This course is adjacent to the Gardner Golf course, and ball and disc golf never collide. There are nice new tee pads and Prodigy baskets. A practice tee and basket is available at the start of the course, but without signs, there's no way to know it's not hole 1.

Every hole has enough obstacles that accuracy is usually at a premium, especially at 300 feet. A couple holes have significant elevation change, where distance control is important, and skips can add a lot of distance but also shove you into the rough. Multiple pins change holes significantly.

The fairways and rough are well defined, and it's always easy to find discs since nothing is super thick. The trees are tall enough that they're usually impractical to throw over. This course utilizes them pretty well, forcing certain lines despite having only a few obstacles to work with.

Nearly every hole has significant distance, but nothing is super long, so it's pretty suitable for most skill levels. There aren't any easy 2 opportunities, but also no holes that will ruin your round.

No tee signs, but it's not too bad since the layout is pretty easy to follow. But there are a few times when the basket can't be seen from the tee pad, and there's no way to know which direction the hole goes. From the parking lot, you have to walk a little way around a pond to the start of the course. Fortunately, the basket of 18 can be seen from the parking lot, so it's easy to know which direction to walk.

The par 4's on this course don't really add anything the par 3's don't. They're just longer versions of their par 3 counterparts, and a powerful shot can have an opportunity at eagle most of the time. With the course being as open as it is, it's hard to have any doglegs, but there was some missed opportunity here. Hole 12 is most like this, being just a long hole, but holes 16 and 17 are much the same way. While I enjoy a long open hole every now and again, there are enough of them here that they need much more variety (hills, doglegs, something) to put together a good course.

No hole stood out to me as being truly amazing. There are a lot of pretty solid holes (4 and 11), but most holes are just average, and would be considered the dud of the course if they were on a top-level course. However, Kansas winds would make those holes more challenging.

A few holes are quite boring, that are just tweener holes for some skill levels, or are just filler holes. The grass on 13 is a little tall and there's no normal route to the basket. The short pin on 18 is way too short, and the long pin is out on a tiny literal island. While water shots are cool, the island is way to small to not be a complete gimmick. Holes 1, 8, and 9 don't have a whole lot interesting about them. Again, they're not horrible holes, just not holes that merit a high rating.

Basically, this is an example of what NOT to do when putting a DG course on former ball golf land. A good course like this should have long, sweeping par 4's that are true 2-shot holes, like you would see in ball golf, likely with OB or water or something. This course has none of that, and while few holes are really lame, there's much more potential to make this course so much better. There may have been some space issues because of property lines and proximity to the ball golf course, but it still could have been better done.

Maintenance is likely to be good since the ball golf course is still open. But given that this course has been in for over a year and still doesn't have tee signs, it's not likely to receive significant improvement unless it annexes the ball golf course land. Maybe that would give more room to spread out and have more interesting holes.

This part of the golf course's land wouldn't work for golf, but disc golf is perfect for it! There's moderate elevation, moderate woods, and a nice variation in holes/pin spots.

The pin spots vary widely. A 300ft hole today could be in a 700ft pin tomorrow.

Nice size concrete tee pads, and the lime green baskets do stand out really well against the trees. Tee signs were installed August of 2022 and will definitely help with the experience.

There's a practice basket that has it's own "tee" about 100ft away.

A few greens are buried in the trees, a few greens are on a hill, a few greens are on a flat plot of sand. The different types are nice when on many "open" courses the basket is either tucked into some trees or just in the grass.

Even though there had been rain the night before I played, I didn't find any mud at all.

1 and 2 play next to a decently busy road. Not that close, but it's not out of the question for a long, bad forehand.

Many basket placements are blind, and you'll likely have to walk the hole to find it. This also leads into navigation issues. From hole 4 I assumed the big green square I was seeing was the tee for 5 and that the pin was in some trees to the right. Well, joke's on me, because it the basket was around a dogleg left, along with the tee for hole 5. Once you've played once or twice these issues do melt away, but there's a lot of people who haven't yet played their first round here.

Maintenance has gone sour this summer. 6ft high rough in some common landing areas can make discs unfindable. It sets up more of a traditional golf-style fairway, but the rough has made some holes a complete joke.

Finding the first hole from the parking lot was tough. You'll go to the right of the clubhouse, between the ball golf putting green and the pond, walk past (or over) hole 18 and find the first tee to it's right. I suggest pulling off at the road by the tee of 3 and parking there.

This course is long and not suited for beginners. It's for you to decide if that's a pro or con.

Even with some pretty substantial elevation on several holes, this course won't wear you out more than a normal long course would. Absolutely worth driving to and playing.

* Large, concrete pads
* multiple pins per hole
* a large variety of shots and difficulties

* desperately needs signs. It was pretty easy for us to get lost on the back of the course. Make sure you have access to the map before you go.

This course is not a pushover. Some of the positions we played were HARD and the course wasn't even set long. On a hot day, this is a long course and 80 oz of water weren't enough. 18 has a pin position on an island in a pond. That island is not even a full putting circle and the absolute shortest carry over the water is probably 20 feet on the wrong side of the pond. Felt more like 60 to 80 feet on the approach side of the pond. Make sure you take a disc you don't mind risking because missing that upshot is pretty darned easy. I asked two different ball golf workers where the disc golf course was and neither had a clue what I was talking about. Park near the dumpster at the North end of the parking lot and then hike out on the trail to the east side of the pond. You'll find hole one...after a while.

Got to Gardner, golfed, giving it a good grade. Prodigy baskets are not my favorite, but they are brand new and shiny. The concrete tee pads are good size, but they feel slightly shorter than usual. There are extra sleeves on most of the holes, and some of the holes vary drastically depending on where the basket is set. Tee signs for each hole should be added eventually, to give par and distance numbers for each pin.

As far as the lay of the land goes, it's a nice space to put a course. There is a golf course next to it, and it has a lot of ball golf vibe. Mowed fairways that are often flanked by tall grass. Wide fairways, with some nice mature trees. Good elevation change on a few holes. There is a water hazard on the final hole with the long pin on an island green reminiscent of the 17th at Sawgrass.

Layout makes the most of the wooded areas, and will use them frequently to tighten up the lines around the tees and/or baskets. The shape of the hole can require big bends to get around trees on a couple of holes. 6 was a serious left to right tee shot that has a line of evergreens standing in the way. 12 also uses the edge of thick trees to force a giant right to left. Some of this rough can be dangerous, I had to duck under a thorny locust tree to retrieve a bad up shot by the basket on hole 11.

My favorite holes were probably 2, 4, 8, 9, 13 and 14. 2 and 4 were both long pin placement. 2 has a drive that runs between mature trees to either side of the fairway toward a basket that is on a short hill. Hole 4 tees off above a large field of grass, and the long layout is to the left, way back in the trees. 8 is uphill and has trees to the right. Both pins are reachable, but the short can result in bad rolls on missed putts, trust me. 9 is back downhill, into a shady spot under the trees. Short pin has a fairly direct route, but the long pin is deep in the pocket to the right. 13 has a slight drop in front of the basket, so only the rim is visible from the tee. A big old tree has branches taking up a lot of room on the left, tall grass lines the right, and several trees stand not too far behind the basket. 14 tees out of the trees and is just a bit of an uphill slope. Both pins are fairly short, and in a bumpy patch of ground that has a sand trap feel to it. I am not sure if the path behind it is OB, but there is tall brush on the other side.

The walk to the first hole is kind of long. Go between the practice putting green and the pond and walk to the other end of the water. The first tee is a few paces past the brown bench. There are few benches, and not any trash cans that I remember. Carry it with you and pitch it in the dumpster in the parking lot.

If the wind is blowing, it will take a toll on your score. I played in moderate wind and had a few shots that blew off course. The distance would be tough to play in a strong wind.

Some of the holes are flat and wide open. 16 is the most obvious example, but 1 and 3 also have limited resistance. This is kind of unavoidable on the grounds they had to work with.

This is a cool course. It plays pretty long at times, but not to the point you lose hope of ever getting a birdie. The ups and downs in elevation on 4 through 15 and the trees make it interesting. The balance of lefts/rights and shorts/longs can be shifted by moving the location of the baskets, but there is certainly a good mix.

I played in early January, and the weather was pretty decent for the time of year. Wind was a factor, but not terrible. Grass was mostly dormant. I am curious how thick the taller rough will be during summer.

I will be ready to return as soon as I get another chance to see if I can improve on my score. I made too many bad drives, bad approaches and bad putt attempts to post a respectable score. No birdies, and way more bogies than pars added up to a 68. At least I know where I am shooting generally, and can possibly have a better game plan.

It is worth a return trip to me. If you are in the KC area, give it a try. Several new courses have popped up south of town recently, and Gardner DGC is another nice addition.

Park in the field next to the dumpster. It is closer to the first hole, and the golf pro asks that the parking lot is saved for the golfers, There's no charge to play disc golf, but he would probably let you into the shop if you want to grab some snacks or maybe a couple of beers.

**Update - This course is getting better each time I play it. As I get to see slight alterations and play different pin placements, my opinion of Gardner DGC has grown more and more.

This is a new course (with brand new, highly visible neon green Prodigy baskets) that's built on part of a ball golf course. It is separate from the remaining ball golf portion, though. Solid concrete tees (although they could be just a tad longer). There is an excellent use of elevation change on many of the holes. The signature hole is 18, which (in the position in which we played it in) ends on an island in the middle of a pond (the island is connected to shore by a bridge). There are a plethora of pin locations for each hole. From what I've heard, the faculty of the golf course moves them around a decent amount. Hole 18 ends pretty close to the parking lot. Alternatively, there is a place one could park at by hole 3 and begin there. To me, the rough looked thinner and shorter here than at Big Bull Creek in Edgerton (although it is December here) which suggests to me that this rough is better maintained.

Probably the biggest con is a LONG walk from the parking lot to hole 1's tee (it's not a half mile like this site's course description says, but it is probably 300 yards). Although many of the hole transitions are pretty logical, navigation could still be an issue (especially the first time through). The U-Disc map was extremely helpful to us. Tee signs (and next tee indicators) would help this course tremendously. There is lost disc potential on the island hole as the island is probably only 30 ft in diameter.

This course had a par 56 layout (utilizing a mixture of short and long pins) when we played here. Only a couple of the holes were under 300 ft; a couple were over 600 ft. I was pleasantly surprised by this course as it was not as wide open as I expected a course on a ball golf course to be. This is probably on the lower end of the moderately wooded spectrum. There are a couple fun, downhill shots and a death putt or two resulting from the elevation change. Some informative tee signs (and next tee indicators) would definitely bump this course up to at least a 3.5 for me.