Brown Deer-Milwaukee

[brian k]

Joe Weitzel and I just played the new 18 hole course at Brown Deer.  It is the best course in the Milwaukee area.  If you are planning to go to Milwaukee and play, head to Brown Deer (off of 43 and good hope road).  It has a few massive holes and very tight wood holes that are not gimme twos.

b. kielar

[Jon Brakel]

Joe Weitzel and I just played the new 18 hole course at Brown Deer.  It is the best course in the Milwaukee area.  If you are planning to go to Milwaukee and play, head to Brown Deer (off of 43 and good hope road).  It has a few massive holes and very tight wood holes that are not gimme twos.

b. kielar

Is it similar to the old course at Brown Deer?

[briank]

I have only played the old course with Skillshots.  I would say that about 6 holes are the same as the old course, or the verison that I played.bkielar

[DiscGolfSchodt]

Did anyone know that the baskets are pulled at this course?Today I found out the hard way.Man did that suck.The sign said it will be back in May and will close every winter.

[damonshort]

Did anyone know that the baskets are pulled at this course?Today I found out the hard way.Man did that suck.The sign said it will be back in May and will close every winter.

oh crap. there goes one of my planned road trips this winter if the weather held up. Hey Terry, is Dineen getting pulled too??

[Tom McManus]

Did anyone know that the baskets are pulled at this course?Today I found out the hard way.Man did that suck.The sign said it will be back in May and will close every winter.

oh crap. there goes one of my planned road trips this winter if the weather held up. Hey Terry, is Dineen getting pulled too??

Both courses are pulled.  Due to the warm weather those courses were taking a beating.  I think Parkside is going to be the destination of most SE Wisconsin DG players.

[Tom McManus]

Did anyone know that the baskets are pulled at this course?Today I found out the hard way.Man did that suck.The sign said it will be back in May and will close every winter.

oh crap. there goes one of my planned road trips this winter if the weather held up. Hey Terry, is Dineen getting pulled too??

Both courses are pulled.  Due to the warm weather those courses were taking a beating.  I think Parkside is going to be the destination of most SE Wisconsin DG players.

I was mistaken.  Dineen has not yet been pulled.  I have not been up there since last Saturday, but I would think it is getting very muddy.

[discmonkey]

I played both here and Dretzka today.  A lot!  36 here and 81 at Dretzka.  While Dretzka was challenging and a blast, Brown Deer was technically demanding beyond anything I've played.  I loved Dretzka, but Brown Deer was my favorite by far.  Kind of hard to find things (ran into a cool local named Yohann who played a round with me, thanksfor showing me around!), and a little "rougher" or more natural than Dretzka.  First hole is behind the apparently never used tennis courts.  From the get go, you have got to be precise.  Tunnel shot after tunnel shot with punishing woods on either side of the sometimes 4 ft. wide fairways.  When you got out in the open, the holes are huge 5 and 6 hundred footers with hidden baskets back in the woods.  Reminded me a lot of the MSDGC vids.  Even most of the woods holes (and there's a lot of them!) were seemingly 300 feet plus with just as many basket placements left as right.  I shot well here but still came in at +11 and +16 (been shooting 910ish golf lately for reference) playing all par 3's.  I predict this course will eat some people alive at Worlds this year, if you miss into the woods, you're toast.  All in all, one tough SOB of a course.  According to a few people I met out there, though, the difficulty also keeps the traffic down, so that's a plus in my mind too!  Go play this course.

[Chainmeister]

I am planning on scouting out Brown Deer tomorrow.  Will this course be difficult to follow? Are there Tee signs?  Will we need a local sherpa to lead us through the course?

[SIUFrolf]

it's a little tough to follow just because the signs are wooden posts with the number on it. That's it. no hole location or even direction as to where to throw.  My friends and I couldn't find 1 or 2, we also didn't want to trek all around (a sherpa might have helped) so we parked near 11 and played from there and when we finished 18 the closest tee was for 3 again we didn't want to trek in the heat since we had no idea if the way we were going was the right one to begin with. so we just skipped them.  Local sherpas would be really nice.  The people we met on the course were all playing it for the first time and could not find 1 or 2 either. But overall this course was fun to play.  Thankfully I did so I have an idea of what to do for Worlds, throw a mid range in the woods and take the three.

[SERG]

You want park in the parking lot by the tennis courts. Once you find the tennis courts holes #1 and #2 are right there. Walk to the far side of the tennis courts (by the mess of trees) and you'll see hole #1. After hole #2 you'll need to walk across the street and head to the woods to find hole #3. Start walking toward the pond area. The "entrance" to hole #3 is to the left of the pond.

Easiest route to the tennis courts:
Exit on Good Hope Rd. and turn left. Take Good Hope Rd. to Teutonia and turn right. You will then turn right on Calumet which takes you into the park. I think there is a bar called the Thirsty Fox(?) on the corner. Tennis courts and parking is on the left-hand side as you drive in to the park.

The AmWorlds website has an overhead view of the course:
Map

[SIUFrolf]

looking at the map, it was closer then we thought haha.  also on hole 6, we were shooting at hole 9s basket until we passed the path and saw 6s basket. that was confusing a little, or maybe just for me and my friends, which is entirely possible, actually it is a probability.

[damonshort]

This is a very cool course, but make *sure* you take that map from the world's site. We still didn't look closely enough and wound up shooting towards #9 from the #6 teepad. (Actually, my drive wasn't long enough to really make any difference...  )

It's a tough but fair course, actually not as terrorizing as earlier opinions/posts might lead you to believe. There's probably been a good amount of clearing done since the initial opening and tournaments. OTOH, there are some alternate pin placements not in use at the moment that *would* be terrorizing... 

My only complaint, and for a couple of holes it's a big one, is the raised teepads. There are a couple of 4-500' holes where I don't think even a good player has enough room for a runup to make a decent drive. On the wooded holes I don't think it's as big a deal, but it was #7 I think where I just decided to throw from the grass off to the side rather than taking a chance on injury. I know that a very few number of people have put a ton of work into these courses, but somebody's gonna get hurt off one of those pads if they don't get filled in a little.

The permanent holes on the 'New' Dretzka are nice. Most are similar or identical to the 'extra' holes they used for tournaments - actually they squoze a couple extra holes in over on that side so they're actually easier - but there are two new woods holes which are tough but fun. I'm speculating that the baskets overall aren't in 'tournament' position at the moment on the old course.

If you want to get to Brown Deer before Worlds - and you do - don't forget that it'll be closed from around the 10th(?) til the day before it starts because of people coming into town to hack at tiny balls with sticks. 

[kyle]

Is there a map or hole list with distances online anywhere? All I can find is the general course map.

Just played BD for the first time on Saturday.

[tacimala]

On the PDGA site, on the right hand side there is a link for Am Worlds confirmation documents. In the course guide document you will find the lengths. Those maps and overviews they made were really sweet, but they made every hole look straight from tee to basket forgetting about the trees in the middle.

[stpitner]

slightly off topic from the Brown Deer course (was going to play there Saturday but not enough time!), with the Dreztka new course - my bro and I found 6 through 14 without too much trouble (all the ones across the street).  Those holes were pretty nice!  However, when we went to the other side of the street near the parking lot, we tried to find 1-5 and 15-18.  They were not to be found.  We found a pole sleeve in the ground where hole 5's basket I *think* should have been, but no tees or anything.  Were they temporary tees/holes for Worlds?  I wonder when the remaining 9 will become permanent if weren't completely blind when looking for these!  We did have the Am Worlds map with us as the guide when trying to find everything.  It was raining quite a bit on Saturday, so we lost ambition in looking for the holes.

[Tom McManus]

slightly off topic from the Brown Deer course (was going to play there Saturday but not enough time!), with the Dreztka new course - my bro and I found 6 through 14 without too much trouble (all the ones across the street).  Those holes were pretty nice!  However, when we went to the other side of the street near the parking lot, we tried to find 1-5 and 15-18.  They were not to be found.  We found a pole sleeve in the ground where hole 5's basket I *think* should have been, but no tees or anything.  Were they temporary tees/holes for Worlds?  I wonder when the remaining 9 will become permanent if weren't completely blind when looking for these!  We did have the Am Worlds map with us as the guide when trying to find everything.  It was raining quite a bit on Saturday, so we lost ambition in looking for the holes.

Scott,

Nine of the holes were temp for worlds.  I don't know if or when the other nine are going to become permanent.

[Jon Brakel]

With a worlds map it is easy enough to play the holes. You just have to hole out "old school" and play to a tree or something.

[skipache]

this was the best worlds course and i wish they all were this hard but then again everybody would say if i want to play harder courses is should move up....

[kyle]

Thanks for the tip, I found the map.
It really is a great course. It reminded me how much I need to work on accuracy.
It's a great pairing with Dretzka (assuming the baskets aren't in the easy spots like they were on Saturday). Between those two courses there should be a lot of good new players developing in Milwaukee.

My only complaint was the surprisingly large number of loud mouth chuckers running around the course playing out of order and throwing up on people. I expect that at some place like Valley View, but not Brown Deer.