Course Improvements

[Derek Tonn]

I hope people don't mind, but I thought I might start a thread here that effectively serves as a sort of "blog" or history of how we've been working to make our course here in Springfield better. We really do have a nice course...and it's been continually improving as the months have passed. Maybe that's a personality flaw....the fact that I am NEVER really, truly satisfied with the status quo?! :-) I just want us to do the community proud and have the very-best course we can.

[Derek Tonn]

I did a little "weed whacking" today out on Hole 4, as well as researched a few more ideas for adding more challenge to Hole 5. However, the MAIN thing I did today was take a few photos from the new Hole 2 and Hole 10 tees. Without further ado:

New Hole 2 "Am/Rec" tee.

View from Hole 2 basket back to new Am/Rec tee area.

View from new Pro tee on Hole 10.

View from Hole 10 basket back to new Pro tee area.

[Derek Tonn]

I spent about two hours this afternoon adding a bit of dirt to the Hole 6 tee, as well as picking some additional rock out of the fields that are adjacent to the course (dropping them in the edge of the pond by the Hole 10 basket...helping to give players a bit of a prayer at retrieving their discs if they miss the basket to the left off the tee). The BIG improvement today, however, was repositioning the Hole 7 Pro tee. I moved it 30 feet to the Northwest of its former location...resolving a minor drainage issue while taking the length of that tee to exactly 400 feet. It's the only 400+ foot hole on the course...and I felt it was a necessary change to add that much more challenge for Pro players at future events. We now have Pro tees on Holes 1, 2, 7 and 10...with at least "casual" plans for potentially adding Pro tees for Holes 3, 4 and 5...in addition to the future Pro tee on Hole 13 as well. It's coming together...slowly but surely. :-)

[Derek Tonn]

Spent about 90 minutes down on Hole 10 on Monday...beating back some weeds and digging another ten feet or so out of that drainage trench. The "walls" have really closed in around that new Hole 10 fairway after all the recent rains...as it really does create a "tunnel" effect off the tee. Very cool. I also was going to report in here that last week that pile of miscellaneous construction debris on Hole 5 was FINALLY removed...so that Hole now looks a lot better than it did. Way too easy now though...now that you can see the basket off the tee with nothing in your way. We'll have to address that issue in the weeks and months to come.

[Derek Tonn]

Spent about thirty minutes on Saturday planting three lilac bushes along the back edge of the new Pro tee on Hole 7....to eventually give that tee a bit of a shield/screen from the Hole 6 tee. Someone would have to REALLY try to miss badly off the tee on 6 to hit someone on Hole 7, but I figure that a bit more of a "screen" in a few years couldn't hurt anything. Now we'll just see what the over/under is on whether those lilacs are mowed-off or vandalized in the coming months...since they still kind of look like glorified weeds out there. :-)

[Derek Tonn]

It's been a while since I posted in this thread, so I thought I would update any curious folks with a couple of items:

1. Hole 6. Our sixth basket is going to be permanently relocated approximately 35 feet to the ESE, as we are needing to make room for a new small pavilion that is being constructed down in that area by Salonek's Pond. It could have become a very BAD thing for our course, but the way we're handling it should actually be a very GOOD thing...and I like the fact that the hole will go from 216 to 250 feet off the tee. That hole was a bit too much of a "deuce" hole for advanced players, so adding another 35 feet should ultimately raise the average scores achieved on that particular hole.

2. Hole 4. As of August 15, work began on the new Pro tee for the fourth hole on the course. That 213 foot hole will also go up to approximately 250 feet off the Pro tee, and that shot will be another incredibly challenging mental experience. Players will shoot down a 15-18 foot-wide fairway with weeds and trees on both sides for about 50 feet, then the fairway ends and you're shooting over shrubs and weeds "below" you for another 60-70 feet until you come out on to the existing Am/Rec tee fairway. Miss your lane and hit a branch or two, and your disc is at the bottom of the hill (8-10 feet down), and you'll have little to no clear look at the basket for your second shot. A VERY unhappy place to be. Even if you hit the tunnel, you will have to hold a tight, low, left-to-right line or you'll be buried in trees (right) or up to your waist in CRP grasses and weeds (left). It will probably be one of the three most difficult shots on the entire course once the new Pro tee is finished, but that is the extra bit of challenge that will keep advanced players honest and coming back for more.

I'll report back with pictures once things are a little further along with both changes to our course. In the interim, keep those discs flying and may you consistently find those chains...

[Derek Tonn]

As of this afternoon, the "new and improved" Hole 6 in Springfield is now open for business. Five feet shorter than I had originally estimated (245 feet), but still a more difficult shot than the previous 216 feet off the tee. We tried it out in league on Tuesday night (before I moved the tee box and railroad tie), and all of us missed 25-30+ feet short (whereas our group will usually get at least 1-2 reasonably easy deuces out of 6-7 players). I guess we'll each have to figure out a new trajectory and/or a new disc to throw on that particular hole now. ;-)

I hauled in about 15 wheelbarrow loads of gravel to level-off and raise the tee area just a bit too, so that should help that tee box even more in the Spring or after a heavy rain. The former tee location would get a little soggy (okay...a LOT soggy, especially in March/April), so keeping a "dry" tee box in and of itself will be reward enough for having to relocate that basket to accommodate the new pavilion that is being installed down by its former basket location.

[Derek Tonn]

The new Pro tee on Hole 4 is ALMOST finished now....so close to being finished, in fact, that Libby (my daughter), Ryan, Abbey (two local league members) and I have already fired-off a few tee shots in the past two days! :-) We still need to clear-out a bit of concrete, asphalt and litter, as well as get the hole's railroad tie in the ground. However, it's very close to being ready.

Here is a view from the new "Pro" tee itself. As you can see, it is a sneaky shot...with anything missing high or to either side of the fairway spelling trouble. You'll also notice a key feature of the new tee as well: a narrow alley that allows individuals to see through a cluster of trees to an adjacent bike path. I wanted that feature to help protect bikers and walkers from accidentally getting hit from people launching their discs off the new back tee. We'll still have to be careful watching for people coming UP the hill from the East...but we've at least cut the small chance of a person getting hit by a disc by an additional 50 percent. Safety first! :-)

Here is a view from the edge of the fairway (edge of the CRP land) where you've still got about 80-90 feet to the South/left (from this view, RIGHT off the tee) to make it to the basket. The view from down here will look better once we get all the rubble/debris out of there...but the photo should give you an idea of that 9-10' elevation that one has to shoot "down" in order to make it out of the initial cluster of trees.

It's a fun little shot! 250 feet off the new tee...just about perfect for a LHBH/RHFH player with a Roc or another similar disc. It's a tee shot that requires precision though...as if you miss vertically or horizontally off the tee, you're hoping to save par-3.