Thursday May 1st- Ben's Travel

Well, I am staying with my grandma in Lisbon, OH tonight.
I plan to hit Pittsburgh Thursday, mainly Morraine State-if it's as nice as it looks, maybe two rounds there.
Here are some reviews etc from the past 3 days:

Got some Cabela's brand shoes at Cabela's on the way down..so far after 9-10 rounds they are awesome still, waterproof lining, high ankle, feel good grip good. Couldn't be happier that never happens :).

I played Hodges Boyer in Tiffin Ohio for the first round on Monday. It is a decent, well-kept park setting course. Some short some long. Has some water shots, front and back 9 are split but it's easy to figure out.
2nd round monday-Blue Heron in Norwalk, OH- What a great course! After 16 courses it is still my favorite one so far, I even played it twice. It is chock full of long, OVER the water shots, including one or two @up to 450' across water in a straight line. Hard to navigate due to a protected flower on several holes, but not hard enough to make it impossible. Great tee pads. I stuck around for 6:00 doubles league, taking second with my partner Rob @63 for 21 holes. It is that tough.

Tuesday-
1st- Roscoe Ewing in Medina (Jenkins' home course I believe). I need to update the course guide, hard to find. It is very rough off the fairways which take skill to stay in so beware. The course is old and could use some new holes. Lots of variety, some hills and a creek.
2nd- Hudson Springs, Hudson OH- The front 9 is very short, in an open park setting with old short trees that have grown in to block the original flight flines designed for it, but yet still enjoyable to throw, the back 9 is longer and more open, nothing technical about it.
3rd-Parma DGC, Parma OH- This course just plain sucks. I'd never play it again, it serves no purpose. Mostly blind too tight or too hard to throw lines in the woods. It's hard to follow as there are so signs. Many branches growing in block good shots.
4th-Sims Park in Euclid OH- Fun, longer than average, mix of open with placement shots around trees and some tighter woods holes. It borders Lake Erie, with 2 pins being 50 feet from the water.
5th- Cuyahoga Airport DGC in Richmond Heights, OH- bad course for such a long open one. The few woods holes require bombs into a tree line getting lucky to park it, or getting rejected, no actual flight path available. The open holes have no trees at all. Easy to follow with great signage, the grass tees are in good shape though.
6th- Lakeshore @Ashtabula, Ohio- This is maybe the 2nd or 3rd best so far, top 10 in OH easily. With 3 sets of tees and multiple pin placements (at the same time!) this course has about every shot available, from short and uphill to 500'+ and downhill. Well designed, forcing extreme accuracy or OB or tree trouble. It is all on big rolling grassy hills in an active park with ponds and geese, next to the big lake. Very windy. Great views and easy to follow.

Wednesday-
1st- George Knox in Middlefield, OH- wow **** this place, a waste of disc golf material. Poison Ivy is so bad, you almost can't walk the course without getting it in YOUR FACE (see pic when I get around to it). I wouldn't ever go back even if it was a good course, based on the Ivy Factor. Super-tight impossible to throw lines, basically just hit a tree and land in ivy then throw an upshot, land in ivy, putt (land in ivy if you miss). Easy to follow with great signs though!
2nd- Clarence Darrow@ Warren, OH- I quit after the 4th hole (I have played it before so it doesn't matter). So much poison ivy, 4/5 shots landed in it. You have to throw INTO vines of it to make it down a fairway, that's when I give up. Thanks, park service.
3rd- Kent State Trumbull@Warren, OH- Thank GOD this course is across the street literally from Clarence Darrow. It made it worth the trouble. Long, technical yet open holes. A creek, a mando and a lake make for demanding shots in the high wind. Easy to follow with great tees, signs and even scorecards.
4th- Beatty@ Steubenville OH- This is the 2nd or 3rd best course so far, too. Very technical mixture of shots, favoring RHBH, up and down and alongside some of the steepest valleys I have ever seen, with a creek in play many times that you have to cross many times too. The directions led me to within 1/10th of a mile from the park, to find some road construction that was impassable, and no detour route marked. So, I had to call the course pro and he answered, talked me through getting there (thanks again, it as worth it). Very easy to follow, has rock filled tee boxes soon to be concrete, 12 holes soon to be 18. I may go back when it is 18. See pics when they're up. The designed/hard working local showed up on an ATV to talk to me. These few guys did all the work and it's amazing. Go there and help get this course off the ground, it joined with East Liverpool will eventually make for a destination for disc golfers.


Thanks if you read all that.
Off to bed, Pitts' tomorrow.

[Chris Wojciechowski]

A 63 got you 2nd Place last week at Great Blue Heron? Man I made it down yesterday for this week's dubs and a 56 only got me into a three-way tie for 1st! But man I love that course. The best in the northern half of Ohio (north of Columbus), in my opinion.

[Becky]

Im making notes to enter in my cousre book so I know what ones NOT to play. Thanks for the entertainment!!

[Zimnuts]

Nice playing a round with ya today mang! Fun gettin that ace!

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

That would be great, Rizbee. Is that something we could display in a page in this network? I can drop pretty much any kind of code into a page.

[Rizbee]

Great post, Ben. I like the fact that you aren't afraid to give your opinon on the courses that are bad. Have you considred setting up a Google Map page showing the courses that you've played? PM me if you need assistance.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Thanks for the updates, Ben. Very entertaining and insightful.

[Jayne]

thanks for posting your adventures (and misadventures with ivy). Hope ya had a good little bit of time spent with granny before you head off again!

[eric beich]

nice update. hope you got your tecnu handy :)