-Right in the middle of the city
-Beautiful park setting with all kinds of eucalyptus trees, wildlife, and friendly people a like
-Has a good variety of right hand backhand and side arm shots.
-A few ace runs and decent amount of lengthy holes as well.
-Your'e in San Francisco
-Well designed trails, tee pads, tee signs, and layout.

-It can get crowded on the weekends.
-Pedestrians sometimes walk through the course obliviously.
-A few of the holes back track through to get to the next tee which can be a little dangerous
-It gets wet, windy, and cold ( Pro or Con)

Overall this course is great to play almost anytime of the year. You can easily find parking on the outskirts of the park or in marx meadow. I would have to say this is one of my favorite urban courses, just fantastic.

Well maintained even though free
Beautiful trees and elevation changes
Friendly players
Right in the middle of San Fran, in one of the world's great urban parks

Very few long holes
Busy even on a weekday afternoon

The course has a low ceiling of trees throughout almost all of the course, and lots of tree obstacles. Best for the finesse players. Bombers might feel deprived.

-Set in a large and beautiful park. For the most part, you'd never know you were in a city.
-Free!
-Parking not a problem
-Obvious that locals put the time in on this course. Landscaping is impressive.
-The back 9 makes for very good golf. Felt like a better test then the front.
-Very nice tees and signs.
-Trees and other plants in abundance and quite varied.
-You get to throw a nice variety of shots, and even get to pull out your driver and throw hard a few times.

-Lacks some of the amazing elevation changes and water challenges that other Nor Cal courses have.
-Occasionally finding the next hole was a little tricky. I hadn't been here in years. I imagine another go around the course would have fixed this. All the same, a few more next tee signs wouldn't hurt.

I can't comment on crowds, as we were there on Christmas Day. Others were there, but we never had to play through and didn't feel rushed either. This is a real gem given the property it sits on in a major city. Nice work by the local players/clubs to make the course look and play great.

Beautiful course. Plenty of challenging shots. And although challenging, still a lot of fun for a noob. Really well maintained. Nice shade cover and a cool San Francisco breeze.

Couple tricky shots with a decent chance of losing a disc. Can get a little crowded.

I'd been saving this one for a special occasion and my 32nd birthday seemed like the perfect time. Had great weather, my best round to date, and met 2 different groups of people that we played with for a few rounds. Good times.

Scenic course located in massive Golden Gate Park. The baskets are multi-chain DGA MachIII's and the tee pads are concrete of sufficient size. The golf here is fun. The holes make good use of elevation (would you expect anything less in San Francisco??). Multiple pin positions enable this course to change from lefty-friendly to rightly-friendly to nicely balanced depending on the whims of the people with the keys. The tee signs had nice secure indicators of current pins positions (see picture in gallery). While not heavily wooded by Northern standards there are enough trees that you need to mind your lines to score well; but the "rough" is not so thick that you get torn up or have an unrecoverable shot. Nicely maintained course. Netting in place to protect downline teeboxes from errant throws. Benches on many (all?) holes will help when you're waiting for the group(s) in front of you to tee off. The park shares space with other recreation areas but is generally secluded enough that you won't have much interference from non-golfers. There are restrooms facilities in the park (one located across the street from basket #18). The street parking seems abundant even when the park is crowded.

Really, really crowded with lots of noobs on a weekend. Several blind holes require taking a look ahead for first-timers. The basket on #14 sits on the edge of a significant drop-off which you're not supposed to be on because of erosion control... so don't overthrow this basket. #15 and #16 throw back and forth on each other so be extra careful here. The course flow can be a bit unclear with backtracking on #6-#8 and a long walk from #16 to #17.

There are several mandos in place well marked with signs on trees, they're there for safety reasons so please mind them. Kudos to the club that maintains this course, you guys have done a fantastic job.

The course is in the midst of a huge multi-use park, so you can forget that you're in the middle of a sprawling city. Clearly, thousands of hours of work have been put in on the design, landscaping, and ongoing upkeep to make this a beautiful course.

<span class="italic">Design</span>
• Terrain- I loved the great variety of mature trees including pines, hardwoods, redwoods, Eucalyptus, and Kumquat among many others. There's a good mixture of tree lined woods holes with mostly wooded mixed terrain holes.
• Multiple basket positions- the course has 1 tee pad with 3 basket positions on each hole.
• Fairways- good variety, well defined, many fun holes with a good balance of left, right, and straight holes.
• Elevation changes- lots! Most holes have some sort of elevation change.

<span class="italic">Basics</span>
• Tees- very nice framed concrete
• Signs- colorful, with basket positions labeled
• Maintenance- the local club does an incredible job of landscaping and keeping the course looking nice.

<span class="italic">Amenities</span>
• Steps, paths, and logs that mark out the fairways
• Tons of benches and trash cans
• Map- a useful map is available online

-Directions to the first tee-- we found the general area of the park, but finding the first tee was very confusing, so we wasted a good bit of time and that was frustrating. The map didn't seem to match the roads we were on in the vicinity of the course.
-Crowded! Because the course is so nice, it was really crowded on a Sunday afternoon, with lots of people waiting on every hole. You have to be prepared for some waiting.
-A few navigation issues: There's a long walk from the 6 basket back to the 7 tee. From basket 16 there's a long walk to find the 17 tee.

Course Level = White (most suited for Intermediate players rated 875-925)

I think that if I was a local I wouldn't play here on weekends afternoons because it's so crowded. But as a first time visitor I really enjoyed myself; the terrain was just fantastic, and I definitely want to play here again!
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<span class="underline">A note about my rating:</span> My rating is a subjective measure of my <span class="italic">enjoyment</span> of the course, on the day I played it, and it is NOT intended to be a measure of the <span class="italic">quality</span> of the course. My Enjoyment Ratings are given "on the curve" in relation to all other courses I've played.

You can read more of my review philosophy and rating notes at Disc Golf Course Reviews
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I'm always trying to improve my reviews, so if you mark this review unhelpful or you find a mistake, please send me a Personal Message here on DGCR to tell me what is wrong with it. I'll be grateful for the feedback.

-You're in the woods in the middle of a huge city
-Extremely well kept
-Great community
-Constant rotation of pin placements
-Still very challenging after years of playing there

-Can get really busy on weekends/holidays
-The occasional inconsiderate supagroup

- 18 holes
- all tee signs were there
- beautiful park to play in
- cement tee boxes
- lots of ob
- elevation changes
- cool walking paths

- tons of dog walkers
- Lots of people play this course heavy traffic
- wait to tee off a lot

Great course to play.. My friends and I loved the course and the general beauty of this park. id recomend playing this course to anyone. Lots of different shots can be used here. Just alot of waiting for bigger groups or backed up golfers or dog walkers. but if you avoid that its an awesome course.

- Good use of select paths as OB and mandos to avoid hitting passengers. It's also an added bonus because it adds some challenge and intrigue to the course.
- Nice landscape--beautiful setting. Now this true recreation! Like a good city park, you forget you're in the city for the most of the holes.
- Front 9 leads straight to hole #1 and kiosk, which is nice if you're in a hurry and can't play 18. The back nine, IMO, is better than the front nine due to longer holes, greater elevation changes, and a few more "tunnel" shots between the trees.
- Intuitive course flow. Didn't even need my map, primarily because of the layout, but also because the paths are so defined.
- Great care of course, tees, signs, baskets, fairways, etc. It's obvious that there's a heck of a DG community in the city.
- A lot of pins are guarded by these cool gnarled cypress trees, which requires paramount accuracy on approaches/putts, and even drives.
- Great elevation changes on some holes.
- Looks like the 3 pin locations are changed regularly (note: love the little dials on the signs!)
- This is definitely one of those "mostly wooded" courses, with very very few playing out in the open. So, if you like wooded courses (as do I), this one's for you! Nice balance of doglegs in both directions satisfies right handers and south paws.

- Busy! I started played here sometime between 7:30 and 8am, and there were already at least 4 groups of people playing ahead of me.
- Potential to hit parkgoers despite the mandos, OB lines, and other precautions. Think about every throw!
- No incredibly stunning "WOW!" holes, but a solid set of 18 nonetheless.
- Lack of water hazards. I'd be nice if there was a little pond or drainage stream somewhere
- Some fairway overlap and crossing. Holes #5-6 and #15-16 come in to mind. An errant throw could easily hit someone on the other tee, not to mention people going between the fairways.
- Despite having excellent wooded holes, it'd be nice to see a hole or two that's wide in the open where you can really let it rip. With that being said, the geographical makeup of the park makes this hard to do.

If San Francisco only has one DG course, I'm glad it's this one because it's solid no matter where it'd be located. Nice design, lots of tree hazards, elevation, and variety of shots requires a nice bag to par. What makes the course particularly effective is its use of safety precautions (mandos, OB, etc.) so in the long run, we all win at this park.

I almost had a heartattack when I first arrived at the course and I saw "closed for tounament" signs everywhere. Apparently they had a tournament during the weekend and they didn't take it down by the time I played monday morning. Having traveled over 3,000 miles, it would have been a major disappointment to not play. Fortunately for me I got to experience this course and I urge others to do the same!

Memorable holes:
#4: Very very technical and wooded, as you habe to pick your gap in the trees and thread it through some really big hardwoods. Shot selection depends on the pin placement.

#11- Mando here requires you throw on the left side of a tree and clear a pretty steep ravine. Better have a disc that makes a nice S-curve, as you're going to need it!

-Everything people, placement of tees to holes, area, and day.

-A little hard to find the disc, but who cares thats what makes a great course.
-I don't have this course here in Huntington beach.

I had a blast! I just wish i could have played here with my friends from home but, I still had a blast can't wait to make another trip up.

As this is my home course, I am a bit biased... but I just love this course!

The teepads are top notch (good length, level concrete). The hole maps are very easy to read and have a convenient dial that tells you what pin position the basket is on. All the baskets are in good condition. Like other reviewers have mentioned, the pin positions can be VERY different and seriously change the feel of each hole. I really like this and look forward to each new configuration. I'd say about half the pins are changed every 1-2 weeks.

The front 9 and back 9 are very different from each other, which I think lends itself to the appeal of the course. The front is a bit tighter and more technical while the back opens up (though still wooded) and has more elevation change.

No poison oak! I cannot stress how much I love not having to worry about it at all on this course.

Like other reviewers have mentioned, the course is EXTREMELY crowded. Having learned to play here, it wasn't until I visited numerous other courses that I realized just how busy GGP can be. Weekday afternoons/evenings see steady numbers of players, while weekend days are absolutely packed.

While I do support anyone who wants to play and encourage beginners, there are many folks out at the park on weekends who really don't seem interested in learning the game at all -- just finding something to do while getting hammered drunk with a bunch of friends. This can really kill the flow...

The local club does a great job of maintaining the course and constantly trying to improve it. Considering the amount of people (both dgers and other park users) that come through the course, it is really pretty clean.

Some basket to next tee transitions can be a bit confusing to navigate if you haven't played it before... but since the course always has other players on it, there's always someone to ask.

First 5 holes flow very nicely. Fun back nine. A very charming and woodsy course perfectly placed in the one and only Golden Gate Park. The weather was absolutely perfect in mid-60s during our round. Very friendly and courteous crowd. The course is as clean and manicured as you can possibly imagine. Those trees!

Holes 6-8 all run parallel to each other, so you need to traverse to the next tee box across incoming drives from previous holes. Those trees!

For a Tuesday early afternoon, it was pretty busy but bearable. First time I ever had to wait at a teebox, but never got too bad. I need to play this course at least a couple times a year.
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Uniqueness: A (old feeling for new course; ideal surroundings)
Difficulty: A- (not too long; tons of trees; nice elevation variation)
Fun factor: A (myriad of drives & shots)
Aesthetics: A+ (every hole is interesting & different; super clean)
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Overall: A

Well kept, good variety of hole types, good elevation change, challenging but playable, good flow of people (only a couple of back up holes), family friendly

Somewhat hard to find the next hole. Find a local to play with.

This is a very scenic course. I took a bus 30 minutes each way, then walked 30 blocks to buy a couple of dics (because I didnt bring any with on my trip). It was worth it.Nice course!

- Golden Gate Park is Amazing,i really enjoyed the beauty of this course.
-Nice Concrete Tee pads
- Awesome sign with a Dial on them to show what position the basket was in(A, B, Or C).
- Three pin position that changes the hole almost completely
- All holes had benches, there were some Garbage cans scattered around.
- Good variety of holes type
- Great use of Elevation
- Very Technical(All about shot selection and disc placement)

- Can be Crowded and you end up waiting around a bit before u throw but the course is beautiful so I didn't mind that much.
- Course Flow(holes 15 and 16 should be reversed as u walk back on the thrower at 15 while shooting at 16 and then u walk across the fairway of 15 to get to the next hole)(holes 7 and 8 kinda over lap as well as 17 and 18)
-gotta watch out for disc a bit more here.

I really enjoyed each hole of the course and would have ranked this course higher had it no ben for the few course flow issue. i personally didn't really think the course wasn't to tough, shot +1 and it was my first time there!! I am not trying to bash the course either as a matter of fact, i think everyone should play it the course is very beautiful and fun to play. i will be back for sure.

As it states in the course description, this is San Francisco's first disc golf course which happens to be located in Golden Gate Park. It is a tightly wooded 18-hole course, which was officially opened in March 2007. This course is a wonderful addition to what already is a world famous park. With so much culture and beauty, it will take at least a day to visit if not an entire weekend! With ample parking throughout the park, finding a spot near the course should not be an issue. Plus, it is free unless you park in the main parking garage about a half mile away.

Growing up in the bay area for over 20 years, I had yet to play this epic course due to moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2000. Because of this, Golden Gate Park has been on my wish list for quite sometime. From the first moment I pulled up to the last putt on 18, this course didn't disappoint me for a second. Designers Ross Hammond and Leonard Muise did a phenomenal job with the land they had to work with, capitalizing on elevation, pin and tee placements, and course difficulty. With three pin placements per hole, locals are given variation to keep things interesting. Tee pads are large cement slabs that are well maintained and provide plenty of grip on those cold and rainy days. Many of the pads are reinforced for stability and to prevent any kind of erosion. Colorful tee signs were created on wooden stumps, showing the multiple routes, pin positions, and major obstacles. The baskets are all Mach III's, are clearly labeled, and are well maintained.

What sets this course apart from so many other courses I have played is the countless hours that have gone in to installing and maintaining this course. Even though many other course have had tons of work done by loyal locals, there usually is still a lot of work to still be done. In three years since being installed, this course is spotless for the most part. Everything from the eradication of underbrush, logs along the walking trails guiding players from one hole to the next, the immaculate tee pads and fairways, to the protective nets on particular tee pads, every hole was well thought out and unique unto its own . Much of the course has players throwing down tight fairways, requiring not only distance but accuracy to obtain birdies. With the towering Eucalyptus trees and other native foliage, as well parts of the city in the distance, this course truly is breathtaking! The course seems to have a fair amount of hyzers and anhyzers, as well as plenty of holes dead straight, allowing for no one player to have an advantage over another. This course will make players well balanced, and challenged in ways most players may not be used to. Because of this, it is easily one of my favorite courses, and if I had it my way, it would be my home course. It may not be the best course I have played, but very challenging for even the best of players.

Although I could not find much, I could see how on crowded days this course could become a bit dangerous. With such tight fairways next to one another, I could see the occasional deflection sailing across one fairway and right toward another. So just please be mindful of others when throwing.

Also, at times it was a bit confusing trying to figure out where exactly some of the pins were since some of the washers were on the correct position and others were not. Fortunately, even though my wife and I had to walk ahead to locate the pin position, there were not others behind us. I could see this becoming a big issue for first timers so if it is crowded, just make an educated guess and keep it moving. Make sure though that you print off a map to make navigating easier.

This is just another example of a stellar course in northern California. Like Stafford Lake, De LaVeaga, and Parque de la Raza, Golden Gate will keep you on your toes, and have you wishing you could have it as your home course. The locals do an amazing job with the upkeep, and the local club does a nice job hosting some great tournaments including the Safari Open. I feel very fortunate to of had the opportunity to play this course and hope that anyone nearby has the same chance. You will learn a lot about your game and truly feel blessed to of had the chance to play one of the better courses in the state of California!

Extremely well kept and maintained. The group of volunteers have done a great job of setting up paths on the fairways, steps, safety nets, etc.
Very tight fairways in some places and cool distance shots in others. Very well laid out and organized.
The maps on the tee pads are some of the best I've seen. The indicators in the upper corner clearly show what basket is in play.
Great course in a great park. Worth the effort to get here and play if visiting the city!

A couple places where an errant shot could have some pretty dramatic traffic consequences. It is in the middle of a city after all.
I can see how this could get crowded on a nice weekend (I was playing early on a Thursday morning and only ran into 1 really cool local who gave me some good tips on campgrouds along the coast for the rest of my roadtrip).

This was one of my destination courses on a long road trip. It did not disappoint. There is lots of variety in the terrain and challenging holes. The course is really well maintained and pretty simple to navigate with good signs pointing to the next tee.

There are a few spots on the course where the fairways cross a path or get pretty close to a main street.

Beautiful, classic course set in a lovely park with rolling terrain. This area of the park is mostly dedicated to disc golf so you're not overwhelmed with other park users. One can readily see that many volunteers have spent many a hour here engineering steps, tee boxes, pads, signs, trails, safety nets and much more. I applaud you all for your efforts. You and mother nature together have created a wonderful little disc golf course for the rest of us to enjoy. The course was easy to follow. The signs were great. Some wonderfully engerineered tee boxes. I liked the fact the the average Rec player could come out here and really play an enjoyable round but yet this course could provide challenge for the advanced player as well. Spotters are advised on a couple of holes. I felt there was a nice contrast of left-right-up-down-technical and open holes.

I guess those blessed with the really big arms will say there are no holes to really air it out on. Other than that, we couldn't find any flaws.

Maybe if Alex who found my Leopard, reads this, would you call back again, and this time, leave me a call back number.

This is a great asset to the San Francisco disc golf community. I can't imagine anywhere in the country that wouldn't like to have Golden Gate included as one of their daily choices to play. I know I sure would.

Nice layout, with trees and vegitation. I played this course with my wife (her first time ever) and found it to be alot of fun. The tee boxes where nice and the pin placement made the course challenging.

Ground vegitation makes finding misplayed discs hard. There are a couple of baskets that are close together making knowing wich pin you are throwing to hard. If you never have played here, make sure you print out a scorecard with a map.

Never play this course on the day the Bay to Breakers race is going on. Made that mistake and saw some sweet drunk chick puke shots from the tee box.

There is a wide range of difficulties to maneuver thru when playing this course. The first 9 holes are inside a forest of trees that will be happy to knock down any type of shot you think you can blast past them.
The back 9 is differing altitudes and lengths to test your drives and deep putts.
The par 4's saved my life my second time thru when I was keeping score, although they should have been farther in distance for actual par 4's.
Great donation tee pads and hole maps (which I absolutely love!!)

This course gets very busy so need to play it early.

Par 4's are kind of short (which works out sometimes too)

How many PDGA Tournaments have been played at this course?

-course is set in a massive park surrounded by activities but the area is almost exclusively dedicated to dg (hiking path comes into play on some holes but not many, and the holes it does come in play on, the path and over is OB).
-Nice signs indicating current pin placement, route, and length set on stumps by the adequate concrete pads.
-A lot of mandos and OB, the mandos seem to be cautionary, but enhance the course play forcing the more extreme shot generally.
-Shot variety was OK, some rhbh anhyzer shots but more straight ahead or rhbh hyzer shots.
-Course flows nicely given the small space, there is a lot of overlap of fairways where a hole starts midway down the previous fairway, but these are protected by sweet mesh back stops or log jams (only one place where this is a con).
-The course is a very wooded, pretty course with a lot of old eucalyptus trees, the course is semi technical, just technical enough to make you think twice about the shot and add to the fun factor but not difficult technical or unfairly technical.
-A place to throw away trash at every hole. I was expecting a trash, recycling and composting can at each hole (it is in SF after all) but beer boxes work too
-Decent elevation change at this course a lot of slight downhill shots and a steep downhill shot, but not a lot of uphill shots ( this partially has to do with the fairways overlapping slightly).
-friendly locals who showed me around
-Hole 10 was a great signature hole. A downhill mando rhbh hyzer with the pin placement on top the tree stump, not super complex but a lot of fun.

-A major con for the course is just the sheer amount of people using the course, I had to wait a bit at each hole, which is fine, especially in a cosmopolitan area, but given that the course overlaps so much it's a bit dangerous ( I was almost hit a few times).
-I also almost a hit people waiting at the next pad a couple times, but the thing was that although I didn't hit my line, I still had a putt at the basket, so some of the pads are a bit too close to previous pins, just be warned
-A couple of the concrete pads were a bit short, but most were adequate for the length of the hole.
-Course was a bit short to set it apart from other similar courses I've played.
-A bit lacking on shot variety, course favored rhbh players.
-A couple spots where the rough was out of control and tough to traverse, the hill on hole 11 stands out, not only is is it hard to get up and around the hill, it is tough to find a disc. I realize that it is for erosion control, but a possible solution would be to terrace the hill.

Overall this course was one of the funnest I've ever played. There are a lot of great ace and birdie runs with a couple longer technical par fours mixed in for good measure. I had a blast here and would recommend it to anyone. I think the course probably caters to intermediate players but adv nd rec players alike will enjoy it.