Hello all, I am trying to get a course established where I live, Auburn, Alabama. I have no experience with course design so I was hoping to get tips on where to place holes and pads. A map of the park can be found here http://www.perfectprints.biz/park_blank.jpg, and a map with some extra info is here http://www.perfectprints.biz/park.jpg. Feel free to give general advice, or two take an image editing program and add holes where you think they would best be placed. With a community effort, an amazing course could be created.

Send me a personal Email or will you be at our tourney on the 11th?

i dont have your email address or i would email you, and i dont know what tournament you are talking about

watt,
Just a thought. Since you don't know about the tournament coming up in B'ham and you don't know Tom, then you may not know about the history with Auburn parks. (the lost baskets story is my favorite)

PM me and I will update as best I can.
Ron

Hello
My name is Phil DeMocker and as well as being new to this disc golf forum I had the pleaser of working with Harold Duval at Innova several years ago. One of my job duties was to create presentation drawings of disc golf courses for city,county and privite groups.
First and foremost, one needs an accurate map of the ground or park that includes all boundarys with the property owners surrounding the parcil of land. This can be achived with a visit to the local tax office. In addition if dealing with a city or county parks dept. request a copy of the survey of the parcil of land and with a call to the survey company that did the survey you can get an autocadd drawing of the land. Note: you will need a copy of autocad or autocad LT to read it
Secondly, get the lay of the land. Take a walk with a map, note book and pencil look for trails or walkway and determine the amount of use. If a trail has high use figure you course to avoid them. On the other hand a trail, with little use, through the woods, may offer a chain of holes. Look for water that occuers in the form of lake, ponds or streams. As you walk through around the parcel note any natural holes that you see. Look for senic views that may be incorperated in your design.
More things to consider will the land allow two loops (1-9) and (10-18) or one loop like the links one would see in scotland or many of the older courses here in the states. Look at the players that will be using the course and ask the question Is this the only course in the area? if so a shorter course (~5400 ft) may be in order, if a second or third course (6000 - 8000 ft) may be inorder. Note: a hole need not be 1000 ft to be hard and a well designed hole at half that distance will produce the same scores.
One final thought on course design is allow for growth, in the years I have been playing I have seem the distance of the world record go from ~440 ft in the late 70's to well over 800ft . the couses that survived from the early days and are still a challange today are the ones that are designed with care and foresight in mind.
First, a discussion on Risk/Reward course design. Briefly, a player has a choice to execute a perfect shot to better placement in the fairway for an easy second shot or for shorter holes the possibility of a birdie.
I use the example of hole 13 on the Winthrop Gold course (888ft). The first 600ft of the hole is a narrow fairway with O.B. road on right and bike path on left. Then to an ample island green upon crossing the road. The risk a long shot has a chance to go O.B., the reward with a big shot you can have a second shot for the island green and possible a three or if you choose an easy upshot to leave you an easy third shot for the green and a four. While talking with Harold Duvall on his consception of the hole he wanted a hole where a driver would not be the disc of choice on the drive. His suggestion was putter, then roc, then a driver. Note: during the USDGC the hole rated as the second most difficult with a shot average over six and Friday it rated 6.89 due to the wind.
While thinking about the wind, Innova had a chance to put in a course in eastern North Carolina. The land was an old flat windy cotton field with no trees. The solution the city was to put in several trees (~150) to help define the fairways and many of the tees and pins placed on mounds, most only 4 or 5ft high, in addition most of the fairways approached the wind at different angles.
Now on to the types of holes: Cape holes, redan holes, reef holes, dogleg, double dogleg and blind shots.
The cape hole is the best example of the risk/reward shot making. The two examples that come to mind are hole #16 at cliff Stephens in Clearwater Florida and hole five at the gold course. Hole #16 is ~550ft with the first 400ft across the water, but also offers a bail out area on the right side for the faint of heart. Hole #5 on the gold course offers the cape feature at the end of the hole with a pin placed on a point and your second or third shot you must make the choice to clear the water and run at the pin or shot to the right leaving a putt of 75 to 100 feet. Note: Hole #18 at pebble beach is a classic example of a cape hole where you can choice to shoot 200 yards over the water leaving a +200 yard shot to the pin or go for broke with a 260 yard shot that leaves a short approach to the pin.
The redan hole is one of the most interesting holes where the best line to the pin is not direct. The best example is hole #18 on the gold course. The approach is not only a blind shot but also you must throw to the right of the pin due to the right to left slope of the green area. The 18th hole is also a great double dogleg with the first shot over the water edge is a turn over to an elevated landing area and the second shot is a hizer (sorry I am right handed)
The reef hole is as it sounds, you must clear the reef area or hazard or lay-up and take a second shot to clear the hazard. This was taken to extremes at hole#17 on the gold course with the pin surrounded by bales of pine nettles that created a all or nothing shot. In addition hole #4 had an out-of-bounds area that force most player to throw a lay-up to a landing area then a second shot over the hazard to the green. Of course, a ring of cedar trees surrounds the green.
The last idea is the idea of deception. Occasionally we must place a hole in the middle of a field with nothing around it to use a reference. The only example I can think of is a temporary hole at the USDGC 2000. The hole was only 293 feet and it was amazing to see many top Pros par a hole that on paper appeared to be so straightforward and easy.
As you noticed, many of the examples used several elements of each classic hole and it is an understanding of each of the classic designs that make a good golfer a great golfer.
The last idea is multi-pin and tee placements. The cost of multi-tee pads is an expense that many clubs simply cannot afford. The solution is multi-pin placements. One of the best examples is the Shelly Sharp Memorial course in Scottsdale, AZ. Most of the holes have four or five pin placements and they do not just go from short to long many have left and right options. Moreover, the cost of a collar is minimal in comparison to the cost of a separate tee pad.
I leave with a few closing thoughts on course design. First, a course is only as good as the club that helps put it in and maintain it. The Sarasota Sky Pilots in Sarasota, Florida is one such club, even after ten years in the ground the club still has work days that are attended by more then two or three people (some as high as 30-40). Spend a few bucks and throw some hotdogs on the grill after the work is finished. Secondly, design a course that the beginner and pro can play and do not worry if the first tournament you have a pro comes in and shots -10 or -12 down. The first tournament on the new course in Sarasota I was paired in a group with Ken Climo and I watched him shot -10 in the morning round and preceded to break or tie the record in the remaining rounds. I think he shot -14 for both his rounds Sunday. Lastly, most of the land the parks departments allow us to use is public land open to all members of the community. In the planning process, we must look at the placement of future walking trails, workout stations, ball fields and picnic areas. This will show the parks dept. and the community that a park will have multi-uses and allow other members of the community to view disc golf while they use the park.
Thanks for the chance to put my two cents in.
Phil DeMocker