golden gate park course

[plastic_fondler]

here are some pictures of humboldt disc golf:

http://flickr.com/photos/velmasworld/sets/72057594100700913/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rizbee/sets/72157594403048874/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rizbee/sets/72157594404476506/

[presidio hills]

i'm heading off to one last small work party in a few minutes here.
last weekend we finished everything we could with the resources we had... still some pins to be chipped, some nets to be put up for the tree protection, and i think that's it.
we had a walkthrough thursday that apparently went really well. baskets will be put in the ground next saturday for a tourney everyone who put in more than 8 hours of labor can play in. sunday is going to be the first weekly. and a week later will be the grande opening. as far as i know once the baskets go in next saturday, it'll be for good!

[some call me...tim?]

Right on man! Can't wait to make my way down there sometime to check it out. Looks like a great little course!

[presidio hills]

alrighty then,

as of today the course is in the ground. i played a random draw doubles tourney this morning... many of the baskets were in long positions and the course was playing VERY difficult. the winning score was a 6 down. in the afternoon baskets were moved shorter and par was much more attainable for a singles player, but still WAY harder than GG park has ever played. very tight, lots of trouble, ob, and many tough pars. it's better than i was expecting it to be... a real adventure playing from start to finish.
random draw doubles tuesdays at five start next week. and the sunday morning weekly (8:30-10 tee off) starts next week, too. hope to see some folks out there!

[plastic_fondler]

Did you all leave the baskets in the ground or did you pull them until next weekend?

I'm working on my beer cart sponsership by Toronado for hole 7.

[presidio hills]

baskets are in the ground for good. good luck with the toronado sponsership i think our course is relatively cart friendly...

[Desafinado]

i was able to sneak away to play a round at the new GGP course early this morning. my first impression is that the club has gone above and beyond the typical course installation, and that the design and implementation are stellar.

as i walked through the course, and considered the alternate pin positions, i wondered what more, if anything, would need to be done to completely perfect the course. the only things i thought of:

1) OB lines could be more clearly defined on a couple of holes.
2) trim the weeds/grass on some holes?
3) more benches/seating(some holes have some, but not all)
4) bathrooms (although I know this is in all likelihood impossible).

the fact that this is all i could come up with, putting on a super judgemental and microscopic viewpoint, speaks to just how much work was done out there. the course is both more physically accessible and more challenging than it was before, which is an impressive combination.

also, it seems that at least two of the holes in their longest positions are close to being 'true' par 4s by virtue of obstacles and distance combined, which is also exciting, even though it seems the longer positions will only be used for weeklies/other tournaments(which is understandable- I can only imagine how slow the pace of play would be behind a group of 4 newbies as they tried to tackle #12 C, or #17 C.... BRUTAL.)

anyway, huge huge thanks and congratulations to any and all folks who pitched in on not only the installation, but the planning and haranguing with city councilfolk and so forth. having this slick of a course, and a portfolio of blueprints that were up to the SF parks dept's rigid standards, will go a long way towards helping new courses in other bay area cities gain traction.

oh, and i shot a 59, +5. on the old temp 18 they used in the safari last august, that would have been a somewhat disappointing score for me, but it was only mildly below average for me on today's course with all of the changes they've made.

everyone in a 2 hour driving radius should make it out to check the course out at some point!

oh, one final thought- now that i've seen the tees for holes 11 and 12 in person, i cannot even begin to imagine how much work had to go into building the retaining walls, stairs, and paths... my back hurt just looking at them!

[presidio hills]

thanks for the input desafinado. 11 and 12 were both big undertakings... about 5 people working all day for several weekends to complete both of those. that course was a ton of work.
les and ann deserve the biggest round of applause... they're getting married on their hole this coming weekend (hole , too. they both organized the equipment getting all week long and then would direct the masses on what needed to be done during the parties. both really cool people to be around, too. there was also many people that put in insane amounts of hours, as well as the high up club folks that dealt with the city starting 6 years ago. whew! a lot of work went into it when you think of all the folks that went above and beyond. the political proposals and blue prints are a huge step for installing courses everywhere.

there will be more benches, or even just stump stools to sit on. and bathrooms are across the street and east about 100 feet from 18's basket.

also there will be a putting green near 18's basket. perfectly perched so you can see who's coming off the course and who just showed up to start. last year's safari had a shot from that area to the picnic tables, hole 18, i think.

can't wait for this weekend's big opening party!

[Beat Roc]

presidio, congrats to you and all the others who put in the hard work!

One of my best friends from my college days lives on 32nd ave. at Cabrillo, he's an old school player that still carries (and throws) a 71 mold so you may see him out there floating discs from hole to hole. I can't wait to try out the couse next time I'm in town.

BTW, when I lived in the City (coming up on 10 years since I moved to the foothills) we had an unofficial object course that started at the very SE corner of the Presidio. Ironically, I was playing one day when I see a disc golfer playing through in the opposite direction of a "fairway" I was using. We stopped and talked and it turns out that he had his own 18 holes layed out in the same area and had been playing it for a few years. I played through with him on "his" course, but never saw him again. DGers seem to always make due, but its nice to see SF finally get a course.

Thanks again for your contribution the SF and the greater DG community!

cheers, mmm

[presidio hills]

yeah, i've played between the abandoned hospital (15th and lake) and baker beach, as well as a few other spots in the presid. i think my favorite is just taking putters to baker beach and practicing super accurate shots through the trees. the guy you ran into might be the club founder... since he's got his own '18 hole' out there.
i guess back in the day every saturday people used to set up what is now the "safari east" course at our big anual tournament. i wish we still did that

[plastic_fondler]

Finally got a chance to make down to the city today to check out the new course. Great job to all those who worked on the course. Its looking very nice. It was playing easy as pie today in all A positions. Carded a few 4 downs.

my comments:

serious weed eating on hole 14 please. I lost a max today within 30ft of the basket.

Who did the re-design? Bets on them being a rightly. I counted only 2 lefty holes (10 and 14).

The alternatives on some of the holes seem a bit lame. Lots of the three sleeves in a triangle...15 feet apart. I did like the alternative 13 sleeve I saw deep in the woods.

Get dials for pin positions.

I love 11's basket on a stump. Teaches good elevated putting. 5 still has a lefty backdoor. Hole 2 might be giving up aces daily!!! I even got metal with a buzz.

[presidio hills]

in mostly As, the course is playing pretty easy right now... very righty friendly, too. when some of those positions get knocked back to the B and C placements, there are some serisouly tough pars (5 B and C, 12 B and C, 14 C, 15 B and C, 17 C, 18 B and C) and not a lot of birdie opps either. the course becomes less "righty hyzer all day" in the tougher locations. i think whoever moved the pins last is responsible for the bain of flick and lefty. i can't believe 8 is up to the left already... the two new placements for that hole are sweet and much more technical (and lefty friendly). 8 is always up to the left, i hate it... stupid typical righty hyzer, nothing technical about it.

we do need dials on our signs, indicating the pin positions... MOST of the baskets are visible from the tee, even many you wouldn't expect to be (like 5 B).

the pin positions being close together might be on some of the holes where 2 or 3 new placements were added, but the all the old sleeves are still in the ground (meaning some holes now have 4 or 5 placements). hole 1 has a few close together... other than that i'm not sure which ones you're talking about.

[Desafinado]

when i played ( morning of 3/28 ) there seemed to be a healthy mixture of A's and B's, and it definitely didn't play as an overwhelmingly righty course. in the configuration i played, holes 1, 2, 13, 14 favored lefties, with 3, 5, 9, 11, 12, 16 favoring righties, and the rest neutral(in my opinion).

but yeah, in mostly A's, it would definitely be a righty backhand hyzerfest(I ain't complaining )

[Desafinado]

okay, i went and played my first weekly yesterday out at GGP, and now I know just how tough the course can play.

i think my count was that 12 holes were set up in their 'C' positions, with 5 in their 'B' positions, and only one A. and man, you better believe that this configuration is brutal tough. I shot a 61 during the weekly, and was pretty happy with that. played a second round on the same pins before they changed them back to normal, and i was even par stepping on the tee for 14... then promptly went 5, 5, 3, 5, 4 to finish at 61 again. d'oh!

they'll post the weekly winning score shortly, and i would be very surprised if it's below 54. i heard of one guy shooting 57, and he was pretty stoked... i'm no expert at guesstimating SSA, but it felt like somewhere between 53-55 for this layout.

having played more of the Cs now, here's my take on the three hardest holes/positions on the course:

12C : Wow... I took a 5 the first round after putting my tee shot way up on the hill, but the second round I got a 3 and it truly felt like a birdie. Just a sick hole in this position, I think the path to success is to not try and throw 100% power on the first shot, just go for placement and try to put it near/past the big tree sticking up from the valley. even if you can do that successfully, you have to throw a ~170 ft s-curve upshot, uphill, and under the tree that's about 30 feet in front of the basket, to leave yourself a putt for 3.

14C : totally nasty how close this pin is to the OB road. i am still not sure where the ideal place to leave a first drive is, and with the cross/headwind that was blowing yesterday, i was all over the place. despite the difficulty, this is probably one of my favorite holes on the course, in this position.

17C: if you thought regular 17 was tough- if you somehow threw a shot that would have parked the regular pin, you'd still have another 80-100 feet of pinball trees to approach through to the long position. you wouldn't think that the OB road on the right would come into play, but i think the easiest way to set up a second shot is to try and place your drive on the right side of the fairway, near the road, which means OB becomes a factor.

now i want to play the course in all C's, just to see the true possibility for pain out there. some of the C locations really surprised me- holes 8C and 13C are in spots where i never could have imagined pin locations!

oh, and just to brag a little... i had a 30 ft putt for birdie on 18B in the first round, and a 45 foot putt for birdie on 5C in the second round. didn't make either, but those are two pretty impressive drives by my standards

[presidio hills]

nice!

i showed up that day right after they moved them all back. i heard the horror stories, though. i hope this becomes a regular thing for the weekly...
through the grapevine i heard somebody shot a -3. not sure who, though.