Kansas boy here about to experience some of life's finer DGC's. I'm hoping some of you locals (or experienced vacationers) could clue me in to the "can't miss courses." I visited a few years back, but only had the chance to play Santa Cruz, S. Lake Tahoe, Kirkwood, Orangevale, & Stockton.

I'll be staying in Sacramento the week before the 4th of July. I've looked through the course directory here on the PDGA site and wrote down courses of moderate interest or better that may be within driving distance/ time restraints. I'll be in Calli for 5 full days, but I probably won't get away with golfing the whole time.

I'm going to list these courses in 3 categories: probably will play, might play, and probably won't play. Any feedback I get will probably influence this. Maybe those that have played these courses can tell me what I have in the wrong place. Thanks!!


Current "must play" list...

Grass Valley: Condon Park
Grass Valley: Toney's Mountain
Penn Valley: Hanging Oaks
Rocklin: DGC

Truckee: River Regional Park
Zephr Cove: DGC
S. Lake Tahoe: Bijou Comm. Park
Kirkwood: Mountain Resort

Napa: Skyline Wilderness
Novato: Stafford Lake
Santa Cruz: DeLaveaga



"Might" hit list...

Auburn: Regional Park
Oroville: Riverbend Park
Woodland: Fern Park
Sacramento: Regency Park
Orangevale: Shady Oaks Park

Stockton: Oak Grove Regional Park
Modesto: East La Loma Park

Lakeport: Highland Springs Reservoir
Ukiah: either course
Vacaville: Lagoon Valley
Berkeley: Aquatic Park
San Francisco: Golden Gate Park



"Other" noticable courses...

Boonville
Davis
Fair Oaks... little Africa is woodposts?
Felton
Medocino
Moraga
Pebble Beach.....anyone played?
San Jose
Seaside.............anyone played?
Somerset

Grass Valley and Penn Valley are like 15 mins from each other and both worth playing. Auburn is on the way to both Grass Valley and Penn Valley. Rocklin is on the way to Grass Valley you could play all of those in one day.

Woodland, Davis and Regency Courses are short and only 9 holes.

Kirkwood might not be open yet.

Stafford is a must play to.

My suggestions would be
Grass Valley
Penn Valley
Auburn
Rocklin
Truckee
Orangevale
South Lake Tahoe
Zephr Cove
Novato
Dela

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll follow your suggestions pretty closely.

I may not hit Orangevale because I have so many courses to see and I've played it already. I probably won't have time for Kirkwood, although that was a real highlight to the last trip.

Auburn is not bad for a shot course, eh? How about Woodland? I thought it was 18, not 9. Also, is Fair Oaks, aka "little Africa" woodpost targets? Finally, is Berkeley or San Franciso worth visiting?

I would like to play in the Clear Lake area. I bet the courses up their are beautiful. I'm also curious about the Pebble Beach/ Monterey/ Seaside/ Somerset area and perhaps also San Luis Obispo. Anyone played there? Time restraints again. Got a day trip to Tahoe, Novato, Grass Valley, Santa Cruz and many other things on the menu in between.

Anyone have any other suggestions on things to do or see other than disc sports, specifically in the San Francisco or Sacramento areas?

Thanks for the info.
Michael Schoenhofer

I wouldn't bother with San Luis Obispo...but Atascadero about 20 miles north and Santa Maria about 20 miles south are great courses.

Woodland is a short 9 hole course. Little Africa is a wood post course. I wouldnt play Berkeley it is always windy it is along water and there is a trail that goes down the middle of the course and there is always people walking on it. San Fran is a nice little course. Rocklin has doubles on Sunday morning there ace pot is $400 at 10 they average about 50 people each weekend. I like both Seaside courses.

My suggestions would be
Grass Valley
Penn Valley
Auburn
Rocklin
Truckee
Orangevale
South Lake Tahoe
Zephr Cove
Novato
Dela



This is a good list maybe minus Orangevale like you said? It's not substantially different, as it's pretty flat. Nice course though.

Auburn is good, but not as good as Grass Valley & Penn Valley. It's in a public park with a lot of crossing walkways and pedestrians which can get annoying.

With all respect, I would skip Berkely & SF. Nice coursers but again not the challenge or scenery of the others you mention.

Lakeport is pretty, and a classic course, but kind of far from anywhere else.

Pebble Beach , undeveloped, you must now one of like 6 guys to find and play it. Object course.

Monterey /Seaside, OK, out of the way, windy, and the monterey course has a lot of abndoned buildings around it. Some of it's real pretty, some of it is god awful ugly. It's not real a park, it's an abandoned military base turned strugling college. It has a police station in the middle of the course, sand tee pads, no benches, no water, sticky tree's, not well marked, shall I go on?

SF is still trial basis? and not real challenging according to some. Maybe hard to find & city traffic & parking will eat a lot of your time.
Little Africa I believe is object? maybe some mach 1's? Not played a lot.
Somerset -privtae, mixed reviews.

Novato is long, beautiful and very challenging

If it was me, I'd go
by course, not geography

Dela
Grass Valley
Penn Valley
Novato
Bijou (Tahoe)
Zephyr
Rocklin
Lakeport if you have time.


IMHO the best of the greater bay. The others are also great courses, but these are the best established, most challenging, and most scenic on limited time.

I don't know Truckee? I hear it's nice. People say Tonys is real fun. Private place, you can camp there and have a Ye haw good time. Great hosts.

You could hit truckee, zephyr, tahoe one day
come down hit Grass, Penn & Rocklin the next.

Make your way west to lakeport, then south to Novato, Novato will tire you out, and then finish in Santa Cruz at Dela.

You could hit Napa near Novato? Real pretty course, very, very hilly, and the park manger is pretty tense, also very hot. Bring water. Lakeport is real hot too in the summer.


Delavega has A / B random draw doubles every Sunday AMs around 9, and latley a tag challenge thursday evenings about 5. Monthly is the first Sat of each Month.

Have fun, and a safe journey.

Come to our Wed. nite weekly in Stockton. Starts at 5:30.

Shouldn't the topic be called "Going to Mexico"?

Shouldn't the topic be called "Going to Mexico"?


He didn't say he was going to Tracy!

Did you forget the passowrd to your original account but remember the one for your alter-ego??? 7 posts???

Welcome back, dud. :)

Shouldn't the topic be called "Going to Mexico"?



Go back to sleep.."Pud"

:D

Anyone have any other suggestions on things to do or see other than disc sports, specifically in the San Francisco or Sacramento areas?




Nah, there's not much to do here in San Francisco besides play disc golf and watch the cows stroll down the main avenue :D

Seriously though I haven't played all the Northern California courses but of the ones I have I would definitely play Grass Valley and Penn Valley (there's a good afternoon of golf for you and they are only about 15 minutes apart). Closer to the Bay play Novato (make sure it has been mowed) and Napa, then for sure DeLa (though try to be there on a weekday). All the Tahoe courses are fun IMHO -- you pretty much can't go wrong there. I cannot claim the SF course is on the same level as these others but it is right in the middle of a fun city and has enough trees to make what should be easy holes difficult.

Closer to the Bay play Novato (make sure it has been mowed)



Yes it has been mowed, no more waist high grass on 9 & 13 :)

Work is continuing.......... :cool:

Mexicali :D


Shouldn't the topic be called "Going to Mexico"?
He didn't say he was going to Tracy!



"Stockton, a world away from Tracy" :)

I think that's their town motto?

Stockton: Some place special.

PS: I don't live there.

I've been to the Atascadero course one time, and the grass was getting out of hand. Do they mow that thing?

Thanks a bunch to those who helped me find good courses! Below is what I told golfers in my state about my trip...


California was a blast. Perfect state for disc golf. Nobody cares that nobody cares (about anything other than golf).

I pretty much went everywhere and did everything in 5 days.

As far as the courses go (Delaveaga Park is the best anywhere), the courses were all very nice, but some were not very playable.

Ended up playing in Rocklin, Auburn, Grass Valley, Toney's Mountain, Truckee, South Lake Tahoe, Napa, Novato, Berkeley, San Francisco, & Santa Cruz.

Condon Park was probably my favorite outside DeLaveaga. The course is pretty tight and can be played short or quite long. Hills, clear streams, many different trees... that course had it all.

Truckee and South Lake Tahoe were also jewels. Lots of pine trees and good elevation at Truckee. Many different shots. Nice climate too.

Toney's Mountain was difficult to get to and mosquito hell. Course was nice looking, but crazy. Basically vegetation everywhere. They had a PDGA tournament there over the weekend. With the rockslide steep fairways and poison Oak everywhere, I'd be surprised if people weren't getting hurt or at least losing all there plastic.

Napa was in a very nice natural wilderness area. Lots of blind shots and stickers in tall grass made this course a pain in the arse.

Novato was similar, I mean Napa to the 10th power. This course is probably one of the most difficult in the world. It has crazy distance that plays mostly uphill. Tons of trees, wind, and triple doglegs to pins that are so far away you can't find them. I would probably really enjoy this course if it wasn't for the 3 foot high grass that seems to cut you or stab you with every step. That also with 100 degree heat melting you while you are climbing the hill, desperate searching for where you know you threw your shot....

Just a few miles west of Novato's boiling hillside is the bay area, where the temperature drops 40 degrees in a matter of minutes. Golden Gate Park in San Francisco didn't get rave reviews, so I thought I'd skip seeing it. Upon checking the place out, this was one of the best parks I've ever seen. The play was short but very technical. Giant coastal trees in a rainforest atmosphere made this course awesome.