Benton Hills (AKA, Cass Benton or Hines Park) too dangerous?

[CJ1998]

Yesterday, my friend and I went out to play a round at Cass Benton in Northville, MI. The weather was crazy, as it always is in Mich.. We started our round as soon as the rain let up and managed to get 8 holes in. When we got to the tee pad for 9, we heard the loud crash of a tree limb falling. Anyone who's been there this year (or at all) knows about the old wooded areas this course employs. Back in March, I noticed that some of the largest trees along hole 9 had come uprooted and fallen over. The other day, it was pretty windy and that tree limb I mentioned earlier had us reconsider finishing the round. We thought of skipping 9-12 and almost teed off on 13 when it really started to rain.

I got to thinking that maybe this course is a little too dangerous to play anymore. Who wants to be lining up a putt, trying to sink a 30 footer only to have a 2200 pound tree limb fall on them?

Does anyone else know of any plans to thin out the old trees at this great course and maybe make it a little safer?

[SkaBob]

This is unfortunately kind of true at Cass. I was out there a few times earlier this year and noticed the same thing while having to do gymnastics to crawl over LARGE fallen trees, crossing the entire fairway. I don't know if it's due to erosion or what, but it seems it's only a matter of time before one falls during the daytime, onto somebody...

Also unfortunate about Cass is the sheer volume of casuals on that course makes it nearly unplayable a LOT of the time, and there've been more than a few times where I've had to stop someone snagging my disc out there...

[CJ1998]

Yeah, it's unfortunate. Maybe a major clearing of some of the larger trees will help, but who knows if the local government will do it anytime soon.

I do like the mix of challenges that the course presents. Some of the tightest wooded holes I've ever seen are there. #10 comes to mind. Not only is your gap about 2.5 ft wide, but if you happen to roll, it's a long way back. There are also enough wide open holes to let you go ahead and rip a few.

I remember having to play the course out of order because there were 2 huge groups in front of me. They really didn't even acknowledge I was there and I really couldn't play through. Didn't even dare to ask as they were all pretty drunk and I suck at fighting. I just skipped over to 16, played 17 and 18, then did 14 and 15.

[sleepy]

Also unfortunate about Cass is the sheer volume of casuals on that course makes it nearly unplayable a LOT of the time, and there've been more than a few times where I've had to stop someone snagging my disc out there...

This has always worried me more than falling tree limbs. At least you only have to dodge a falling tree once...the damn casuals keep coming back!


sleepy

[roman]

Had a tree come down near a buddy of mine at a double's league last week. We had some crazy winds blowing through at the time.

[CJ1998]

Also unfortunate about Cass is the sheer volume of casuals on that course makes it nearly unplayable a LOT of the time, and there've been more than a few times where I've had to stop someone snagging my disc out there...

This has always worried me more than falling tree limbs. At least you only have to dodge a falling tree once...the damn casuals keep coming back!


sleepy

Right on!!

[topcide]

a bit of a cass rant,


i live in plymouth, so cass tends to be my after work course on weekdays, and honestly, it's allmost unplayable most of the time and i have been going there less and less., i rarely am able to play a round without skipping around. i do not have a prob with casuals, as long as they are respectful, but there is a huge amount of casuals that destroy that course.
i have also been thrown into more at cass than anywhere, 2 weeks ago on number 1, where the basket is clearly visable from the shorts, someone that had enough power to make the throw let one rip while i was putting and hit a tree 3 feet from me. i yelled back that i was still putting and he yelled back "fuck off"


also i have never seen so much trash on a course as there is at cass, and i have never seen such a large amount of people irresponsably blazing and drinking.
my opinion is that it is only a matter of time before the county pulls that course. all its gonna take is some rich idiotic northville kids parents pitching a fit cause their kid came home drunk from cass.

and for the record, i grew up in novi, so i went to high school with quite a few of those asshats, so know their type.

the only time i can really enjoy a round at cass is early morning on a weekend.

[roman]

This is starting to happen at my local course too. The crowds don't bother me, but the lack of respect for everything around does. I was playing with a kid that was no older than 10 or 11 years old today and we were sandwiched between two large groups of chuckers. Both of them couldn't stop swearing. I felt bad for the kid. Then finally the people behind us started getting impatient and began throwing while we were still playing our holes. Normally I would just tell these people to please wait until we're done, but I've just about had it with the language these guys were using in front of the kid anyway. When they finished the hole (less than a minute after we were done, go figure) I told them if I see them throw a disc while we're still playing the hole, it's going to end up in the woods. They didn't think I was serious, because 2 holes later they threw their first drive as I was still getting to MY first drive, and I heard them giggle. I walked over to the kid's disc, and threw it far and deep into the woods (hyzer over some tall trees). These kids immediately start talking trash and acting all tough, their "leader" started threatening me. When he saw that I wasn't about to back down, he backed off himself and asked his friend (that now lost a disc) "aren't you going to get your disc back, man?" inviting him to try to start a fight. I guess he didn't want to anymore His friends were all uneasy too. After they all realized they didn't want to start anything he proceeds to make fun of the way I look. Like I give a damn! I just told them I didn't have time for their BS and went home.

[sleepy]

a bit of a cass rant

I agree with you 100%. It's definitely one of the worst courses in the area for that sort of thing...though Kensington is a close contender as well.

The other disturbing thing about Cass is that it has only existed for 9 years (it was installed for the 1999 Worlds tournament). Pretty sad to see what can happen to such a great course in a relatively short amount of time if overrun by punks who just want to get away from adult/police supervision.


NOTE: This isn't intended to reflect negatively on the Cass Crew disc golf club or any other locals that actually care about the course/sport. They do good things as far as maintenance and promotion are concerned, but there is a large population of people that frequent this course with the sole intent of partaking in illegal activities, vandalizing the course, etc. and they seem to be gaining the upper hand.


sleepy

[jamsisjams]

I've never played this course but when I was camping the other night, a big ol' tree fell into a river about 300' away from me and my friends. It was scary for about three seconds because we were camping on an island and we thought a big wave was headed our way.

[CJ1998]

I personally haven't run into any of these types of situations. Not yet anyway. I'd hate to have to deal with that when I'm just trying to enjoy the course. I've seen oblivious people out having picnics next to this "goofy looking chain thingy", but that's to be expected.

As for the worthless punks, if there could be some police presence, maybe that sort of thing would decrease. I doubt the police would be all that interested in constantly patrolling a disc golf course, but I think they'll respond if enough people complain. Get some off-duty police out there or something. That way they can call specific people instead of a switchboard. Maybe that's what it's going to take. It's not that you don't want people out there having a good time, you just don't want a handful of idiots disrupting that.

I guess this situation doesn't do a lot for the "disc golf increases foot traffic which discourages illegal activity at underutilized parks" argument.

[SkaBob]

They just had a bunch of UCs around Firefighters a few weeks back. I'm sure someone at the relevant local PD could be persuaded to follow their example. Not sure how successful Troy was with it, but I know other cities around the country have had much success with similar crackdowns.

[topcide]

[/quote]NOTE: This isn't intended to reflect negatively on the Cass Crew disc golf club or any other locals that actually care about the course/sport. They do good things as far as maintenance and promotion are concerned, but there is a large population of people that frequent this course with the sole intent of partaking in illegal activities, vandalizing the course, etc. and they seem to be gaining the upper hand.


For sure, i should have prefaced with that.
the cass crew are all stand up guys and some damn good players.They do that they can to take care of that course as best as possible.
I guess what really gets me is that cass is a great course, and it just gets abused.

[Smoke]

Pardon the necro, but I am just curious if the tree problem has been taken care of here or not? This course is on the list to be checked out semi soon and I want to know what I am getting in to.



Also I would like to add Fitzgerald Park to the list of damn dangerous Mich courses. Erosion is taking a massive toll on this park, you need to know a little something about mountain climbing it seems to take on a couple of the holes. More and more trees are coming down and staying there, and I know of a couple that are looking like they are going to come down any day now.