All good

All the courses played today were good. Rare.

Starting with Little Lehigh in Allentown: Great course. Mostly 3's, but challenging and long and open. The trees craft shots, and it has elevation and water in play. Poor rubber/carpet tee pads. Absolutely no signage, I spent well over an hour trying to find the holes. Beginning with finding hole #5, which took 20 minutes. It is a 1,000 ft walk over a road. Then hole #10 or was it #11 i don't think I ever found, after walking half a mile the wrong way and up a hill. Then after #13, you have to walk another 1,000+ ft bacl past the parking lot across a river and find the tee in the shade behind some pine tree. It can drive you nuts trying to play here for the first time by yourself, ends up being worth it.

Next to South Mountain park in Bethlehem: Good, short tight woods course on a mountain. The fairways are pure rock and boulder strewn. There's not much rough and it's easy to play and figure out. Good holes, challenging shots.

Tinicum @Erwinna, PA: Getting here was hard, it seems to be in the middle of nowhere, at least coming from Bethlehem. The roads are winding are poorly marked with no white lines on the sides (I thought they were supposed to have white lines, that's what I learned in driver's ed, do these people pay no taxes or something??). My GPS kept telling me to keep left, right, etc. But one time it failed, and I made a wrong turn (no street signs at all at that intersection, seems to be a THEME).
The course is fantastic. Extremely long (though set up in short positions for me of course). Open, only 3-4 holes are tight woods. The rest are in a field of mowed grass with sparse to dense trees, no brush or rough. Not much hazard, good shots are rewarded and bad shots aren't punished. The tees are a but rutty and hard to get adjusted to. Great tee signs, and it's very easy to navigate. Not much shade. Set in longs, this would be a true par-66 type course, physically demanding long throws. Big arm helps here.

Hacketts @Easton, PA: Very nice city park on a grassy hill side. Some holes get nasty and tight (3 of them) the rest are open well designed shots using all the trees that are there. Horrid tee boxes, slanty and rutted dirt. Signage is good.
Directions update: there is NO street sign AT ALL at the last intersection you are supposed to turn at in the guide's directions, GPS knew where I was though. It is near an overpass, 500' from the I-22 ramps. Then, the park entrance has NO sign, just look for the stone gates and the baseball field/golf range.

Same hotel again tonight, they are all pretty close together around here.

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

....It's all good.

[dave]

I won't flame with you on ben's site.

[gunkamania]

ok. fair enough.

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

Who pee'd in your wheaties, Dave?????????????? I'm not ragging on Ben. I asked how he threw...what's his scores...How the hell would I know he's not keeping score.

When I go to new courses, I play them with a score card. Yeah I may throw some extra shots here and there, but I play out the first. When I get to hole 1,2,3 etc and can clearly see that the course isn't marked well...I take a few to run ahead..get a feel for the layout....find the holes...the paths people are walking. It's not that complicated, IMHO. Ben's doing a great job sharing his experience with us. Thank you Ben!!!!

As far as having the "guts to play all these new courses" .....Huh???? it's not cliff diving ya know....well not intentionally. Be careful out there Ben.

[gunkamania]

gr8ocshot you are clueless.
ben you are right in that the parkway is not numbered correctly or does not have tee signs. This has led to much confusion for out of town discgolfers since after the pro worlds were held in 2005. The city has decided to help out with tee signs and tee pads. Those new pads and signs will be installed sometime this month ( may 2008). Also another course that was only 10 minutes from the parkway ( Jordan creek ) also was very hard to follow but that course is currently being primed to install all concrete tee pads and signs. It is a shame you did not play these courses say in june , you would have had a much more enjoyable time. At the end of your 1000 course trip can you make a list of your top 100 ?

[dave]

i'm sorry. i'm an old man and my attention may have drifted but; is this the where's ben show or the what's wrong here by gr8rocshot site? way to go ben for having the time, wherewithal, and guts to play all these new courses. my 2 sons and i love to travel within 4 hours of home to try new courses and return to fav courses. keep up the good work-uh fun!

[Rizbee]

Where Ben's Been Google Map

Where ya headed next? Up to New England? Will you visit the warring Marshall Street/Prime Discs guys?

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

....or around there somewhere

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

I knew a golfer from up there, Irv 'Dead Dog' Gordon. Did you play Dead Dog Woods? Isn't that Tinicum?

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

See it's not that complicated. You know your ability....whether or not you played it well or not.

If I had the chance to do what your doing, I would definitely keep track of my round(s), exactly how they shake out. Noting questionable played layout. Some of the biggest challenge can be finding the correct layout....that's part of the fun. Are you working from the Course Directory? Got a printer with you? Look for printable score cards/maps of the courses your planning to play.