Now that the family wedding festivities are complete, Becky and I started our next part of our trip to Minnesota: traveling to spend some time with my mom and to spend a few days letting me course collect. 🙂 We didn’t have a lot of time to check out courses today, but we did get one course in: Polka 9 in Gibbon, Minnesota.
Polka 9 was a disappointment, though it was also what I expected to find. A lot of small towns in the Upper Midwest will have courses that their local player(s) will design, so they have a place they can tell their buddies they created. Courses with a LOT of safety issues and other shortcomings. And with this particular course? Five of the nine holes have softball field fencing that comes DIRECTLY into play, particularly for RHBH/LHFH players. It made me wonder if a local lefty designed this course? As it is rare to see a course with so many problems for players who throw right-to-left off the tee!
There were a couple of fun holes out there, such as Hole 5 (shown above). But mostly this was a course I would never want to play again. And with all the problems and potential safety issues around other recreational issues (I suppose even a careless RHBH/LHFH player could try and go very wide on Hole 5 and bring that playground equipment into play…sigh)? If I were the City of Gibbon? I would see what could be done to make sure hole fairways/baskets are as far away from the softball field on the property as is possible. ESPECIALLY Holes 2, 7, 8 and 9.
I ended up shooting a -7 (23) for an estimated round rating of 931. I thought my round rating should have been better, as with that fencing and field coming directly into play? Holes 8 and 9, in particular, require some excellent tee/approach shots to have any chance at a deuce (I managed two threes).
On to my mom’s, and a lot more disc golf in the days ahead!
Magic Number = -83 (2,083 Courses Played)
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.