Greetings....

The Warwick town board decided to create an athletic field and re-locate the rear parking lot in the park. This decision was made in October without the knowledge of a single Disc Golfer.

We've managed to create a course that most of the world's best players have played and put among their favorite courses. It is very disappointing to me and the local players that a course with such an amazing national reputation doesn't get the respect from it's own town's politicians. To not even be consulted or told about this and to find out only after the earth movers began their work is a slap in the face.

What this means is that Hole #4 is gone. It also means that Hole #3 will have to be re-designed because the new parking lot will be located in a location where errant tee shots off the Blue #3 tee will regularly land (OB across the park road).

This all came down yesterday.

Steve Brinster and I will be out at the course over the weekend pondering various re-design options.

The great news however is that maybe there's a silver lining here.

I believe that we'll have some amazing options to make the Animal course even better than it was. We're contemplating possibly combining Hole #2 and #3 (with some tweaking) and adding 2 new holes in the woods along the creek behind holes 12 and 13 back towards Wolfe Woods. Adding 2 holes with a creek and extending 2 holes (by combining #2 and #3) and possibly extending #12 will ultimately result in a more challenging and fun course.

I wish the re-design was by choice as opposed to the irresponsible manner in which the town handled this project. But the town councilman seems legitimately embarrassed by the way they handled it and perhaps in the long run we'll end up with some concessions and financial assistance we otherwise wouldn't have.

We'll keep you posted about our re-design and rest assured we're doing whatever we can to make the Warwick course even more amazing.

Dan Doyle

Sorry to hear about that Dan, that is an Unforunate tragedy. Sounds like the re-design efforts are going to be nice, and make the course a liTTle tougher.
Looking forward to the next BIG event held by The Skyland's Club at Warwick.

thanks brian.....

i'm concocting some interesting ideas for 2009....

dd

That's really unfortunate. I've had the opportunity to play Warwick twice in the last few years and it was an amazing course. I wish I lived closer so I could play more often!

Best of luck with the forced redesign. I'll look forward to playing the new holes when I manage to make it over there again.

3 and 4 were pretty cool. I really liked that shot going by or over the utility shed, 4 if remember right. 3 was somewhat of a signature hole IMO. I've only been there once but plan to come back someday for sure. Awesome tourney, course, town and people...

Hole#4 was always one of my favorites but it was always problematic. There was always a subtle headwind, not normally able to be felt on the teepad, that turned over discs towards the road. It was something that only those with local knowledge would pick up on. Then a few years ago, the county came through and trimmed the foliage on the side of the road and made for an enormous safety hazard. Additionally, the blue polehole was next to a small parking lot that was usually deserted all year long until there was a big tournament, it seemed like. Ultimately the county's removal of the foliage necessitated shortening the blue pin position and taking away a great pro par four hole.

In an Animal Doubles tournament many years ago, Scott Wolfe and I were partners. Playing blue-blue, we both hit the side of the silver basket with our drives for two near "grey" aces. During the Skylands NT tournament in 2005, Val Jenkins was playing blue-blue and her drive hit the big cedar tree in the middle. From an awkward downhill lie under the tree, she proceeded to hit the side of the blue basket and nearly holed out what would have been an amazing fairway ace. Brinster bombed his approach shot in (probably a 125-150' shot) for an eagle two in the finals in this same tournament.

hole 4 did cause problems!
:eek:
http://img4.glowfoto.com/images/2008/01/13-0045153176M.jpg (http://www.glowfoto.com/user_imageredirect.php?iid=1940266)

Dan,
I'm sorry to hear this as well. As Warwick being my original Home Course (before being relocated to the southern part of jersey) and I hate to see any of it changed. I was upset when i heard about 4's long basket getting moved and now all this?

I'm very upset to hear that none of you were contacted and that no one else had a problem with the moving of lots and fields. There are tons of acres in that area of ny that they could use to put another field on, but they just had to disrupt what was already there :(.

I'm gonna be up for Buzzy's Icebowl on the 26th and we will be playing Warwick the next day as is my tradition. I'll unfortunatley be up there shortly to see all this myself. Can't wait to hear about what you and Brinster are considering for a redesign!

-Scott Lewis

i think i've come up with my ideas for the re-design. i'll be speaking with steve brinster and a few others to get some input, as i want feedback and a general consensus that any re-design we come up with is fair, fun, and yet challenging.

my general concept is to still have our 4 layouts (S-S, S-B, B-S, B-B), PLUS have a 5th World-Class Par 72 layout that can be played either recreationally or for our top world-class events going forward.

steve and i came up with 2 holes a few weeks ago behind holes 12 & 13. i think everyone will be quite pleased with these 2 additions to the Animal course, as they feature flight paths unlike any others on the course.

i think that what i have conceived for the World Class layout will be a super surprise and will make for an incredible upgrade from what we have offered to date.

my goal is to make the Warwick course as good as any course in the country. i'm willing to provide funding for tee signs and 2 bridges and tee pads.

I'll be looking for unprecedented volunteer efforts at workdays this Spring so we can bring these ideas to fruition.....

be psyched.....it's gonna' be amazing.....

dd
_________________

tentative re-design ideas as follows:

for everday play we'll still have our 4 layouts (S-S, B-S, S-B, B-B).
there'll be some tweaking of current holes 2 & 3. there are a few options on the table that would involve combining them in some manner. i'm also contemplating extending the #1 blue pin to make play to the #1 blue pin a Par 4, but that is dependent upon what we decide to do with #2 and #3.

the major re-design involves 2 new holes behind the current #12 and #13 back in the woods. one hole would be along the creek. the other would parallel the creek but be closer to the #13 tees.

#13 thru #18 will be unchanged.

for the Par 72 world-class layout, which would be our 5th animal course layout, the plan is as follows:

Hole #1 would play #1 Blue tee to current #3 blue pin. in other words it's kind of like a safari hole combining current #1, #2, and #3. it would be a Par 5 and would require removal of some trees near the 2 #2 baskets. this thinning would be in conjunction with whatever we decide to do with combining #2 and #3 (see above). Therefore, when you play this layout, the current #5 hole would actually be hole #2.

Second, we'd play #11 Blue tee to #12 blue pin, which would be a Par 4. This would actually be the 8th hole on the World Class layout.

Then, here's the cool kicker:

After playing that hole, you'd walk across a new bridge at the creek and play what is currently the #14 wolfe woods hole from a brand new tee that would make this a Par 4. Then you'd head over to the current #13 Wolfe woods long tee and play that hole to a brand new extended fairway and pin just short of or just over the creek. This would be probably about an 800-foot Par 5 with OB the entire right side of the fairway and the creek to worry about on your approach. I believe that once we finish with this fairway it'll be the most exciting and challenging and fun hole of the entire 18 holes on the world class layout.

After playing that hole (#10 on this layout), you'll proceed to the 2 new woods holes, which will be #11 and #12 both on the normal everyday course and on the World-Class layout.

Under this scenario, the World-Class layout will have 5 Par 5's; 5 Par 3's; and 8 Par 4's.

The priority in terms of sequencing the work is as follows:

new #11 hole along the creek.
new # 12 hole.
re-design of #2 and #3.
extending Wolfe Woods #13.
extending #14 Wolfe woods.
tweaking #1 (if an option).

Hole #1 would play #1 Blue tee to current #3 blue pin. in other words it's kind of like a safari hole combining current #1, #2, and #3. it would be a Par 5 and would require removal of some trees near the 2 #2 baskets. this thinning would be in conjunction with whatever we decide to do with combining #2 and #3 (see above).



I love most of the ideas mentioned except for this #1 to #3 concept, especially because some type of mandatory would likely be needed. Would players be forced to throw to the right side of the storage shed, with a mandatory there? From the silver tee of hole#1, would players throw past the current blue basket of #1 and down that road? If there's no mandatory, from the blue tee of #1 would players throw past the current silver and blue tees of hole#3 and down that road? Both of these options sound very awkward. Additionally, the area near the current blue tee of hole#3 is used for parking and this new hole may bring cars into play.

jeff....

all of your concerns have already been discussed and considered. any re-design will consider those issues.

it would be as simple as putting a mandatory arrow on one tree somewhere on the current #2 fairway. similar to the mandatory arrow we have on the #5 tee, that mando basically doesn't come into play and is only there to prevent players from pursuing a route to the hole that is both unsafe and not intended to be an optional route.