Pros:
- Course is in a nice, well maintained, multi-use park
- Large concrete tee pads with hole information incorporated into front right corner of slab
- Decent variety of hazards
Cons:
- Plays very open with limited obstacles on many holes, very limited line shaping
- Course layout not great (overlapping fairways, confusing routing, long walks between a couple holes, backtracking fairways to cross streams)
- No benches/trashcans/tee signs
Other Thoughts:
I was very excited when I heard that the Champaign-Urbana area would be getting a new disc golf course. Lohmann is a great beginner's course, but a full 18-hole course with some actual length and challenge for more advanced players in the area would be awesome. Unfortunately, while Dodds is definitely a step in the right direction, there still isn't a course catering to those players seeking a more technical or challenging round in the CU area.
There is some decent length on this course, but it is almost completely open, and players with even 300' of power can simply throw over many of the trees that would otherwise force more interesting lines. There are some good hazards in play here, OB sidewalks and streams provide some risk/reward, and there are a couple baskets with dangerous sloped greens. Ever-present wind will also add difficulty on the mostly open holes, but bad shots frequently go unpunished with fairly easy recovery for par. Some of the holes just seem like filler, flat, wide open holes around 200' are pretty boring.
The tee pads and baskets are very nice, the older incorporated signs that apparently faded quickly have been replaced with ones that seem much more durable, but they only provide hole number and distance, and with multiple pins, a hole map and a way to indicate which pin position is in play would be nice.
I was initially excited about the idea of having multiple pin locations, and while some of the holes offer interesting options at both pins, many of the short pins (almost all of the baskets were in short positions when I last played) are little more than approach shots. Attempts have been made to mark the tines on the baskets to indicate the direction towards the next tee, but I found many of these to be incorrect, likely due to moving the position of the basket and not re-installing properly. This just added to the navigational issues on the course. The lack of tee signs means you have to be practically standing on the tee pads to know what hole you are on, and many holes finish with multiple tees looking like they could be the next one. I would advise taking a picture of the course map near Hole 1, or printing one out beforehand.
This is a multi-use park, but other park users shouldn't usually impact play (sidewalks do border some fairways). There is a long walk from 18 back to one, with no stop back to the parking lot during the round. During this walk, I discovered a practice basket I had not seen upon arriving. This seems like an odd location, as you have to walk a considerable way away from Hole 1 to utilize it.
Dodds Park is a perfectly adequate disc golf course. Players in the area with bigger arms will enjoy some of the longer holes here that Lohmann doesn't offer, and there are enough interesting holes to make for a fun round. I just feel like a bit more could have been done with the land, and more advanced players won't be challenged for much of the course. There is room for improvement here, but I definitely wish this course had been around while I was attending U of I.