Disc Golf Courses
Zedd, 10/19/04
I’ve decided to go with another format for the frisbee golf course list that allows me to write more stuff about the courses in a less organized fashion, so here we go. You can find all of these courses and many others here.
—These are courses that I have played and would definitely recommend that you visit if you are in the area. They are very scenic, in good shape, and/or challenging. They are in no particular order, because it is hard to rank the top courses once you’ve been to so many.
IUP College Lodge—Indiana, PA—This is my home course, and as such, it will go first. I love this course. It it one of the top courses I’ve played and is certainly the top course in western Pennsylvania. It is in a park that used to serve as a ski slope, so there is plenty of elevation change, especially on the last hole, which is 722 feet long and has a couple hundred feet of elevation change. In the fall, the leaves are amazing. The course has 18 holes and will eventually have two pin placements and three tees on each hole.
Knob Hill Park—Warrendale, PA—Before the installation of College Lodge, Knob Hill was the undisputed king in Western PA. Now that more people have played at the Lodge, it is losing some of its followers. But, Knob Hill is still an excellent course. It is in a beautiful park and has a lot of elevation change, requiring a variety of shots. There are 18 holes, with several different pin placements and 3 sets of tees, one being concrete.
Schenley Park—Pittsburgh, PA—Schenley Park has been around the block. It is a well maintained, challenging course, but the baskets are in pretty bad shape in places. It is in a city park, so this is to be expected, but that’s a shame. Most of the course is fairly wooded and there is a good bit of elevation change. The park has a nice view of Pittsburgh. There are multiple tees for every hole, and some holes have multiple pin placements. Schenley is another 18 holer.
DeLaveaga Park—Santa Cruz, CA—27 holes. This is an awesome course in California. The scenery is amazing and the 27 holes will challenge even seasoned players. Hole 27 is spectacular with the tee being at the top of a small cliff looking down at the basket.
Cottonmill DGC—Kearney, NB—18 holes. This is a well groomed course with challenging and interesting holes. I never did find hole 10, but it was still worth the stop. If you find yourself driving through Nebraska, for any reason, make Cottonmill DGC one of your break points.
Low Gap Park—Ukiah, CA
—18 holes. A beautiful 18 hole course with many great views and challenging holes. Apparently, it is mountain lion country, but I didn’t see any while I was there. Definitely put this on your list of courses to visit if at all possible.
Seneca Creek State Park—Gaithersburg, MD
—18 holes. Seneca Creek is a pay to play course ($2), but it’s worth it. Many of the holes involve extreme elevation changes or very narrow flight lanes. Check it out if you get the chance.
Humboldt State University—Arcata, CA—18 holes. Most of the holes have tonepoles (they make a loud clank when you hit them), but there are a few baskets. This is the only course that I’ve played that has them. Eventually, they will probably be all baskets, but the poles work just fine. This is one of the most beautiful settings that I have seen for a disc golf course, as it is in a redwood forest. The second tee is actually on top of an ancient stump, pretty cool! I would recommend going with a local your first time because many of the signs are missing and you might not know where to go anyway. Definitely a great place to throw!
Edora Park—Fort Collins, CO—18 holes. Edora Park is very well maintained and has many other facilities available, including a skate park, which provides entertainment if your round isn’t going so well. Watch out for the water on a few of the holes. Overall, it is a very nice course with a variety of shots. It uses the available elevation changes well.
Lover’s Lane Park—Bowling Green, KY—18 holes. Situated in a well maintained park will very gently rolling hills. Once the trees grow more, it will be a very nice course.
Cedar Hill Park—Nashville, TN—18 holes. This is a nice course with generally well maintained and delineated fairways. The layout makes the course quite challenging and multiple pin placements and tees can change the difficulty significantly.
Tom Pearce Park—Grants Pass, OR—18 holes. A couple miles from exit 55 on I-5. Near the Rogue River, which could come into play on a couple holes but isn’t really much of a factor. This is a well laid out course with homemade baskets. I should have taken a picture, as they are really rather interesting. Structures relating to an old dam are integral to a few holes. Check it out if you’re in the area.
Northern Arizona University DGC—Flagstaff, AZ—18 holes. Parking is a bitch (the meters are expensive and you can only fill it for 45 minutes at a time). Other than that, it’s a very nice course that is both challenging and scenic. Most of it winds through Ponderosa Pines and there is a good mix of short and long holes.
Dabney State Park—Portland, OR—18 holes. Dabney is a very nice course with many distinct and challenging holes. Watch out on the latter half of the back 9 as going left might put you at the bottom of a rather steep hill, or minus a disc. It is worth the $3 entry fee, but I bought an annual pass ($25) since there are several parks in the area that it is good at.
Rooster Rock—Columbia Gorge, OR—Two 9 hole courses. Rooster Rock has a course on the east side and a course on the west side. I didn’t like the west course that much, mostly because the map provided at the ranger station sucked. The course itself wasn’t that bad, once you figured out where the holes go. Watch out for the blackberries, though. It sucks to be able to see your disc, knowing it’s gonna hurt like hell to get it back. As for the east course, it’s quite nice. The first tee can be found at the very eastern edge of the parking lot, just south of the (un)dressing room for the nude beach. The first basket is due east, tucked back about 50 feet along the path above the sandy patch by the woods. Most of the tee pads can be found pretty easily but after the third hole, go up the hill, make a left, then make the first right (I think) to find the fourth hole, which is maybe 150 feet long and 200 feet down. There were sticks laying on the ground forming arrows that guided me to this tee. You can find a map here if you need one. This course is much more challenging, and I’d recommend searching for the baskets before you throw. This is another of the $3 courses that the annual pass is good at.
Pier Park—Portland, OR—18 holes. A lot of this course’s difficulty stems from the sheer number of trees on some of the holes. There is usually a pretty tight window that you have to squeeze through to make par. If you miss the window by much or have a bad kick, forget about it.
Timber Park—Estacada, OR—18 holes. Timber Park is a nice, relatively flat course, but it does have some elevation change. The length, setup, and trees make this course challenging. Don’t bother looking at the map online because, last I checked, it was for the previous layout. Park in the lot by the soccer fields, go over the bridge, and look to 2 or 3 o’clock for the first tee (most tees have a white bucket with the number on it).
Milo McIver State Park—Estacada, OR—27 holes. They just redid this course, and it is sick. Many of the holes aren’t completely done, but there is at least one tee pad and pin position at every hole. The course is well over 2 miles from the pro tees with one hole being over 1100 feet long (850 amateur)!!! There are some super-tight short holes and some long, wide open holes. As I said, the course is very long, so make sure you have enough time to finish it. To find the first tee, make a left at the stop sign and another left after that. It is near the side of the parking lot. If you go straight to the other lot, you will have to walk the whole way across the course to get to the first tee. This is another park where the annual state parks pass works, otherwise, it’s $3/day.
Richmond Hill—Asheville, NC—18 holes. This course is heavily wooded and, as the name might suggest, incorporates elevation changes into the layout. A couple of the holes are across ravines and can be pretty darn nasty if you don’t make it across. This is a pretty good course, overall.
Burke Lake Park—Fairfax Station, VA—18 holes. This course is relatively short and heavily wooded, but is not bad, overall. There is some elevation change, and the holes require a variety of shots. The park charges an admission fee of $6 to non-residents on weekends in the summer, so try to go on a weekday if you’re there between mid April and October.
—These are courses that have something about them that disqualifies them from being among The Best. Either they’re too easy, have too little variation, aren’t well-maintained, or maybe I was just in a bad mood or the weather was crappy when I played them. Also, you will notice that there are no 9-hole courses among ‘The Best.’ They are in a loose order, with courses that I liked more being towards the top and courses that I didn’t like as much being near the bottom. Keep in mind that there are few courses that I really dislike and that I have only played many of these courses once or twice. Also, the system is completely arbitrary. You will know if I really disliked a course. I would recommend many of these courses if you don’t really have to go out of your way to play them. As for the courses at the end, I’d say check here to see if there’s another course nearby to try before playing them. Feel free to write me with your own comments about courses on this list, and maybe I’ll work some of them into my descriptions.
Champoeg State Park—Newburg, OR—15 holes. The PDGA site and others say it has 12 holes. I assure you that there are 15. They must have redone the course since then. It is quite flat with a lot of mature oak trees that add challenge to the course. $3 fee/day or $25/year. The Oregon State Parks Pass works here.
Pueblo City Park—Pueblo, CO—18 holes. A good course with a variety of holes and a reasonable number of mature trees.
Golden Gate Park DG Course—San Francisco, CA—12 holes. This course gets major props for location. It is in a nice wooded area with many large eucalyptus trees so it makes for a nice setting. Don’t bother with holes 10-12 as they are flat and boring. The only problem with the course is that they are watering the area a lot of the time with these large sprinklers, so you might get a little wet.
Mad River Pump Station #4—Valley West, CA—9 holes. This course was remodelled and reopened recently. I have heard that it is much cooler than it once was. If the HSU course is closed and Cooper Gulch is a mess, go here for a very pleasant round (or 3).
Cooper Gulch—Eureka, CA—9 holes. Very nice for a short 9 hole course. Definitely on the easy side, but the variety of holes make it interesting. Watch out when it’s wet, as a couple holes turn into bogs of nastiness.
Calvert Road Park—College Park, MD—18 holes. Calvert Road Park is a relatively short course that stresses the fundamentals of frisbee golf. There is little elevation change, but mandatory trees make sure you have to use a variety of shots during your round. You won’t be blown away by this course, but it is pretty solid. Watch out for the stream on hole 17 because it’s right behind the basket, and it took me a while to find my disc in there.
West Park—Joliet, IL—24 holes. The oldest course in Illinois is a winner. It has many unique holes and is definitely a challenge. The park tucked back in an out of the way neighborhood but it gets a lot of use. Check it out if you have the chance.
Westover Park—Harrisonburg, VA—18 holes. A pretty good course for being so new. It will get better as they add signs and tee pads, but as the pine trees grow, some of the fairways could very well disappear entirely, making the course unplayable.
Bluemont Park—Arlington, VA—9 holes. I didn’t like this course that much the first time I played it, but after playing it a few times, I figured out why it’s a pretty good course. There may be only 9 holes, but there are three sets of tees that totally change the course, so it’s like three 9-hole courses in one. There are also multiple pin placements, so the course is different every time you play.
Admiral Farragut Park—Knoxville, TN—9 holes. If this course had 18 holes, it would be among The Best. It’s got a nice variety of holes, is definitely in good shape, and the surroundings are beautiful. The only problem, besides being only 9 holes, is that it’s a little short.
Rockwood Park—Portland, OR—9 holes. It is a well kept 9 hole course in a relatively small city park. The local drunks hang out there, but they don’t tend to bother anyone and even provide a cheering gallery if they’re drunk enough/in the mood. There is an established safari-back-9, so it is, in effect, an 18 hole course if there aren’t too many people around.
French Creek State Park—Birdsboro, PA—36 holes. Keep in mind that it was raining cats and dogs for most of the round. We only played one of the courses. I think it was the old course. It seems like a decent course, but some of the holes were a little wacky.
Sherando Park—Stephens City, VA—19 holes. It was really windy up on top of the hill at this course. There is a significant rough (tall grass) that isn’t really necessary in places and just serves to eat discs. The holes themselves are varied and some are quite interesting.
Lucchesi Park—Petaluma, CA—9 holes. Apparently, they have a back 9 that uses the same baskets from different tees. Go into the building before you play to get a map. The geese can be a bit of a nuisance but other than that, it’s a nice little 9 hole course.
Monroeville Park—Monroeville, PA—9 holes. I’ve heard that there are plans to put in another 9 holes here, which would be great. As it is, the course has some good points and some bad points. One bad thing is that there are some serious brambles that are good at eating discs. Overall, it’s worth a round every once in a while.
Getty Heights Park—Indiana, PA—9 holes. If you’re in Indiana, make sure that you play at IUP College Lodge. Getty Heights is a short, relatively flat course that is perfect for beginners. There are two sets of tees, giving the course a bit of variety, but it just doesn’t compare to the Lodge.
Benson State Park—Corbett, OR—9 holes. This is a dinky little course in a dinky little state park. But the scenery is nice. If you look to the south, you can see the very top of Wahkeena Falls, and one exit over is Multnomah Falls. These are definitely worth seeing. It is $3 to enter the park and play the course, but that receipt is also good at Rooster Rock(and any other Oregon State Park) for the same day, so hit those courses up as well.
Cornwallis Road Park—Durham, NC—18 holes. This course is very short and, for the most part, very wooded. Check it out if you’re in the area.
Pohick Bay Regional Park—Lorton, VA—18 holes. $2 park fee. This course is relatively wooded and has a good variety of holes. Some of the holes don’t really have a realistic “birdie-lane,” if you understand what I mean. It’s worth shelling out the two bucks to play once and decide if you like it.
Clarkco State Park—Quitman, MS—9 holes. The AAA Camp Book helped us to stumble upon this little course. We were heading from Austin, TX back to PA and needed a place to stop for the night. Low and behold, this small state park has a disc golf course. The primitive camping sites are very nice, with a soft bed of pine needles on the ground. If you like to drink when you camp, pack in your own alcohol because it’s a dry county. In the morning, be sure to hit up the frisbee golf course. It’s short, tight, and a little weird, but who said there’s anything wrong with that? If you aren’t camping, keep in mind that there’s a day-use fee to get into the park.
Portland Lunchtime Disc Golf Course—Portland, OR—12 holes. This course is nestled around the Greater Portland Bible Church. If the grass had been better mowed and it had been a nicer day, it would probably be higher up. As it is, the course has some fairly long holes and some really short holes. And some medium holes. So basically, it has some hills and some trees, just like most other decent courses. And 12 holes, unlike most others.
Valley View Park—Altoona, PA—9 holes. The PDGA directory says it has signs now, so that clears up some of the problems, if it’s true. This course can be extremely muddy at times, and I’d have to disagree with whomever thought it was a good idea to put in double-dog legs on some of the holes. Hole nine is very nice, though. If you’re in Altoona and jonesing for some disc golf, check it out.
Tyrell Park—Beaumont, TX—18 holes. This course is pretty flat and relatively swampy. Bring your bug spray as there are many, many mosquitoes.
Crookston Disc Golf Course—Fletcher, NC—9 holes. This course is generally long and open. If you like being able to launch drive after drive, this is your course. When I was there, the grass was WAY too long and we had to look for one of my discs for quite some time before finding it.
Boltz Jr. High School—Fort Collins, CO—9 holes. Short, flat course with a nasty stream running through it. Having a map would be helpful so you can find the holes without problem.
Phillips Park—Pittsburgh, PA—9 holes. This course is relatively wooded and on a constant, fairly steep slope. You’d think that a course at a high school would be relatively free of broken glass and debris. Think again. Some of the baskets are squirrelly.
—Whew, that’s quite a few courses. 44 to be exact. I also played a course in Minneapolis/St. Paul, but don’t remember its name and have played the first three holes of a course under construction in State College, PA. So we’ll say that I’ve played 45 courses. Not bad. As of the time of publication, the PDGA course directory lists 1421 courses in the United States. That means I’ve played 3.17% of the listed courses in the US; that’s about one out of every 30 courses. I have played disc golf in 15 states. I need to play more!