Brown Deer Trials

     In an ambitious attempt to kick start my disc golf "career" after my approximately 4 year sudo hiatus, I have looked up some of the best courses in the Milwaukee area. Brown Deer DGC is proving to be one of my favorites ever. Last week I shot 9 over par and today I improved that to only 4 over par. Feeling pretty good about it right now.

     It is proving to be a very nicely laid out course with a wonderfull blend or styles. Some holes are tight and very technical, bending left or right. There are two holes that are 650plus that soar over open fields. Those are great holes to work your distance throws on. You can read more about the BD DGC in my review at the end of the post, and a link to the review on dgcoursereview.com

     On another ambitious note. I am planning a camping/disc golf weekend for myself. I will be driving north to the Brillion, WI are and playing on the Rollin Ridge DGC and spending a day over by Manitowoc, WI playing at the Silver Creek Park DGC. I am looking forward to this personal challenge and a long weekend of Disc Golf.
http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=5189
http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=321

BROWN DEER DGC PERSONAL REVIEW:
http://www.dgcoursereview.com/reviews.php?id=1042&mode=rev
Pros: Very nice technical course with a well planned flow, including a few holes 650+ft over fields to mix it up. Not one hole felt too easy or out of place. Very scenic and quiet park as well. Can't beat the cost (FREE). I will be making this one of my regular/favorite courses.

Cons: Looks like some course maintenance could be done but nothing that limits or diminishes the play. A sign proclaiming where the course starts would be appreciated, FYI-It's behind the tennis courts.

Other Thoughts: Also a great park to take the family to. Kids can play on many of the swing sets and playground areas and there are plenty of trails for walking and a good spot or two or six for picnicking. Great park. Also has a rather nice regular golf course in the park as well.

Not Snoozing at Slumberland: A Course Review

Ever have one of those days where you say to yourself, “Self, I am going to go play a new disc golf course today.” Today was one of those days for me. I decided that I knew I wanted to play a round of disc and since I live in a land where you HAVE to drive at least an hour in any direction in order to play. Well my adventure led me to take a jaunt west into the land of “Great Places, Great Faces, South Dakota,” Watertown, South Dakota to be exact.  A mere hour and a half drive straight west on Hwy 212 got me to my destination via a minor detour of road construction.

I get to the course not knowing much other than it is an 18 hole course with the front nine being very open and great for beginning to intermediate players and the back nine more advanced with some distance, elevation, and water hazard opportunities.

Pro # 1: Great Signage – Each hole had a clearly marked sign with where the basket was and distance and par giving those who have never played the course a since of direction. Never mind that most holes were pretty much straight ahead.

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: Highbridge HIlls SC Review, Pt 4

Pt 4... Stay Gold, Ponyboy (or Money Disc)

We have reviewed the Woodland Bear. We have reviewed Granite Ridge. Now we touch on the big daddy of Highbridge Hills... the Gold Course! We hit Granite Ridge in the morning and Gold after lunch. Play time was approximately 5 hours. That's 5... with a 5. Course length is ~8500 ft. Of the 18 holes, only four are under 300 ft; three are between 300-400 ft; and fully eleven holes are over 400 ft, including the (self-proclaimed) longest hole in the world, Hole #8 coming in at over 1300 ft.

This course was the pièce de résistance of our trip, the source of our desires, and the sun decided to show itself as we began to play. Since this was to be our most anticipated round of disc EVER MRK decided to make things a little more interesting. The winner of the round would be awarded a disc. Not just any disc; the disc with the sweetest name a disc could ever dream of... the Money Putter.

Let me tell you straight out that the best kept course I have ever seen resides in East Bethel, MN and is known as Blue Ribbon Pines. This one is a close enough second. The lines were well laid and well taken care of. To be fair, Jon had just gone out the day before to mow it all down. Jon's good that way. It was just a beautiful course. Gold offers a nice change in elevation; good use of vegetation and stone. It even mixed in a little water, though it really didn't factor into the course much. Gold does everything you hope a golf course to do. As Timmy Gill puts it, it rewards good throws and punishes bad ones.

Only a couple things work against the Gold course. A stage was left in disrepair and disuse after it's initial construction for the World Amateurs played there years before (round abouts hole 18 if memory serves). It just gummed up the aesthetics. Hole 16 was also a bit of a let down. Supposedly an island hole, the water had long since dried up, leaving what had once been (I'm sure) a very comely wooden ring around the island. The ring had unfortunately suffered a breach and the whole thing was in the process of falling apart apparently due to the extreme weight of the soil it was holding up.

Everything else was finger-licking good. Notable holes included hole 2(?) with a nice little elevated putt. I enjoyed hole 18 with it's terraced shots and an elevated green. Hole 10 was a tricky shot choice involving heavy pines. Another hole (of which number I forget, maybe 11) offered a neat little shot over a pond before anhyzering back right into this protected grove hidden within the side of a small hill. Hole 16's island green was a neat idea, even if she isn't as pretty as she used to be. And the most memorable of all was the famous hole 8, the big guy. It looked to be a ball golf hole converted wholesale into the longest permanent hole in the world, a hole that has garnered a legit par 6 from the PDGA. This thing wasn't just long... it was beautiful. Three tee pads in terrace formation lead to a gradual decline in elevation, bracketed on each side by tall pines. This opens up into a breath-taking view of the valley. A few trees line the right side of the fairway before emptying into grove of trees much closer to the basket, forcing a picky hyzer shot that better go as far as you think it will if you want to clear the brush and vegetation or a lay up anhyzer before a short approach and putt. Simply stunning. My only regret is turning over my Nuke WAY too much, crashing it into the treeline on the right and essentially wasting my first two shots on that drive and my recovery shot.

MRK and I ended the round in a tie, but since this was MY bachelor party and I can cry if I want to, I can now gaze upon the Money Putter neatly mounted near my home office, reminding me of that wonderful trip... that wonderful course... Highbridge Gold.

Stay gold, Ponyboy... stay gold

~Diggs

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: A Highbridge Hills SC Review, Pt 3

Part 3... Like a Rock (or Wet Dreams)

Waking in the morning of the second day, feeling decidedly unlike P. Diddy, one topic pervaded my mind... rain. Why wouldn't it rain on the day I had awaited for years? The storm had began the evening before, and by my waking at 6 a.m. the downfall remained. I won't lie; I was getting mighty disconcerted. After all this time to be hampered by the weather was almost too much to bear. In my mind, I ran through the possibilities, and I imagined we would likely need to relocate back to the Twin Cities for any semblance of a bachelor weekend. But I wasn't prepared to give up just yet.

By the time a normal person awakes on vacation, the rains had abated, and in the young morning, a heavy mist lay throughout the area. We decided to give it a go. By 10 a.m. we were heading out to our first sortie of the day, Granite Ridge. The original plan was to hit up the Woodland Green as a nice little warm up. This changed for two reasons. We had stumbled through most of the Woodland course the day before. It also seemed as if the length of the courses were an unknown factor. The length of them were beyond your typical course, meaning any given round is destined to last about twice as long as the norm. So we decided to reassess our options and went straight for those courses we truly wished to play. Number one on the list was obviously the Gold course, but we were saving that for the afternoon.

While Blueberry Hill was high on the list, we had looked at Granite Ridge as our best option for the morning round. With the fog hanging heavy in the air and water soaking our shoes, we trudged out to the course to give it the "what for". Admittedly, I was a little depressed about the situation and felt none too good about my game that morning. So, as we walked up to hole 1 and saw... well, nothing but the tee pad and haze, I volunteered my services as spotter, hoping to avoid being the first up and embarrassing myself. Hole 1 sloped downhill about 300 ft, a fairly straight shot, but islands of trees forced you to take either a hyzer or anhyzer line to get to the basket. I took my place around 200 ft down the hill, allowing me a pretty good vista of any shot to come down. The problem? I couldn't see the tee pad! I'm telling you... FOGGY!

Standing down there, depressed, wet and cold, I began preparing myself for what I thought would be a very long day. Then, appearing out of nowhere, a disc came hovering overhead, landing somewhere beyond me and to the left. Then another. And each time a disc passed overhead, joy slowly started to sneak in. The soft buzzing overhead and the sensation of discs appearing out of nowhere combined with the beautiful surroundings and great company lifted my spirits. When my turn finally came, my blind shot landed right around the putting circle and I finished with a birdie putt. At that point, I was off and running.

While our experience was greatly impacted by the weather conditions, the round was wonderful! Granite Ridge is a wonderful array of options, providing slightly wooded shots mixed with a number of more open shots. The course is aptly named, noting the large rocky outcroppings. Some elevation change and water comes into play. And since I could generally drive the farthest of our group, I loved the amount of longer, open holes! I have the round scores somewhere and I will post them in time, but in spite of throwing into a creek bed marked OB, I still came within striking distance of par. And for my first time on a course, that was a stinking good round for me. This post is long enough already, but let it be known that for me, Granite Ridge was the best course we played... until the afternoon, anyways!

"... But no one here is asking..."

~Diggs

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: A Highbridge HIlls SC Review, Pt 2

Part 2... Grin & Bear It


Course: Bear Woodland

Time: Friday, late afternoon

Round: Arriving in the mid-afternoon on Friday, we promptly exited the vehicles and, before even finding out where we were staying, got in some putt practice. Eventually, we were able to connect up with John and get situated. In fairly short order, we were heading to the courses.

Our high-minded aspirations had us completing the whole series of major courses over the 40ish hours we were on site. Reflecting back on it, naive... so naive. I suppose we merely hoped for such an outcome, which as you may have guessed by now, did not come to fruition. Anyway, the plan was to hit up the Bear, a newer course that looked densely wooded. Saturday we would ease into the day with Woodland Greens ( a shorter, easier course); roll into Highbridge Gold for the Money Putt competition (winner won the money putter); capping the day off with some Granite Ridge action. The following morning, we would squeeze in Blueberry Hill before departure. One of those rounds we would make doubles, and we planned on throwing Chestnut Grove, the night course, one of those nights.

Well, as it turned out, the seasonal rains caused delays in completing the Bear course. Instead, they played the first 7 holes, then jumped over to Woodland Greens to finish off the round. Turns out it was a fairly nifty set up for those interested in throwing the Bear, though it prevented us from throwing hole 12 located near a live bear cave. Perhaps better that way...

Warning: The following account is admittedly colored by the viewpoint of its author. My experience is forever influenced by playing such rounds through my own eyes. Other authors will most assuredly have their own varied accounts that may differ greatly than my own.

Now I can tell you about how much the round sucked.

At least it did for me. Let us paint a picture. In the picture is a young man on the cusp of the most life-changing experience outside religious. Enter an opportunity to cross off one of the more long-standing bucket list items known to him. He seizes the carp, using the traditional male ritual for such a purpose. The moment finally arrives. What follows can only be described as a cruel, cosmic joke. Suddenly a decade's worth of effort and experience vanishes, leaving the remains of shattered expectations and broken dreams. I played that poorly. To be fair... I may have been pressing.

Regardless, I was about as useful as a "Birdie" putter out there. Others had more positive experiences. MRK played well and Jiggs played outside of his mind! I thought URBWes acquitted himself fairly well, though I don't recall him being particularly satisfied with the performance. BryJohn and "El Cuñado" also did well.

Let us be clear. The issue was not the course, at least the Bear portion. The Bear is a wooded, yet well manicured course that I will be excited to play on better terms. Tight fairways and multiple lines on a number of holes provide a challenging and beautiful experience. The Woodland Greens was a different experience. Not bad just... different. It struck me as just another wooded course. Nothing too spectacular. The Bear's holes were much more precise and lengthy; Woodland much more open. Woodland had a few cool shots (a neat one on a hill), but nothing about the course particularly struck my fancy. In retrospect, Playing just Woodland would have been a wonderful warm up/confidence builder.

Heading back to the cabin after the round, I could have used that confidence. I had hopes that tomorrow would bring a new day, full of new experiences. Then came the rain...

"... the first to volunteer..."

~Diggs

On Phoenixes & Rainy Days: A Highbridge HIlls SC Review, Pt 1

Part 1... The Phoenix Rises (w/ Disc in Hand)

The long awaited review of Highbridge Hills Sports Complex (otherwise known as the disc golf mecca) is finally here! I have attempted to produce this post before. I failed. Such endeavors proved fruitless as my penchant for loquacity met up with the vast raw, untapped wealth of the experience, producing a cacophony of verbiage too great for mortal ears. Planets imploded... light poured forth from the recesses of the universe, rending the very fabric of existence... the universe began contracting and time reversed upon itself (the last one was an actual theory proffered by Steven Hawking. Go figure). Regaining a sense of brevity... TL;DR.

Instead, I have opted for a series of posts addressing key points along the journey. This as-yet-to-be-complete work is beyond me at this point. I haven't a clue how long it will take. Yet, as my wrestling coach once told me, perseverance commands success. We will reach the end at some point!

Our first posting focuses on the past in order to look towards the future. Highbridge began not as a disc golf effort, but ball golf. Land was purchased, investors courted, and plans developed. Unfortunately, the main partner passed away, leaving a man with a deed to 300 acres and no investors. Simplifying matters, the land was eventually re imagined into the disc golf hotbed it is today. For this, we thank Jon.

As elsewhere documented, our crew discovered this gem some years ago in college. Our hopes were kindled, yet opportunity never presented itself. However, as Smokey the Bear will tell you, embers, once kindled, aren't always so easily extinguished. The desire persisted. Finally, with my wedding as the catalyst, we had our excuse to head to Highbridge.

The goal for the facilities is to eventually support ten 18-hole golf courses, with a number of them already in place. Unfortunately for us, time constraints precluded a round on each of the courses. Just as well. Our arms were pretty well fried with the amount we did get to play. Those we did chance to play were Bear Woodland, Granite Ridge, and Highbridge Gold. I imagine each experience will warrant its own post, and the particulars will be spelled out therein.

"Heroes will be heroes..."

~Diggs