Course report from Acorn Park, Roseville, Minnesota, May 26th, 1999.

While at the Cray User's Group in Minneapolis earlier this week, I managed to sneak out early in the morning before the conferene started to visit a local disc golf course.

Minnesota is something of a disc golfing dream... it has over 50 courses. The only states with more are California and Texas. And the courses are well organized and listed. Many are on this page:

http://www.spacestar.net/users/bogie6/metro.html

Thank goodness for the web. There were several courses not too far from downtown, but they were all little 9-holers. After a bit of pokig around, I found Acorn Park, in Roseville (St. Paul area) not too far away, and reported to be popular. Here's the page for that park:

http://www.dgc-online.com/pdget.cgi?minnesot-StPaAcornPark

I didn't take a camera on this trip, so don't have any pictures.

The course was a good one. Definitely worth a return if in the area.

The landscape was moderately hilly. Some holes were in dense forest, while others were in open, mowed-grass park. Unlike nearly any other place I went, it was also packed with marshy-swampy-muddy ponds. (Note to self - take better shoes than sandals or take a 2nd pair of pants on short trips or don't try to jump big deep messy mud puddles.) So there were some remarkably interesting hazards on the course.

The biggest challenge was figuring out where the basket was and where the next hole was. Not only was the course fairly sparsely marked, but it actually had inaccurate signs in some place. But I figured it out and plodded through. I think that knowing the course would be a big win - the holes were in general interesting and challenging, and quite varied. It might well be close to the level of a West Park.

An example might be good here - you tee off from the top of a hill. You have to make it through a gap in the trees. If you don't, you land in a groddy mud puddle at the bottom. Once you're through that, there's a tight curve to the left up a grassy hill, and then a putt around a low-hanging tree.

So... if you're ever up there, and you can find a course map or a friendly local, it's worth a visit.

-r'm