STL Courses

[CEValkyrie]

I'll have a rundown on all the courses but i'll do a quick post now. Glad I gotta outta town. Sunny and 72 today. Played in shorts. Hope you fellas are having fun in the snow .

On the way to STL we played.

Effingham-Not a bad course Front 9 was pretty good. Back was a bunch of putter shots. Not a bad start to the day.

Centrailia- Wow! This is the toughest course in IL depending on the setup. Long & Short tees. Long & Short Baskets. This goes immediately into my top 5 of IL courses. 2 rounds today at this course. I would love to play the long to long someday. 10,000+ feet. Water, elevation, natural fairways thru woods. Fantastic! Shot a 61 & 57 (Short tee to short baskets) and felt I was playing pretty good.

Collinsville-Has changed a ton since I last played this course. Has blue & white cement tees. They are nice. 5X12 tees. Fun course with elevation, water, & other OB.

Tomorrow. Jefferson Barracks, Endicott, & Souix Passage.

[CEValkyrie]

Jefferson Barracks- This was an ok course. It seemed I was throwing hyzer after hyzer though. Elevation but no water. Course has large trees but not many tight shots. Multiple pin positions. There were several areas of rough where you could get in trouble if you end up in the ravine. Tom had a near ace off the basket. 2nd metal in 2 days. Gateway is right behind hole #18.

Endicott- This was probably my least favorite course of the trip. Many very difficult holes to get 2's but should be easy 3's if you can make 50 to 100ft upshots.  There were several good holes on the course but many of the holes had no putting greens. You could be 15 feet away with no putt. Multiple pin positions. Elevation but no water.

Souix Passage- I wish I would have played this course first today. I was laying in the fairway of #17 ready to fall asleep. Big hills and long course. I wish I could have found a map for this course. Long walks between holes. Hint- Play 1 thru 9 then drive to the other parking lot to play 10 thru 18.  Absolutely beautiful park. Mostly open & long with demanding terrain. Tall grass ob makes the back 9 very difficult.  Tommy gun nearly tied me on his approach drive on #18 that nailed the number plate. Michler with a bomb on #13 that landed behind the pin about a foot in the parking lot. Great place to come out and bomb. If you want some practice for Am Nationals this is a great place to go.

I was somewhat disappointed with the St Louis courses of JB, Endicott, & SP. By no means are these bad courses but many of the holes seemed to have bad pin placements. I was expecting a little more. I'll have to check these courses out again since those 3 all have 3 pin placements at every course.
Of the courses we played this weekend. I'd rate them.
1. Centralia- This is what golf is all about.
2. Collinsville- Wide variety. Multiple tees. Elevation. Water. Fast greens.
3. Souix Passage- Long. Big elvation. Very scenic.
4. Jefferson Barracks- Elevation, Mokena like but more elevation.
5. Endicott- Elevation. Some tight routes and tricky angles. Tough to get birdies on this course.
6. Effingham- Short, classic par 3 golf. Elevation with some water. Lots of putter shots!

[Dan Michler]

The courses close to St. Louis were good, but not awesome.  Definitely nothing close to the quality of Des Moines or Kansas City.

Jefferson Barracks and Endicott were both somewhat long courses, but mostly still par 3 golf.  A few really fun holes at Jefferson Barracks, not really anything too much fun at Endicott.

Sioux Passage is alot of fun to go out and throw far up and down hills.  Not a ton of variety in the shots required though.  Its definitely a fun and challenging course thats worth playing.

Centralia isn't really that close to St. Louis, but this course is really really fun.  Alot of decision making required on par 3, 4, and 5's.  Wide variety of terrain.  There is water, elevation changes, tight woods, open shots, almost everything you'd want.  I'd rate this right up there with Pekin as the best courses in IL.

[can't putt]

I wish I could have found a map for this course.

Sioux Passage
Click on "Map and Photos" for, well, map and photos.
Click on "Course Details" for good hole descriptions / tour.

[CEValkyrie]

I wish I could have found a map for this course.

Sioux Passage
Click on "Map and Photos" for, well, map and photos.
Click on "Course Details" for good hole descriptions / tour.

Thanks Kurt,

   I did not think of checking there. I was on the STL website and it's the only park we played without a course map. Many of the courses had score cards wtih maps.

One other note. If you play Centralia give Dan Cole a call. He was great to play with and was very helpful getting us around that course. Without him it would have added an hour to our round.

[CEValkyrie]

Some fun trip facts.

McManus
Fastest recovery from fall. Down goes Frazier!
Most money won. $4. 2 metals. #9 @ Effinghan & #13 @ JB (<-WOW!)
Top speed. 87MPH
Air Hockey
Best blow up. Smash of Viking into basket after missed putt.
Longest approach metal. 300+ feet on #18 at Souix Passage.

Comincioli
Overall Score
2 Nascar Victories (Talladega & Richmond)
1 Skee Ball Victory
Most Diet Mt. Dews drank.
Only player to wear shorts on Friday

Michler
1 Skee Ball Victory
Longest Drive- Hole #13 @ Souix Passage. Just past the pin.
Fastest to finish meals. All of them.
Race to the top of the hill to #16. Souix Passage.

Others.
127 Holes played in 2 days.
Friday - 73 degrees
Saturday - 44 degrees
5 new courses played
Garmin. Perfect with all directions.
Worst Steak and Shake.  Yes, I wanted that thousand island for my fries .
Slowest Taco Bell ever. Salem, IL
Awesome PIzza Place. Alfonzo's. Maryville, IL

[Tom McManus]

Some additional fun trip facts and perspective.

McManus
Most missed putts inside 15 feet
Most amazed that Comincioli and Michler didn't bust a gut laughing when he fell.

Comincioli
Most impressive rounds of the week at Centalia
Most putts made over 25 feet.
Fastest headache at Bobby's Custard Stand

Michler
Fastest out of the truck and on to the course.
Longest Drive- Hole #13 @ Sioux Passage. Just past the pin. This was an amazing shot about 590' down hill. Also had a great drive at #18 at Sioux Passage had a shot at a two with a jump putt.
Fastest to finish meals. All of them. -except for the glowing tomatoes at Steak and Shake.
Race to the top of the hill to #16. Souix Passage. If the hill had been longer I may have had him.

Others.

Garmin. Perfect with all directions. Did not get lost once, but also throws off your sense of direction because there is no need to pay attention to where you are, except at that very moment. A must have for disc golf travels.
Most practice throws at one hole #13 Sioux Passage.
Most lame hole #8 Sioux Passage. Blind crazy hyzer into the woods. Possiblility to roll past the basket and into a 40 foot ravine, no direct route.
Craziest course set up: walk up the hill to play 13 at Sioux passage then back up the hill again to throw down the hill on hole 16.
Strangest sites:
A basketball court in the middle of Sioux Passage that looked completely unused.
Driving down highway 161 for miles with water on both sides of the road, it was similiar to driving through the Everglades.

I enjoyed Jefferson Barracks the most.
Sioux Passage is a great course for big arms, but it is a workout to get around the course.
If Centralia can get some concrete tees and some bridges it will be the finest course in Illinois. This is a very challenging course that works all aspects of your game. Will be much more difficult in the summer when the vegatation grows in.

By the time we got to Collinsville (both days) I was pretty worn out and wasn't up for losing any discs in the water. And there are a number of water holes. This is a fun course with lots of different shots and does a pretty nice job with course routing and taking full advantage of the park.

Thanks to Dan Cole for showing us around.

Images soon to be available at Bangsivlerado.com

[Dan Michler]

Worst race driver: Comincioli
Best race driver: Michler

learn how to drive a clean race you POS.  In real life you would have been black flagged for that junk, so I declare myself the default winner.

Attracted the most females into the bangsilverado.com:  McManus
Easiest to work during putts:  McManus
Needed help to locate all 90+ baskets even when they were staring you in the face:  McManus
Worst disc golfer:  Michler
Overall winner: Comincioli
Saturday overall winner and most exciting shot winner:  McManus
Hottest female:  Collinsville chick in the Grand Prix

[Working Stiff]

I wish I could have found a map for this course.

Sioux Passage
Click on "Map and Photos" for, well, map and photos.
Click on "Course Details" for good hole descriptions / tour.

I just looked at this map.  It is the circa 1998 Sioux Passage, but when I was there last summer it had undergone a slight re-design.  A lot of these holes are still there, but a few are different now.  Just as an example, the map shows # 1 playing from the parking lot up the hill.  That hole is gone; the course now starts at the hole that is marked # 2 on the map.  There is a new hole # 9 that is in the woods near the old # 9.  So this map gives a pretty good idea of where to look for the holes, but it is not 100% accurate.

Edit:  I checked the St. Louis site, and all they have are maps of the old layout as well.  It must not be a big deal.