Marengo Progress Update

[steakfest]

Hey Everybody,

I have not yet participated on this forum, so you probably won't know me, but figured I should put something up here regarding the course going up in Marengo,  First, here is a quick breakdown of where we're at in the project.

Fundraising was a huge success.  We rasied the money to put in a complete 18 hole course in about 1.5 months.  Special thanks to Discontinuum for helping sponsor 2 of our holes!  The money we raised covers Baskets, signage, and other odds and ends, and we even have a bit of a head start for our next fundraising effort, concrete tee pads.  However, we are not holding up the course construction / grand opening for concrete tees.  Hopefully by this time next year we'll have the pads in.  But either way, we'll be PLAYING in Marengo by late spring, early summer.

The course can be described as existing in 2 areas of the park.  Holes 1-3, 13-18 are in the traditional "open" park area.  Lots of big oak trees, some elevation / rolling hills, and even a bit of water to deal with.  Holes 4 -12 are in the wooded area of the park.  As of right now, we have 8 of those wooded holes roughly cut, plus the paths going from hole to hole.  We have a bit more work to do in the woods, but are getting very close to putting the groundsleves in and starting to play.

If anybody is available, we are planning another working day on those wooded holes this saturday 5/14 Starting at around 8am, and going until people fall down from exhaustion.   

Please give me a call 847 331 0201 if you are interested in helping out this weekend or any other weekend

If you decide last minute to come out, we're at Indian Oaks Park on the west side of Marengo, and metting up by the Lower Nature Center Parking lot.

We will have more working days in the future that will focus more on the detailed cleanup of those wooded holes, possibly after we get a playable course.

I really think you guys are going to dig the layout that Fred Vroman and I put together.  The wooded holes are going to be quite a challenge, and I can't wait to see you out on the course.  Seems like a perfect place for a East vs. West club challenge location!

John (Turbo) McGowan

[DaBus85]

Hey man I would like to help but super busy sat!  Keep posting on here about work days and I will make it out.  I am always up for making a new course!  I'm in Rockford area so it's not a bad drive especially since it's on this side of marengo.  Keep me posted!

[steakfest]

Things are moving along nicely with our course.

* 19 ground sleeves are sitting in concrete right now.
* Baskets will be coming back from the powder coater early this week. 
* Baskets will be installed on all 18 holes + practice bucket this weekend. Some play testing will take place, before we finalize TEE locations and the following weekend we expect signage to be installed.
* 10 holes are in an area of the park that doesn't require any major work other than planting a basket and tee sign.
* 8 of the holes are in dense wooded area, and all of those holes are "rough cut"  Which basically means that they're throwable, but lots of cleanup still needs to be done to make them pretty.
* We're hoping to get some more help out there to put the finishing touches on those wooded holes.

/John

[Dag]

Local course flooded yesterday so last minute, I decided to see what you had going in Marengo, arriving there ~6:30 in the evening. I'm glad I made the trip. Met up with two other players and managed to throw almost all the holes before it got dark.

For players:

-park in the pool lot...#1 tee is across the main road to the East
-long pants pretty much mandatory, buncha thorns in the rough
-boots a good idea as the woods holes had a fair amount of standing water and mud, this will change as things dry though
-bug spray...wasn't bad yesterday but all that water with yield a horde of skeeters
-spotters...they'll make the world a better places on the longer wooded holes...ditto for bright colored discs
-the baskets have yellow NexTEE tabs on the pole near the grounds indicating direction to the next tee
-be prepared to walk.

On the wooded par 4 with the split fairway right off the tee, we were searching for a disc in the rough to the right when one of the other guys let out a yelp and came running out of the woods, "Snake!! Ten foot long and big as my arm!!!". Never saw the thing myself but you may want to take care if you're in the woods and Fido has been rubbing on your leg so you smell like prey. <insert smiley thingy if you're so inclined>

For John and Co.:

-could you post the course map you have to make navigation a bit easier for first time players?
-on the bricks that demarcate the tees, maybe Sharpie hole number and distance if you have it?
-navigation in the woods can be challenging when paths intersect, maybe some surveyors tape or something to help?
-#3 basket > #4 tee was rough to figure
-coupla holes had peewee soccer nets right in the fairway...will this change?
-small tree to the right of #3 tee doesn't stand a chance...mebbe nudge the tee to the left?
-#2...how tolerant do you think Parks will be of building hits?...S and SE winds are pretty common
-pool parking lot is closest to #1 tee...how much does that fill when the pool's open?

I've yet been able to make one of your work days but will be up there to help. You've got a good thing going.

[steakfest]

Dag, I'm glad you could make it out.  I just got back from doing some course guiding this morning.

First of all, if anybody wants to check out the course, but doesn't want to do it blindly, the normal group of guys that gets together on mondays at lippold are going to play marengo this week.  (since our normal dubbs league is not happening because of the holiday)

Get there by 5pm tonight for our 5:30 tee time.  Might play doubles, might play singles, depends on what people want to do when they get there.

-could you post the course map you have to make navigation a bit easier for first time players?

I will post a rough map of the course to our website in the next hour.  Plans are to have navigation "nextee" signs up before the next weekend, but the Tee/Informaion signs might take another week.  I'm still waiting on some artwork from our hole sponsors before I can finalize those.  Plus I want to get a few more rounds in before we commit to tee locations / distances.

http://www.marengodiscgolf.com/

-on the bricks that demarcate the tees, maybe Sharpie hole number and distance if you have it?

Thanks, maybe we'll do that tonight when we play our round.  It will help for now for sure.

-navigation in the woods can be challenging when paths intersect, maybe some surveyors tape or something to help?

Directional signs are coming VERY soon.  We've got great "NexTEE" signs in addition to the NexTEE Indicators on the poles.  since those signs don't depend on the artwork i'm still waiting on or the distances, I'm going to get those printed ASAP. and installed before next weekend.

-#3 basket > #4 tee was rough to figure

yeah, that's because the "shortcut path" hasn't been cut yet.  or actually if you were out last night, you probably saw 1/3 of the path that I cut yesterday before the thunderstorms came rolling through! 

-coupla holes had peewee soccer nets right in the fairway...will this change?

Yes, I've informed the park that those nets will need to find new homes.  They are temporary.  Personally I've never seen them there before.

-small tree to the right of #3 tee doesn't stand a chance...mebbe nudge the tee to the left?

Yeah, we're working on that one.  Had some complaints from a lefty already on that one as well.  I think we're going to end up pushing that one back further and too the left.

-#2...how tolerant do you think Parks will be of building hits?...S and SE winds are pretty common

We were just talking about hole 2's tee pad, and moving it to the other side of the pavilion.  making the building more of a "behind the basket" and not "along side the basket"

-pool parking lot is closest to #1 tee...how much does that fill when the pool's open?

Not sure about that yet... There are alternate parking locations, just not all of them are as close to #1. 

I'm pretty sure that if, (i mean when) we have our first big event out there, we're going to need more parking. Luckilly, there is ia field just outside of that back entrance to the park that I think we can use as an impromptu grass parking lot.  For now we'll just have to see how things go. 

Thanks for your feedback, and go checkout the website in a few, I'll get that map up there for others that decide to check out the course before we get all our signs in.

I promise that once the signs are in, anybody should be able to play the course without any sort of guide for the first time.  We're working hard to set the standard for ease of navigation on a DG course.

/John

[steakfest]

Just a quick note, I've posted a rudimentary map in case someone goes out there.

http://www.marengodiscgolf.com/

Remember, though, the course is not "open" yet, so if you're looking for an easy to navigate course, wait another couple weeks. 

[steakfest]

Quick progress update...

All the directional and tee signs are in place.  As well as patio blocks marking the tee locations.

The course should be pretty easy to navigate now, since the tee signs are way easier to spot when going from one hole to the next than just the bricks at grass level.

Still got some more signage to put in this week, as well as more cleanup work to do on the wooded holes, but if you've been concerned about getting lost on the new course, you should not have that problem anymore.

If you come in from out of town to play, and need to grab a bite to eat, please consider visiting one of our sponsors.  And don't forget to mention that you saw their sign on the Disc golf course!  We've got more fundraising to do to get the concrete tees in place, so the more buzz the course gets in town, the easier that's going to be.

/John