I went to check out the future site of the 2010 World Disc Golf Championships. It's Lemon Lake County Park near Crown Point, Indiana. I arrived eagerly at the course at 6:30 am just as the sun was rising, only to find a gate blocking my way. "Park opens at 7:00 am." A guy let me in ten minutes early. Cold. Frost on the ground. Trees bare.

This place has 81 holes. There's a "White" course billed as "Beginner" level. 18 holes. Mostly short (200-350 foot holes). Many technical holes through trees. Some over a creek. Some boring and in the open. I played about 6 holes on this course and walked through several others. Pretty decent.

The "Red" and "Blue" courses are billed as "Advanced" level. 18 holes each. I played the Red course in its entirety. Shot a 67. Some holes are marked as par 4 and a couple rightly so. Most holes were in the 275-375 foot range. A few over 400 feet. A couple in the 500-600 foot range. Only a few holes in the open, and even then they bordered trees and had pins tucked somewhere. Most of the course was very technical through the trees. Some minor elevation changes (one significantly downhill hole). A creek comes into play on a few holes. Nice tees, signs, pins. Good mix of left-to-right and right-to-left holes. Probably plays much harder in the summer.

The Blue course was similar to the red course. I played about 6 holes of it and walked through several more holes. Actually, I liked the Blue course a little better. A couple of the holes were very unique.

Unfortunatly, I never made it to the "Silver/Gold" course which was billed as "Championship" level. Local signs say the course has 27 holes (websites aren't updated and say 18). The shorter tees are the silver tees, the longer ones the gold tees. Supposedly big ravines and a creek come into play.

The park was very well kept. Good signs, tees, pins, benches, and trash cans. A couple of the holes were missing signs, though. Every hole has two pin placements and some of the holes have two tees. I expect more work will be done on the courses to get ready for Worlds. The 2009 Worlds was played on nine 18-hole courses, I believe. So, I'm wondering if the place is big enough or if there are other nearby courses they'll play at. Anyway, I plan to be there in August to watch.

Some pictures of the "Red" course:

A tough long fairway:




Hole 14 was awesome:



All the pins seemed to be in the "B" position when I played, which made the course significantly harder, I'd guess.

This is a look from basket 14 back up to the tee:



Some fairways were just a bitch:




I played the long tees when they had them: