Widest review range?

[1978]

Bailey Road Park
.5 - 5
Guess based on its design as a beginner course or Junior level course.

 

[Brall]

1.5 - 5 Roscoe Ewing

granted, not as big of a range as the other courses but i was very surprised to see roscoe getting a low rating. it's an amazing course.

 

[humchris85]

1-5 The Redwood Curtain I know this isn't the widest one on here, but it still upsets me that somone disliked the course to such an extent that they would rate it only a 1.

 

[Steve West]

It occurred to me that my Scoring Spread measure could also be applied to ratings to get a Ratings Spread. It is a way to count how many different ratings are given – or the Entropy of the distribution of ratings.

A higher number means it is more difficult to guess what rating a randomly selected reviewer assigned, given that you know what the distribution of ratings is for that course.

A Ratings Spread of 1 would mean that every reviewer gave the course the same rating. So, if you knew what that rating was, you would be able to guess what rating a random reviewer assigned with 100% certainty. Or, to put it another way, you would have perfect information about the quality of that course.

The widest possible Ratings Spread would be 11, meaning that an equal number of reviewers assigned each possible rating. For example 22 reviews with 2x0's, 2x0.5's....up to 2x5's. You would have no idea how to guess what rating a randomly selected reviewer assigned. You would have no information about the quality of that course.

So, here are the scores:

Tidal Creek @ West Ashley Park = 7.3
Aquatic Park = 7.2
Cape Henlopen State Park = 6.8
Leigh Farm Park = 6.2
Bailey Road Park DGC = 5.9
Fort Snelling = 5.1
Summit Park = 4.9
Roscoe Ewing Park = 4.5
Giles Run @ Laurel Hill Park = 4.4
Sleepy Hollow State Park = 3.7
Humboldt State University = 3.7
The Woodshed = 3.1

 

[DiscGolfCraig]

It occurred to me that my Scoring Spread measure could also be applied to ratings to get a Ratings Spread. It is a way to count how many different ratings are given – or the Entropy of the distribution of ratings.

A higher number means it is more difficult to guess what rating a randomly selected reviewer assigned, given that you know what the distribution of ratings is for that course.

A Ratings Spread of 1 would mean that every reviewer gave the course the same rating. So, if you knew what that rating was, you would be able to guess what rating a random reviewer assigned with 100% certainty. Or, to put it another way, you would have perfect information about the quality of that course.

The widest possible Ratings Spread would be 11, meaning that an equal number of reviewers assigned each possible rating. For example 22 reviews with 2x0's, 2x0.5's....up to 2x5's. You would have no idea how to guess what rating a randomly selected reviewer assigned. You would have no information about the quality of that course.

So, here are the scores:

Tidal Creek @ West Ashley Park = 7.3
Aquatic Park = 7.2
Cape Henlopen State Park = 6.8
Leigh Farm Park = 6.2
Bailey Road Park DGC = 5.9
Fort Snelling = 5.1
Summit Park = 4.9
Roscoe Ewing Park = 4.5
Giles Run @ Laurel Hill Park = 4.4
Sleepy Hollow State Park = 3.7
Humboldt State University = 3.7
The Woodshed = 3.1

Very cool list and info. Thanks for sharing. :clap:

 

[New013]

Nice... Mr. West is full of statistical analysis. I knew Leigh Farm would be up there, that course gets so much love and hate.

 

[Steve West]

I only looked at the courses mentioned in this thread (plus Fort Snelling because I knew it had a 0 and a 5). There may be other courses with more "uninformative" ratings distributions that haven't been mentioned.

 

[DavidSauls]

Awesome, Steve. I've been baffled as to weather to try out Tidal Creek, not just from the range of reviews but from recommendations from friends in Charleston. I now feel justified in my bafflement.

 

[Steve West]

Awesome, Steve. I've been baffled as to weather to try out Tidal Creek, not just from the range of reviews but from recommendations from friends in Charleston. I now feel justified in my bafflement.

Go try it. Nobody has given it 0 or 2.5 discs yet. You could be the first.

 

[DiscGolfCraig]

Awesome, Steve. I've been baffled as to weather to try out Tidal Creek, not just from the range of reviews but from recommendations from friends in Charleston. I now feel justified in my bafflement.

The course is decent in the winter. It's not swampy, it's slightly more open without leaves on trees and there are less snakes & spiders to worry about.

In the summer, the course is virtually unplayable. After a decent rain, it takes nearly a week to dry out, and by then, it's rained again.

There was a thread a while back about courses with the biggest discrepancy between local ratings and out-of-town/trusted reviewer ratings (trying to show which courses had the highest home-town biases.) Not surprisingly, Tidal Creek was near the top of that list as well.

 

[GLong]

Cape Henlopen State Park = 6.8

glad to see a course that i've played on the list.

i agree with many of the early reviews, the course was very rough. but it has changed a lot and i feel like many of those early reviewers might change their opinion with another play. it is not hard to navigate with a map. some hole to hole navigation has been added as well and it's pretty easy to get around. it will never be a pretty manicured course and there are some downright evil patches of schule but that's what the course is. in my opinion, the overall aesthetic of the course (have you ever played in a desert filled with pine trees? on the east coast?), combined with subtle elevation and ever-present ocean breeze present a unique challenge that is absolutely worth a play. especially if you're from the east coast and have never played anything in texas/the southwest.

 

[hawk12]

Cape Henlopen - is in a loving way referred to as going to the Moon locally... The guys that have done the majority of the recent work coined that phrase because there is nothing like it anywhere (around here at least).

Most people that play there iether love it or hate it right away. They have no problem saying its impossible to find your way (which it isn't anymore), its too damn hot in the "desert", and it has no defined fiarways (which also isn't true anymore). Tons of work has gone into this course over the last 3-5 years, and more is always happening. New tee pads like little docks are aweome, new opened up fairways, and redesigned holes all play into the improvements - yet it will always be a love it or hate it course.

Where else can you go swimming in the ocean at lunch for a tournament, come back and finish?

Obviously I'm a 'love this course guy', but didn't used to be when it was a sticker infested and can't find the back 9 baskets course because it got no maintenence for a while in the mid 90's...

 

[notapro]

Bryant Lake in Minnesota has eighteen 5-disc ratings, twenty-seven 4.5-disc ratings, sixteen 3.5/4 disc ratings...... and one .5-disc rating.

 

[Kingery]

If the course has baskets in the ground, it deserves more than a zero.

 

[mashnut]

If the course has baskets in the ground, it deserves more than a zero.

I completely disagree. If a course didn't have baskets (or other targets) in the ground, it would just be a park. We don't review parks here, we review disc golf courses. The scale goes from the worst (0) to the best (5), it's silly to refuse to use parts of the scale, that compresses the ratings and makes it more difficult to separate out the best and worst disc golf courses.

 

[JRW III]

You can not fault the course for rain, but you can fault it for horrible drainage.

Variablility will come into play for the ratings when you have reviewers who have never played the course in wet conditions and have no idea that there are drainage issues vs. reviewers who have played in wet conditions and are aware of the issues. End result is the course gets faulted during the rain.

 

[notapro]

I definitely feel bad that I don't see the drainage issues on courses that I play and review on roadtrips. This year has been a drought, too, so I might miss that a course usually has 2 holes or more constantly under water (e.g. Jericho Lakes in Aurora, IL).

But, I always wear waterproof shoes so it's not a huge deal anyway.

 

[rd.bittle]

I just like to see courses rated on the merits/downfalls of the course. Not based on how you played. Have played some 2- courses I loved and some 3+ courses not as much. I have never played a course that I wished I hadn't.