missouri dec16-24 where is a must?

[Elevated Plastic]

Going to the midwest(Missouri) for the 1st time, mostly St.Louis area. Probaly gonna check out Endicott course, where else is a must? I would appreiciate any help, not gonna be back there for awhile if not ever. Where must I slay plastic down the fairways?

[Working Stiff]

My favorites in St. Louis:

1) Sioux Passage-Mostly long, fairly open but with lots of elevation and enough trees to keep it interesting. The park is beautiful, I'd go there even if there was no course. The time of year you will be there, the wind will be howling on the back nine. It's my favorite course. When I die, I want my ashes thrown off the tee for # 16.

2) Jefferson Barracks-Less elevation, more trees than Sioux Passage. Depending on where the baskets are set, it can also be pretty long. It's a good solid course.

3) Endicott-Another nice course, although the back nine can be pretty repetitive. Pretty similar to Jefferson Barracks, although just a bit easier.

4) Bluebird-Only nine holes, but the first four are a bitch! Tight woods, drastic drop-offs, big hills...just a bitch! Plus all the soil is compacted, so an innocent looking upshot can skip and take off past the edge of one of those steep drop-offs. 5-8 are long open shots and nine is a short uphill shot, but most of the baskets can lead to a hefty roll-away if you miss your putt. It's a hidden gem of a course, and if you are in West County it is worth the play.

5) Quail Ridge-Heavily wooded, lots of elevation changes and some severe drop-offs around the baskets. It's pretty easy from the concrete tees, and the alt tees are impossible to find without a guide. It's way out in St. Charles County, so if you are in the area it's worth the play...kinda iffy if you have to drive all the way out there just to play it. If you do go, take the Park Rangers VERY SERIOUSLY.

6) Creve Coeur-Long for long's sake. Flat as a pancake. Lot's of the holes are wide open enough to offer several routes to the pin. The wind off the lake can be BRUTAL.

???) Unger Park-Check for updates, there is supposed to be a new course installed in Unger Park soon. It should be good!

If you have time to drive, Foundation Park in Centralia, IL is the best course in the area. It's well worth the hour drive from St. Louis. Woodland Park in Collinsville is also good, but you need to stay off the red tees and you need a map (or a guide) to find all the holes. It's not really friendly if you don't know where to go. West City Park in Festus, MO is way south of St. Louis. It is Hyzer Heaven and you also need a guide to find the holes, but it plays tough. There is a nine-hole in Festus as well if you head that way.

Avoid at all costs: Watson Trail Park, White Birch Park. Unless you like pitch & putt, then they should be on your "must play" list.
Not worth the time: Schroeder Park, Kircher Park. Both are unremarkable 9-hole courses. Schroeder is 10 minutes away from Bluebird, so if you play Bluebird you might as well play Schroeder. The course is hidden behind the huge aquatic center.

That's all I know.

[Elevated Plastic]

Thanks for taking the time with such detail......

[Timko]

Perhaps you can make it up to KC?

[x-out]

Perhaps you can make it up to KC?

what's your list for KC look like?

[Working Stiff]

As a slight drift, a guy posted on another site about St. Louis having 24 disc golf courses. In order for me to name 24 courses in St. Louis, I'd have to declare Columbia as a St. Louis suburb!

KC has some great courses. Cliff Drive, Water Works, both courses at Rosedale, WyCo. Swope is not a favorite of mine but it is still a good course. Blue Valley had me swearing all day that I was never going to play this damn game again, but the teepads were cool. Anyway, lotsa good golfing in KC.

[ferretdance03]

My favorites in St. Louis:

1) Sioux Passage
2) Jefferson Barracks
3) Endicott
6) Creve Coeur
Foundation Park in Centralia, IL
Woodland Park in Collinsville

I was in St. Louis last Summer, and these courses were the highlights. Stiff obviously knows what he's talking about. If you have time, play them all. If not, play Foundation and Sioux.

[kaht]

If you're going to drive far enough north to play Sioux Passage (which I highly suggest), then you should consider taking the trip across the river into Illinois to play a brand-spankin-new course that just got put up about 3 weeks ago - Rockspring Park. Sioux is a great park for wide open shots, and Rockspring is it's perfect compliment. Tightly wooded shots, that aren't too short and aren't too long. Here's the directions to Rockspring from Sioux:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=17926+Old+Jamestown+Road,+Uninc+St+Louis+County,+Missouri+(Sioux+Passage+Park)&daddr=Rockspring+Park&hl=en&geocode=FS7KUAIduE-e-iFzPQwjuQCkKQ%3B&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=38.877282,-90.223627&sspn=0.090873,0.152779&ie=UTF8&ll=38.864573,-90.228996&spn=0.181779,0.305557&t=h&z=12

Rockspring is also heavily decorated for Christmas, if you're into that kind of thing. Might help you get into the festive spirit by playing there.

The major downsides to the course is that since it is so new there are no concrete tees yet. It can also be a bit hard to navigate if you've never played there before (my first time playing there was a week ago, and it took me about 10 minutes to find the tee for hole #3). Luckily for you and anybody else that might wanna play there, I've made a map for the course. It's not perfect, but it's good enough of a guide that it won't be any problem for you to find any of the tees. I've also given a review of each hole in detail, it can all be found here:

http://stlouisdiscgolfclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=116

Parking is available by the pavilion right next to hole #1.

[Timko]

Perhaps you can make it up to KC?

what's your list for KC look like?

Hmmm...
Kansas Courses
-
Rosedale Up Top
Rosedale Down Under
Prairie Center
Wyco
Shawnee Mission
Black Hoof Park (not in the ground)



Missouri Courses
-
Swope
Water Works
Cliff Drive
Blue Valley ("I throw far")
Pleasant Hill
William Yates Elementary
Legacy Park (not in the ground)

Most are available for viewing at http://playdg.com

[discdawg]

Alton on the new course?? Make sure you let the PDGA course listing know about the course. I will have to check it out.

BTW, Foundation Park in Centralia is great. I love that course. Tough sucker, too.

[Working Stiff]

Is Rock Springs the park with the huge light display in Alton? Or is that another park? I'd think they would close the course with all those Christmas lights up...I can't imagine how a disc golf course and a Christmas light display could peacefully coexist.

[kaht]

Yes, it is the park with the light display. I wondered the same thing when I heard that the course was installed in that park (about them peacefully coexisting). However, the light display doesn't start until it's dark outside - at which point no golfers should be out there anyway.

There was one aspect of the light show that made things somewhat difficult though: Most of the roads w/in the park are lined with lights that are strung about 2.5 feet off the ground. Since you are required to cross the roads to get to some of the tees, you have to be careful about getting over the lights. Other than that, it wasn't too big of a deal. There weren't any displays that you'd be potentially throwing at or anything.

[Working Stiff]

the light display doesn't start until it's dark outside - at which point no golfers should be out there anyway.

Don't tempt me like that!

[x-out]

Perhaps you can make it up to KC?

what's your list for KC look like?

Hmmm...
Kansas Courses
-
Rosedale Up Top
Rosedale Down Under
Prairie Center
Wyco
Shawnee Mission
Black Hoof Park (not in the ground)



Missouri Courses
-
Swope
Water Works
Cliff Drive
Blue Valley ("I throw far")
Pleasant Hill
William Yates Elementary
Legacy Park (not in the ground)

Most are available for viewing at http://playdg.com

is your list in order of most favorite to least favorite?

[Timko]

No, that's the list that I copied off KCFDC. Here's my partial list in order, but anyone has played in KC has a different order.

1. Waterworks
2. Cliff Drive
3. Rosedale Up Top
4. Blue Valley
5. WyCo
6. Rosedale Down Under
7. Prairie Center
8. Shawnee Mission

If you're really interested, I'd play Waterworks for sure, Swope (which is as old as me), and one of our longer courses (WyCo, Cliff, or the Monster) depending on how long you can throw and whether you want to play a 4 hour round. Rosedale is one of my favorite courses when it gets tipped out, and, as of this moment, Cliff Drive has the best wooded holes in KC. I'll always suggest the Down Under course, but I play it with a putter and midrange with a fairway driver when some of the longer pins are utilized.

I'm pretty sure Black Hoof park, which will probably be a championship wooded course, will be somewhere near the top of that list very soon.