After finishing up on the 8th green you'll have a pleasant walk along a path through the woods to the 9th tee. Admire Chris Barden's chain sawing skills, look for the thoughtful notch cut in a huge log. Nine is a technical hole, 475' from the white tee, just und 400' from the reds. There are several possible lines to a landing area, though I try to avoid throwing too much of a righthand/backhand hyzer since the left side of the fairway is well treed as the terrain drops toward the brook that lines the left side of the fairway. The brook doesn't really come in to play directly, and if you happened to grip-lock one that gets wet it plays "casual", no need to take a penalty stroke. Even if y

Hole 8 is the second par three on the opening nine, but even though this one plays at 276 slightly downhill from the white tee it's no ace run. This is a huge turning dog-leg left, slightly downhill. For a Right Handed Backhand throw this can be a big hyzer through a wide open line, with just a solitary tall pine in the middle of the fairway to avoid. This poor tree is already has chunks of bark missing for "just missed" drives. The basket is hung 6' in the air on chains to give a little different look to putts. Get a little too aggressive and miss both the basket and the big "backstop" log and you could end up down the slope a ways with a tester to save par. The subtle feature on this

Every new course needs one. The person with a unique skill set who doesn't wait to ask what needs to be done. Not looking for rewards, praise, or anything but their own satisfaction in a job well done. For the New England Disc Golf Center, our unsung hero is Victor. Until a few weeks ago he had never even played disc golf. He has many talents, including carpentry. So when our little bridge over the stream on the way to the first tee needed railings to comply with the laws, Victor was on it, with a pile of lumber and his portable saws. In no time NEDGC had a finished bridge. Victor also learned of our need to have some benches. Soon a sturdy comfortable bench appeared next to the firs

From tee to basket, the seventh hole is arrow straight... but oh so narrow! The fairway is another old logging road, and a high canopy of tall oaks and pines create a tunnel. Deep woods threaten on the left side of the fairway, with the right side only slightly more forgiving. There is a slightly wider landing area about 175' from the basket, but even from there you'll have to negotiate a grove of birches to get a tight approach to the basket. This plays as a tight and level 436' par four from the white tees. You'll get a nearly 70' break from the reds, with only a tight 357' to negotiate, but don't make the mistake of thinking this will be an easy birdie. This might be a good hole to le

After putting out on five, you'll cross a break in the stone wall and have a short walk through a fern carpeted part of the forest to reach the 6th tee. Ferns love shady moist places. The sixth hole is moist indeed, a brook runs just off the whole left side of the sixth fairway. During the spring runoff the brook might roar, during a dry summer it might be a mere trickle, but for a good part of the year it's been a pleasant babbling flow. It doesn't come in to play often unless you get a bad kick or really turn one hard to the left. Six was the last hole of the front nine to be built, and still is in a little flux. With all of this spring's rain we've been dealing with some spongy groun

New Englanders love their stone walls. They tie us to the history of the land. They remind us of the age of glaciers when ice buried the landscape, and the march of time that ground down mountains and scattered endless rocks and boulders. Mostly the stone walls remind us of an agrarian era not so many years ago, and how hard our ancestors worked to carve out a living on this marginal land. Each stone in the wall was a little more land cleared for the plow, at least until the next spring when the freeze and thaw cycle uncovered more rocks to add to the wall. For hole five, our job is to just throw over the wall, once and only once. Hole five is a classic NEDGC par four. A strong and acc