Henagar, AL

Henagar Log Cabin DGC

2.255(based on 2 reviews)
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9 0
Ryal
Gold level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 7.4 years 240 played 202 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Henagar The (Not)Horrible

Reviewed: Played on:Nov 6, 2023 Played the course:once

Pros:

+ Big, colorful and informative tee signs.
+ Tees are long, wide and flat concrete.
+ New and numbered white DD Veteran baskets complete with flags on top and orange 'next' arrows attached.
+ The venue is a quiet and cozy municipal park in a sleepy pleasant town, but...

Cons:

- ...The park is jam-packed with walking paths, sports fields, a playground, pavilions and civic structures.
- The course itself plays open and breezy or cramped and clustered.
-/+ Mostly brief distances are (boring/beneficial) for (experienced/new) players.

Other Thoughts:

This review is based on the long layout.
The disc golf course at Henagar Park is an unassuming and peaceful time when there aren't people walking around and/or sporting events happening. I played here at noon on a Monday, which meant there was basically nobody around. I can imagine just how active this place gets after work hours or on weekends. The course feels like it's trying its very best to avoid the other park structures, but disc golfing takes up a lot of space. So the course is forced into awkward corners and has no choice but to accept the land given to it. The point that I'm failing to make is that this is a close-quarters course with several links that may have to be skipped depending on the other parkgoers' activities.

A few examples.
Link7 throws alongside an outfield fence. If there were a baseball game happening, I would skip that one regardless of how confident I felt in my throw.
Link8 has the player throw in the direction of a swingset and playground. Sure, there is a mando to direct the disc in the opposite direction, but most disc golfers probably wouldn't want to tempt fate like that even there were just one child present.
Link14 might be one of the more unique fairways I've encountered. The player tees of on the floor of a cabin of historical significance and down over a walking path towards a raised basket tightly nestled between a baseball diamond, a basketball court and a tennis court. Even with nobody else around and despite it being only 175 feet, I felt very uneasy throwing on that one. I get that there wasn't too much open space to fit an 18-link course, but some of these fairways felt crowbarred in just to reach that number.

On that note, my least favorite was link13! A skinny fairway is all you get in between a walking path left and the park road right, both OB. In addition, there are two monuments for you to accidentally hit nearby the tee. Up near the basket is the aformentioned cabin that you could easily hit with an errant or reckless throw. I was very hesistant to throw on this one as well. If there are any course designers reading this, I'd like to offer the following perspective: Keep us as far away from civic, historical, memorial and recreational structures as you can unless said structures are abandoned and not looked after.

That's enough negativity for now. On the upside, I was pleasantly surprised by how many of the links met or exceeded 300 feet. There are also a few ace/birdie runs of less than 200 feet. I can imagine that this course on the short tees transforms into a birdie fest and a good training ground for new players. Some fairways are wide open in fields behind the park. Most are half-open park-style fairways. Others are surprising tree puzzles that require some planning and forethought. Link11 is a nice short fairway with some trees to dodge and a surprise creek to avoid. Link2 has a fun man-made triple mando in a wide-open breezey field. To my mind, links4 and 5 are the best of the course. Link4 is a tree maze that requires a skilled touch, or you could take the outer left route and try to poke into the woods from the outside. And link5, my favorite of the course, is a 200-foot flat tree-dodger with the densest tree cover. Can you outsmart the bark and branches to earn your birdie? Special mention to tiny link6's 138-foot fairway with the narrowest of double mandos right in front of the basket.

Beyond all of that, I can't think of anything else to say. The course is just fine. It averages out to an experience that doesn't delight or disgust. Can I recommend it? Definitely to baggers by default. Certainly to newbies. To serious players I would give it a non-commital 'meh.' I don't think it will blow away anybody, but you could always see for yourself. You'll probably decide very quickly whether or not you like it.

Finally, if you have an allergy to bee stings, bring along your epipen. I didn't dare get close enough to identify which type they were, but there were plenty of angry wasps buzzing around the course- especially on the back nine. That's about as tense as this place gets. Still, it's worth a look as an example (for better or worse) of doing a lot with a little.
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18 0
wellsbranch250
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 10.8 years 694 played 680 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Cabin Fever

Reviewed: Played on:Mar 29, 2023 Played the course:once

Pros:

(2.322 Rating) A moderately wooded sports complex course with a surprising mix of hole types.
- FUN FACTOR - The gameplay here is perfect for a small town course. Most holes are between 300 and 200 feet long. Some of the long tees will push the distance over the 350-foot mark at times and there are some sub 200-foot ace runs. Skilled regulars are going to rack up birdies and the disc risk will be low, unless the creek's water level is up. I think nearly everyone is going to enjoy running the log cabin tee shot to the Pyramid on (14).
- AMENITIES - The basics were done right. Great 5-foot by 12-foot concrete pads. Good baskets as well. Veterans with a white powder-coat finish. They looked great and caught well. The signage wasn't installed yet, but I saw the finished product. They look great and were installed 2 days before this review posting. There are also shelters with picnic tables and restroom facilities. Hopefully some benches in the park will get commandeered and show up behind a few tees.
- NAVIGATION - A course map is either installed or its installation is imminent. I haven't seen the finished product, but if it looks anything like the high detail on the tee signs, it will help a ton to get around. There are a few weird transitions here. The route to (17) tee, crosses (3s) fairway. There's a modest flow gap after (8), and (6s) tee location is not intuitive. A couple extra navigation cues would help in the tricky spots.
- QUICK PLAY - A quicker than normal 18 hole course. Mostly short transitions and searching for an errant disc will be rare. My group of 4 finished in under 2 hours.

Cons:

Site quirks and limitations
- HOLE VARIETY - A designer can only do so much when given about 20 acres, and half of its already used. Parts of the course had to be shoehorned in a bit to get to 18 holes. I did like the mix of tree coverages. There are a couple open shots, several lightly wooded shots and a few moderately wooded plays. Nothing in heavy woods or wooded tunnel shots. No multi-play holes and elevation is mild in the 20-foot max range. There are a couple fun water plays using a creek, but no ponds to gameplay around. I scored this aspect about 40 percentile.
- SPACING - Several holes don't have ideal buffers. Established park amenities come into play a few times. Walking paths are in play on occasion. Reviewers that heavily penalize courses with multi-use hazard are likely going to score this course a notch lower than I have. I took off only a tenth of a point for it. I didn't think it was that terrible. I've seen worse conflicts across America dozens of times.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - I went with 30 percentile. Lots of manmade features in view the whole time. Behind basket (2) is a city dumping grounds for concrete pavement and tree debris. I doubt the park is blessed with a big city budget like the courses in the Nashville and Atlanta Metros. I did like the many log cabins sprinkled throughout the layout. The mini creek dicing through a few holes adds a little appeal as well.

Other Thoughts:

I came out here with two friends of mine and also met and threw with the designer Jake Harris. It was an entertaining social round for all of us. It was surprising to me, to have this good of course, on this challenging of a site. Driving in I was thinking 2.0 tops on a ratings curve, but there were too many fun shots here to not come away smiling. If I lived in Henagar, I'd likely play here all the time. There aren't many courses out this was currently. The 4 closest are Agape, Lifepoint, Fyffe and Sand Mountain. Among those four and Log Cabin, I personally think this is the new best of that bunch. Reminds me of courses like Shannon Park in Rome Georgia, Heritage in Cullman Alabama and Don Davidson in South Central Tennessee. I gave all these noted courses a middle of the pack 2.5 rating as well.
- CHALLENGING - The difficulty here is perfect for MA3 level, with blend over appeal to MA2s and MA4s. As noted in my first pro, this an idea level set-up for 1-course small towns, as it appeases the widest segment of regular players. MA1s are not going to be challenged much here. I think they'd average 10 down out here.
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