Coggshall 2016
Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 9:06 pm
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
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