The UDisc app/website is used by virtually every disc golfer, and I encourage the town to get the Weare course listed as soon as possible to help get the course ready for Opening Day. (I volunteer to do this if there isn't someone you prefer in particular.)
You can fairly easily and quickly list your course on UDisc (for free) and people will be able to find it. In my opinion, having your course listed before opening day, exposing it to the world of players, would be best because as players get to know the course you'd actually have people show up for opening day. In other words, you only get to have one "Opening Day". It's probably best to do that after the course has a "soft opening" - even before it's fully built - to get players familiar with the course. One of the best places to post an announcement about opening day would be the Kiosk at the park - which players would see beforehand. And, you would be able to put the announcement in the course description in the App. e.g. "Grand Opening in Spring 2024". If the course were posted to UDisc now, people would be playing it through the winter.
In my mind, there are a few key action items to make the course playable:
- Brush hog the fairways and paths for the holes in the power lines area.
- Tree cutting / clearing. I know there are a few spots where hanging branches, vines or trees obstruct the "line" to the basket. A technical course is fine, but overgrowth that interferes with even the best shot is not. From what I remember, I believe the course has branches and trees that are "flagged" with tape for removal.
- Install tee pad signs (e.g. Hole #nn, 302 ft, par 3) for any that are missing signs.
- Create / Add hole maps for each tee pad.
- Create a full course layout map for the Kiosk.
- Add next tee direction markers on baskets. For $25, you can buy little plastic arrows that snap on to the basket. Or for even less money, you can spray paint that wire, or wrap it with colored vinyl tape.
- Add any path / next tee arrows on trees.
Realizing that creating maps, printing signs and installing them takes time, one short-cut for this is to create the layout maps in the UDisc app. Once your course is listed and mapped, UDisc will give you a free sign to post at the Kiosk with a QR Code that will direct players to the app which in turn can tell you the layout of the course as you play. For example, here is the Winter layout for Amesbury Pines. As you play the course, the app on your phone shows you your current GPS location and can help direct you along the way.
Tee Pads, Basket Positions, and Smart Layouts
Disc golf has generally followed the conventions of ball golf with respect to tee pads. If there are more than a single set of tee pads for the course, they are classified into colored tiers of "red, white and blue" where red is the shortest, white is intermediate length and blue is the longest tee for a given hole. For any given fairway, the tee pads are distributed in a linear fashion with blue being the farthest away, and red being the closest to the basket. This is not to say that courses typically have more than one set of tee pads. Tee pad construction/maintenance takes time and money. So, the simplest course would have a single set of tee pads; one per hole. But adding a "short/beginner" (red) option can be as simple as wire flags, painted wood markers laid into the ground, or painted rocks. Thus, a hypothetical course could have a combination of primary tee pads that are fully constructed (designated "white" for an average player because "blue" means professional/advanced), plus a set of "red" tees marked only by painted rocks. On a long hole with a "dog leg" bend, the beginner tee is typically positioned around the bend with a straight shot to the basket.
Basket Positions
In the simplest course layout, there is a single basket position for each hole. However, it is fairly inexpensive and easy to put in alternate "sleeves" (hole in the ground that the basket mounts into) which give you the option to move the pin position to a different part of the "green". This can provide variety to players as well as manage soil compaction and erosion. If there are alternate pin positions, they are labelled by letter: A, B, etc. In the extreme, I've seen a course in N. Carolina that had 9 different possible pin positions on a single hole. Only one pin position is in use at a given time. Example course description: the course is currently set up with all pins in the A positions, but switching over to B's in the fall.
Clement Farms in Haverhill has an uncommon / hybrid layout where they have two distinct courses (they call blue and orange) that use the same fairways, but have distinct tees and baskets for each hole. Players choose to play either the orange course (longer) or the blue course (easier).
The Weare course reuses the same 9 fairways and baskets to create 18 holes by repeating them on holes 10-18 from different tee pads. I think this is somewhat problematic. Obviously you can't have people throwing from the tenth tee while people are still advancing to or putting at the same basket from tee pad number one. But, this challenge can partly be solved by "Smart Layouts" in the UDisc app.
Since a group of players (e.g. a foursome) can only play either hole 1 or hole 10 at one time, this means a foursome that starts their game at 9am and reaches hole 10 90 minutes later will have to "interleave" with any foursome or player that is just showing up to start their game from the twin tee pad of hole 1. If the course is lightly trafficked, this isn't a problem. In busier times, this will cause the course to stack up with confusion over who is "up". Players will need to visually check the twin tee positions for each hole and communicate with those players about who is going to play the basket. In practice, I think it means that the course should be described as a 9-hole course where you can play a full 18 by doing a second loop using alternate tees. Upon arrival, you could choose whether to play the "back nine" or "front nine" and hope that it's not busy so that you can do another loop after that. This also means that when you complete your first set of 9 holes, if it's busy, you may want to call your round complete.
Using the Smart Layout feature of UDisc there can be 4 layouts to set up that a player can choose from to start their game: "Front 9", "Back 9", "Double Loop, font first", "Double Loop, back first" This allows for the correct scoring, mapping, and player rating.
