the_lung
01-11-2005, 11:04 AM
Hello, I am a disc golfer from Pennsylvania. From time to time my company sends me on trips to our production facility near Houston. While on business travel or on vacation, I like to play new disc golf courses and write reviews of them. I have assembled a web page of my reviews that can be accessed here: Review of Disc Golf Courses (http://www.geocities.com/the_lung/discgolf.htm)
Some obligatory background info and Disc Claimer: I have tried to keep any negative comments to a minimum, since I am sure countless hours of blood, sweat and tears went into these courses, and having not contributed at all, I'm not going to rip on anyone's efforts. For the record, I've been playing disc golf for over eight years, and play in the Open division in tournaments. I personally prefer longer holes and courses that feature pro par 4 and par 5 holes. I am sick of pitch-and-putt courses! I have played over 110 courses, but always go into a new course with a positive attitude.
I drove out to Beaumont on Sunday to play the two courses there. The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful, it was sunny and around 70. Both courses were definitely on the soggy side, but I had my Seal Skin waterproof socks on, and being able to play disc golf in January in shorts and a t-shirt, nothing was gonna bother this Pennsylvania boy!
I started off with Tyrrell Park, which plays next to a ball golf course. I always like when disc golf courses play next our ball golf cousins, I feel it gives our sport good exposure. The Tyrrell Park disc golf course has a really challenging layout that reminds me a lot of the two courses at Tom Bass Park. In some ways, it’s even better! The course is a nice mix of long par threes, pro par fours, a true par five, and few ‘tweener’ holes, or as I like to call them, “Texas-sized” par threes. The first challenge comes on the second hole, which features a devilishly evil green with a semi-circle of OB surrounding the green. I was elated to make a long putt for deuce from inside the trees short of the basket. Hole four requires a long carry over a huge drainage ditch/canal. I really enjoyed the next set of holes in the wooded section of the park – they are long, tough holes that don’t yield any gimme deuces. The grass is short on most of these holes and backhand rollers work well. The par five is spectacular; after driving through scattered trees, it opens up into a clearing and then down to the polehole. My second shot made the picnic table at the end of the clearing and if I had a better upshot or made my 20-footer I could have scored a birdie four. An eagle three on this hole would be outrageous; it would take a monster roller or a very lucky air shot to make the clearing, and a very long second shot to the basket. Or I guess someone could bomb a “fairway ace” third shot in.
After the par five, I was hoping for a break, but at 500 feet, hole eleven is one of those Texas-sized par threes I was talking about. Has anyone ever birdied this hole? After emerging from the woods, the last holes play in a more open area but aren’t particularly easy, especially the par four thirteenth, fifteenth, and eighteenth holes, which finishes over the ditch/water hazard. I was lucky to score a few deuces, avoid bogeys, and make pars to shot a round of 60, which I was very happy with. This is a pro caliber course that will challenge every aspect of your golf game, and I highly recommend that anyone considering making the drive from Houston do so to play this course.
As much as I liked the Tyrrell Park course, I had a few nitpicks, mostly about safety concerns with the course. Hole two has golfers throwing out over the entrance road to the park. Holes fifteen and sixteen also throw directly over park roads, and holes thirteen and fourteen play very close to athletic fields and other park facilities. I’ve seen enough recreational golfers play to know that their shots don’t always go where they intend to, and they also don’t always look for cars or wait for them to pass. Also, as the course grows in popularity and the local club gets stronger, I’m hoping that funds will be raised to replace the rusty baskets and chains. While the course map I downloaded from the website was quite helpful in finding the tees, most of the poleholes are unlabeled and it can be difficult to determine the correct polehole to throw at.
Next I headed down to the Pleasure Island course in Port Arthur. I had seen a lot of photos and an ace video on the internet of this course and was excited to play it. To be honest, I wish I played this course first because after Tyrrell Park, it was kind of a letdown. 18 holes are crowded into a very small space between a road and a wetlands area. While there are no crossing fairways, many of the holes play very close to one another, and with many of the tee signs and polehole numbers faded or missing, finding your way around the course is quite confusing. I did like that this course features some rolling hills and elevation changes (unusual for Texas) but most holes are short and almost entirely wide open. Where Tyrrell features long par three holes that don’t yield easy deuces, many of the holes at Pleasure Island are short enough and straightforward enough that I felt angry/silly if I didn’t score a birdie on them. I felt like I played better golf shooting a 60 at Tyrell than a 49 at Pleasure Island! One highlight was the ~590 foot fourteenth hole – it’s got an elevated tee and plays as a bonafide pro par four, and I was elated to sink a long putt to save three. Bug spray is a MUST when playing this course – the hilliness in the middle causes water to drain down, collect, and stagnate on the edge of the course. The mosquitoes aren’t too bad in January, but I would imagine they are outrageous at other times of year. One final note is on that ace run video –assuming that the park boundary cable behind the 18th polehole is OB (and the road behind it certainly must be) it seems quite foolish to go for an ace run on this hole, since if you miss the basket there’s a very good chance you’ll end up OB. While it was a heck of a throw, it seems like the better golf play is to lay up for the drop-in deuce.
Some obligatory background info and Disc Claimer: I have tried to keep any negative comments to a minimum, since I am sure countless hours of blood, sweat and tears went into these courses, and having not contributed at all, I'm not going to rip on anyone's efforts. For the record, I've been playing disc golf for over eight years, and play in the Open division in tournaments. I personally prefer longer holes and courses that feature pro par 4 and par 5 holes. I am sick of pitch-and-putt courses! I have played over 110 courses, but always go into a new course with a positive attitude.
I drove out to Beaumont on Sunday to play the two courses there. The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful, it was sunny and around 70. Both courses were definitely on the soggy side, but I had my Seal Skin waterproof socks on, and being able to play disc golf in January in shorts and a t-shirt, nothing was gonna bother this Pennsylvania boy!
I started off with Tyrrell Park, which plays next to a ball golf course. I always like when disc golf courses play next our ball golf cousins, I feel it gives our sport good exposure. The Tyrrell Park disc golf course has a really challenging layout that reminds me a lot of the two courses at Tom Bass Park. In some ways, it’s even better! The course is a nice mix of long par threes, pro par fours, a true par five, and few ‘tweener’ holes, or as I like to call them, “Texas-sized” par threes. The first challenge comes on the second hole, which features a devilishly evil green with a semi-circle of OB surrounding the green. I was elated to make a long putt for deuce from inside the trees short of the basket. Hole four requires a long carry over a huge drainage ditch/canal. I really enjoyed the next set of holes in the wooded section of the park – they are long, tough holes that don’t yield any gimme deuces. The grass is short on most of these holes and backhand rollers work well. The par five is spectacular; after driving through scattered trees, it opens up into a clearing and then down to the polehole. My second shot made the picnic table at the end of the clearing and if I had a better upshot or made my 20-footer I could have scored a birdie four. An eagle three on this hole would be outrageous; it would take a monster roller or a very lucky air shot to make the clearing, and a very long second shot to the basket. Or I guess someone could bomb a “fairway ace” third shot in.
After the par five, I was hoping for a break, but at 500 feet, hole eleven is one of those Texas-sized par threes I was talking about. Has anyone ever birdied this hole? After emerging from the woods, the last holes play in a more open area but aren’t particularly easy, especially the par four thirteenth, fifteenth, and eighteenth holes, which finishes over the ditch/water hazard. I was lucky to score a few deuces, avoid bogeys, and make pars to shot a round of 60, which I was very happy with. This is a pro caliber course that will challenge every aspect of your golf game, and I highly recommend that anyone considering making the drive from Houston do so to play this course.
As much as I liked the Tyrrell Park course, I had a few nitpicks, mostly about safety concerns with the course. Hole two has golfers throwing out over the entrance road to the park. Holes fifteen and sixteen also throw directly over park roads, and holes thirteen and fourteen play very close to athletic fields and other park facilities. I’ve seen enough recreational golfers play to know that their shots don’t always go where they intend to, and they also don’t always look for cars or wait for them to pass. Also, as the course grows in popularity and the local club gets stronger, I’m hoping that funds will be raised to replace the rusty baskets and chains. While the course map I downloaded from the website was quite helpful in finding the tees, most of the poleholes are unlabeled and it can be difficult to determine the correct polehole to throw at.
Next I headed down to the Pleasure Island course in Port Arthur. I had seen a lot of photos and an ace video on the internet of this course and was excited to play it. To be honest, I wish I played this course first because after Tyrrell Park, it was kind of a letdown. 18 holes are crowded into a very small space between a road and a wetlands area. While there are no crossing fairways, many of the holes play very close to one another, and with many of the tee signs and polehole numbers faded or missing, finding your way around the course is quite confusing. I did like that this course features some rolling hills and elevation changes (unusual for Texas) but most holes are short and almost entirely wide open. Where Tyrrell features long par three holes that don’t yield easy deuces, many of the holes at Pleasure Island are short enough and straightforward enough that I felt angry/silly if I didn’t score a birdie on them. I felt like I played better golf shooting a 60 at Tyrell than a 49 at Pleasure Island! One highlight was the ~590 foot fourteenth hole – it’s got an elevated tee and plays as a bonafide pro par four, and I was elated to sink a long putt to save three. Bug spray is a MUST when playing this course – the hilliness in the middle causes water to drain down, collect, and stagnate on the edge of the course. The mosquitoes aren’t too bad in January, but I would imagine they are outrageous at other times of year. One final note is on that ace run video –assuming that the park boundary cable behind the 18th polehole is OB (and the road behind it certainly must be) it seems quite foolish to go for an ace run on this hole, since if you miss the basket there’s a very good chance you’ll end up OB. While it was a heck of a throw, it seems like the better golf play is to lay up for the drop-in deuce.