Larry G Crites Memorial (West City Park)

@dbolyard

37

--TLDR: Boring course overall. --Caveats: 1. I used to play this course years ago pre-UDisc. I was much more forgiving of low quality courses then, and I still gave up on this course for years, especially on account of the flooding problem. 2. I wanted to give this course an honest chance, but just didn't enjoy it enough to bother finishing a full round. 3. I'm an out-of-towner who visits this area a couple times each year. And while Jokerst (only other course nearby) is not a challenging course, it is exceedingly more fun to play imo. 4. I'm spoiled for choice in my home region of Kansas City. --Details: It starts by throwing over a wide open field. Then just after it gets interesting (#3), you throw to a basket that's @40 feet into overgrowth and the basket itself is nearly overtaken (#4). And then you're right back to mostly flat open field play, and throwing to a basket laying down on the ground (#5). There is one interesting hole shortly after (#7). Then you're just blasting your drive over a wide open field again (#8). Holes 9 and 10 baskets are just inside the tree line along the creek at the very end of their open field fairways, and then hole 11 gives you trees off the tee into yet another wide open field until you have to throw uphill through a tunnel at the end (best part of the hole). I quit here, as I threw to the wrong gap (made this mistake in the past as well, oof) to go uphill to the basket (there is basically a duplicate of this hole). This brings me to a frustrating point--course flow. It has always been an issue at this course, but it seems to have gotten worse with updates. I recognize that designing a course can be challenging, and I'm not familiar with the potential challenges presented by the local municipality. I appreciate the attempt here. But walking vast areas to the next tee unnecessarily or easily throwing to the wrong basket becomes very frstrating on wide open 600-1000 feet fairways, especially when there are also vast areas of untapped potential, as is now present among the lower holes with all of those now mature trees. It appears that the design favors hundreds of feet of wide open air. I know by dipping, I missed a couple of the best holes that actually do utilize the woods and river line (previously my favorites). I just got so bored before getting to them. I'll be sticking to Jokerst on my future visits.