UMass Amhert course in close to installation!

[Ed Faits]

Jason, I don't know you and can't tell if your comments are good natured teasing or a snarky cheap shot on Brian. I'm friends with Brian and I can at least tell you:

Brian's company Explore Disc Golf has designed or co-designed at least eight or nine permanent courses that I know of that "still exist", and all of them meet a standard of quality. As a professional designer Brian has to work with what the client gives him to work with, and he has pulled some amazing layouts out of some sketchy property. All of his courses stress safe design and meet the level of play the client asks for. Not all are 18 hole "Gold Level" monsters, but that's not always what his clients are looking for.

If you're implying the UMASS Orchard Hill Course "isn't good", it certainly has more to do with how the school chooses to maintain the property and lack of funding for any course improvements. The design is solid and when the course is mowed and cleaned up it's a fun "White Course" from the back tees and a "Red Level" course from the front, and its exposed the sport of Disc Golf to hundreds of students over the years.

Brian built the GREAT Pineland Farms course just outside of Portland, Maine, its quickly getting the reputation for being one of the best courses in New England.

My favorite design of Brian's is Scouting Woods in Peabody, where he took what's basically big water retention area and carved out the first course in the Boston metro area worth taking seriously.

I'm not sure if your "still exists" comments references the many temporary 3 hole courses Brian puts in at major music festivals around the country, that have exposed hundreds of first time players to the game and routinely get RAVE reviews from players and music promoters.

[Brian Giggey]

Hi Brian,

How many courses have you installed? How many of these still exist?

Finally, are any of them any good?

Thank you for your time,

Jason

Hi Jason,

Explore Disc Golf has installed 18 courses since 2013. To our knowledge they all exist and are doing just fine.

Good question! Each project is unique in what the landscape gives us (i.e. UMass and Peabody are aimed towards the beginner --- positive reinforcement to encourage newcomers to want to return and play disc golf again --- while others are a bit longer like Pineland Farms in Maine, or Thacher State Park in NY).

I would think Pineland Farms is our best course to date (http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=7737). Currently being claimed as the best in the state of Maine, and one of the premier course in New England. Its hosting The Maine State Championships in October. You should check it out...incredible property!

As for moving forward, we have slowed down a bit in 2016 to focus on a select few larger scale projects (coming soon in ME and CT) instead of numerous mid-sized 9-hole designs (we did 8 in 2015 and it put a lot of stress on our other projects). We're also making sure our sister company, Soundscape Merchandise, is properly positioned with several new employees recently coming on board.

Appreciate your enquires. Best wishes!

[Brian Giggey]

My favorite design of Brian's is Scouting Woods in Peabody, where he took what's basically big water retention area and carved out the first course in the Boston metro area worth taking seriously.

Thanks for the kind words, Ed! We should connect sometime --- some new big developments on our end.

Hope you're doing great! Super excited you like Peabody so much. That was a fun and quite stressful project. Glad to see so many love it...especially considering its a real short, technical 9-holes that really only caters towards beginners (or advanced looking to birdie every hole).

Miss working on a course together. We're carving out a 9-hole course on our 7 acres in Shutesbury. You should come design a hole or two

[Titan_Bariloni]

is the one shutesbury at the camp?

is it getting redesigned?

ty