I was on a DG road trip with three others and we ended up walking off four courses in one day. This was back before smartphones, apps, or DGCR so we were relying on the printed course directory and a map to aid our road trip. We did find all the courses we went looking for, but the problem was that once we arrived, signage was a big issue to know where to start and where to go once we started.
First course was a private P2P one, so getting started wasn't so tough. There was no one there...no one taking money (honor box that we paid) and no one else playing...just cows in the next field over. Once we got out to about hole 4, we started having trouble figuring out which baskets to play to. Lots of open field with multiple baskets in view and no maps or labeling to guide us. Hole 9 finished near the parking lot, so after two hours in the hot sun with no shade while playing through barely mowed fields, we bailed and decided to try another (and we were hungry).
The next courses we tried was in a city park that was easy enough to find but there was no park signage leading to tee 1. We drove until we found a basket, parked in the nearest lot, figuring we'd just start there even if it was hole 8 or something because we'd end up back where we started eventually. We played a couple holes before we caught up to another group. They waved us on so we threw our drives while they were still on the hole. When we got into the fairway, we couldn't find one of our drives...one we saw land in the middle of a well mowed field. We scoured the hole for 20-25 minutes before deciding it was gone. The group in front of us had finished out and had moved on before we left the tee so they were no help. So little help that we didn't actually see where they went for the next tee, and there were no signs to help either. We tried three different directions and found nothing at all. So we gave up and backtracked to the car and left. (turns out the walk to the next tee was a long one, so even if we had tried the right direction, we didn't go nearly far enough)
The next course we found tee 1 without a problem but the place was mobbed. We waited at least 20 minutes to get on the tee and start, then waited at nearly every hole after that. About six holes in, we realized the next few holes played parallel to an extremely busy roadway (four lanes of traffic on a Friday afternoon busy). It was a bit unnerving for us (who weren't that great at that point) to be throwing so close to traffic with the chance of a shot ending up in the road. So after taking 90+ minutes to get to hole 8, we bailed again.
At this point we were about seven hours into our day (it was 4pm and we'd started at 9) and had played a total of about 18 holes at three different places. We decided to head back to the hotel where we were staying. As we drove, we spotted more baskets. It wasn't in our plans but there it was, another course, might as well give it a shot. It was on a college campus which worked for me because the course I learned on was on a college campus. We got to hole 10 before things got tricky. It played around the corner of a building into what seemed to be the center of campus. When we walked up to look for the basket, we saw nothing but people walking around. No way we wanted to throw that blind shot with that many people in the danger zone, so we decided to skip ahead. Hole 11 had a similar issue. So did hole 12. And 13. At that point, we said forget it, we got nine in, that's enough and left.
One day, four courses, four incomplete rounds for various reasons.
