WHAT TO EXPECT: Angel Mounds is a Native American State Historical site on the banks of the Ohio River. The area is complete with a large parking area, museum, some traditional crop fields, burial mounds, and a nature trail. Disc golf seems forced and shoe horned onto a property you wouldn't expect a disc golf course to be.

AMENTIES: Several port o johns in the parking lot area, nice pavilion area, and as mentioned above, several non disc golf related historical sites and activities.

TEES/SIGNAGE/BASKETS (PROS): All 3 exists in various forms making the course playable...

DESIGN (PROS): There is a Red, Blue and Gold layout for various skill levels. The course is extremely flat and very cart friendly. Next tee pads are very close to the previous basket and long walks between holes barely exist. Mix of heavily wooded short technical holes and very open miss one tree bomber holes. Two elevated baskets #13 and #17.

ACE RUNS: There are multiple ace runs in the woods. Hole #2 especially as it sits only 180 feet away (from the golds) and I believe only 120 feet from the reds. Just hit a very small straight gap at the edge of circle 1 off the tee and listen for chains. There are multiple other wooded holes in that 220 foot range that require a VERY specific line, but can be aced.

UPKEEP: Most noticeable right out of the gate is the mowing. Outside of the grass immediately adjacent to the museum parking lot (Holes #13 - #18) The grass is chest high, full of thorns and brambles with only a mower wide strip mowed down the center to create a path. The wooded holes #2-#12 only have a small dirt path worn down by walkers that creates a true fairway, the rest is extremely dense and unforgiving rough. We played a tournament here and spent a very long time looking for discs in the high grass, even with spotters, and several discs were lost during the round.

TEE PADS: There is a no dig policy on this course, therefore designers opted for natural teepads (bare dirt with two flat stones to mark the edges of the tee pad) These were impossible to see and we had to kick around in the dirt on several holes to find the stones marking the tees. Other areas have old turf style tees that are skinny and long and in degrading shape. None of them were level, most had holes and erosion parts where the turf was torn away. The other tees were spray painted boxes on the main museum road entrance, exit, and parking lot. We had to wait for traffic and throw over parked cars several times.

SIGNAGE: Most tee pad signs were a sheet of paper printed off with the hole distance, par, and hole number. They were very primitive, luckily most holes were so short that you could see the basket from the tee.

BASKETS: Half were prodigy portable baskets and half were red homemade baskets with 2 layers of chains but a basket that was less than a disc deep. Hard putts and anything high in the chains would not stick.

DESIGN: This used to be a 2 loop 9 hole course out in the open and someone decided to redesign and shoot it off into the woods. While I applaud this effort, the execution is somewhat lacking. There are a ton of forced ridiculous angle holes in the woods. While you can always remove trees later as a course breaks in, this course is just plinko on most tee shots or extreme angles that force you to chip around doglegs because of the mandos. There's a 280 foot par 4 that is shape like this ^. 100 feet to a heavily treed landing zone, then 180 feet heavily treed green. The holes are so close together, with so many tree kicks available, that you will often be in other holes fairways, or yelling fore. The open holes are some of the original design, and much longer 315 average for the par 3's and use massive old hardwood oak trees to force lines and use elevated baskets to break up the openness. While the variety is good, the drastic change in distances can be hard to handle for lower skill levels. Especially since the open holes all throw around or over parking lots and roads.

NAVIGATION: Will be a nightmare in the woods without a course map, U-Disc, or Native spiritual guidance. There are the occasional rocks with red arrows painted on them pointing towards the next tee, but they are hard to spot and often send you towards a different color tee than the layout you are playing.

Interesting course to say the least. I wouldn't say that Angel Mounds is a "good" course, but it does well with what it has to offer and the limitations placed on it by being located on a Native Historical site. The Museum is only open 10-5 and the gate will be locked to access the property, but you can still play outside those hours if you park in the grass near the gate (from what I've been told). It will be a very long walk to Hole #1 from there so you can start on the hole closest to the gate which I believe is #15. While the current set up is way better than the previous, this course just doesn't stand out to me as a great experience due to the limitations. Hopefully as the course breaks in, the wooded section will become better defined, the tee pad issue can be addressed, and the homemade baskets can be traded out for better ones. Not a destination course unless you package the historical site along with it, or you are determined to hit all the courses near Evansville.

Angel Mounds is a strange location for a disc golf course.

On the banks of the Ohio River, the Angel Mounds State Historic Site is a preserved Native American area on which a town was built hundreds of years ago and included earthen mounds to elevate important buildings, according to their website. And with signs of archaeological history visible all around the well-preserved, 600-acre site, the view of red baskets dotting the field near the entrance seem out of place.

Angel Mounds was recently increased to an 18-hole layout. Most of the opening holes are of the poke-and-hope variety; they're in the woods and tend to be short but heavily wooded. Only one of the first 11 holes is longer than 220 feet, but with very narrow lines, score variance will likely be high as aces and bogeys are both reasonably possible.

There are two hanging baskets on the second half of the course, which is mostly open in the field. The basket for Hole #13 is suspended from what appears to be the frame of an old swing set and is about five feet high. The basket for Hole #17 is suspended, but it's just a couple feet off the ground. However, both holes require a careful approach in order to avoid obstructed putts from the sides due to the supports.

There are two teepad designations – blue and gold – on the site. Most of the time, the gold teepads are just longer but the angle is different on a few of holes too.

The grounds were mowed and in good shape when I played (though other users reported very high grass at previous times).

The teepads are less than ideal. The teepads in the field tend to be turf, in so-so condition and they can be difficult to spot as they blend in with the grass. In the woods, the teepad areas were typically marked with wood chips and colored blocks. These areas can get muddy after even a bit of rain. And a few of the teepads were simply marks on the entrance road to the museum, which isn't ideal if there's much traffic around.

The navigation in the woods is decent as there are footpaths throughout. However, there were a few areas where it was possible to walk in the wrong direction, and the holes in the fields will likely prompt a glance at the course map.

There's barely any elevation change on this course – maybe a couple feet at most. Consequently, the course is quite cart friendly.

Several of the holes in the field play near the park road.

The baskets are a mix of transportable Prodigy T3 and homemade baskets. For the homemade baskets, the top assembly has a few spokes but it appears a disc could enter through the top. The basket assembly is barely a disc deep. There are two layers of chains and they appeared to catch well. The baskets are mounted upon what appears to be the stripped rim of a car tire. Despite all that, the homemade baskets seem to do the job.

Due to the archeological history, no digging is allowed on site, hence the basket choices and the absence of dug teepads and tee signs.

The site and museum are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. If you arrive outside of those hours, the course is still available to play, and you can park in the grass near the front gate. Hole #15 is the closest to the entrance, so you might opt to start your round there.

Angel Mounds was a bit better than my group expected. While it's a reasonably average course, partially due to the limitations of the land, the designer did a good job of using the basket locations, a few obstacles and two elevated baskets to avoid boring holes.

New red baskets that I hadn't seen the style of before. Caught well enough.

Mix of distances, couple holes set into a cornfield, adding some difficulty, and possible risk of losing a disc.

Overall, the course plays away from any activity that may be happening, except for #6, which plays next to a small shelter.

Hanging basket on #4 added for a touch of uniqueness.

Course upkeep was perfect.

Tee pads are dark green mats that blend into the ground, very hard to locate, no signage as this is a historic Native American Indian site, no digging allowed. Tee pads are numbered, some of the holes are simply spray painted onto the asphalt. Hard to navigate.

The baskets are for the most part all visible from the tee pads, not a course that will challenge higher level players. Good for beginners to learn on, with some of the holes having some length to contend with.

This is a 9 basket/2 tee pad layout for a total of 18 holes.

It's great to see the addition of the course as an added draw to the National Historic Site, growing the game.

Not a course to go out of your way to play.