The Wisconsin Gazelle Adventures disc golf trip

18 April 1999

We planned this trip several weeks ago. The idea was to go up to Wisconsin for a long day of disc golf, hitting 3 courses, debugging plans for a multiday trip later this year.

Due to scheduling quirks, only four of us went: Brian, Dan, Ti, and me.

We visited these courses:

• Valley View Park, New Berlin - 18 holes, twice
• Dretzka Park, Milwaukee - 18 holes, once
• Lime Kiln Park, Grafton - 9 holes, twice

Total: 72 holes played.

Trip Details

We weren't quite sure we were going to make it on this trip, becaues the weather has been iffy, but it wasn't raining in Chicago in the morning, so we went. We got lucky. We had sprinkles on the way up and the way back, but never had to deal with rain while on the courses.

We met at Brian's at 7am and were actually on the road at 7:20. Taking 294 north, we were at the state line by 8:15.

We made it to Valley View by 8:50. It took us an hour to play our first round. I had a course map, so we basically knew where to go, and we never lost discs or anything. We played another round, which took an hour again.

From there, we drove north towards Dretzka, stopping for lunch at a Dennys. We got to Dretzka around 1 with a minimum of difficulty finding it. We played that once, again taking an hour. I didn't have a course map, but the course was busy enough that we could just follow the folks in front of us to figure out what to do.

Heading north to Grafton, we could have gotten to the course in about 30 minutes, but the directions from the web were just wrong, so we had to stop and get a map. Fortunately parks are easy to locate on maps. Travel time took us about an hour. It took us about 30 minutes to play the course, then we hung out for a bit to rest, and played it again, taking about an hour and a half total at the course.

By the end of that last round, we were pretty tired and sore. Another 9 would not have been much fun.

We stopped for dinner at a convenient Pizza Hut, which refreshed us a lot. Then we headed back, on the road at about 6:30 or so. Traffic through Mikaukee isn't too bad, but we're a bit nervous about what it will be like as we hit Chicago.

We're riding in Brian's minivan, which is super comfortable. And it plays a very classy door tune.

Key stuff to bring: gatorade, digital camera, boots, snacks.

Summary:

• 72 holes is about the highest number we would want to play, and I'm not sure we'd want to play another 72 tomorrow.
• Directions from the web can be really good or really bad.
• Plan a serious dinner for recovery and relaxing.

Valley View, New Berlin, 18 holes

Pictures: small, large.

Wow, what a great course. The park is fairly remote, and is quite a bit larger than the course itself, so you have a feeling of being a bit out in the wilderness. The course goes in a great big loop, with some holes out in the open, some along the woods, and quite a few in dense forest. It's also pretty hilly.

It's fairly well marked with signs, and the tees are concrete.

The cool thing about this course is that each hole is a challenge. There are really no simple "drive, approach, putt" holes. The designers use the landscape to their advantage. On some holes, you have to think carefully about how to get over a hill without going too far and dropping down the slope behind it, Or you have to very carefully navigate the open spots in the forest holes.

We unanimously thought this was the best course of the day. If it were as close as West Park, we'd probably go here as much. The only downside to it, noted by Brian, is that it has quite a few holes in a row that are short and in dense forest. It will probably be incredibly tough when the trees are heavy with leaves.

In the first round, Brian and I both came in at 54. The next time around I scored a 53.

In short - a fun course focused on accuracy, not distance.

Dretzka Park, Milwaukee, 18 holes

Pictures: small, large.

Dretka is in a large city park in northern Milwaukee. Most of it was on mowed grass terrain, with a few holes in slightly dense trees. It had about as much terrain variation as O'Brien - basically flat.

Dretzka was the most popular course we visited - it was loaded with golfers. It was also the most professional. Every hole had multiple locations for the baskets, so that the course could be reconfigured for different skill levels. There were several tournament schedules posted on the sign, the "course pro" and "course champion" were prominently advertised, and there were flyers up for spring leagues. The course was pretty well marked, with concrete tees.

For some reason, though, we just weren't into this course. Very few of the holes had personality - they were mostly long shots, with the classic "drive, approach, putt" technique. There was nothing wrong with the course, but it just didn't grab us. It really felt a lot like the Lombard 18, or perhaps a bit more like Channahon, because of the number of "corridor" shots.

Brian and I scored 65.

After we played it once, we all took a look at each other, looked at the possibly incoming storm clouds, looked at the many other golfers at the park, and decided to move on to the next park rather than to play it again.

In short - definitely worth a visit if in the area, but don't drive a long way to play here.

Lime Kiln Park, Grafton, 9 holes

Pictures: small, large.

This course is set in a small-town park that has a lot of charm. A river runs along one side of the park. The course goes up and down hllls, past picnic spots, through some dense forest, and winds up by these humongous stone towers that are lime kilns left over from the 1920s when they were the main commercial activity of the town.

This is only a 9 hole course, and we weren't expecting much, so we were very pleasantly surprised. I think this is probably the best 9-hole course I've ever visited. Every hole has its own challenge; none are a simple throw and go. Among the noteables are hole 2, where you can't see the basket from the tee, and when you do find it, you discover it's planted at the top of a little hill that your discs really want to roll down. And hole 5, where you have to drive up a hill through dense, tall underbrush, almost guaranteeing that you have to use a hammer to get to the basket. Or hole 7, which is at the top of a long hill - if you have perfect floating drive, you can deuce the hole, but if your disc wanders into the dense woods on either side, you'll be lucky to get a 5.

Between the cleverness of this course and the very nice park setting, we were pretty impressed.

Brian and I scored 33 on our first round (we were getting tired), and then I got a 32 on our second round.

In short - I sure wish this course was closer.

Overall

A long day. A great day.

Notes for next time:

• Maybe it would be better to do 2 courses instead of 3.
• 5+ hours of driving total is a lot.
• Maybe pack a lunch. After all, we'll be in parks...
• Snacks and gatorade are important.