Derby Course

[cfluty]

I threw a marble gray star TL on hole 1 last night in warmups, hit the middle tree, found in tree.

[88cruz88]

Whats up with all the sharpie-in "Par" figures on the tee signs at Derby? I think I saw a par 5 out there which can't be true, I thought everything in Derby was a Par 3? With that being said isn't everything in Wichita Par 3? I guess it would only really matter for course record, but I was just wondering!!!

[Coueylicious]

Yeah I was wondering the same thing. Not to mention the piece of paper hanging up by the practice basket that says 9, 12 and 18 are par 4's. But anyway, I agree the permanent marker on the tee signs looks bad.

[Schoen-hopper]

So the signs got vandalized? We need to get them cleaned off. Acetone or paint thinner should clean sharpie off.

As far as par goes, it's truly in the eye of the beholder. I've participated in some good debates on par. Question is: par for what skill level? The PGA and the Course Design group has tried to define some skill levels. Red Tees= 825-875 rated play. White Tees= 875-925 rated play. Blue Tees= 925-975 rated play. Gold Tees= 975+ rated play. The best question is "what skill level is the course designed for?".

Most good courses are designed for blue skill level, or roughly advanced men skill level, for the back tees, at least. Many courses are still labled "par 3" just for the sake of ease in scoring. These courses often average a few under par for pros, but may be a couple under or over par for 950 rated play. There are usually lots of holes that average 2.8 or 3.2, so it doesn't make sense to label a hole as a par 2 or par 4. Note that you can still set a course par at whatever you wish, even you don't assign a par value to each hole.

If anyone ever has a chance, go down to the Austin, TX area and play some of John Houck's designs. He has made lots of par 62-64 courses that are phenominal. Circle C, Circle R, Harry Myers, MetCenter, Austin Ridge Bible Camp, Manor, I'm sure there are a lot more. He'll do a layout with par 4's and 5's that actually play like par 4's and 5's. You aren't making 3's on the par 5's and you are doing darn good to get a 3 on a par 4. So much more creative than standard par 3 courses. And there are 2 tees, usually one blue and one red or white, which play to the same par for different divisions.

[disclizard]

I have a feeling mike that an amature casual player just got frustrated at being 18 over par or some thing like that. Probably decided he was going to set pars to his likeing to make his over all score better and make him self feel better about the game.
Granted writing on the tee signes is way so not cool. People put alot of time and money into that course and to have it vandalized like Oak park gets vandalized is really disturbing. I wouldn't doubt that it is the same person or group of people.
I my self don't always agree with Par three for every hole on every course out here but I find ways to adjust my pars ON MY SCORE CARD not on park property.
I had a thought about this though last year and never thought to share it till now.

How about local clubs suplying score cards at the first tee. On a pro score card the pars can be all par 3. But on an amature score card the pars could be adjusted so that there are some par fours or fives like hole 9 and 17 and 18 out at derby. You could put both pars on one card and just mark the pars acordinly to the skill level.
How we could distribute the cards would be the biggest problem because that would just give the vandals some thing else to distroy but it may be worth looking into.

[flicky]

I had a feeling that someone took it upon themselves to write those in there and it was not something official, but I had a friend in from out of town today and we (yikes) went by them. Normally we would do all three's, but it was hot and we were shooting bad and wanted to shave a few strokes off our rising scores...hah!

[88cruz88]

Taylor and I are heading to Derby to clean the signs and a round if anyone wants to join!!

[Swede]

Taylor and I are heading to Derby to clean the signs and a round if anyone wants to join!!

thank you

[smitty]

I played the course today and didn't think the marker looked bad at all. It was written small and was actually pretty accurate.

Might be kind of cool to do "course par" for the holes. Many of them are next to impossible and discouraging to people who cannot smash a drive or putt from outside 15 feet.

There are some holes that could be discouraging to people.

Hole 9 (Par 5 for a casual, it is a par 4 for a pro)
Hole 12 (Par 4 for a casual)
Hole 14 (Par 4 for a casual)
Hole 17 (Par 4 for a casual)
Hole 18 (Par 5 for a casual)

I am assuming that most of the people who play there are casual or hacks at best.

I still wish hole 16 was 70 foot longer and hole 17 was 70 foot shorter.

As they are now with the OB left and pond right 16 is a RHBH chip shot and anything short on 17 is going OB. Plus now all the shots on 16 that hyzer early and I am sure there are a bunch are killing people throwing up shot or putting on 18. All the drives that smash early on 17 are killing people walking down 18's fairway. Just my observations. Other then those 2 holes, it is a pretty fun track to play.

[Coueylicious]

That sure would improve my score if I played them as 4's or 5's

[Schoen-hopper]

Derby tonight.

[Swede]

Kingpin tossed another notch on the course record belt tonight. -8 @ Derby with "normal" OB in play. He 3'd 18 by radar-locking a Valk on his upshot and carded only one "bogey" on 9(? the has-anybody-seen-a-fairway? hole). Congrats, KP.

[Schoen-hopper]

As you should have noticed, Bill Paulson got 6 benches installed out at Derby. And...... all the barbed wire has now been removed from hole 2/18/17. This must have been a huge job! That stuff was a tangled mess with all the trees growing through it. I'll be sure to tell Bill that we thank him and the city of Derby for their efforts. Yes, this will mean the course OB will need to change. Possibly some changes on holes 9 and 5 down the road.

[mehuntdisc]

Does anyone know what happened to the practice basket at the Derby course? It was there yesterday afternoon at about 5:00, but it was gone after work today. Hope someone official took it for repair and it was not some early Halloween vandalism.

[Doug]

We were out there today(11/6) and it was there...