Coggshall 2016

[Rick Hobbs]

The long years of toil are paying off. Today we had a crew out there and we cranked out two brand new tee pads for 1 and 18, and also removed most of the big log piles on 18 with the help of a dump truck. It was me, Joshua Jenkins, Erik Lindgren, Keven May, Joe Bettencourt, and Jim Legere opening up a 55-gallon drum of Making [bleep] Happen with a little extra help from Dan Walsh. And who shows up for a cameo but one of our Founding Fathers, Arty "The Mayor" Graustein.
This is no longer the scruffy underused Coggshall of yore. We have an active and growing club now, so it's no longer me and a few other guys crawling around in the bushes with loppers and hand saws. We have access to power brush cutters and chainsaws, and a dump truck every so often. Last October we did a major overhaul of "Number Nine Nightmare" by clearing out the undergrowth and taking down several of the large dead trees. The tee box was moved down the path a ways because some of the drives from 8 were landing too close to the old one. So the hole is shorter but plays much better because there's less of a chance of losing a disc in the bushes. 8 has a wood-dirt-flypad tee box, along with a new path with stairs up the hill, and the fairways of 5 and 7 have been cleared out substantially. There's a new "Tourney Central" in the big open are between the park road and 18's fairway, with a big old picnic table and a few benches. The city has been gracious enough to let us keep the gate at the South Street entrance open all season. No more racing against darkness and having to get chased out when Monday night league is running late.
So we now have brick pads on 1,2,3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, and 18. We have a tournament coming up on May 7th, "Welcome To The Jungle". Our next major workday is scheduled for next Sunday, April 24th. Lunch and sodas/water included. Our plan is to clean up as much as we can of the fairways on holes 13-17, and re-level and smooth out the tee pads on 15 and 17.
I didn't post here much last year because the club Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/166193810256798/ is where we do most of our communicating. This year I want to post more here as we continue to grow our own legend. Anyone who played here in the past but maybe had some criticisms- and I didn't take them personally, a lot of people raised some valid points- will have a much more enjoyable round here now. We get a lot of overflow from Devens on their tournament days, and there are almost always several cars in the parking lot. Quite a few local folks are playing here and getting involved. I remember one of our first workdays, before we even had baskets, when I happened to see a former high school classmate of mine, walking her dog. I told her about the course, and she asked who was going to maintain it. For a while, it was me and a few others. Now we have so many willing volunteers that there's a lot of work being done with which I'm no longer directly involved, and I wonder "who did that?"
I always knew this would be a great course some day, once we got some more people to help with the workload. Now at last it would appear we are on our way. Thanks to all who have supported the course over the years.
Rick

[David Hoey]

Went there for the first time today and the tee pads look great.
You can tell there's been a lot of work done... even for someone who's never been there.
Great job guys.

[Rick Hobbs]

The place looks great but it came at the cost if wrecking my score at league last night. I pushed a little too hard on Sunday chucking the logs from 18 into the back of the dump truck. Last night, first drive of the night I tweaked my elbow good and hard and I couldn't throw worth a damn the rest of the round. At least I got the almost a obligatory deuce on 12. Donnie Phillips was on my card and he aced 1. I got an OB on the same hole. And it wasn't the worst hole of the night for me. Good thing I had beer handy.
Oh yes, almost forgot... last night's league attendance was a new record of 42. The parking lot was full and overflowing. So lots if people had fun even if I had an off night.

[Mike Murphy]

Played Saturday and the course looked really nice. Kicked the crap outta me but the course played well.

Good use of the terrain, I dig it.

[Rick Hobbs]

Judging by the Facebook posts, our "Welcome To The Jungle" tournament went over huge. The club busted out a lot of work in the preceding weeks and it paid off big. Unfortunately, I was called away after the first round for a family emergency, but I read the posts on our club Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/166193810256798/ afterward.
We still have work to do. New "real" tee signs are being discussed, I'm hoping we'll have made some progress on this by the end of the year. A couple of weeks ago, Wallace Holmes, Jacki Bogan, Joshua Jenkins and I appeared on a segment of "Discussing Fitchburg" on FATV with Sam Squalia. It was the liveliest segment of the show but unfortunately the shortest.
Upcoming events include our second annual "Battle Of The Aces" and clinics for newcomers. I'll post the links here soon.
Now the course is playing like I've always wanted it to. There are still a few places that could use some thinning out, but "The Jungle" is being (somewhat) tamed at last. If you haven't played here yet or in a while, come on out!

[Titan_Bariloni]

natural evolution

I knew this is what Coggs really needed

Great to see a team being created at Coggs also.

Nice work