Plymouth Creek Disc Golf Course – Plymouth, MN

It was our usual Saturday morning round of disc golf. I’d been out of town or out of the country for a number of weeks, so I was sure I was in considerably rusty form. It didn’t matter. It had been raining for a few days, so everything was going to be swampy, but it looked like the weather was actually going to hold out for us. And by “us”, I mean BobaFred and I – everyone else cancelled. Since BobaFred won two weeks in a row (he’s a bit of a champion), it was his choice where to go. He emailed it in to the group – Plymouth Creek.

I’ve never been there, so I quizzed him about it in the morning when I picked him up. He said they played there maybe once a year and it wasn’t anyone’s favorite course, but it’s good to get out there and play it once in a while. Then he warned me about the smell…

I didn’t know what he meant until we got to the first hole at the course. There’s a wide creek you have to throw over to get to the basket. It smells like raw sewage being dumped into the creek underneath this little bridge you have to walk over. It’s bad. So bad, in fact, that one of the guys in the group behind us threw into that creek and refused to get it since it smelled so bad. Yeah, it is that bad.

Here’s a quick overview – there are a lot of trees on this course. A LOT. Thankfully, there is almost always a very obvious fairway to throw down. You don’t really have to choose a route. It’s laid out in front of you. However, you DO have to be able to throw the disc where you’re aiming. This key strategy seems to elude me after I’m away from the game for a while. And overseas travel and visits to Illinois haven’t been allowing much disc golf time. I found out quickly just how bad I had reverted.
I hit an incredible number of trees. Some of them twice (I’m not kidding). I also found that dirty nasty creek three times – it wraps all through the course so you keep seeing/smelling it. I managed to retrieve my disc from the disgusting water each time though. Go me – and now of course, I’ll burn my shoes and golf towel.

The course is 12 holes long, so if you want to play it twice, you’re going to take a little bit longer than a usual 18-hole round. This is something I overlooked when I told D.Rough I’d be home by 10 to make our 11am appointment. When we started the second round of 12, I commented that we’d need to make this a quick round so I could make it home in time. Then, I proceeded to fire a disc straight into the woods and lose it. We looked for about 10 or 15 minutes and never found it. So much for being on time.

I ended up playing absolutely horribly and never turned my game around. The course is challenging and actually is probably pretty fun to play. There are a lot of mosquitoes and some sweltering heat when the sun comes out and no wind moves in the dark forest, but it’s still a decent course. I enjoyed playing it as poorly as I did. There are mostly drive-able holes, but there are a few really lengthy ones that will challenge even the best golfers – since the long ones also have that creek in play their entire length. You just have to be able to avoid far more trees than I was able.

BobaFred ended up beating me by 14 strokes. Yes, I said FOURTEEN. I was a wreck. And I was about 45 minutes late. Fortunately, once D.Rough smelled the sewer smell on me, she allowed me to take a lightning fast shower before we headed to our appointment – which we still made on time!