Deis Hill ~ Dover City Park, Ohio

[gotcha]

Deis Hill Disc Golf Course in Dover, OH

PDF Map >>> Click Here

I had read good things about this course via the internet so a couple of weeks ago a group of us from Pittsburgh drove to the Buckeye state to check it out. Dover, Ohio is just outside of New Philadelphia, not too far south of Canton and located just off Interstate 77. We had no problems finding the park as the directions published in the PDGA Course Directory are accurate and easy to follow. This course is challenging and beautiful to say the least. A mix of long open holes, tight/technical woods and tons of elevation.....the layout demands good course management skills and placement is key on several of the par 3's and 4's. Big arms will have a distinct advantage on this course, especially from the blue tees which measure over 9300'.

The first thing we noticed were the high quality tee signs marking every tee. Not only do the signs provide players with descriptive details, an actual photograph from the tee is provided which includes a yellow arrow that point towards the direction of the green. Of the 200+ courses I've played, these are definitely some of the nicest tee signs out there.

The 18 hole layout combines a wonderful array of hole design which presents players with just about every type of shot imaginable. Most of the holes are segregated from other park activities with the exception of holes 4 and 5. Both of these holes can easily bring a walking path into play. I felt uncomfortable executing my tee shot on hole 4 and luckily had friends with me who could spot the blind corner to ensure no one was on the path when I threw. Though it would be nice if every player had the courtesy to spot and allow pedestrians the right of way on holes like this, I fear that it will only be a matter of time before an injury will result from an errant drive or approach shot on these two holes. Other holes that can present a safey issue are #17 and #18, but the safety would only involve the disc golfers themselves. Both of these holes border each other closely and tee shots on 17 can easily end up sailing downhill onto the fairway of 18. Day to day use will hopefully not present much of an issue, however, tournament play will yield different results, not to mention a back-up.

From a disc golf standpoint, the course is really a lot of fun to play. There is a significant amount of back-tracking to play the blue tees as it appears the course was designed with the red tees in mind.....the shortest walk between holes is from basket to red tee. That's cool, however.....we could tell by the natural tee erosion that the majority of play is seen by recreational players from the shorter red tees (4,370' layout). We noted the actual course design is slightly altered from the map provided above as holes 11 and 12 have been redesigned, possibly resulting in the course being a bit longer in length than the map states. Also, the blue tee par is listed at 62, however, we felt that par for that layout should be closer to 63 or 64 (i.e. hole 2 should be considered a par 4 from the blue tee).

All in all, we had a really good time and anxiously await an organized tournament at this course. I'm sure other first-time visitors will be equally impressed. Below are a few images from our round at Deis Hill DGC:




Josh "Stella" Charlton on hole 3 blue tee.


Hole 3's green.


Stella on the blue tee of hole 4.


A view of hole 4's fairway from beside the light pole.


A view toward the green of hole 4 and the adjacent walking path (the pin is located next to the tree on the far right).


Chris Deitzel putts on hole 4.


Sid Olcott on the blue tee of hole 5.


Chris Deitzel and his approach shot on hole 5.


Deitzel putting on the steep-sloped green of hole 7.


Sid Olcott and his approach attempt on hole 8 (o.b. creek comes into play along left side of fairway and green).


A few of the holes allow plenty of "room to boom" off the tee like this view from hole 11's blue tee. This hole plays all the way down the right side and through the gap in the trees seen in the distance.....and then around the corner left!


Hole 14's blue tee offers a 495' downhill drive which will tempt players to empty their bags just because....


Sid O's tee shot off hole 14's blue tee (it sure would be nice to have that post removed from the center of the fairway).


A reverse view of hole 14's basket.


My approach shot on hole 16.


The 480' hole 17 blue tee.


A reverse view of hole 17.


The view from hole 18's blue tee.

[gotcha]

I forgot to mention the poison ivy......it is everywhere if you find yourself off the fairway.

[jmc2442]

great write up and pics Jerry. you basically said it all....

I'd like to add that Jerry did not stress the poison ivy issue here enough. If you get it look out! Wear long socks, bring something to wash yourself with immediately after the round, and have alcohol wipes with you during just in case.

[Jeff_LaG]

Nice writeup Jerry. I first heard of this course when Terry Calhoun commented about it here and it sounds awesome.

I definitely agree about the safety hazards on hole#4 and #5, and from a course design perspective, hole#17 bothers me. Is there a mando from the blue tee that forces one to throw the tunnel of woods? If not, it seems foolish to attempt it and the best play is to just throw a righty hyzer out into hole#18's fairway. It looks like the righty angle is cut off from the white tee so one is forced to throw the tunnel from that tee. (or alternatively throw a lefty hyzer/righty anhyzer out over the road, resulting in another safety hazard) What probably ends up happening is that at 435', the white tee ends up being harder than the blue tee at 480' because you can choose to throw around the outside on the latter, and intuitively that seems weird. (At only 255' from the red tee, the tunnel is likely a much easier shot and the preferred route from that tee)

And as you mentioned, because of the slope of the hill, drives from the blue tee or white tee that are intended to fly down the tunnel probably end up in hole#18's fairway quite often anyway.

[jmc2442]

hole#17 bothers me. Is there a mando from the blue tee that forces one to throw the tunnel of woods? If not, it seems foolish to attempt it and the best play is to just throw a righty hyzer out into hole#18's fairway.

The #18 righty hyzer route is not playable from the Blue Tee due to the placement of trees and low branches. The lefty hyzer over the road however is playable.

And as you mentioned, because of the slope of the hill, drives from the blue tee or white tee that are intended to fly down the tunnel probably end up in hole#18's fairway quite often anyway.

My drive did and I'm lefty going for the road gap. Hit a tree, went right, played 18's fairway.

[5355]

One of the best written/photogenic reviews of a course yet. You should publish a book.

Thanks Jerry.

Tim

[jmc2442]

Goocher has an eye for snapping shots and course views in general. I know Jerry could put together one sick disc golf photo book. I know I'd buy one.

[gotcha]

The #18 righty hyzer route is not playable from the Blue Tee due to the placement of trees and low branches. The lefty hyzer over the road however is playable.

I have to disagree, Stella. As a right-handed player, and because of no mando forcing the tunnel shot off the tee, I contemplated the hyzer down the hill onto 18's fairway. It was because we were playing casually I opted to drive the tunnel which got pretty far down the fairway, but took a skip, ended on edge and rolled down the hill onto 18's fairway. There's no way to reach the green by throwing the righty hyzer off the blue tee, however, it's not a difficult strategy to bomb one downhill and then follow with an uphill approach to the green. I would prefer to play a mandatory down the tube.


Sid Olcott's uphill approach toward the #17 green.

[kUrTp]

I have to disagree, Stella.

You got shot down by Goocher...OUCH!!! [img]/msgboard/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[jmc2442]

I swore that the hyzer gap was not there... I apologize, guess I was mistaken. I do remember saying that day that there really should be a mando on both sides forcing the tunnel shot. The road and 18 are not how the hole was designed to be played and at a distance >400 feet it would be A LOT tougher if you had to throw the trees. A LOT safer too.

[flyboy]

Great tee signs but no tee pads.....What is more important?This course looks awsome, but a large course ,without good tees is a killer...A course of this size needs 2 sets of tees for all levels of play..Flypads

[kUrTp]

A true salesman at work. Wish Moraine had them, maybe someday!?!?

[Jeff_LaG]

The #17 righty hyzer route is not playable from the Blue Tee due to the placement of trees and low branches.

The 480' hole 17 blue tee.



Look at all that daylight out to the right - looks wide open to me. Why mess with the tunnel when you have all the room in the world to throw out to the right?

[jmc2442]

wow, i didnt remember it being that big. I hate mandos, but this one needs a few.

[Jeff_LaG]

I hate mandos, but this one needs a few.

Agreed. I know the temptation to utilize these types of holes is great (whenever I'm driving somewhere and I see evenly spaced rows of trees I always imagine a disc golf hole between them) but mandatories are sorely needed to prevent the safety hazard of the park road on the left and hole#18 on the right, and to keep folks from defeating the design of the hole. I think that even with mandos there are likely going to be plenty of lateral deflections that still cause the interference, however.

[kUrTp]

Maybe the park needs to plant more trees so it looks like this. That way if a disc skips off a tree it's likely to hit another.

[jmc2442]

^^^......

(Oh-oh, here she comes) Watch out boy trees'll chew you up
(Oh-oh, here she comes) 15's a discbeater!
(Oh-oh, here she comes) Watch out boy trees'll chew you up
(Oh-oh, here she comes) 15's a discbeater

I do, however, still love the lodge

[flyboy]

486 par 3?????????with mandys...New pads for PA before the big event.....

[gotcha]

Great tee signs but no tee pads.....What is more important?

Tee signs.....without them, you often can't find the next tee.

[sandalbagger]

because that right side has the steepest hill you could ever imagine and your disc will roll a mile to the bottom of the hill.