This course is still under construction. It's already better than anything else in the area. Excellent course layout, a wide variety of shots. I love when I use every disc in my bag on the course. Scenic pre-existing trails through old growth provides shade and makes finding your disc relatively easy. Dog friendly and secluded. Awesome course.

The course isn't completed yet. There are cement tees on 1-7, 17 and 18. The footing is poor as they still are clearing many of the fairways. The old course was maintained well, so i'm assuming this will improve quickly. There are some swampy areas, so the bugs can be annoying.

Follow the orange flags.

The disc golf sanctuary is clean, with good signage, teepads, and baskets. Driving in I found several helpful signs pointing the way to the disc golf parking. Score cards and pencils are provided at the first tee, and there are vault toilets nearby.

This course has a they-did-the-best-they-could-with-what-they-had feel. The wooded holes follow a trail system which creates some strangely shaped, narrow fairways. The open holes are just that, with the challenge being to stay in the mowed areas and avoid the tall grass.

As a LHBH thrower, hole #9 left me nonplussed. I didn't see a lefty line off the tee other than an anhyzer over some trees and across a road toward the basket. That's not a shot I'm comfortable with, but I gave it a try and my disk landed, I assume, somewhere beyond the trees in tall grass and water. I never did find that disc. For my retee, I chose to pitch out about 30 feet in front of the tee and go from there.

As a disc playing traveler, I found this to be a disappointing stop. However, despite it's shortcomings, this course appears to be a valuable asset in an under served area for local players with the patience to accept its foibles.

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<> FREE
<> Concrete teepads and nice baskets throughout
<> Never a lot of people there so you can just play through at whatever pace you feel like
<> There is an open shelter on a concrete slab with tables for a shady lunch or to get out of the rain.
<> Bathrooms on site
<> Football field right in the middle of the course with a basket at one end so a good place to practice or warm up.
<> Signs at the start of every hole marking the distance and flight path to pin.
<> Walking paths are easy to discern and there is a natural flow to the course/easy to navigate
<> Mix of tunnel shots, wide open shots, blind dog legs, and forced layup shots.
<> Trash cans and benches throughout makes this a very easy course for beginners or people of all ages/fitness levels

<> No plumbing so bring your own water and hand sanitizer
<> Course design feels a little redundant as it makes a complete circle and a lot of holes go straight to left.
<> The posted pars are way off. I feel like this is a par 22 course for good players.
<> No alternate pins/reverse play or safari play are impossible.

I play this course more than any other course for a few reasons. 1. The football field is a great place to practice a ton of shots. 2. Me and my friend do a round in 30 min. 3. Collectively, it is the closest course to my playgroup. The course does offer some variation if you decide to play different lines so it's not completely boring, but it get's old to play it alone. If you want a greater challenge you can play it like I do:

Hole 1: Par 3, Woods before the green are O.B.
Hole 2: Par 4
Hole 3: There is a big Aspen tree to the right of the teebox, Mando arrow on it pointing left, par 2.
Hole 4: Par 3, you will see some flag tape and some stakes, O.B. lines.
Hole 5: Anything from the teebox to the edge of the track including the track is O.B. Par 2
Hole 6: Par 3
Hole 7: Par 3
Hole 8: Woods is O.B. Yards or street is O.B. Par3
Hole 9: Anything other than the field that the basket is in is O.B. Par 3.

This plays a par 26 with lots of restrictions, it tightens up play and makes certain shots more risky.

Edit: There is a scorecard box being made for this course and it should be up very soon. Until then you can get the cards and pencils at the Bike Rental Shop in Carlton, MN by the Four Seasons Complex.

--Great course to practice the basics of disc golf (finesse/accuracy shots in the woods on holes 1-4; hyzers on holes 2, 4, and 8; anhyzers on holes 3 and 4; distance shots on hole 6; and "fairway drives" on holes 7 and 9)
--Free!
--Tees are concrete and better than the other courses I have played, baskets are nice and new, and the course conditions are always good. They mow regularly and they recently (spring, 2012) did a control burn in the field around holes 6 and 7, leaving the grass short so it should be harder to lose discs for the time being.
--The course provides a good balance of wooded (holes 1-4) and open (holes 5-9) holes as well as a good balance of technical holes that require most of the different skill shots (see first comment above)
--The course is rarely crowded, most times I go I see only two other groups, and many other times my group is the only one there (the evenings are usually the most packed, I recommend the mornings or afternoons if you want to avoid a crowded round)
--It's a fun course where you can keep trying to break your previous records (if you live nearby and can play it often, of course); it gives me a challenge as I continue to break my records and set the bar higher and higher (or lower and lower actually lol)
--Also, hole 5 is good for aces!

--Only 9 holes
--The par should be lower, it is too easy to get under par. I think the pars should be:
1: 3
2: 4 (maybe 5)
3: 3
4: 4
5: 3
6: 4
7: 3
8: 3
9: 3
Total: 27/28
--Hole 9 should be placed in a better spot since it is played over a road (luckily it is not a busy one, but still a spotter is necessary since vehicles often come out of nowhere around the corner from the left or from the right where you cannot see or hear them coming)
--Holes 5 and 9 make it possible for disc damage since hole 5 plays over a paved track and hole 9 over the road (hole 5 basket is only 12 feet beyond the track so if shot low the disc could easily crash into the paved track and the road system around hole 9 makes it easy to throw a spike hyzer into the road when there is a strong headwind if you do not throw with enough power). In fact, these two holes are the most responsible for the damage to my discs.
--The hole diagrams at the tees could be better. All it is is a simple diagram with arrows from the tee to the basket with necessary doglegs and distance. I would also like it to show proper trees (so first timers can gauge how to throw their shot) and OB as well since I still do not know all the OB on this course except the obvious ones.
--Since the course is adjacent to an elementary school, I have had to wait a couple of times around midday during the weekdays in the spring and fall for the kids to get done with recess (recess for that school is around 10:30-Noon I think; that's when I have interfered with the child hordes at least). The holes affected by recess are 1-4 and 9.
--In the summer, watch out for flies and mosquitoes on holes 2-4!
--There is a lot of field space wasted around holes 5-7 that could have helped with the placement of holes 8-9 which are closer to the elementary school
--Personally, I would like the field holes (6-7) to have more of a challenge to them (maybe some trees here and there, or maybe make the holes longer)
--Hole 8 is placed in such a way where if there are kids playing around the corner to the left where you cannot see from the tee, your drive could hit them (I have had to wait for kids multiple times on this hole)

Great course for those looking to begin practicing the basics of disc golf! I started on this course and I continue to break my previous records, so it's a course that keeps me busy at least! Also, don't expect this course to be what it is not; it is only a course that is built into an existent trail system, so it wasn't built from scratch or anything. Since this is the case, it may look a little shabby since the "fairways" in the woods are actually gravel trails. That being said, you got to hand it to the makers and designers of the course for making it what it is. It's not a terrible course (I have seen worse!) and I can definitely imagine this course being better. All in all, it's a fun course!

Grading Criteria:

Landscape quality
4/5

Baskets, Tees and Hole Diagrams
4/5

Variety in hole distances
4/5

Variety in hole types
(field/wooded holes; hilly/level holes; etc)
4.5/5

Difficulty/Challenge
4/5

Course flow
4/5

Outside interference
(pedestrians; traffic noise distractions; etc)
3/5

Fun factor
4/5

Use of available land
4/5

Specific issues:
(certain problems with certain holes; unique course issues; etc)

Hole 8 placement
3/5

Hole 9 placement
1.5/5

Hole 5 placement
3/5

Rounded Total: 4/5 (Actual score: 3.8/5)

-Baskets are in great shape and pretty new
-Course is not busy
-Decent mix of four wooded holes and five open holes
-Good concrete tee pads (although they could be just a touch longer)
-Good signs at the tee pads that have the hole, distance, par, and path of the fairway'
-There a couple of technical holes
-The course is clean, no garbage at all

-Mosquitoes can be extremely thick at times, especially on the wooded holes
-The pars on the signs really need to be reworked, there are two holes marked as par 5... personally, I'd probably play the course as a par 28
-There's some heavy underbrush in some areas
-Hole 9 is not very well designed (more on this below)

All in all, this course isn't all that bad. There's nothing about it that makes it stand out, but there really isn't anything that makes it terrible either...it's just kind of average. In an area where there aren't a whole lot of disc golf courses to choose from, this is a decent option.
The baskets are pretty new, and they are in superb condition. The course itself is very clean, as I don't recall seeing a single piece of trash anywhere on the course. The concrete tee pads are in very good shape, although they are slightly shorter than I would prefer. They are long enough especially considering there are no holes where you'd air it out; however, there could be some room for improvement with them. The signs at each tee pad are very nice, they provide you with all the pertinent information about the hole including any dog legs and what-not so you can properly shape your shot.
Speaking of dog legs, there are a couple of 90 degree doglegs on the wooded holes that provide a fairly decent challenge. Hole 2 in particular is a pretty long dog leg left that provides a pretty decent challenge. Hole 8 also dog legs hard to the left, but there is more room to play on that hole. All in all there are three dog legs, all to the left.
There are two holes where there is a little bit of questionable design in play. Hole 5 is an extremely short little ace run waiting to happen that crosses a running track. I don't know whether or not the track is really used anymore, it doesn't really look like it; but if it is I could see this being an issue. The tee off for hole 6 crosses the track as well. Hole 9 is the hole that I really take issue with the design however. It has you teeing off in the woods across the street from the basket. The basket is in the front lawn area of the school and to get to it you literally have to throw across the road and entrance to the school; it seems like a poor idea at best. Even if there's hardly any traffic on the road it's still never a good idea to have a hole cross it.
I didn't have to deal with the mosquitoes this time at the course (it was half way through November), but I have been to this course one other time in the middle of the summer and the bugs can get mighty thick and bothersome. Be sure to bring your bug repellent and slather it on good before you start a round if it's a time of year where there will be bugs out.
I do like this course, there are couple of holes that provide a decent challenge. My main reason for liking this course is that provides another option for players in an area where there aren't very many courses. It's a little disappointing to me that the Duluth/Superior area doesn't have more courses than the small handful that has.

Course is new, has quality concrete tee boxes and regulation baskets.

The first four holes are challenging due to dense woods and epic lengths. Holes 5 through 7 have very tall grass. Bugs are an issue in this low land course. Lastly, the course requires players to cross a road twice, not the safest idea.

Overall, I'm OK with this course. It is challenging enough to get me to keep coming back and improve my score. And it's a good beginner course for an area that hasn't had a public disc golf course before that can hopefully improve the popularity of this fun sport in the local area.

It is a good warm up for Mont Du Lac, a few miles to the east of here. A variety of closed and open shots, the closed are technical, the open are all birdie-able.

The wooded shots are tight (except one), and the open shots are too open.
Hole 9 throws over the road near the school, um, duh.

Good to see a smaller town put up a course for disc golf. It's a good warm up for Mont Du Lac, right on the way from Black Bear Casino. Take a right at the stop sign in Carlton, and we took hwy 3 south/west. There are signs off this road, we couldn't find it following the other directions.

Nice cement tee pads, nice baskets, some elevation changes. Good mix of wooded and technical and open. .

No real hole to open it up distance wise. Longest open hole is under 300, the longer holes run through the woods and are very technical. Woods are way too tight. At some spots the opening is less than 10 feet. Underbrush is super thick. It is super easy to lose a disc.

WIth some minor changes, mostly clearing underbrush and widening the path through the woods, this would be a very solid little course. Still worth a stop on the way from the Twin Cities to Duluth as it is only about 5 miles off of highway 35.

This course is challenging and long on about half the holes.

The tee boxes are very nice, and there is a map of the hole with yardage on each one.

Navigating the course is fairly easy.

The forest is very dense!

The fairways are very narrow. I would recommend having the best player throw first, and then spot each player's shot throughout each hole.

This would be a great early spring and fall course. Tons of bugs in forest part of the course during the summer.

Carlton is a cool place to hit up afterwords too. There is a cool bar right near the course!

Don't forget to watch your shots!