After getting settled into Minneapolis the past couple of days, my first time back in Minnesota since moving to Coos Bay, Oregon in April 2022, I begging, groveled, bargained, sweet-talked my way into getting to play one new course this afternoon. 🙂 I tease, as my wife is very understanding and accommodating…letting me feed my addiction. That being said, she is the only one allowed to drive our rental car on this trip (in effort for us to save money), so if any of the four of us (five…my youngest daughter’s girlfriend came with us) want to go anywhere? Saint Rebecca is our chauffeur. Becky said we should have time for me to play ONE NEW COURSE today…so I made sure and choose an eighteen-holer. And in looking at my (limited) options? I thought playing the recently-redesigned North Valley DGC would be my best choice.
I teased my friend and fellow course collector Mike Harrington that it might be the third course I have been able to add to my Courses Played Collection on that same property over the years! 🙂 But every time a course designer essentially starts from scratch on a property? UDisc and DGCourseReview.com makes the old course record extinct and adds the new design on the property as a new course. So we’ll be happy with the +1 in my collection…my 340th course played in the State of Minnesota.
Overall, I liked the new course design! I loved the upkeep and addition of chips…with the exception of a couple of holes that had unnecessarily-fierce rough immediately adjacent to a 10-15 foot wide fairway. There were a couple of head-scratchers for hole designs as well (too close to other holes and/or introducing safety hazards with other park amenities). But in the history of disc golf course design? There has never been anything such as the 100% perfect, 100% safe course. And the positives of this one far outweighed the negatives, in my opinion.
I managed to shoot a -5 (54) over eighteen holes, for an estimated round rating of 985. I chunked a couple of tee shots and missed a couple of putts. But it could have been much, MUCH worse. And Becky hadn’t finished reading her book by the time I got back to the car, so all was well… 🙂
Magic Number = -29 (2,029 Courses Played)
ABOUT DEREK
Derek Tonn is a member of the DGA’s Ambassador Team. His company, Mapformation, LLC, has been DGA’s partner in the development of disc golf tee signage since 2012. The longer our two companies have worked together, and the more Derek has gotten to know all the great folks at DGA, the more he has wanted to formally sing the company’s praises. The more he has realized that “Steady” Ed’s (the father of disc golf and the modern-day Frisbee) vision for the sport and his company perfectly describes his own interests and priorities related to disc golf, and the more Derek has recently been encouraged to share his story.