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Archive for February 3, 2016

North Georgia/Chattanooga Disc Golf Trip: Part I

Posted by randomtiz


Wednesday is here, and you know what that means… Well Hump Day, yes. But that mean’s a disc golf weekend is closer in view. MLK weekend, a couple friends and I went on a weekend disc golf road trip up through North Georgia and the Chattanooga area for one of the guy’s 30th Birthdays. Along the way we crossed four courses off our lists starting with Heritage Point Park (Dalton, GA), Cloudland Canyon State Park (Lookout Mountain, GA), Sticky Pines (Ooltewah, TN) and The Sinks (Chattanooga)!

We’re at the start of February in 2016, and I’ve already crossed off five disc golf courses that I’ve never played before. With a lil one on the way (less than a month!), I’m trying to cram in as much disc golf as I physically can (or at least as much as the wifey will let me these next few weeks) haha. So to celebrate Rick’s 30th—and I guess, my last hoorah—they guys and I took off for the mountains for the weekend to hit up several courses along the way to our final destination in Chattanooga. We dubbed the trip “Mahan Mayhem” after Rick and I designed a custom print mini to commemorate the wild weekend. We had my design printed on a mini for each of the guys that went (Standard for trips of ours haha).12507547_10153953981979658_355307784037450490_n

Our goal was to hit two courses a day during our 2-day trip. We had researched parks along the way and chose the ones that higher rated via DgCourseReview.com that were on our route. I have gathered several pics from our trip and will showcase those below as I briefly discuss each course we played.

With so much to cover for each course, I’m going to break this up into a four-part series with each post dedicated to each course. I don’t want to overwhelm you guys with a daunting, seemingly infinite scroll of course coverage, pics, and who knows what else [I’m currently sippin’ a Funky Buddha Sweet Potato Casserole Strong Ale so there’s no telling how this will go. Don’t knock it ’til you try it. It’s actually pretty good by itself.]

DAY 1: North Georgia

Heritage Point Park (Dalton, GA)

Only a little over an hour north of us up I-75 is Heritage Point Park which would become our first stop of trip. According to DgCourseReview.com, Heritage Point is rated 3.16 built in 2009 and is a very hilly and heavily wooded mixture of 18 holes. It was a fairly tight and technical course that had lots of elevation changes. That’s what we were looking for heading into mountain territory. There is a pretty big creek that runs through the course that comes into play on 15-17. Although the morning was chilly and windy, we were left with bad course conditions considering the enormous amounts of continuous days of rain earlier that week. Much of the lower areas of the course were flooded. So it was pretty muddy and marshy to say the least. I loved the elevation changes and it was a good workout climbing up and down some of the hills going from hole to hole. It only had two holes over 300′ (305′ longest); but the tight fairways, elevation changes, and heavily wooded areas made it a challenging course to kick off the trip.

Hole #1 you’re teeing off 305′ from a slightly elevated tee box into the woods to a lower set basket. Even though the basket sets lower than the teebox, it still is on a downward sloping hill all around it. You overshoot the basket of go way off the left on your drive and you’ll find your disc setting some 100-150 ft at the bottom of the hill. Hole #2 is only 215′, but it’s a slight dogleg right and WAY up on a steep, muddy hill.

Hole #1 Approach to downhill basket.

Hole #1 Approach to downhill basket.

Hole #3 was also a pretty short hole around 200′. You have a blind drive towards the basket. The basket sets much lower than the teebox again and is positioned on another steep downward hill. This hill had a lot more trees so they were either your friend or your worst enemy depending on whether or not they stopped your disc from rolling all the way down the hill or prevented you from having a clear upshot back towards the basket.

Hole #3 Approach to even steeper downhill basket.

Hole #3 Approach to even steeper downhill basket.


Hole #3 pin location

Hole #3 pin location

Hole #4 (see next two pics) was one of the worst flooded holes on the course. The entire thing was incredibly marshy.

View from Hole #4 box. Good thing there's a dock walkway.

View from Hole #4 box. Good thing there’s a dock walkway.


Approach view to #4 basket with flooded conditions surrounding.

Approach view to #4 basket with flooded conditions surrounding.

Holes 5 and 6 were muddy as well, but at least they weren’t flooded. #5 was a slight dogleg left to a 285′ basket position. The trees were not my friend on this hole and had an unlucky run getting close to the basket. Hole #7 I redeemed by self with a high hyzer flick and parked it at the basket some 165′ away. The basket was tucked way to the left in a tight corner protected by tall brush in the front. Hole 8-10 were a bit straighter fairways. #9 teepad sets behind a set of trees that you have to split to throw uphill towards a slightly elevated basket. With me being left-handed, #10 played well for me with a stiff hyzer to a dogleg right pin position around 220′. #11 brings you out of the woods and up to the backside of the tennis courts. Here you’re throwing over an exposed sewer pipe back into the woods.

The creek was unforgiving to me on Hole #12 when I drove a beat Wahoo and that took off into an extreme anhyzer line and lost sight of it through the tees. We looked and looked but figured the creek swallowed it. The creek isn’t even that close to Hole #12 although it does run parallel to #16–which runs right next to the creek. I hated to lose that disc; that was my floater. The creek was moving so fast it would’ve been long gone by the time I reached it. Hole #13 was very tight and wooded. It was a dogleg left right around 200′ to the basket. Short hole that needed a strong hook to make the dogleg. Hole #14 was a bit longer at 250′ and had more elevation change. The teepad is positioned higher up the hill and you throw down & over a dip/low valley, across a runoff creek, and up to the basket. The next three holes follow the large creek. It gets pretty thick on the right side which acts as a pretty nice buffer between the fairway and the water. With all the rain we’d had lately, the creek was high, murky and moving rapidly. You weren’t finding anything in it.

#18 View from teepad

#18 View from teepad

#18 was a long 290′ foot hole where you teed off from an elevated tee box through a fairway valley and played up a steep hill to the basket. We had one or two throws up the hill that caught an edge and rolled all the way back down…fail. I’d love to play this course again once it really dries up. The mud and the sheer amount of flooded areas made it difficult to navigate and play. Great lil course though. If you’re up for a wooded, hilly technical course with elevation changes, you should check out Heritage Point. Great start to the trip!
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Check back later for Part II of the series!
-jt


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