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Dream 18 On Tour – 2019 Edition: Back 9

Disc Golf Articles
#1

Originally published at: https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2020/04/06/dream-18-tour-2019-edition-back-9/

Through the front 9 of this Dream 18 round, you’ve already played 6,928 feet of course and have yet to encounter a Par 3 hole. For our purposes, let’s pretend there’s a dream bar, or a dream convenience store on this dream property. Go order yourself a dream beer…ok we’ll stop. Let’s get back to the golf.

A quick reminder of the rubric:

  1. Courses must have been played by either the MPO or FPO divisions on Tour. The Tour is comprised of the Disc Golf Pro Tour (PT), PDGA National Tour (NT), and PDGA Majors (M).
  2. The holes are only eligible to appear in the same relative position as they were played on the 2019 Tour. For example, Fountain Hills Hole #1 is eligible only for the Dream 18 Course’s Hole #1 votes. Keep in mind that we are considering the tournament-specific layouts, so the numbers may not match up with the way the course plays regularly.
  3. Ties were broken by the writers in very unscientific ways, this is for fun after all.

Hole #10 – Brewster Ridge – Jeffersonville, VT

470ft. / 143m – Par 3

At first glance, hole 10 at Brewster Ridge looks like a beautiful and unassuming hole. It has a tree lined, verdant fairway that gradually opens up from tee to green where you have a basket nestled in some quaint trees. In fact, its beauty is one reason it is included on this dream 18. Yet, when you step on to the tee you see that the fairway starts out quite tight and remember that the straight throw, not to mention a 470 foot one, is the hardest line to execute in all of disc golf. Even if you pure the straight line tee shot, you may end up with a challenging putt that is blocked by one of those so-called quaint trees. All of these features add up to many more bogeys than birdies, so do not be wooed by this attractive hole, it has some serious teeth. -AH

Runner Up: Brazos East

Editors Note: FPO played the 410 ft. tee – the hole scored similarly when comparing across divisions.

Hole #11 – Blue Lake – Fairview, OR

670ft. / 204m – Par 4

Have you ever felt the sinking feeling of something inevitable approaching you? That’s what it’s like to stand on the tee of Number 11 at Blue Lake. As Ian Anderson succinctly puts it, “The drive is a cupcake, but that second shot…” No matter what you do, you cannot avoid the eventual spike line to the green, you just have to try to set up the right spike line for your skillset with your tee shot. If we’re being real with ourselves here, this hole is an anomaly. We should hate it on the grounds of being too gimmicky, but the proposition is as simple as the tee shot itself – make your bed, then ring chains from it. Watching people sweat something so theoretically rudimentary is much of the reason that this hole is so entertaining. -JT

Runner Up: Iron Hill

Hole #12 – Northwood Park – Morton, IL

1050ft. /320m – Par 5

Think about your three favorite woods courses. Now imagine the most difficult par 3 on each. Finally, string them together to make the par 5 of your dreams. Can you see it? It’s still easier than hole 12 at Northwood Gold. Conceptually, the path to birdie is remarkably clear: throw three, near-perfect shots and drain a circle’s edge putt. Be prepared, however, to scramble aggressively because bogey comes into play quickly when you miss a landing zone or nick a tree.((At the 2019 World Championships, hole 12 yielded only 4 birdies out of nearly 400 total attempts – Eagle McMahon with a C1X putt, James Conrad and Tristan Tanner connected from C2, and Chandler Fry threw it in from 100 feet.)) In a sprint-to-the-finish, deuce or die world, the gem of Northwood Gold is a refreshing change of pace. -PA

Runner Up: WR Jackson

Hole #13 – Winthrop Arena – Rock Hill, SC

888ft. / 271m – Par 5

Hole 13 – Winthrop Arena

It’s testament to the rich mythology that has been woven into the 20 years of the USDGC; that the storied ‘888’ is arguably not the most storied hole on the course. Nevertheless, with it’s thin, curving fairway bordered by a road on the right and rough on the left, then a perilous shot across the asphalt lake to finish on an island green, hole 13 has been the stage for much tragedy and triumph over the years. Number 13 has always been the reason players cannot look forward to The Island #17 when competing in The Arena – remember Ricky Wysocki tying Will Schusterick in 2012, Nate Doss taking a 10 in 2013 (a Par would have in hindsight been enough to win by 1), and Eagle McMahon doing much the same in 2016 – all of which happened during the respective final rounds. But for sheer theater, look no further than Nikko Locastro’s throw-in from the fairway, that skipped on the carpark, cleared the deep curbing and crashed in for an albatross in the 2019 edition of the tournament. The icing on the cake, of course, is the call from Champstrodamus himself – Ken Climo. -KF

Runner Up: Idlewild

 

Hole #14 – Maple Hill – Leicester, MA

420ft. / 128m – Par 3

Hole 14 at Maple Hill is just…right there! Downhill, over some water, right to the pin! I mean, James Conrad throws a mid-range here so no big deal, right? Wrong. The landing zone is deceptively small, and if you can’t control your angle, your drive is either going in the drink, or skipping off the road and into deep rough. It’s super fun, though, to feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up as you risk losing your most trusted disc – is fun the right word? -CW

Runner Up: Northwood Park

 

Hole #15 – The Beast – Nokia, FI

659ft. / 209m – Par 4

“Down the stretch” may be the most overused phrase in disc golf, but if there’s one appropriate place to slot this cliché into our Dream 18, it’s here on #15 at The Beast. The crowd of spectators stretches around the whole fairway, 5 deep. The right-handed hyzer is a stretch to stick the corner of the right-angled fairway at the bottom of the hill, and the layup option is not much easier. The palms of the best players in the world bead with sweat as they fixate on this challenge from the teepad perched atop the hill. Those that play the final 4-hole stretch of the European Open Course come to understand firsthand how this course earned its moniker, and those who conquer it earn the moniker of Major Champion. -JT

Runner Up: Blue Lake

 

Hole #16 – Emporia CC – Emporia, KS

383ft. / 117m – Par 3

Coming off hole 15 at The Beast and possibly the hardest hole on the course you get the challenge of the one true island hole in disc golf. As picturesque as it is difficult. 335 feet of water carry to land an island only as big as circle one. If you land outside the circle you lose a stroke and your disc with only two holes left to play, and it doesn’t get any easier. Th next hole? The most iconic island-hole in disc golf. Hole 17 at Winthrop.

Runner Up: Idlewild

Hole #17 – Winthrop Arena – Rock Hill, SC

249ft. / 76m – Par 3

The Rock Hill heartbreaker, of course the infamous Island #17 at the Winthrop Arena makes our list! Major championships are won – and lost – on the hardest shot under 250’ on tour. We’ve seen every result possible – from Aces to emptying your bag, and players still come back for more. You’ll never see so many disc golfers holding their collective breath as when the disc is speeding towards the bean-shaped landing zone between the bales and the blue waters of Lake Winthrop, and never such a cheer as when the disc hugs the green grass and lays flat on Championship Saturday. -JT

Runner Up: Iron Hill

Hole #18 – The Beast – Nokia, FI

692ft. / 211m – Par 4

The 18th hole of The Beast. The video game hole, the Final Boss. Guaranteed to draw a crowd, guaranteed to test your nerves, the most entertaining hole in all of Europe is also one of its most difficult. Trying to keep your focus and stamina is hard on the beast, and still you must find the courage to throw your disc to a clean spot within a narrow landing zone. From there, the second shot requires an accurate distance judgement, as the green is tightly surrounded by the scoreboard, the OB, and a sizeable portion of Finland’s population. The final nerve-racking test is putting to a basket elevated by hay bales, staring directly towards a crowd of thousands. If you can find a way to be the last person to putt out on this green, those fans will be staring at the face of greatness. -VM

#18 was a hotly contested spot on the course, so as a tip-of-the-cap here’s all of the courses which earned votes this year to be the closer: Emporia CC, Fox Run Meadows, Gleneagles, Maple Hill, Wildhorse (Innova)

Dream 18 Course Stats:

  • 12,409 ft. / 3,782 m
  • Par 71
  • Hole Locations:
    • USA:
      • California: 1
      • Georgia: 1
      • Illinois: 1
      • Kansas: 1
      • Massachusetts: 2
      • Oregon: 5
      • Vermont: 3
      • South Carolina: 2
    • Finland:
      • Nokia: 2

Well, there you have it. 2019 Edition of the Dream 18 On Tour is complete. When we first began working on this idea, we were excited by the prospect of having something that changes every year as courses and events swap in and out of the tour schedule, and we resolved to bolster the variety by inviting a different set of voters each year. Of course, we had no idea that the 2020 season would become so drastically different – but the silver lining is that we can guarantee you the Dream 18 On Tour won’t look the same in 2020! We hope you enjoyed this bit of mental flossing, and we look forward to the reactions! Which holes do you agree with? Which holes got snubbed? Let us know!