Where are the Best Courses in the USA???

[DiscCrazy]

Me and a group of friends are starting to put together a road trip for late fall this year. I know that a lot of people that read the message board here have played all over the country. We would like to know where the best courses are. It doesn't matter if they are free or pay to play. We want to get the most out of the road trip. We have played all over the Midwest so we want to go somewhere else. The destination of the road trip has yet to be determined as we haven't decided on what courses we want to play. I have tried to search the internet for some sort of ranking of courses across the U.S. but I can not find anything. It seems that each area of the country has there own list but no one has come up with a master list of all the courses. If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it. Distance does not matter as it will be a one week road trip. Thanks for the help.

[JCthrills]

Riney B in Nicholasville KY (near Lexington) is a new & very very nice course.

St. Louis has a few very nice courses also in Endicott Park (home of the blair witch hole #12) Jefferson Barracks, & Souix Passage. All very nice courses, Souix is Championship caliber for sure.

[DiscCrazy]

St. Louis has a few very nice courses also in Endicott Park (home of the blair witch hole #12) Jefferson Barracks, & Souix Passage. All very nice courses, Souix is Championship caliber for sure.

We like these courses also. I have played two of the three and enjoyed them both. However we would like to get farther away from the Midwest. Maybe Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona New Mexico or southern California. Or if there seems to be a better destination on the East Cost or in the North West they are possible also. We just want to get outside of the 300 mile radius that we have played over the past several years. Something new! Something different!

[can't putt]

I know it doesn't meet your criterion, but Idlewild in N. KY is BY FAR the most enjoyable course I've played.

[mirth]

I've been told, mostly by locals when I was playing the course in Huntington Beach, that La Mirada is a great course.... typically hosts an A-tier or better every year.

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco was good too. Lots of elevation changes.

[spuds]

La Mirada  -  kev c  
should be reviewing this course for us soon

[Dave242]

You might want to consider making a trip to the southeast.  Stop by the greater Cincinati area (Idlewild, Banklick Woods, Mt Airy)  and the Bowling Green KY on the way or way back.  I would suggest Charlotte, NC (Renaissance, Hornet's Nest, Kilborne, Reedy Creek, Sugaw Creek) for a day or two (day trip to 2 courses in Burlington, NC and Albemarle NC) and then head down to the Augusta area to play their courses and the PDGA headquarters and their courses.

[dana]

Go to Augusta.  Tons of courses and you can go to the IDGC.  The park that the IDGC is in is HUGE, lots of camping, a big ol' lake...Top notch.  Maybe you could even catch the monthly C-tier at the IDGC.

Or as someone else suggested, go to Charlotte and hit up all of their courses.

Tulsa has a ton of courses in a 15 mile radius as well- Blackhawk is an awesome course and Redhawk isn't too shabby either.


You may want to take in to consideration the weather you may be traveling to...

If you make it through Columbia, SC make sure you stop at Earlwood.

[Bruce Brakel]

Charlotte, NC, has a bunch of good courses.  Southeast Michigan has a bunch of good courses too.  Des Moines, Iowa, is another town with a disproportionate number of good courses. 

[Dave242]

I forgot to mention while in the Charlotte area, you have got to play Winthrop Gold - home of the USDGC.

[DiscCrazy]

You might want to consider making a trip to the southeast.  Stop by the greater Cincinati area (Idlewild, Banklick Woods, Mt Airy)  and the Bowling Green KY on the way or way back.  I would suggest Charlotte, NC (Renaissance, Hornet's Nest, Kilborne, Reedy Creek, Sugaw Creek) for a day or two (day trip to 2 courses in Burlington, NC and Albemarle NC) and then head down to the Augusta area to play their courses and the PDGA headquarters and their courses.

How many days do you think it would take to play the Charlotte area courses? I think we want to play three courses each day, early morning, late morning to early afternoon and evening. It's starting to look more and more that this trip will be an East Cost trip. This way we could stop and play Cincinnati and KY on the way to NC and GA. Other than the possibility of bad weather I think it would be a great trip.

[Bruce Brakel]

Renny, Reedy and Hornets Nest all have long and short tees, and two of them have the super long tees too.  So you might want to play those courses more than once. 

[Dave242]

I would take 2 days - something like this if you only want to play 3 rounds per day:  Day 1:  Hornet's Nest Original layout then Web layout,  Sugaw or Reedy or Kilborne.  Day 2:  Renaissance Original Layout then Gold layout, Sugaw or Reedy or Kilborne.  Like Bruce says, Renny and Hornet's Nest have par 70 overlay courses that share some fairways, tee pads and baskets and also use some each of their own.

You can check out the courses via flyby video tours and course maps & pictures on the club website - www.CharlotteDGC.com.  If you did 4 per day, you could include Winthrop - it is only 30 minutes from Charlotte.  Hornet's Nest and Renny are the hardest, but most highly regarded courses so do not miss them if you decide to make the swing to Charlotte.

[Rizbee]

Me and a group of friends are starting to put together a road trip for late fall this year. I know that a lot of people that read the message board here have played all over the country. We would like to know where the best courses are. It doesn't matter if they are free or pay to play. We want to get the most out of the road trip. We have played all over the Midwest so we want to go somewhere else. The destination of the road trip has yet to be determined as we haven't decided on what courses we want to play. I have tried to search the internet for some sort of ranking of courses across the U.S. but I can not find anything. It seems that each area of the country has there own list but no one has come up with a master list of all the courses. If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it. Distance does not matter as it will be a one week road trip. Thanks for the help.

Me and a group of friends are starting to put together a road trip for late fall this year. I know that a lot of people that read the message board here have played all over the country. We would like to know where the best courses are. It doesn't matter if they are free or pay to play. We want to get the most out of the road trip. We have played all over the Midwest so we want to go somewhere else. The destination of the road trip has yet to be determined as we haven't decided on what courses we want to play. I have tried to search the internet for some sort of ranking of courses across the U.S. but I can not find anything. It seems that each area of the country has there own list but no one has come up with a master list of all the courses. If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it. Distance does not matter as it will be a one week road trip. Thanks for the help.

Distance does matter - you can only go so far and back in one week, especially if you'll be playing a lot.  This is especially true if you'll be travelling in the fall since the days get shorter.  My son and I have gone on disc golf road trips the last four summers (www.teamrizbee.com) so we have a bit of experience.  Last year's trip was San Diego to Milwaukee and back over 20 days.  Before you become wedded to a particular location check out the weather archives for that time of the year in some possible destinations.  It would really suck to travel somewhere to play and find that there's snow on the ground (which means the slopes are open) or that it rains every day.

The farther west you go the more miles you will have to drive between courses.  You could do a pretty good loop heading west from Chicago through Nebraska then circle around south through Colorado and Kansas, but there will be long stretches of miles with nowhere to play (but you do most of your driving after the sun goes down, anyway).  You might choose to head east and hit places like Rochester, western and possibly eastern PA, Ohio and Kentucky.  Our road trip this summer consists of flying to central NY then driving around New England (Sugarbush Ski Resort, Marshall Street, Warwick NY, etc.).

And of course, if you make it to SoCal I can give you the complete lowdown out here...

Whatever you decide to do...have fun!!!

Rizbee
#1752

[Bruce Brakel]

In the fall, travel a few hours after sunset, whenever possible. 

[Jon Brakel]

If you are a cohesive group you could get a list of courses and a general geographical area and then make decisions based on weather as you get closer.

Bruce and I did this once. We played courses all over Indiana and Michigan and just made decisions based on weather the day before where we were going to drive. We tried to do all our driving after or near sunset or in the rain. But if you have a group that isn't going to easily agree on stuff while on the run, then you're better off going with a set plan.

[DiscCrazy]

Our group is pretty organized so I see a planned route with little or no variation once it is set. Being that we have 8 days travel we don't want to play it by ear. We are planning one day of travel there and one day back. That leaves 6 days to play. We hope to play between 15 and 20 courses so it should be very interesting.

[JCthrills]

There's a pretty sweet course in my back yard here in Indy also, except it's way old school with painted trees as baskets

[Jon Brakel]

Our group is pretty organized so I see a planned route with little or no variation once it is set. Being that we have 8 days travel we don't want to play it by ear. We are planning one day of travel there and one day back. That leaves 6 days to play. We hope to play between 15 and 20 courses so it should be very interesting.

Bruce and I had a set plan and we did not deviate from it. The plan was "Have fun and don't play in the rain!"

So, you're not looking necessarily for the best courses in the U.S. You are looking for the best pocket of courses to play over 6 days within one day's drive of Chicago? How many miles is your group willing to drive in "one day"?

You could easily spend 6 days playing Michigan courses and play some of the best courses in the U.S. Since it is only a few hours away you can also play on your travel days.

Bruce could fill in the details of courses in this itinerary.

Day 1: Drive to Indiana and play Lemon Lake. Spend most of the day playing Lemon Lake. End of the day drive to Kalamazoo.

Day 2: Play Kalamazoo area course(s) in the morning and then drive up to Grand Rapids and play the Grand Rapids area courses. Drive to Lansing at the end of the day.

Day 3: Play Lansing area course(s) in the morning and play Kensington in the afternoon.

Day 4: Play Byron. Rest and recover.

Day 5: Play Cass Benton and an Ann Arbor area course.

Day 6: Hit Michiana course(s) on the way home. If you have any energy left play the new Joliet course if it is open yet.

After IOS #1 Bruce, Brett, Charles, Wade and I did the SE MI trip over a long weekend. Other than the blackout, it was a great time. I think that I saw Brett's potential as a player take a leap on that trip. I think he also learned how hard he was going to have to work to be able to beat people who could play those courses every day!

[JCthrills]

From Grand Rapid head north to Ludington for Beauty, Beast, Goliath, Flip City, Leviathon.  Then turn around & hit Lansing en route to Detroit area.