Pros:
- Great equipment: tee pads, baskets, signage all of good quality and in good repair.
- Nice, multi-use park is well maintained and pleasant to play in
- Land is used well, a number of fun, if not overly challenging, holes
- High voltage towers are a unique obstacle feature
Cons:
- While the difficulty level here is not trivial, most players beyond novice level will have little trouble getting within the putting circle on their drives.
- There are a few locations where people on walking paths, houses, or other park users could be impacted by thrown discs, and not necessarily only on bad shots.
Other Thoughts:
As far as Chicago area 9-hole disc golf courses go, Castaldo tends to keep up with the best of them. Playing no small part in that is the quality of the park and equipment. The baskets catch well, the tee signs are clear and informative (though the distances are a bit questionable, especially on holes 2 and 3) and the concrete tee pads are large and surrounded by a bed crushed stone. It was a very pleasant disc golf experience.
I played a couple hours after a storm had rolled through, and while the ground was wet, and a couple of paths across low lying areas were muddy, I was surprised how well the course handled the water. It doesn't seem like wet weather will negatively affect the course much, and certainly not for very long.
There isn't really any shot shaping here, which isn't great if you are a more experienced player looking for a challenge, but for newer players, and those just looking for a casual round or to work on a particular shot, this works just fine. Even if you are not limited to a particular shot on any hole, there are still mature trees, occasional brush, and the imposing power line towers you must navigate around to earn your birdie on most holes. If you have about 300' of controllable power you will have a good chance of birdying every hole (hole 3 is nowhere near 400').
This is a great course for its location in the middle of a neighborhood. It's a great course to learn on, and more experienced players can still have fun hunting for birdie on every hole. If you are in the area, stop by and play a quick round, it won't take you long, and even if you won't be much challenged, you can still have fun in a nice park.