Good to Get a Compliment

Not me personally, but a compliment for the course. Cottonwood Creek is my "home course" here in Colorado Springs and I have put a lot of my own time into course maintenance and also running some league nights. So today I showed up at the course to move a couple of pin positions. Lately we have been trying to keep the course pretty challenging so that every hole is not an ace run and there is at least one hole that could trip you up with a bogey. So I had just finished moving a couple of baskets with the help of a friend and then I had to clean up glass from a broken bottle near one of them. When I got up by hole one I struck up a conversation with some guys who were from out of town. They like to travel around and play different courses. They said "nice course" and I said "thanks". You don't hear that all of the time so it is nice especially when it comes from some non-locals. Our course gets bad mouthed a lot simply because it is very popular. Because of its popularity there is often some trash on the ground and you will probably find at least one group of idiots out there. But overall we have worked hard to keep the place in good shape. So it was just nice to hear one "thank you" for a change. And they were even happy that they got to play a couple of new positions for their second round. So some kind words made it all worthwhile. It also made me realize that the course is still a decent place to play despite the naysayers.

[Rob]

My wife and I came through that way in mid May and we played the course. Great views and it really makes a good use of a tight space. It was also one of the most popular (meaning busy) courses I ever played! We both had a great time and it was really a western (we re from NH) experience. Keep up the good work!

 

[mr ed]

Jim,although I've not been out that way yet...good job.Check out " Whirled  Sports" John Heaton's articles on their site.He's also the founder of that company.Not too lenghty,4 pages but a quick read.

Compliments toward work accomplished are very few today.

[Jeff Nichols]

Kinda Sad that most people have lost Basic Common Courtesy. It does make it Even More rewarding though when someone does give the Props that are deserved though. :)

[Jim Coonradt]

I would love to do a redesign of Cottonwood to take care of some issues. We have been talking about moving one tee because it is in the middle of a wash, is being eroded around it, and is in the line of fire from another tee. I have been pushing hard for that tee to get removed but it isn't that easy to do. It is the original tee box which has been there for nearly twenty years now.

I believe that the course is a good course because it can be a good test of your abilities and has enough different positions so that you have to pull out your full arsenal of shots. That being said, the course has changed over the years and one of the biggest issues that we have had was the city doing work on the creek which is on the north side of the course. The city decided to do some work on the creek by widening it out (among other things). This impacted us in a negative way because they actually took away some land from the course. An entire fairway on hole six was removed. That in turn caused the tee box for number six to get moved, which in turn caused the problem with the tee for number nine (although the erosion issue was already there). My redesign would probably include removing the hole six completely but that would mean that we would have to find a place somewhere else for another hole. That would be a bit hard to do.

So although this is a good course with a few issues (like crowding, idiots not paying attention to their surroundings and other players, trash) we have to try to educate people as a way of making the course better. We have to let people know not to throw at others, yell "fore" if one gets away from you, pick up your trash, and generally be a considerate player. This year seems to have been better with some of that stuff, but when you get drunks on the course it is hard to control their behavior.

I personally believe that we as a sport need to be looking for parcels of land that are bigger for our courses. While it may be nice to put in a course in that little park down the road it does create issue with the people who are already using that park for walking, sunbathing, taking the dog for a walk or whatever. The best courses here in Colorado are the ones that are dedicated courses, that don't see a lot of people besides disc golfers. At Cottonwood, we do have a dedicated course although there is a walking path around the perimeter so that does bring in the possibility of someone careless hitting a pedestrian with a disc. I don't like that but we have to deal with it. I would like to see more courses without pedestrian traffic. It definitely makes life easier for everybody. So right now we try to educate people, we pick up the trash and we play disc golf. It is good when it all works.