The Oaks-Mokena Park District Course Open!

[CEValkyrie]

Where do I begin? This place is awesome & it's not done yet!! Sorry for the rambling. There is so much words cannot explain.

Here is the description on the PDGA Page for Mokena. Whomever designed the course did a fantastic job and this description is perfect->
Well designed - winding through giant oaks with a few wide open holes and a few extremely tight and bending fairways with bushes on either side. Overall - great variety with attention paid to target placement.


So here are my thoughts.

Right now, the parking lot is not done so there is a pretty good hike to get to the course. Once the parking lot is done, it will be much easier to get to hole#1

The course is not finished yet. There are 2 holes that don't have baskets and the tee signs are not done. I would suggest waiting until the course in completely done so you can enjoy everything this course has to offer. It was rather difficult to navigate without the signs. It was also very muddy.

Now I see why it's call "The Oaks". Man, I was confused most of the day trying to figure out where I was in the park.
Few holes-> Wide Open & Long
Few holes-> Tight with some rough
Most holes-> Playing between & under the huge Oaks.
There were places that had tons of leaves on the ground. I can't imagine how it's going to be in the fall. There are going to be leaves knee deep

I played the Blue Tees(Long). The pros are going to love this course. I could not reach many of the holes. That's not saying much but there were a ton of 300+ holes. Many 350+ The PDGA Directory has 10 holes over 300. I'm assuming that was the distcance from the middle tees. I'd guess half of the Pro tees are over 300.
Actually, here is a link with that info.
http://www.mokenapark.com/mokena/catalog.c...ction&linkid=68

Tees-> Rubber
They were installed perfectly. Very level.
Many holes have 3 tees, some 2, & others 1.

Baskets-> Mach 5 with yellow # rack. At least we knew what basket it was .

Some players may not like that this course because it does not have defined fairways and rough. There are very few places with rough that will casue you to take a bogey after a bad drive. There is a ton of land in this park. It is HUGE. The pro length is 8,840. There is some good elevation in areas with some great basket placements.

I'd like to know who designed & installed the course. There are a ton of foot bridges and other work that was done. It's amazing and too hard to explain. It had to take a small army to get that stuff done. Hats off to those involved. This is the best Northern IL course by far.

[jim]

I visited THE OAKS yesterday and played a wonderful round of disc. I agree with Damon's and Brett's critiques. BEAUTIFUL COURSE!  After three holes, it became my 2nd favorite course. A lot of people put a lot of work into this huge piece of land. The trees are ancient; the whole place has this peaceful, flowing feeling to it.
However, a few fairways are pretty close to each other; on a busy day, there might be some errant shots landing on teepads. Some aceable holes; most have at least 2 tee placements, and many of those change the shot completely. WONDERFUL! Highly recommended!!!

[airspuds]

http://photos.yahoo.com/airspuds@sbcglobal.net
early mokena  pics

[DANA]

so are there signs up yet?  easy to find my way around?

thinking about going this coming sat. april 24

dana_vicich@hotmail.com

[airspuds]

i think if you start at  22

thats the best flow

[tbchdisker11]

Hi, i love this course.  I just moved from ottawa into this area for college and i just found THe Oaks disk golf course.  This course is better then any I have seen.  It has its challenges between trees and nice long holes.  I like how the area was utilized for the course.  I shot a few eagles and a ton of birdies but my rounds were not without the disappointing bogies.  I like the course and the benches are a nice touch.  Any word on when the sines are going to be up on the course?  I have almost an exact picture on 13 also as the above pic.  I like that hole.  I think of it as the "course hole"   Thanks for the adventures.  Likely to play many holes this summer.  Later    Travis Barnes

[JohnBrady]

I played the Oaks yesterday.  I believe all but (2) signs were in.  It was early afternoon and there were about (4) other groups playing.  This course layout makes for a slow pace in places because of cutting back against the grain to reach next tees.  I loved the amount of work that went into this and the holes were fun to play.  I have a feeling that if it gets busy it could require a hardhat to play safely

[airspuds]

course played great today

lots of work being done due to a couple of downed trees

it was a nice warm up for  saturday  (lumber cup)

it appears that on  7/10  and   7/17  its T players only
the course will be closed to the non paying public
lots of signs stating this

[Eddie311]

me and mark played this friday i didn't the course was that great.. i thought it would be a alot better.. the lay out was bad got lost a few times and some holes go make sense other then that it was ok i would go back

[CrookedSuperSoftWizard]

me and mark played this friday i didn't the course was that great.. i thought it would be a alot better.. the lay out was bad got lost a few times and some holes go make sense other then that it was ok i would go back

if any1 can make ANY sense out of this let me know

[Eddie311]

lol

[Jon Brakel]

me and mark played this friday i didn't the course was that great.. i thought it would be a alot better.. the lay out was bad got lost a few times and some holes go make sense other then that it was ok i would go back

if any1 can make ANY sense out of this let me know

This is my translation into English:

Mark and I played Mokena on Friday and I didn't think the course was great. I thought it would have been better. The layout was bad and we got lost a few times. The flow of the course makes sense in some areas but not in others. Other than that we had a fine time and I would go back to play there again sometime.

Your interpretation may vary.

[Dan Michler]

i think he is saying that disc golf is awesome and he can't wait to play the Illinois Open Series Finale at Fairfield Park in Round Lake!  August 28-29,  Come on out and play Advanced!!!!

[CrookedSuperSoftWizard]

lol i plan on going in eddie goes to round lake.. cause i can't do anything without eddie

[mirth]

yeah, you two are like the ambiguously gay duo...

[airspuds]

nice day to play this

6 birds 4 bogies

home by noon

[airspuds]

Glow T on Sat  10/23/04

info on park district web site

[Bruce Brakel]

Mokena is nice. It would still be nice to have a par 4 course in the area. I wonder why they decided to put 27 baskets on that course rather than design a higher par 18 basket course?

In disc golf every hole is par 3, in the minds of 95% of avid disc golfers.  This means almost every hole offers a 2 with a perfect drive.  

We are stuck with this legacy handed down to us by Ed Headrick.  His last words on 18-hole, par 72 disc golf were something like, "Reese is a nice kid.  I hope we can get him interested in disc golf eventually."  Not only did Ed leave us with lame par 2 golf, it was his idea to jigger the pars on the tee signs to ridiculously high numbers so that only a Special Olympian would be challenged to shoot par.  Ever play an older course with ancient tee signs and the 310 foot hole says, "Par 5"?  They bought that sign from Ed.  Even when that sign was installed a rec player like me [then] could throw an Eclipse 150-200 feet.  I was getting Eagles on that hole frequently.

We are just stuck with this stupid mindset that par is 3 and courses are 18 holes and 3=2.5.  Because this is below the standard for sissy golf, golf that self-respecting golfers snear at, and sissy golfers call "executive golf," we will never win any respect playing this game.  And it won't help to toss in the occasional 700 or 900 foot hole.  That is still executive golf.  

You don't see as many 310 foot holes labeled par 5 anymore.  More and more frisbee golfers are discovering the enjoyment of playing courses where average to crappy players like us have to shoot the round of our life to come close to par.  This is what par means, "really excellent play," not average to crappy play.  

I guess we need to help those of our friends who are not actually Special Olympians to break free of the Headrick Special Olympics Mindset.  

If you want to do something about it, Jon, for your 2005 IOS Series, for par for the course use the SSA par.  Then go through the scorecard, and write down the par values on the card, so that they add up to the SSA.  So you have a card that maybe goes 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 3, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 49.  

This is something whacky that won't drive anyone away from the first event.  It will drive some morons away from the second event because now they can't shoot under par at our tournaments!  It would not have any bearing on the outcome of the event at all unless someone was late to their tee, and then they more likely than not would be happy to get a 6 instead of a 7.  It would merely begin to reset players' understanding of par, like when we discovered that the 230 foot hole at Adler was not really a par 4 and started playing it as par 3.  Players need to begin to realize that it is really a par 2.

Here are some of the SSA pars for the courses we play:

Round Lake Fairfield IOS 2003 Par 46.5, 46.4
You are going to need eight or nine 2s if 18 is a 4!
Crystal Lake Lippold IOS 2004 Par 44.8, 44.53
Nine 2s and nine 3s?
Potential New-to-us Northerly Course, Par 53.28, 52.74

Brett, who is the last person you'd think would want to play Special Olympics Frisbee Golf, is already howling.  Brett: you'll get over it.  A 47 is still a 47.  It still wins in advanced.  It is just that if the SSA rounds up to 47, there is no point calling that -7, unless you just want to perpetuate lame Par 2 disc golf with inflated par values so you can feel good about yourself.  You can feel good about yourself shooting SSA par.  

[For anyone offended by the Special Olympics reference, feel free to substitute "Pioneer Girls."  Kelsey and Kira were Pioneer Girls.  "Pioneer Girls Third" is what we say in our household whenever anyone is ashamed of their finish, because no one ever comes in deeper than third at Pioneer Girl competitions.

"How did you do in Peoria, daddy?"
"Third."
"Really?!"
"Pioneer Girl Third!"
"Ha, ha, ha! How deep in third?]

[Chainmeister]

Bruce,

I, a rec player, agree with most of your rant.  In essence, SSA is the best way to determine how well or poorly we are  playing.  I have searched for SSA on courses that I have played to figure out where I stand.  In general, if I am 5 over, I am doing very well.  Most likely that course's par, if using SSA would put me 13 over.  

Reference to ball golf helps.  Courses vary in difficulty.  A par 72 at Augusta National is much harder than at Chick Evans (a local Forest Preserve Course).  This is why ball golfers also consider course ratings to compare the difficulty of the course.  SSA seems to consider both par and course difficulty.  In essence, it really does not matter as long as there is a consistent method of calulation.  If Brett shoots -7 or calls it even par, you correctly point out that he still likely won his division.  He is likely analogous to a so-called scratch golfer.  At some pro golf tournys the winning score is -20.  At a tougher course, the winner may be even.

If I shoot 26 at Glencoe I know that I am not a -1 player.  Glencoe is pretty easy.  If I play with the same skill at a tougher 9 hole it will likely be a 31.

The par 3 issue is interesting.  In ball golf a par 3 is a hold that could be aced.  The player is expected to hit the green.  I guess a par 3 on an easy course such as Chick Evans would really be a par 2 for a pro.  They still call it a 3.  

Overall, I think calling them all par 3's with the exception of the monster holes is fine as long as we attach an SSA to the course.  

[airspuds]

thread drift city

glow t on sat at mokena

par is a relative term

every thing is par 3 because stoners/drinkers can barely count and thats where the sport started  has existed will continue to exist

yeah i would love to see more par 4 holes

i know what MY par is on courses i play

oly  18*3= 54 i think i should at least shoot a - 6 or else im not playing well

west park white   24*3= 72   i think i should shoot - 8 or else im not playing well

lemon lake in cedar lake 27*3 = 81  i shot a +13 or + 14 a month ago

I know what my Par is, I'm not stupid


some courses challange me some dont      

im just an am  and thats what i am