(3.210 Rating) An old-school wooded course on awesome terrain.
- RAW BEAUTY - One thing that most courses have little control over is the beauty of the landscape. Thankfully for the two courses located at Meeman-Shelby, the natural environment here is exotic. A wooded paradise with moving terrain and dicing dry washes. Normally I would score a course with this level of blissful features 90 percentile on my beauty ledger, but I slotted it just below 85 percentile. The course conditions were borderline terrible and unnecessary unnatural happenings vandalized the potential tranquility.
- ELEVATION - With this course and park located along the Mississippi flood plain, I had predicted a very flat course. Turns out that the course is just outside the flood plain area and this course has constant modest grade changes up and down and side to side. This is punctuated on hole (15) which throws over a 30 to 35 foot deep valley. I was very surprised to see this much elevation change in the Memphis area.
- CHALLENGING - Its near impossible to score well here if the new basket placements I experienced stay. Perhaps those that enjoy courses with a masochistic element will enjoy it. Mommas boys are going to throw tantrums and abandon ship before the end of the round. If they were to abandon the distasteful edits and go back to the easier placements, I would quantify this one as an Intermediate level technical course. Now it's a super flawed Advanced or Pro level course.
- AMENITIES - The core equipment items are fantastic, DISCatcher baskets and concrete tees. The course also has several benches and a hoard of basket placements. The original placements are mostly good, but all of the new ones are very poorly placed. There is also a pavilion near the start of both courses and a faded course map that is no longer readable.

A basket placement fairy is wrecking the course.
- DESIGN UPDATES - The East layout has apparently gotten a ton of new unmarked basket updates recently and it has unequivocally ruined the course. The new placements pay no regard to how a disc flies or what a plausible line is. Basket placements could have randomly fell from the sky and it would have been better than this clown show of an altered course layout. The placements I got, which were zero original and zero marked alt placements, were often tucked into spots where amazing shots couldn't get within 50 feet. 80 percent of the placements I had to deal with I would define as plinko plays. Players will need to bring a rabbit's foot or their favorite lucky charm, cause their 'A' game and skills are not required here.
- NOT FUN - I can see how the original course layout was fun. Tight but plausible adrenaline packed lines where birdie was achievable on a very accurate throw. Now it's a round full of tree kicks into unsavory positions and then scrambling to try and save par. The constant searching in the overgrowth and vines got old. I didn't have one decent birdie look the entire round.
- MAINTENANCE - As noted, lots of recent work has been done here to ruin holes with new hideous placements. Other than this unnecessary course construction update, it appeared no other work had been done by the locals to keep the course in check. Every line was hairy for my late May 2022 visit. The grass height along the couple small open patches was shin high. Many of the benches and signs were falling apart. Money and wisely spent labor is not going into this course at the moment.
- SPRAY PAINTED MANDOS - As noted in the pros, the one remaining clear pro for this course is the raw beauty of the landscape. Apparently in north Memphis, it's OK to destroy beautiful landscapes by spray painting big trees with neon orange to make mandos. Two holes have 6 feet of vertical neon orange paint on trees making a once appealing and photogenic tee shot a turd.
- NAVIGATION AND SIGNAGE - Due to all the unmarked placement updates, this one is going to be a nightmare to try and follow until new signs are installed. I walked around aimlessly several times. The beginning 4 or 5 holes are somewhat straightforward to follow, but after that, it was a sh!tshow.
- TIME PLAY - Solo first time players will need to set aside more time than they think. It took me over 90 minutes first-time solo.
- OVERGROWTH - Discs are going to hit trees here and fly well off-course and into hard-to-reach areas. I think the disc loss potential is slightly higher here than a normal course despite no water features. Likely lots of mosquitoes after wet periods and also ticks and snakes. Poison ivy was also prevalent in many areas.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - This is probably not a surprise to those reading the entire review, but this is not a good course for beginners. I don't take off points for this.

Meeman-Shelby East was once a really good layout. Likely very similar to Seven Oaks in Nashville and the Sinks in Nooga. This was likely one of the better courses in Memphis for quite some time, especially to those that enjoy wooded courses. Fast forward to today and to observe the wanna-be designer destruction of a very good technical course was extremely depressing. Had I played here before the lunacy edits, I likely would have scored this one a strong 3.5. I think enough bad design choices have been made to shave off a quarter point from every prior review. I went back and forth on whether to give this one a low 3.5 or high 3.0 and decided on the latter. The value of Meeman Shelby is still going to be the natural beauty of this place and that's never going to change. Anyways, for those living in Memphis who have still yet to play this oldie, I would say check it out between January and April. For those from out of town, I would head to nearby Bud Hill instead of here.

Great course overall. Mostly wooded holes, with one or two more open holes at the beginning. The wooded holes present a challenge and require a variety of shots in order to navigate. If you miss the fairway though, prepare to scramble in order to get back on. The elevation on most holes adds an interesting element to playing through the course. Overall, a great course that should present a challenge for pros and ams alike.

Every hole aside from the first two are heavily wooded which gets old after a while. Playing through this course I never had to pull out anything faster than a Teebird and I used my Roc on nearly every hole. The first time I played this course it had recently snowed which made the conditions tough and because it was my first time, it made course navigation rather challenging. A few more signs around the course would be beneficial for first time players. One other issue is that many of the alternate pin locations simply make the holes ridiculous to play. They make a few holes impossible birdies even after a perfect tee shot.

Overall, a very enjoyable course if you know what you're getting. Expect lots of trees and be ready to work on accurate, short, stay in the fairway kinds of shots.

-Used every disc in my bag, good variety of shots left and right, uphill and downhill
-Tee signs are great with all pin locations and distances clearly marked
-The General Store at the Park Entrance is worth the trip to this course . Thanks to the ladies there for a delicious lunch and outstanding hospitality.

-A few of the tee pads were covered in mud and very slippery
-1 or 2 of the baskets looked a little rough and may need to be replaced soon
-Almost all in fairly deep woods
-Can be confusing as to which basket/tee you should head to in a couple of spots

I enjoyed playing this course (except for all of the trees I hit) but nothing jumps out at me as being stellar. Lots of variety as far as lefty and righty holes, a few uphill or downhill, but seemed like a lot of them were around the same distance. Hole #2 is the exception, just a monster. 500+ ft into a tight channel in the woods for the last 200 ft. If you want to practice hitting a precise spot off the tee and don't mind being punished if you don't, this is the place for you. A good, solid, rugged type course.

This course has multiple pin placements on most every hole. In the longs, this is the tougher of the 2 courses located in Shelby Forest. In the short pin placements, it is the easier of the 2 courses. There are good concrete tees on most holes, with carpet pads on the others.

Design wise, this is your typical wooded course, with a lot of variety, elevation, tough holes, and easy holes. The multiple pin placements give the course good balance for all skill levels. The fairways are fair, but require an accurate shot to birdie most holes.

There are benches on every hole. At the start of the course is a pavilion and bathrooms. The park has cabins and also allows camping.

The main problem with this course is navigation. There are no tee signs or next tee signs and the many worn pathways where the original course was can lead you to the wrong tee pad in several key areas. After hole 2, you want to go straight back to find hole 3 (the pad to the right of 2's basket is hole 9). After hole 3, follow the path to the bench, where you will see that hole 4 goes left and hole 7 goes right. After hole 12, you have to go down the small hill to find hole 13 (going straight after hole 12 is hole 16).

I personally think that the mando on hole 16 is stupid and should not be there. Also, remember to bring bug spray and cover yourself with it, and even then, I wish you luck.

Overall, I like this course. It is fun to play, with a lot of unique challenges and shots. The overall enjoyment of this course for first timers would be greatly improved if there were tee signs. It is just difficult to truly enjoy yourself when you are constantly trying to figure out where to go next. There really is nothing overly special about this course, but it is nice to have 2 full 18 hole courses in the same immediate area. If you like wooded courses, then you will enjoy your visit to Shelby Forest State Park. The general store down the road has food, drinks, sells discs, and loves disc golfers.