Upstate Holes: Timmons Park’s best and worst

With the Upstate Classic ready to kick off at Timmons Park in the morning, the Tree Doctor convinced me to re-visit the Best/Worst Upstate holes idea we began with our Greer Century Park Disc Golf course review. Due to a death in the family, I can’t make it for my first Upstate Classic, so I’ll be railing the Tree Doctor from afar.

With that in mind, here’s the best and worst at Timmons Park.

The Best: Hole #5

Without question, Hole #5 at Timmons Park is the most challenging and well-designed hole on the course. A tight dogleg right around a bend in a creek, the hole has the potential for disaster on almost every throw. Right-handed throwers must either lay up and drop their disc at the dog leg or throw a perfect anhyzer around the corner. Lefites can throw a long hyzer but run the risk of fading too much and landing in the creek that bounds the right side of the fairway from tee to basket.

The tee shot is only the first challenge players will face on Hole #5. Only top players are going to have an easy putt at the basket which sits on an incline and is 30% surrounded by trees. Everyone else is going to risk missing their second or third shot, and missing the throw can mean disaster. Tree roots around the basket can easily put a disc up on its side and send it rolling right into the creek at the bottom of the hill.

You’ll find very few players who put the disc in the basket in two throws, and most good players are going to be happy with a 3.

Honorable mention: Hole #10 is to lefties what Hole #5 is to righties and comes in as a close second for most challenging and best designed hole on the course.

The Worst: Hole #16

Hole #16 at Timmons Park is the answer to a re-design forced by a cranky Timmons neighbor who didn’t like a hole ending near his property line. Course designers didn’t have a great deal with which to work and we can’t fault them for how they ended up laying out the new hole. Still, it is by far our least favorite on the course.

A short technical hole, #16 is suited for lefties more than righties, but even left-handed throwers are often disgusted by their resulting throws. The fairway, such as it is, is bounded on both sides by thick trees and requires a perfect S-curve that starts left, fades right, and comes back left to let players drop in for 2.

As a right-handed thrower, I usually attempt a very gentle anhyzer off the tee. If I throw it with absolute precision, I have a shot at a 2. If I make even the tiniest of mistakes (which happens more than it doesn’t), I’m searching for my disc among the trees.

The Tree Doctor is a left-handed thrower. We disagree on how he should approach the shot. I believe he should use a very gentle hyzer. He usually opts for a maniacal roller that has as good a chance of landing on the 18th fairway as it does in the basket.

Adding to the hole’s frustrating elements is the fact that all but the first 25% of the fairway is obstructed from view after a throw. Once the disc rounds the first corner, it’s gone and you just have to hope it lands where you want. Without quesiton, we have spent more time looking for discs on this hole than any other at Timmons Park.

Dishonorable mention: Hole #14 was recently re-designed to make it a little tougher. The short hole over a small culvert is still the easiest (and in the Doctor’s estimation “lamest”) hole on the course. There’s nothing particularly wrong about the hole. It’s just sort of uninspired and a throw-away after holes 10-13, which are all fairly challenging in their own way.

Good luck to everyone in the Upstate Classic this weekend. Here’s to #5 birdies all day long.

Photos courtesy DGcoursereview.com