A Special Helix Disc Golf Day at Desert Dunes
This past Saturday, September 19, Helix Disc Golf had the opportunity to set up a fun and challenging 18-hole temporary course at Desert Dunes Golf Club in Desert Hot Springs. The event came together very quickly with the course operators extending the invite just a couple weeks ago. One of our club members, Kurt Spruhan, set up the relationship and took the reins of designing the disc golf layout.
Desert Dunes is a regulation-length championship golf course with a beautiful setting and some great terrain to work with. There would easily be enough room to set up two (maybe even three) great disc golf courses along these 18 long golf holes. We primarily used the back nine of the main golf course because it offered better design options for disc golf. The 10th and 11th holes are lined with massive tamarisk trees (and some palm trees behind the 11th green) and then the rest of the back nine has some cool terrain we were able to utilize.
It ended up being a really unique technical course. The pars were generous on several holes, but some of the pin positions were quite tricky as they were tucked back into the trees. There were a few blind shots and interesting angles, so the course was anything but boring—yet it was a very fair design for players of all skill levels. Most everyone who came out to play really loved the par-66 layout and we could all see a ton of potential here for future events. It could be a great setting for a PDGA-sanctioned event and the course operators seem excited about the opportunities to maybe have more disc golf outings here.
We had a pretty big group of 35 players come out to experience the course for the first time and we set it up like one of our monthly club tournaments. We had four divisions (Advanced, Intermediate, Recreational and Women), and the top three finishers in each division were paid out with disc prizes and Helix swag. The results and plenty of photos are posted below.
Follow Helix Disc Golf and Coachella Valley Discers on Facebook to keep up with upcoming disc golf events in the Coachella Valley. We’re always looking for more opportunities to host special events like this and grow the game out here in the desert. If you run a local golf course and are interested in having Helix out to set up a special event, email us at helixdg@yahoo.com
Here are the official results from the Desert Dunes tournament:
Advanced Division:
1st - John Ryan, Sr.: 52 (-14)
2nd - Christopher Horn: 53 (-13)
T-3rd - Zach Lowery/Jon Berg: 55 (-11)
Intermediate Division:
1st - Brett Camack: 58 (-8)*
2nd - Christopher Dippner: 58 (-8)
3rd - Cory Marsteller: 60 (-6)*
Recreational Division:
1st - Nathan Long: 63 (-3)
2nd - John Ryan, Jr.: 64 (-2)
3rd - Bryan Seymour: 65 (-1)
Women’s Division:
1st - Cindy Jin-Berg: 66 (E)
2nd - Suzette Simmons: 70 (+4)
3rd - Susie Horn: 75 (+9)
CTP:
Hole #9 - John Ryan, Sr.
* Tiebreakers determined by sudden death CTP on hole 1.
Thanks again to everyone who came out. Thanks to the staff at Desert Dunes for helping set this up. Thanks to Kurt Spruhan and Jon Berg for pulling the course and tournament together in such a quick timeframe!
