The Ponds at Lakeshore

Below is a line drawing map and final hole lengths.

All 24 holes have baskets and concrete pads! Best bet is to print a map before you go, the club is still working on signage. Most baskets have one or two spokes painted blue (pointing to next blue tee) or white (pointing to next white tee).

After Hole two you can either move (right to play 18) to Hole 3 or (left to play 24) to Hole A. If you go to A, then you play A-F and rejoin at 3, for 24 holes.

[Brian Cole]

Played the course the last two days. I like it overall, great job to those who designed and worked on it. It is in sharp contrast to Rolling Hills which makes it a great alternative for more open & long holes.

A couple comments:
1) I wonder if anyone on this list has access to any of the bright orange PVC construction cones. One of these placed on top of each basket would go a long way in trying to locate them from a distance.
2) Even though I'm LHBH, I appreciate a good mix of lefty and righty holes. Took forever to learn a forehand playing at Rolling Hills :-)
3) Do you know if there's plans to mow the fairways? Not a complaint, just asking.
4) I like the OB on the sand traps. It adds to the difficulty and those that don't like it can just ignore the OB lines for casual play. This is the same thinking as disc golf for the wii in TW10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwdOf5EpwBY)

Played all 24 from the white tees and ended up +1 the first time around. Played 9 holes this morning and ended up -2. Dropped a hyzer within 10' of the basked on Hole 1 both rounds. Gotta like starting with a birdie!

Whomever got a 3 on hole 2 from the blues has got a cannon for an arm! Good job on the course design and layout. I'm feeling lucky as I've now got 3 courses within 5 miles of my house!!

I think Terry mentioned that there could be plans to add an additional course if all this went well. I'm not sure where it would be added as I didn't see a lot more space. Did I miss something?

-Brian

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

A lot of questions, Brian :)

Orange cones would cost money we don't have. I don't see that as a real issue on anything except Hole 2 from the Blue Tees, but we might try to put some sort of more visible thing on top of 2's basket.

We knew some people would hate the sand traps, and we're still struggling with an inexpensive and easily-maintained way to make them more visible, however, we think they are a nice "touch" addition - and they are there for everyone, so it's not like it's unfair. We think people should just think of them as very dense, disc-sucking cedar bushes - with the 2-meter rule in effect ;-)

One of the reasons we got the course is that the property owner is required by some long-standing agreement with the township, to keep it mowed. So, yes, it will be mowed. I don't know when or how often. They say it would have been mowed before the opening except for all that rain. we'll see. Since we hope this course will help Michiganders learn rollers, we sure hope it is mowed frequently.

To the South of the ball golf course that we used a lot of for this course, the property includes even more space than we used for this course. Some is dense woods, other parts are semi-open with bushes and small trees. And it abuts right up to Ford Lake. Holes 10-11, 15-18 on the current course are designed to be outgoing and incoming holes for the second course, which would then got out into that additional space.

To keep the first course at 24 holes, once those became in use for a second course, we would make the current letter holes into numbered holes, then add another 6 holes in the woods, connecting up somewhere with, possibly, current holes B, C or 13, 14.

Bottom line: There's plenty of space, but another course would use a lot of land that will require more clearing than this first one did. If the owner stays happy with the results and the club can raise the funds for baskets, I clearly see another 24-hole course there.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Yeah, there is a lot of sand in them. And the best idea we have heard so far is, like yours, that we use some kind of vegetation which gets a few feet high and just keep it mowed back. For tourneys, a line could be painted.

This has the added advantage that skips, or throws only a foot or two off the ground, might bounce off of the vegetation and be in bounds.

I was kind of thinking daylilies, but some grass that can handle sand would be good.

[Brian Cole]

Sorry for my delay in reading...computer issues.

Thanks for the responses Terry. I've played the course quite a few times and really enjoy it. My favorite part....lack of poison ivy! :-)

By the way, I like the sand trap penalties. As you said, the boundary paint is getting difficult to see, but I think they are a great extra hazard (and I get my disc back).

Looking forward to playing this a lot during the day this summer (until my next job starts).

-Brian

[Russell]

Wasn't able to make it out last sunday unfortunately....did swing through and play about halfway through on saturday though. Had to leave when several shanks in a row resulted in my friends "elbow hurting really bad"

Great course, although playing in 20-25 mph winds was fairly brutal. Can't wait to get back out and throw it when everything is a little calmer.

Thanks again for going above and beyond to make more courses available to play in Washtenaw County......now if only you guys could get to twisting whoevers nipples need twisting to get brown finished up.....

I know thats out of your hands for the time being though. By the way....when did they do the makeover @ lake in the hood? I hadn't been over there in a few years....lets just say things were a lot friendlier than the last time I was there.

[Dan "Flans" Flannigan]

Speaking of saturday, I want to start by saying i enjoy playing dubs as much as then next person, but just like on ball golf courses, leagues dont go out at noon on a saturday. If your going to jam up a course be considerate of the rest of the casuals and do it at like six. Otherwise you have a large group moving at a very slow pace and are not willing to let anyone play through. Dont send me a bunch of hate mail because I am not bashing the dubs leagues, in fact I play in them as much as I can, Im just saying bump it back a few hours when the courses start clearing out. See ya on the course -Flans

[Ben Calhoun]

Then I'll never get to play :(. Really should be at 10:00 am, like a normal TOURNAMENT, just everyone (else) gets so wasted the night before they need time to crawl out of bed.

[Garrett Graham]

its not that bad to ask to play thru. most dubs matches will let you play thru

[Dan "Flans" Flannigan]

I hear you guys, I'm just looking down the road when this course starts seeing more pressure. that and I was a little erked that yesterday got stuck behind a dubs group with two to three holes between them and the next group that never even thought about letting me go by. took me an hour and 30 minutes to play nine by myself.

[Ben Calhoun]

well they should be stroked for their behavior

[William Gilbert]

Notes to everybody spoke with the general manager of the property today and the lawn should be mowed every 2 weeks and the ball golf course is mowed in its entirety. they are behind because it has been so wet.

Mike has stated that alcohol policy at lakeshore is that none is allowed. the community has placed this rule not the management. this is not a rule for just the disc golf course but the entire property. Nobody really enforces it but if it should become a bigger problem then enforcement and P2P fees will have to be instituted.
So as always my fellow disc golfers behave in a mature manner and you shouldn't have a problem.

Please use the trash receptacles, more and bigger ones are being worked on. takes time to get them and have them delivered.
Benches on a lot of the holes are also being worked on but this takes time as we are using recycled wood and we have to wait for a batch to be available to begin.

The desire is to have all the amenties completed on this course this year.
That includes 6 + 1 baskets 6 on the course and the practice basket.
Paint the tee signs and get more permanent signage up.
trash cans on every hole
benches roughly on every other hole or so.
all by the end of the year.
All of this is only contingent on us finding enough help to plant the baskets when we get the wood and concrete them in.
But with enough money and time and volunteers this course could be completed by the end of summer.

[Gabriel -=24 CHA!NS=-]

lemme know if you need any help bill.. I can allways rally the goof troop....