that would have been an absolute nightmare with how it would have conflicted with other park users. There seemed to be room for 9 holes, but the park guy seemed more offended that I didn't like the 18 holes courses he set up than interested in hearing my suggestions. Ber Juan would be a good exposure point in the community for the sport, a good spot for a fun recreational course. The fact that I live on the other side of 10th Street from there would just be a bonus.

The Lions Club has tons of room and could do basically any kind of course they wanted. It's good to hear they want to move forward. The last time I talked to them they were trying to sell off the 63 frontage of the park and didn't want to develop any of the back of the park until they knew what they were doing long term. They didn't seem to have a Master Plan of what to do with all the land they have. Disc golf would be a perfect fit out there and they have the room and the trees to have a fantastic course.

Who is working on the design of these?

 

[odysseus81]

The Ber Juan baskets are set up and I played it tonight. They are temp baskets in permanent foundations...with the intention of adding permanent baskets as these break down. There is NO marking at all for tees, but you can go to http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_z9Yrl7Jw8lk/Skwo_MiWmzI/AAAAAAAAAJk/6k6zoZCREu0/s1600-h/course+b.jpg to view a course map. Maps are supposedly going to be available by Monday. David McCormack essentially designed the course and really did a nice job. Hole number 8 is a signature hole where the basket is situated on a damn for the pond. They are supposed to be adding pads and tee signs in the next few months.

 

[Three Putt]

There are two # 2's on the map. I didn't see a basket up by the pool so I don't think that hole is there. There are some really long walks between holes, so I'm sure it is a McCormack design.

Here is my hometown in a nutshell...after being the largest City in Missouri that had no course for several years, they finally get one. They install the baskets late in the week on a holiday weekend, potentially a great exposure point since a lot of people could be in the park. They don't mark the tees in any way AND the community center is closed from Friday-Monday for cleaning, including the park offices. There is no way to get any information about what the yellow bar-b-q grills are until Tuesday. So they left people with really zero chance to enjoy these 9 baskets that just went in this weekend. I'm glad odysseus81 seems to be on the inside, becasue without the map he posted I'd have to Safari until Tuesday.

Oh, well. Now I have a home course. Yippee.

 

[Three Putt]

If the tees actually get put where the map says, it might be a pretty nice home course. It has one good uphill shot and uses the creek to make a couple of holes a little tricky. It uses elevation well. It has a couple of long golfless walks and # 2 & # 3 and # 7 & # 8 conflict potentially (depending on tee positions) but it's a nice little 9-holer. I thought # 5 was kind of a boring hole until my hyzerflip did more hyzering than flipping, there is a HUGE dropoff over there to the left I didn't even notice. # 8 was OK, it's hard to deuce without risking the overshot into the pond but it's simple to three.

That whole area of the park where # 5 sits is supposed to at some point get developed into additional ballfields and the gravel over there is supposed to be the parking lot for those fields. If that ever happens that hole will be tough to play with a lot of traffic back there. But for now it's a nice open shot with some hidden dropoffs that I didn't notice from the tee.

The bad thing was that several people noticed the baskets and headed over to the park. It was safari Hell. Everybody is just making up a course and doing whatever they want. I showed the map to five groups of people while I was over there. The tee for # 1 is right over by the side of the community center, would it have killed them to post a map on the door so you would have had a chance to know what to do? I guess so.

 

[BerJuanDuffer]

I'm glad to see folks are already beginning to enjoy the course. I played it Wednesday night after installing the last target at about 9:30pm. Shot a par 31 in the dark. It may take me weeks in the daylight to hit that score again, as my game is not usually that good.

Temporary tee flags are now up. Maps will be available at the Centre in a few days, but folks wanting to play before then can visit berjuandg.blogspot.com to see the "course b" map (ignore the lower "hole 2" option).

Hole number 5 will continue to be an open hole for a couple years until the park puts that area into use. It's also a good launching point for adding a few long holes if you want to throw at trees/poles etc. and stretch your game out to 18 holes.

I want to publicly thank David, Kermit, Ken, and Seth for all of their input into the course design. Also all of the folks who came and played the draft design and gave comments that eventually led to the current design.

In the future, look forward to a bridge over the creek near target 1, tee pads, multiple pin locations, etc.

 

[cooktastic]

Thanks for all the work on this. It's really nice to not have to drive well over an hour to play any longer. I have been out and played it several times now and you guys used the territory very well. Good elevation changes...a couple of well placed trees make for challenging tee shots...and I love the pin location on 9. Looking forward to seeing it continue to improve as it is finished. Again...great job.

 

[discinvan]

http://gatewaydiscs.blogspot.com/2009/11/rolla-lions-club-18-hole-championship.html
Here is what Dave from Gateway has blogged about the new 18 hole course. Sounds awesome I am glad to have a reason to want to go to Rolla and work now. I used to hate going down there because there was no courses close to play.

 

[odysseus81]

There are now 2 bridges up at Ber Juan (holes 1 and 7) and they are getting ready to move 1's tee box which will be an improvement in my opinion.

Todd,
Any idea when that change is going to happen?

 

[Three Putt]

Are you talking about the tee by the back of the building? I thought that was going to be the tee for # 2. # 1 was supposed to basically stay the same, # 2 was going to be moved to shoot over the pond and # 3 was going to be the old # 2 tee to the current # 3 basket. Todd sent me a map this morning because I asked him about helping me mark blue tees for the Ice Bowl, and that was the map I got. The old # 2 tee might be the new blue # 3 tee according to the map, not sure about that.

If holes 2-3 do not get moved before the Ice Bowl I'll set up a temp basket and we will play that hole over the lake. If it does get moved I might set up the old hole # 3 just for grins. It depends. 2-3 was going to be a bottleneck the way it was originally, so if we have a decent turnout setting up the bottleneck hole might not be a great idea.

The park will be empty so we could set up a hole in that area between the street and the Centre and put the pin on the edge of that big dropoff down to the tennis courts. That will make you walk in front of the building instead of behind, but you are going to have a long walk from 9 to 1 no matter what (although putting a hole over there will make it a longer walk ) and with the tee for #2 behind the building it might be better to make people walk the other way anyway.

Just thinking out loud. We have time to bounce ideas around.

 

[odysseus81]

Sorry about that...it is definitely Number 2 that is being moved.

I walked Lions Club proposed course today....
There is a TON of clearing out that needs to be done, but if all that happens (and it is supposed to) the course is going to be spectacular....top notch difficulty. A ton of really tough shots. I would be surprised if Lions Club doesn't take this thing the distance, because it doesn't seem like they do anything half way. I can't wait!

 

[Three Putt]

Did you have a nice hike in the snow?

It does look like it could stack up as a very good course. The spots where it is open has some rolling hills, and the spots where it is relatively flat are heavily wooded. It could add up to some good golf. It's really hard to tell about the shots because of how dense the woods are, but I'm sure it's going to be tough. The two courses should compliment each other very well.

Now we just need to find out if UMR has any land out there by Fraternity Drive and start working them for a course...or am I being greedy?

 

[odysseus81]

It was pretty chilly...were you out there? We saw a few prints in the snow walking between some of the holes and wondered who was out there. As far as mostly wooded courses go, this has the potential of being one of the nicest ones around. It is up to the Lions Club to see how far they take this thing. Visualizing it as best we could (there are over 200 trees and a bazillion branches that are coming out) this thing will test every element of your game.

I agree that it will be an excellent complement to Ber Juan. I could definitely see another 18 going in somewhere at Lions Club in the future. There is still a TON of unused land. No..I defintely don't think you are being too greedy. I say the more the merrier =) Got any connections with the school?

Also, I think moving two and lengthening 3 at Ber Juan will add quite a bit to the course. It would be nice if our first order of business was to mark pro tees out there somehow. I mean all they have are the cheap metal poles to mark the am's....how hard could it be to get them to back up for 9 more?

 

[cooktastic]

It is a good time to be a disc golfer in Rolla MO. I am so excited about the course out at Lion's Club after walking it with Odysseus the other day. It will be a very technical course that will test out your full repertoire of shots. I am very excited about the prospects...bummed that I can't be there for the Ice Bowl at Ber Juan.

 

[VictorB]

Good to hear that mid Missouri is getting more courses! As the VP of the CDGC, let me know asap when the 2nd course is completed and I'll try to schedule a road trip to go down and play the 2 courses, possibly during a grand opening weekend or something of the like. Just shoot me a pm here or over at DGR, I normally check both sites frequently.

 

[TxDiscGolfBoy]

GREAT!!!

Been in TX for a while now man, but lots of family in MO....in Rolla at that. So glad to hear it man. Thanx for the info!!!!!

 

[odysseus81]

They had a work day this past Saturday at Lions Club and the amount of work that got done was phenomenal. Over 100 people out there working. This course is going to be special...they are really spending time on all the small stuff that gets overlooked when a new course goes in. I am told that the grand opening is supposed to be in march sometime.

 

[REDARMY]

They had a work day this past Saturday at Lions Club and the amount of work that got done was phenomenal. Over 100 people out there working. This course is going to be special...they are really spending time on all the small stuff that gets overlooked when a new course goes in. I am told that the grand opening is supposed to be in march sometime.

i'll definitely have to get in touch with the laker league guys. this sounds like it's gonna be great!

 

[Three Putt]

We got dropped to page two, that will not do!

Lions Club has a lot of work done, but the weather has been terrible so I'm sure they have not been able to do as much as they would have liked. Still hearing March as the "in" date. They have a lot of members so it's not impossible for them to pull that off if we get a break in the weather ever. It looks good so far.

Ber Juan had an "interesting" tweak recently. Hole #2 was moved so the tee is over by # 1's basket and hyzers around the pool. I'm hoping that gets moved. We played a tournament there this weekend and we had at least three drives that I saw go into the pool. That's no good. Add to that the fact that I'm a weenie arm and I can hit the tee for #2 off the tee for #1 with a putter and you have a whole bunch of not good. From what I understand the parks director does not like the tee for #2 by the building because you have to cross the bridge three times. I agree that the flow isn't great, but I'd rather have people backtracking over the bridge as opposed to throwing blind spike hyzers into the swimming pool. It will probably stay as is until we get close to the pool opening, then push will come to shove.

We got to test out some B tee placements this weekend. Teeing #7 off the levee is cool. Other than that I wasn't really blown away by any of the tees. They made the shots longer, but I'm not sure they add a whole lot other than distance. The only other B tee I though added something to the hole was on # 2, but I'd like that whole hole to go away so that doesn't do much for us. # 4 got a lot of attention because it was way at the bottom of the hill, but really it was just longer. That's kinda how I felt about most of them.

Making # 5 shorter seemed to mess with people, I saw people blow drivers 50' past on that shot all day. It was just a little wide-open Roc shot, so people must have had a problem judging the distance on it. While it might seem counter intuitive, adding some shorter tees might allow us better variety. A shorter tee on #9 up the hillside gives that shot a totally different feel. It takes the pond out of play and brings those trees on the hillside and the shule to the left of the basket more in play. That might make for a better variety of shots as opposed to just pushing the tee back and adding another 100' to the hole.

 

[althuisd]

any word on progress of the Lions club course?