I was trying to hit some St. Louis area courses I hadn't played when I noticed Bicentennial Park. 4,156 ft., only one 300' hole, wooded, good elevation...I'm thinking fun technical course like Hudson Park. I had a day with enough time to drive to Belleville and play and headed out for some fun frolf. By the time I was dragging myself back to the parking lot after playing the front 9 I was sweaty, dirty, exhausted from all the up and down hiking, carding a ridiculously high score and out of time to play the back nine. Clearly I was going to need to approach Bicentennial Park with another mindset. I came back with better footwear and extra water, but after some significant rain in the area. All the up and down became a treacherous mudscape; getting footing was next to impossible. I considered it a victory that I only slipped and barrel-rolled down a hill twice. On try number three I finally got in a decently regular round, but the course was still befuddling me. It should be fun. Why was I so frustrated and not having fun? Around hole seven it struck me: Lefty course. The front nine is filled with pins set to the right/turnover line shots. It gives us RHBH hyzer guys a glimpse of what life is like for LHBH hyzer guys. I didn't enjoy the glimpse into lefty life. Anybody who sees the distances and shows up expecting a cupcake is going to be in for a surprise here. Challenging courses generally rate higher on DGCR, and with that in mind It's very underrated IMO.

As to the actual course, it's hard to categorize. It's a short course, but the elevation changes make it play longer. There are no open holes to fling it out there on, this course is 100% hit your line or pay the price. On most holes you can see a route to the basket, but the whole fairways are not cleared and the routes are tight gaps around plinko trees. The course features the crazy deflections off trees and wild roll-aways of some pretty significant elevation, so a barely off-target drive can end up a long, long way away from the pin. IMO it's actually a really, really hard course. The elevation is tough, and if it's slick it can become grueling. Once I get to hole nine I can settle into my usual RHBH hyzer ways and get away with it, but by then I'm mentally broken down by all the missed turnover lines the course starts with. Despite the distances, it's really a course for somebody looking for a challenge. It seemed like a really good place for a competitive guy who doesn't have a cannon to drag his big-armed friends and watch the course get in their heads.

The amenities are good. There are good signs, concrete tees, the baskets have directional arrows in the attachments to help find your way. The flow is OK, the front and back are split so the hardest part is finding the tees for 1 and 10 to get started. There are restrooms in the park and a practice basket near the restrooms, which makes it goofily far from the rest of the course but it's there.

I thought hole 4 with the mando was dumb. The mando didn't seem to be there for safety as a bunch of shule protects 5's tee. If the object was to keep you from going big hyzer, the mando tree could have just been on the right to keep you in the fairway instead of forcing you to throw down the left side of the fairway. It just seemed like a filler hole with a dumb mando to try to make a little turnover ace run hard instead of letting it be a little turnover ace run. It forces people to throw over where there is a pretty significant drop-off, and the scramble back up from there is tough. With all the plinko trees and rollaway danger on the course you already are going to scramble a lot. It just didn't seem necessary.

There is one hole on the back that I can't figure out a route to, but I forget the number. The course to me always ends up being a grueling grind and by the time I get to this hole my brain stops working properly and I'm just trying to survive to get back to the parking lot, so maybe there is a route and I just can't figure it out.

The course doesn't have any water shots, but there are retention ponds on the property and you can end up in some marshy/swampy messes when throwing to pins set toward the retention ponds. That's kinda like having none of the fun of a water shot with all the messy gross consequence of a water shot.

Not really a con but if you hyzer out on three (which is the longest hole on the course at 352' so it happens) you can end up in a cornfield and good luck finding your disc.

Not really a con but a possible improvement: The course is one of those bare-bones one tee/one pin placement deals. If as it evolves they could add additional tees and/or pin placements it could give the place some variety. I wouldn't mention that if this was a fun rec course. It's not a fun rec course. This is a tough challenging course that you could use for Masters/Grandmasters divisions in competitive events (the kids would scream about it being too short.)

One of the course designers listed is an old-school St. Louis disc golf guy I knew from back in the day when I was running events at White Birch; I have not run into him in about 20 years but it's cool to see those guys still out there spreading the gospel of disc golf.

I feel like this review is short on details, but not a lot of the holes stood out to me. Hole five looks cool from the tee, but I keep ending up in some sort of swamp off my drive. Hole seven is cool, but not really special. There are so many "throw up this steep hill" shots that they start to drive me crazy. The shots are solid, but not spectacular. The elevation just creates a lot of danger shots that make you scramble if you don't execute.

I keep going back to Bicentennial Park, trying to get it to be the fun round I was sure it was going to be when I first saw it listed. It keeps shoving me down and taking my lunch money. I'm afraid we won't be friends. It's a bit much for my sore back and bad knees in my advanced age, but when I was younger I would have loved a course like this. This is a really tough course that people looking for a challenge should enjoy. The short length is a misnomer; this is no pitch 'n putt. If you like to compete, like woods golf and don't need to show off your big drives to have a good time, this is a disc golf course for you.