Has anybody played this course? It sounds awesome. Would like to hear some feedback before planning a road trip out to play this course. From the PDGA directory:

Description: Former ski hill provides spectacular downhill shots. Grassy fairways and wooded alleys. Elevated tees and greens, water hazard, pine forest and vistas leave you gasping. Dogs MUST be leashed. Private but open to public. DG season: 4/2 to 12/20.

Beuller? Beuller?

I have played about 30 differenbt courses and I would rank this course in the top 50%. A nice course tucked in the middle of Pensylvania. Plays up, down and across an old ski hill used by the college in the Winter time. Plenty of variety where you have a few holes playing through woods, a few holes playing up the hill, and a few holes playing down the hill and a few holes playing across the hill. Only complaint is that there are (I am guessing) 4 holes that are under 200 feet.

This course is AMAZING!!! It was designed by J Gary Dropcho who designed Knob Hill in pittsburgh. The course has some really nice holes. Hole 14 is a great tight downhill wooded shot. #18 is 800 feet down an old ski slope. You WILL throw all of your discs once you get to this shot. Definitely a MUST PLAY. We just had our tournament there last week.

there is only 1 hole under 200 feet....actually 0 I believe it is 224

Thanks, guys! -Jeff

Played the course over the weekend, here's my review:

Indiana University of Pennsylvania College Lodge, Indiana, PA.

Have you been envious after hearing stories from fellow golfers playing disc golf courses at ski areas out west such as Kiss the Sky in Aspen, Sipapu in New Mexico or the Snowbowl temp course from last year’s Pro Worlds in Flagstaff, AZ? The good news is that east-coasters have the opportunity to play something similar right here in our own backyard!

Located just over an hour east of Pittsburgh is tiny Indiana, PA, where the state university located there, IUP, owns a recreational park called the Co-Op Park. It features approx. 270 acres of woodlands, fields, hiking and walking trails as well as a gigantic hillside that was once a small ski area with three separate slopes. Thanks to the efforts of Michael Dropcho and the Indiana Disc Links Association, a world class 18-hole disc golf course was installed in October of 2001. With several huge downhill chucks including the signature 18th hole which plays over 700 feet from the top of the hill to the very bottom, you may find your breath taken away just as your buddies did out west.

Before you get to the ski slope you must first negotiate a few holes by the pond. The first hole is lined with an OB street down the entire left-hand side and heavy woods on the right. Both an anhyzer and a hyzer route exist here but you must have good control of your disc to avoid the hazards here. Hole 2 plays up a creek bed and beautiful craftsmanship went into the tee pads on this hole as well as the following hole #3, which has a drain built in right under the teepad to keep it dry! Hole 4 plays straight up the ski slope and with an extremely fast green, it’s a legit par 4 from the pro tee. Try to catch your breath and get your deuces on holes 5 and 6, because hole 7 is also a par 4 from the long tee. It plays down a very narrow path between heavy woods on either side, and placement on the fairway along with a pinpoint approach is critical to getting a birdie three on this hole.

The fun really begins on hole 8 which shoots down the most narrow of the ski trails. The basket is only about halfway down the hill and you’ll find that avoiding the woods on either side or avoiding blowing 100’ or more past the polehole is quite a challenge. Hole 9 plays down the remainder of the slope to the base, and is quite the thrilling drive and whets your appetite for hole 18. As with hole 8, big arms may need to “club down” again on this ninth hole to avoid overshooting the polehole unless they play from the long tee further up the hill.

The back nine plays through similar extreme elevation changes but is much more heavily wooded. Hole 12 is a gorgeous uphill par 4 along a narrow walking path that once again, requires accurate placement of the drive on the fairway to set up your approach for a birdie 3. Hole 14 plays as a gentle but sharply downhill righty hyzer, but off the fairway is trouble with a capital ‘T’ here. Hole 15 is one of those gauntlet holes between rows of evenly-spaced trees that you’ve probably seen at another disc golf course; a gentle touch can nab a deuce here but you can also get early wood and a nasty rollaway down the hillside. Get your deuce on the very easy 17th hole before you finish with one of the most thrilling finishing holes in all of disc golf.

From the tee, the 18th polehole is visible 722 feet in distance and several hundred feet below you. With purple and white wildflowers lining the fairway and surrounding the polehole, along with views of the distant college lodge with its big stone fireplace, an allusion to “The Sound of Music” is not out of place here. Taking in the scenery is a lot easier than executing on this hole however. For a right-handed player, a flippy driver is needed off the tee in order to clear the woods and to keep from hyzering off hard left at the end of its flight. Any drive that doesn’t roll to the right will likely fade left across the OB access road on the fairway of hole 10. While elusive, a well-executed drive that lands past the telephone pole marker may come up short of the basket but still travel some 600 feet!

With the strenuous climbing required to negotiate the layout, I found this course to challenge both my golf game and my physical fitness. On warm days golfers will want to bring plenty of water along to avoid dehydration. Since holes 12 and 18 play as par fours, the short tees play to a total course par of 56. The long tees make holes 4 and 7 par fours, for a total par 58 from the long tees. The course didn’t surrender low scores to my golfing group, however a glance at recent tournament scores saw golfers shooting in the mid 40s! I have a feeling that the eventual addition of alternate pin positions as well as blue Pro tees to the back nine will result in a course that will rank as one of the most difficult in the state.

If you need local lodging while playing the IUP College Lodge course, check first for availability at the Indiana Holiday Inn. We were all blown away by its Holidome Indoor Recreation Center, which offered an indoor pool, sauna, whirlpool, exercise room, 9-hole mini golf course, billiards, table tennis, foosball table, and game room!

The following is from the PFDS e-flyer:

COLLEGE LODGE COURSE UNDER SCRUTINY; COULD BE CLOSED TO PUBLIC

Officials at IUP's Student Co-Op, which owns and operates the College Lodge course, have expressed strong concerns about evidence of alcohol consumption on park premises. Repeated instances of this violation of park rules may result in the course being totally or partially pulled, or restricted to IUP I-card holders only.

Such action is completely within their rights, non-negotiable, and would mean the end of events such as the Indiana Open, the Pennsylvania Collegiate Disc Golf Championships, and World's Biggest Disc Golf Weekend being held there.

It is not clear who the culprits are, but PFDS and IDLA expect that our members have acted properly and according to the park's rules in the past. We hope anyone playing the course will help police the facility, talk positively with other players about their responsibility while a guest at the Lodge, and help eliminate the bad actions of what seems to be a very small number of people.

According to Pittsburgh Flying Disc Society representative J. Gary Dropcho, the university has pulled the back nine at the IUP College Lodge course because of repeated instances of beer drinking on the course. :( :mad: