It's actually not bad of a course until you get to the end. Pretty palms everywhere, no real danger of losing discs (though there's definite foliage and southern crap that itches). Some pretty technical holes. No elevation, no water (not really). The front nine are solid. I start with hole 1, which is a respectable 308 feet (the one I'm driving on in this video:
). First let's talk driving, then the course. Obviously I've been watching the videos. So I thought I'd shoot some of my own to see how I was doing, whether this is the x-step or not. I think it is. But this has also always been the step I've used. It didn't even occur to me that others were not using this runup, more or less. I think the thing to note is that I appear to be getting a lot of rotation on the disc (you can see the follow-through leg kick which looks kind of lame, but it keeps me balanced). I am also apparently not releasing at chest height. That's partly because this hole is only 308 feet, which is easily reachable for me with a driver (really I can get it there with a Glide also, which for me is more of a midrange). And actually I overshot it 2 out of 3 times (the other time I winged a palm high up and it make a spectacular sound and dropped). Anyhow. Maybe this is useful for you to look at, maybe not. When I'm trying to turn a disc over, I try to release it higher, at chest height. I also could probably do a better job of keeping it closer to the body. The best part of the video is the sound the disc makes as it flies over the camera in the last shot. I can't figure out how to easily do slow-mo with my software so you'll have to do it manually if you want it. Nor do I have any kind of fancy camerawork from my wife, or from my kids screaming at me to throw the disc, dad, nor in fact a "Mission Accomplished" banner, and I'm too lazy to download any explosions. So fuck you! Anyhow. Onwards to the course.
So hole 1, 308 feet, is a pretty good one. It's also a pretty one. There's a big ole hyzer route to play.
No problem. I actually put in a 50 footer for deuce. Sweet. Hole 2 is similarly pretty, albeit shorter (most holes on this course are in the 150-250 range, which doesn't make for extremely difficult disc). This is also why the course sets up well for beginners. Not to say it's uninteresting. Here's hole 2's approach, which kind of has some water (cool fountain behind it).
Again, not trivial. A lot of these front-9 holes are fairly technical. You're not punished too badly if you get off the fairway, but there's not always a reasonable save shot. You can definitely ring up some bogeys, particularly when you combine it with their somewhat draconian/artificial OB rules (all paths are OB, there's paths everywhere). This makes it more interesting and difficult, but it's kind of a weak way to exert pressure on the golfer in my opinion. Okay. More of the same. How about hole 4:
You get the idea. That one's 220 or so. This course rewards players who can throw it where they mean to (which is a good thing to reward if they do/penalize if they don't). And it is pretty:
A couple of the holes are a little wankery, meaning they're in the trees, but
and here's the shot you're looking at from the tee:
Not trivial, which is what we want. Not real long, but a solid hole. Hole 12 is the only other long one on the course, and kind of the end of the course, as we'll see. It's 356, dogleg right. Not super open, but there's a good lefty/forehand/turnover path if you want it. I do want it.
These guys had some issues. Their disc was about 60' off the ground in the crown of a palm tree. It is not coming out, dudes. They threw a baseball. They had a ladder. They had a long pole that they were brandishing from the ladder. I don't know what to tell you, dudes, but that fucker is wedged in. Time to buy a new disc or pray for lightning:
My disc does not share their fate. It's a good hole also because it positions the basket behind a downed log/tree, thus adding a little bonus:
So that's a good hole. And the next 2 are okay, not great, but okay. But holes 15, 16, 17, and 18 are completely retarded. They are all 90'-150', directly ahead of the tee in the middle of clearings. It is a colossal letdown to this course. You know, you're having an interesting match with somebody, and you want risk and reward on the last corner of the course, so things can happen. The only thing that can happen with this setup is an ace (which frankly I do not think I would write on my disc on one of these stupid holes, though I did not ace it. In fact I assumed the first hole must be playing to the basket beyond the basket I saw, so I threw for it, and overshot it... with my putter). This course would actually be decent if they just put in a few more holes. Not going to be a great course, but serviceable, fucking designed at least.
I do another round (a round takes 30-40 minutes here), but I don't bother to play the last four holes.
Recommendation: it's a 3-4 disc course. Not unfun, but man, what a letdown at the end. Makes me really not want to play it again. If you lived 100' away, sure, go for it. You can play 180 holes in four hours. You can get you some Cubby-style aces. Eh. Peh.
So here's the wack thing about the course. They have way more space. Admittedly, it's a mixed-use park. But take a look:
The bottom part of the lake gets cutoff unavoidably, which blows, but there's a little peninsula out there, and plenty of space to put a couple tee boxes playing over water, maybe, or along the edge, perhaps. At the least, designers need to realize what kind of space they have and not just phone in the last 4 holes with some kiddie shit. This could be a decent course. It is not a decent course. It's a decent 9 holes worth of course, and a bunch of other holes, many of which don't deserve playing twice, or even once, I'd wager.
6 comments:
Thanks very much for the video, Ander. I think I can sum it up with one word: smooth. I try like hell to impart speed and distance to the disc, but I just must not be nearly as smooth as you. No wasted movement. Fluid. I'm inspired.
Nice review too. I enjoy reviews of even lame courses. I like the picture of the dudes with the ladder.
Yeah, I was thinking, when I saw Sean's post, smooth is right. I think it's a function of practice, obviously (I've been throwing more or less the same way for, what, ten years, though I had a little break from it when I was yanking them inexplicably early Spring 2008). And I'm sure the musculature has developed along with that, so as long as the form is decent (I'd be interested in seeing your form, incidentally, if you can upload easily) it should eventually work it out. I'm looking forward to trying some longer drives, arm closer into the body, when I have a larger field to play with. I tried a bunch of the ones with the low release like in the Discraft video and they sucked hard. But it was also really hot so it was hard to spend a lot of time throwing them. I expect to do some more work on this in the fall, since it would be obviously awesome to be able to throw another 50'.
Yeah, but the thing that sticks with me is that we started playing disc golf at Knox at the same time, and within months you were out-throwing me by a mile and never looked back. And we probably had about the same amount of practice. You might have practiced just a little bit more and bought more discs online. But you were a natural. My wife tells me that I may never be able to throw the way I want to because I'm just not athletic. I don't believe her yet.
I'll upload my form at some point in the near future for sure. Would really like to get some opinions.
That's true, actually. It definitely has something to do with natural athleticism, I think, but then if we'd know jack shit about form or x-step or whatever when we were playing then, it would have been a lot easier for us both to have tried to solidify a good form earlier (and then you'd be throwing better now). I think it's likely you probably won't be able to throw as long as I will, but I definitely think you can improve your drive. And as we've all mentioned, driving is not as important as putting, so I don't doubt your putt will be significantly better next year. I expect the whole group will compress significantly, if we play and practice between now and then. And those who practice the most will benefit the most. So there's benefit in it either way.
It's easy to be critical without the knowledge of how any course is built.
The Reed Canal Disc Golf Course was built with limitations.
Limited space: was only allowed to use the area that was used. Safety issues are always a factor.
Wanted to use the property around the lake and playing fields, but the city said NO.
He who has the 'gold' makes the rules.
Lost a 300' foot beautiful hole to a "dog" park proposal.
Would like to bring it back.
Also working on some new 'pin placements.'
The tee pads are new.
A sign is going in.
The RCDGC gets more use than Tuscawilla ever does, for 2 reasons, neighborhood proximity and fear factor.
New players and recreational golfers use Reed Canal.
Thus is Reed Canal's intention.
Words like "wanky and lame" seem inappropriate and high brow.
By the way the City of South Daytona paid for the baskets, signage, and a portion of the tee pads.
In this economy that's great.
And the Reed Canal course is leading to more adventurous and challenging projects in the future.
There is more to Reed Canal than meets the eye.
Obviously Disc Jagger is showing his ignorance on "entry level" course design. The space we were allowed to use is all of 14.5 acres in a congested multi-use park. The actually space around that pond is maybe 60 feet wide on average between the waters edge and the 6 foot chain link fence bordering the private residences....with a heavily used walking trail damn near down the middle of that space and traversing the entire circumference of said pond. Yeah...That screams beginner friendly!!! LMAO!!! The final four holes are short because of...(and here's a shocker)... limited space. Primarily they are short because of the close proximity to the heaviest concentration of other park patrons. Short holes create less risk of injury to others not playing the game.
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