Tradition. Beauty. Disc Golf.
What the Maple Hill website summarizes in 4 words (above), AF is compelled to use many more…
Nestled in the heart of Massachusetts, stands a true masterpiece among the tapestry of disc golf courses. Maple Hill Disc Golf wears the crown of iconic excellence with grace and distinction.
The course’s history is etched with the footprints of legends. Marshall Street Champion: Des Reading (2004), or Vibram Open winners: Valerie Jenkins (2008), Barry Schultz (2009), Cale Leiviska (2012); this is a disc golf venue that hosts renowned tournaments for the game’s best. With each hole thoughtfully crafted, it offers a symphony of unique challenges. Maple Hill weaves a narrative of strategy that resonates with players of every caliber.
For many disc golf fans, Maple Hill shines brightly on the pro tour, adorned with some very memorable holes, which affirm its impeccable design. Let this profile be yet another voice, which enthusiastically joins the chorus of praises.
Iconic Excellence
A great many courses, and their management teams on the pro tour, achieve excellence in their ability to host the elite events and offer notable challenges to today’s top pros. Some of the tour’s best venues include LVC, Ledgestone, European Open, Champions Cup, Preserve, DDO, USDGC, Waco, and the list goes on. Each course has its own charm, and nuances which make it stand out. Many holes on the pro tour are memorable for the elite moments they’ve captured and/or for how the holes are designed.
With Maple Hill, it’s all of that and more. Iconic is hype, though that term best matches fan appreciation for the vast majority of holes at Maple Hill. For this fan, going into this profile, the iconic factor was a given. How to convey that, and be objective, without gushing too much, was the challenge.
Nature focussed, rich history, family vibe
Course designer and groundskeeper, Gabe Benson on describing Maple Hill
Thinking about signature holes on any course is fun. Coming up with a list of holes among many courses, in your own region or worldwide, leads to dream 18’s and instilling particular holes as iconic. With a venue such as Maple Hill, the amount of iconic holes is staggering.
Hole 1 of Maple Hill (Farms) is the signature hole, as it is the longest and carries a large pond, plus makes use of elevation and unique terrain (growing Christmas trees that dot the fairway).
Wait, hold up, hole 8 is the signature hole as it carries pond to inclined island green, surrounded by the most enthusiastic fans on the pro tour.
Pardon AF, for forgetting just how much of a signature design hole 18 is on the course, with the elevation change off the tee, into deceptively tight fairway that funnels to a island, stone guarded green, as cheering fans congregate along the peninsula’s perimeter.
AF could play this rhetorical loop for another 7 paragraphs, as the signature hole appears to be subjective or evolving. Other iconic holes rival as signature hole at Maple Hill. Hole 14 carries an elite driving distance pond to green on the left side bank, resulting in a scary, albeit very scenic, death putt. Hole 3 rises from flat tee to heavily wooded green on a very large hill, and has captured one of the sport’s most iconic aces, by Dave Feldberg at the 2015 Maple Open. The rest of the 18 are from AF’s perspective all memorable, some more so than others. With that said, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13 and 16 are such holes. Vividly unique designs that add layers of strategy for those seeking to win events at the venue. Maple Hill truly plays like 18 mini-tournaments.
The Greatest Staff in the World
Crafting a course that plays like 18 mini-tournaments throughout, requires vision, devotion and collaboration. Course preparation for an event that plays at Elite tier of DGPT takes extensive hard work from a dedicated team. It entails multiple days of coordinating efforts over many months, while harnessing skills and experience.
The MVP Open Staff benefits from its emphasis on collaboration and community approach. Like most tournament directors, or in this case Event Organizer, Steve Dodge knows how vital of a role that volunteers play in well run event. Building the team and bringing the parts together is how “the greatest staff in the world” manages for the MVP Open. In an ongoing way.
Steve is mindful of the collaborative factor that makes for iconic excellence. Page 2 of this profile lists the 5 primary course designers for Maple Hill. That is editorialized, as the actual response EO-Steve provided, also conveyed, “and many others, including dozens of touring pros who gave their time and wisdom to make Maple Hill so much better.”
Two key parts of the Maple Hill experience are the visible upkeep throughout the course, and the ever developing nature of each hole.
We constantly evolve the course, basically taking the worst holes on the course and improving them.
Steve Dodge
AF was curious enough to ask for specific history of developing holes at Maple Hill, and what goes into such decisions. Steve chose hole 1 as perhaps the most interesting.
Originally hole 1 was from the shorter tee to the basket just beyond the pond. In 2004, this was a huge shot. Our next iteration, we pushed the pin back to the wall at the far end of the field. After going with that for a few years, we then pushed the tee back to its current location, making the pond clear very difficult again. Once the approach to the basket became too easy, the next stage of development was to open a hole in the wall and push the pin into a peninsula. A few years later, we pushed it back an additional 40 feet to its current iteration. Basically every four years or so, the hole needed a few extra teeth and we found ways to add them.
TD-Steve
Photo credits
All images in this profile credit to Nika Ink
Tournament logo courtesy of Steve Dodge