Creve Coeur Lake - Hillside is the second 18-hole course installed in the Creve Coeur Lake park, and one of a few new 18-hole courses the area has had installed in 2021. This course has been subject to plenty of improvements during its first three years of life, and provides plenty of fun, tighter lines around the hills of this park, making for a more challenging and fun round that compliments the older Lakeside course down the road.

Location of Hillside is the upper portion of Creve Coeur Lake Park, the largest park in the St. Louis County Park system. This is now the third park in the St. Louis area with two 18-hole courses, though the courses are far enough from each other that you'll want to drive between the two if you're going for a full 36-hole day. The park is in the northwest part of St. Louis County and pretty accessible from I-70, I-270, and MO-141. There's gas stations and restaurant options when coming from either direction to the park for whatever needs you may have before or after you round. In addition to being close to the Lakeside course, there's plenty of other courses nearby if you want to make a day out of disc golf, including Carrolton, White Birch, Logan University, and Laurel Park, among others. Gateway Disc Sports is also headquartered just down the road on the other side of I-270; call or check about their hours or if they are accepting in-person shopping during the pandemic, as they've had to adjust policies over the last year.

Park Amenities are plentiful across the more than 2,000 acres of this park. Near the Lakeside course, you'll find a very popular lakeside walking trail, as well as folks on the water in boats and kayaks. There's also some shelters and bathrooms in the lower area along the lake. As you navigate the hillside course in the upper area of the park, you'll come across most of the other amenities the park offers. Across the hillside 18, you will find two baseball diamonds, tennis courts, multiple reservable shelters, bathrooms and drinking fountains, playgrounds, and plenty of picnic tables. There are also multiple trails in the park, most notably the Bootlegger's Run Trail, which is popular with both hikers and bikers and snakes around much of the disc golf course. Go Ape, a high-ropes course and zipline company, is also in this area of the park and a popular spot during the paring and summer. Overall, Creve Coeur Lake is a beautiful park with plenty going on, with plenty of activities for the whole family to enjoy.

Course Equipment has come a very long way since my original review of this course, and is the reason I'm upgrading this course to a 4. In addition to the still prestine DISCatchers across the 18 holes, there is now a practice basket next to the parking lot that has enough space to practice some decent distances. The course also has completed tee pads and signage, which was arguably the second biggest issue with Hillside. The tee pads are now all concrete, with the previous turf pads moved aside or slightly further up to make room for the permanent concrete additions. This has resulted in some slight adjustments in tee positions, most notably on hole one where you have less of a tunnel off the tee now. Many of the tee boxes have additional pavers around them, adding a nice touch to several holes on the course. As for tee signs, Hillside now has signage that includes pin locations, pin in use, distances and pars, direction to the next tee, and a full hole layout. There are also numerous next tee directional signs throughout the course for the longer or more unclear transitions. These changes alone have this feeling like a completely new course.

Course Design at Hillside is full of tighter, park style shots that will have you employing the use of most if not all of the discs in your bag. This course's 18 holes make up a figure-8 layout that runs along the roadway that goes through the upper section of the park. This layout makes it possible to start on the front or back 9, thought hole 10 is a bit of a hike from the parking lot. Between the roadway, trails, park amenities, and foliage, many of the holes on this course have specific lines that will work better than others off the tee. Despite this course's older sister down by the lake being known for having a very long layout in the past, Hillside comes in around 1,000 feet longer than the new design of the lakeside course. At ~7,600 feet, this course has a nice mix of longer and shorter holes, with elevation adding and subtracting to hole long each hole feels.

Variety at Hillside ended up being one of my favorite aspects of this course. Many of the holes incorporate designs where multiple shot types can be successful, making much of this course accessible to both forehand and backhand players dominant in either hand. In other parts of the course, particular shots will be required of you. Hole 4 is a short hole that will favor right hand forehand drives, while holes 16 and 18 both have fairways that turn to the left, favoring right hand backhand shots. The openness of fairways also varies on this course, which adds to the challenge. Some holes like 2, 8, and 12 are open and short par 3s that feel like must gets for those wanting the lowest score they can get, while other holes like 1 and 3 have either small landing zones or guarded greens, requiring more precision to get a good score.

Difficulty comes from the course being tighter and more surrounded by other obstacles and park amenities than the other courses in St. Louis, giving this course a unique feel for the area. This is a course that I feel will end up serving intermediate to advanced players more so than new players. The par on this course has ranged from 59 to 63 given the placements in use thus far, and intermediate players will find that par to be fair yet challenging. More advanced players will likely be able to hit longer and accurate drives that are essential on this course, with lower 50s or even 40s being attainable over time. This course is also a nice compliment to the older Lakeside course down the hill. Lakeside is flat, open, and an easier course to learn the game on, when considering how hard it is to either throw a disc off the fairway or lose a disc on an errant throw. This course provides a very different and more challenging environment that newer players in the area can graduate to.

Course Highlights: Holes 3, 15, and 17 come to mind. 3 is a long hole over a valley that will require you to hit a small landing strip between brush and the road to set yourself up for a birdie, while missing this landing area will make par a struggle to get. Hole 15 is a long and narrow fairway, with one pin being over 900 feet from the tee on top of a tree stump, providing a tough putt to finish a par 5. Hole 17 is a fun opportunity to unload a strong drive into one of the most open fairways on the course, with the pins being at the end of a long downhill area. Overall, this course has plenty of fun shots in a very picturesque setting. This park is a beautiful one to throw a round of disc golf in, and in certain areas you can get an overlooking view of the lake down the hill, especially when leaves aren't on the trees.

Safety: The upper section of Creve Coeur Lake is narrow with a lot of park amenities fit into a relatively small amount of acreage. As a result, Hillside includes a very high percentage of holes where the roads, the bootlegger's trail, and other park amenities run along or even through fairways or near landing zones and greens. As a result, there are several spots where other park goers or cars pass through areas where discs can fly through. This will understandably be a con and a concern for many disc golfers that try out a round here.

This course has made me consider what I consider to be unsafe on a course as I review disc golf courses. For me, I am okay with close proximity to trails, roads, and other areas with other park goers as long as these areas don't include throwing into areas where you can't see the general landing zone. Despite the consistent proximity to other park amenities and roads on this course, there aren't many areas where you can't see people on the road or trail. For instance, hole 3 is a situation where the road runs very close to the landing zone, and the trail intersects the hole in front of the tee. That being said, you can see people on the trail and yield to them as they pass, and this portion of the road is a one way, allowing you to see if any cars are driving around the bend along the tee so you can yield to those as well. The vast majority of the course is the same way when it comes to other amenities and trails, with very few situations where you can't actually see where you are throwing.

Course Difficulty: If you don't have a good amount of accuracy or are more prone to grip lock or errant drives, this is not a course I'd recommend you play. Errant drives can easily lead to discs in the road or hitting a car. This course will require you to know your discs, how they fly, and how far they go. Intermediate players and up will find this course to be fun, but newer players should build their skills on another course where there are less opportunities to effect other park goers. I can see newer players honestly being stressed during a round here, and there are plenty of courses in St. Louis that are better options to develop skills at.

Navigation and Long Walks can make your first round here a little tricky to navigate. The course makes the most out of the open areas in this part of the park, but the limited options for hole placement mean long walks after holes 6, 9, 10, and 16. These walks are necessary to keep the course from playing unnecessarily close to other park uses, but they will still prove to be a con for plenty of folks. The new directional signs at least help more with navigation for those who don't have Udisc.

Updated March 2024: Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park is a historic one for the local disc golf scene. The Lakeside location was where the second oldest course in St. Louis was installed after a couple years of lobbying. The success of getting the first Creve Coeur Lake course installed led to the county setting up additional courses in the mid-90s, most notably Sioux Passage and Jefferson Barracks, which to this day remain pillars in the St. Louis lineup of courses and remain beloved to this day by the local community.

Hillside is a worthy addition to such an important park to local disc golf. This course provides a great compliment to the Lakeside location in every way, and provides a lot of design aspects that feel unique to the area. St. Louis disc golf courses on average have the benefit of not having to cohabitate with other park amenities in as close of proximity as Hillside has to. That being said, the club and parks department are focused on making this area a great one for both disc golfers and the community members that have spent years enjoying this park.

Check out the St. Louis Disc Golf Club for more information on this course as well as other courses and events in the area. The club just got their website back up too, which can be found at stldgclub.com. Also, be sure to give Gateway Disc Sports a visit down the road as well.

It has been almost three years since my original review of this course, and it is aging superbly. The signage, tee pads, and additional pin placements have really rounded out what has become a very solid disc golf course. I originally gave this course a 3.5, which admittedly was largely based on what I imagined this course would get up to once equipment and additional pin placements were in place. That being said, every time I play this course I leave thinking I need to play here more often. This course has found a solid spot in my regular rotation when I do get out for a more local round, and the various lines and pins really make for a high fun-factor. I can confidently say this course has exceeded my expectations, and I think it deserves a solid 4/5 now. While other courses in the area have a better argument for best in the area, Hillside should easily be in the conversation for a top tier course in St. Louis. Creve Coeur Lake Park may have endured a rocky history with disc golf, but it has come out in spades with the revival of Lakeside, and now this incredible Hillside course.