This is one of my favorite parks in New Orleans. Every time I visit Nola I find myself in this park for the art and sculpture garden (free). This was the first time I've been able to check out the disc golf course and I was pleasantly surprised.

Local Community:
This course is a local favorite and you can tell they put effort into maintaining the course. Tee signs, tee pads, benches were all in great shape.

Course Layout:
Aside from my opinion that starting on hole #9 is ideal, the layout of the course was great. Not a lot of elevation to work with, but the fairways and trees shaped the shots nicely.

Variety of shots needed:
I always enjoy playing a course where roller is an option on most drives. Some shots favored right fading shots, so a good mix or backhand and forehand is ideal.

Memorable Shots:
One basket on the font nine is installed into a tree stump and well protected, it was a fun shot. Hole 9 is similar to the USDGC "gate" shot. Triple mando where you have to throw into a window. Water comes into play on the back 9 making for a couple tricky shots.

Parking:
The recommended parking lot (via google) was basically a dog park. Definitely best to park near hole #9 and start there, which is an odd way to play a course.

Walking Paths:
I get it. This is a city park and the walking trails existed before disc golf I'm sure. It wasn't a huge deal, but I did wait to throw a couple times. This is a popular park for dog walkers.

This is a fun course. Not incredibly challenging, but enough shot variety and a few longer holes made it always interesting.

As a frequent visitor of Nola, I think this course is part of the perfect day at City Park. Get beignet, check out the free sculpture garden and then play disc golf.

(3.398 Rating) A mid length park style course with a few wooded holes.
- MOWED BY VOLUNTEERS - I'm going to start this review with the reason I scored City Park a 3.5 instead of a 3.0. Volunteers literally mowed this entire course just prior to my visit, or at least that's the information a local told me when arriving for my pre-dawn raid of the course. The course was in amazing shape for a southern course in June. Sure the grass was knee to waist deep along the wide fairway cuts, but fairways and greens were no longer than 3 inches deep. Major kudos to the volunteers involved in keeping this course in check.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - Considering the amount of care the course had gotten prior to my visit, a lot of hidden inner beauty was brought out. The park itself is not what I would define as drop dead gorgeous, but it's solid. I really liked the water element along (14) and (15). The finishing two holes had a nice wooded charm to them as well. The whole course has a bit of a country club feel to it too. Overall I slotted the course at 75 percentile.
- AMENITIES - City Park is decked out with all the right extras to please regular players and visitors. Artistic course map by tee (1). Concrete pads for the middle tees and of good size. I personally measured them at 5 by 12 with a taper to 6 feet wide in back. I confirmed later on google earth pro these numbers. There are couple that are a bit larger being nearly 14 feet long. The baskets are DISCatchers, there are multiple marked tees using colored stones flush with the ground, there are alternate basket placements and there are benches at almost every paved tee.
- CHALLENGING - I wasn't sure how to grade this. There are back tees on this course, but I would suspect that they are rarely used as the tees were not paved and the grass was long around a few of them during my visit. From the paved tees, I'd say that the difficulty is just north of average. A couple holes required 400 foot plus bombs to get into birdie range. The flanking trees on some of the fairways will swallow a disc and drop it at the contact point. I don't think rec players will average below par here unless they throw from the short tees. I enjoyed the challenges presented here as an Intermediate. Nothing mind altering, but it had solid intrigue.
- SIGNAGE AND NAVIGATION - The tee signage is fantastic. Visually impressive and has all the necessary information, except next tee direction. I think the transitions between tees could have been better had there been some well-placed navigational markers. Linking mowed paths were evident, it's just that in a few spots there are several choices and I guessed wrong twice. After realizing the goof, I consulted my picture of the course map and was quickly back on track.
- HOLE VARIETY - I thought this aspect was above average among the near 500 courses I've thrown. A good mix of distances, from sub 200 feet to plus 600 feet. Some holes are great birdie chances, while on others, a par will be a good score. I only recall one par 4 in play for my appearance, but I think a couple other holes have that longer option. I enjoyed the teasing of water on a couple holes and the mix of tee coverages from almost open to almost heavily wooded. The biggest thing missing here is elevation, but I wasn't expecting any.

Site constraints and course conditions.
- MAINTENANCE HISTORY - As alluded to on my first pro, I got a mowed and manicured course. However, this is not always the case looking back on a history of reviews. There's a zero percent chance I score this a 3.5 had I gotten overgrown fairways. I don't take off a ton of points for unkempt conditions (rarely more than ½ point), but as the fairways become shaggier, the beauty and fun factor starts to drop really quick. It appears the city of New Orleans does not consistently take care of this course. It's totally up to the resolve of the volunteers to pick up the slack.
- FLAT - This course is like Mississippi delta floodplain flat… oh wait. Seriously just about no elevation change on this course. Maybe (17) long tee is up 8 feet above the plain. Tee (12) is on a modest 4 foot high perch. After these notables, it's a bowling alley below sea level.
- LOST DISC POTENTIAL - Missing left on (14) and (15) is unforgivable. Looks like prime alligator and snake habitat. I have no idea if this is the case.
- MUD - I thought the rumors of mud was overblown until I hit tee (12). I nearly wiped it 3 or 4 times on the four-foot elevation climb to the tee. I noticed several spongy/soggy areas throughout the course. (14) and (15) had substantial mud areas too. I would suspect that during the summer rainy season that conditions can get horrid. I'd recommend packing mud boots to the avid course bagger. I'm glad I brought my boots.
- WALK BACK TO PARKING - A 900 foot walk back to tee (1) unless one cuts through fairways.
- PARKING - Only street parking.
- ONLY MIDDLE TEES ARE CONCRETE - 3 sets of tees, but the back tees and front tees are natural surfaces.

I must be getting old, because I enjoyed this course more than I enjoyed Bourbon Street the day before. This course is likely no longer heralded as the town's best course due to Parc des Familles, but it's a really nice well-rounded stop that most players are going to enjoy. My only caveat to this is that, if the volunteerism were to ever stop, the course appeal will go down real quick as the vegetation growth almost never stops down here. So be sure to check conditions before scheduling a round here. I would suspect that summers are not an ideal time of the year to play here. Anyways, overall I'm going with a low 3.5, but I did get ideal conditions. Visiting players in the area should definitely consider checking it out, but only after Parc des Famillies first. The only reason I played here instead of the before mentioned course is because Parc des Famillies wasn't open until two hours after sunrise. Thankfully City Park was open and I was finally able to throw in Louisiana again.
- TIME PLAY - Average. Figure an hour for quick solos on an empty course. Groups of four in about two hours.

+ The New City layout is on a former ball golf course in a 500 acre heavily used city park. Although it seemed pretty much in its own section, I noticed mowed tracks across some fairways for cross country.

+ There are three sets of tees (only the main one is concrete, the shorts and long are natural), two sets of permanent signs (at the intermediate and long tees), and two basket positions on some holes.

+ Former ball golf courses challenge the ability to design well for disc golf, but the designers at City Park have done a really good job with flat and largely open space. Although the course is generally short, there is a fair number of holes with tight alleys or low ceilings, creating genuine shot challenge

+ Hole #2 shows you some of the spectacular old spreading oaks that are around the course: when you're approaching the basket which is protected by their branches, notice how far away their trunks are

+ Holes #3, #4, #5 are the typical "back and forth" layout you find on ball courses, but each of these three is slightly different: #3 puts the basket slightly left, encouraging a fade around a course kiosk, #4 uses some trees to hide the basket, and #5 features a stump-mounted raised basket protected by a few tight pairs of trees, and a big tree in the middle of the fairway

+ Hole #9: Triple Mando! The local club deserves a lot of credit for building this feature that makes an otherwise dull hole into something really fun

+ Hole #13 is the longest on the course, and it's wide open - but the OB walkway helps add shape

+ Water slightly in play on two holes (behind the basket on #14, and along the left side of the fairway on #15)

+ Hole #17 features a built-up raised basket. As with #5 and #9, adding a feature makes the hole a lot more interesting to play. But because these are the only three holes with added features, the course doesn't feel overbuilt or "gimmicky"

+ Hole #19 is here to help your walk back to the street and the first tee. In this way it reminds me of #19 at Morley Field in San Diego: a hole added to the original design in order to break up a long walk back to the parking area. It's a good addition here - but you have to weave between #9, and #10 and and be on the lookout as you walk back to your car. It's not on the big map, and the only reason I knew it was there was because I ran across it after finishing the triple mando hole, thinking it was the next tee

- No course map on uDisc. Make sure to snap a picture of the map near the first tee. The layout is pretty good - but there are a few places where the location of the next tee isn't obvious (like finding the tee for #2)

- I think there are more holes with multiple basket positions than indicated on the main map - and the long baskets can change the par, from 3 to 4 - so keep track

- Not a lot of RH forehand holes. This has been pretty consistent on the other converted ball golf courses I've played: I think it's because the fairways are so wide, and you can generally get at the basket with a backhand. I used a forehand off the tees only on #4 and #11 - so I don't know that lefties would enjoy this course

- This is a really good and fun course, but it does suffer some by not having more par 4's and/or 5's. The local club has done a ton of good work with what they were given though

~ There's no rough to speak of. On the day I played, the wind made it interesting. 20+ mph gusts actually made the course better and tougher, without making it seem unfair


~ I understand from the other reviews here that the park management is VERY strict about what they can and can't do with the course. The thing I took note of is how well they adapted a former ball golf course which was largely wide open. They really use the trees that separated the old fairways, or separated old greens from next tees.


~ I could recall 12 - 13 of the 19 holes a week later. On one hand, this means there are some pretty simple, non-distinct holes. But looked at the other way, I think it's pretty good to remember more than two-thirds of the holes on a former ball golf course after only one round

Great signage at the beginning of the course and the tee pads. Three teepad areas on each hole allows each skill of player to be challenged. Good use of the majestic trees to create low ceiling fairways. A mix of open holes, trees holes, and man made obstacles. The man made obstacles felt like course enhancements, not gimmicks. Sometimes that\'s a fine line. The triple mando wall, the elevated basket, and the tree stump basket were all highlight holes.

Some of the holes felt pretty wide open and blah in between the more interesting holes. I would say a full third felt this way. The baskets could use "next tee" signs to direct first timers to the course flow. There were some points of confusion on our navigation.

This was a fun course to play when visiting New Orleans. It was tough to get to without a car, but made for a nice adventure. Odd comment, but some of the tee pads felt "too big". I occasionally felt lost on them during my drive run up. It was a weird feeling. You can tell that the course designers are planning for the handful of young trees on the course to mature and add interest to some of the open holes.

- Beautiful location within the city
- Fairly clean and well maintained
- Accessible by public transportation (although it's a hike through the park).

- Signage is horrible and no course maps are available online.
- Not very challenging. All holes are Par 3, so there's not much in the way of challenging or elevation holes.
- Busy course. The course was very busy on a Friday mid-afternoon and we had to wait several times to be able to tee off. I can't imagine the traffic on the weekends if it was that busy mid-day on a week day.

I was in town from Baltimore for a convention at the convention center. I didn't have a car, but I saw that I could take a streetcar up to the Museum of Arts stop and walk to the course. What I didn't realize was how big the park actually is. It was about a 2 mile walk from the Museum of Arts streetcar stop to the first tee. Since the weather was beautiful, I didn't mind the walk, but it's a long walk.

While I was walking to the course, I met up with a couple of other disc golfers looking for the course. We walked together and decided to play as a group. We were all of the same skill level, so it was nice to not have to play alone.

The course lacks any sort of real signage and direction to the next hole. Luckily there were a lot of others at the course that were kind enough to point us to the next hole. That allowed us to navigate the course pretty well, but it would have been nice to see some signs or at least direction to the next hole.

There's a few fun holes there. I really liked the back end of the course. I thought holes 14 - 17 were really a lot of fun.

14 backs up to this river, where if you overthrow the hole, you will end up wet. Being from the north, I'm not sure what they have for wildlife in the water, so I couldn't recommend whether its worth going to try and find your disc if it does end up wet. Ask a local.

16 (I think it was 16) was really neat as it was a straight shot under this huge, old tree. It was just beautiful looking and fun to play.

17 is an elevated basket. Sort of a gimmicky basket, but still a lot of fun to play as we don't have too many of those in the mid-Atlantic region.

The rest of the course was pretty much standard and nothing too special. I did have a blast playing this course and although it's not that challenging (I suspect everything is a par 3), I would definitely recommend those of all skill level try it out. Beginners will have fun and not get too frustrated. Those who have been playing for a while, will love all the holes in which you could have a chance for an ace.

It was well worth the 2 mile walk to this course from the end of the streetcar and I definitely look forward to playing this course again next time I'm in NOLA.

-Good location in City Park
-Easy to get to from the Interstate
-Two sets of Tees
-Good use of allotted space
-Variety of hole types
-Good use of foliage

-Too much OB dictated by walking path, does not promote agressive lines
-Baskets way too close to OB on a lot of holes
-No elevation (not really the courses fault)
-Gimmicky elevated basket
-Gimmicky triple mando
-Minimal Signage, hard to find basket on some holes
-Not crazy about multiple basket types

Pretty fun course if you take it for what it is
Both tee positions make for a fun round
Good course for tournaments