Mt. Airy Forest is an expansive, 1,459 acre-park located less than 15 minutes from downtown Cincinnati. This park was the first municipal reforestation in country, and has plenty of picturesque trails and locations for park goers to enjoy. Among the many amenities in this park is the 18-hole disc golf course, which in my opinion provides a fine example of what makes a disc golf course a top tier experience.

Mt. Airy's location is hard to miss if you are looking at Cincinnati on Google Maps. The disc golf course is located in the northern half of the park, and can be located using the signage found all around the park. Interstate 74 bisects the forest, so your route to the disc golf course will depend on what direction you are coming from. Outside of the park, you will be able to find restaurant and gas station options for whatever drink, snack, or gas needs you may have before or after your time at the course. Being so centralized, this course is close to a lot of the other courses in the Cincinnati region; if you are hitting the big 3 in Cincinnati, it's not hard to get to Mt. Airy, Idlewild, and Lincoln Ridge all in one day if you start early enough. Mt. Airy is also close to plenty of other attractions and hotels in Cincinnati, which is convenient if you are making a disc golf only trip to the area, or if you are in town with family or business and want to get a round in.

Park amenities are plentiful in Mt. Airy. There are miles upon miles of hiking trails for folks to enjoy, as well as trails for mountain biking and horseback riding. These different trails are mapped out and are accessible on the park website. This park is also home to Everybody's Treehouse, a whimsical, fully wheelchair accessible treehouse that is free to the public. The park has 3 reservable shelters, along with almost two dozen picnic areas. There are also 3 different reservable wedding venues to choose from for your special day. Just north of the disc golf course is the Mt. Airy Arboretum, which houses specialty gardens, gazebos, and picturesque lakeside views. To the south of the interstate, you will also find a dog park that has separate zones for large or small furry friends. Then you add in the restroom facilities and playground areas, calling Mt. Airy's amenities plentiful may sell the park short. You could easily spend a full day at Mt. Airy, whether or not that day includes to disc golf course.

Speaking of the disc golf course, let's talk about course amenities. Coming down Lodge Road past the playground area, you will come across a small parking lot and building. This building houses The Nati, a disc golf pro shop located on property. Its not every day the closest pro shop to a given course is on-site. With the selection of discs and unique setting in the older building, The Nati is a great place to check out before or after your round. Next to the parking lot, you'll also find a fun directional sign that shows distances to many notable courses around the country and globe, including Flip City, DeLaveaga, Winthrop, and even Pomiena Reserve in Tasmania. Beyond the parking lot, you will find what is the best warm up area I have seen on any disc golf course thus far. There's a long patio area with a large net at the end that will allow you to warm up with some power throws that won't require you to walk hundreds of feet to get your disc. There are also two DISCatcher practice baskets located in a large open area behind the pro shop. These baskets provide not only large spaces to practice putts, but approaches as well. At Mt. Airy, you have plenty of options with your warm up routine to make sure you're set for your round.

The course equipment at Mt. Airy also includes some great features. The tee pads are long concrete pads that felt nice and grippy on my round. The tee signs provide a graphic of each hole, pin locations and distances, the direction to the next tee, and which pin is in use. The baskets on course are DGA Mach 3s that are in great shape. The baskets at red, and stand out very well among the woods and greenery, making them easy to spot from a distance. Each hole also has a bucket for trash, so don't be a litter bug.

Mt. Airy's course design has a largely park-style vibe to it, which may be surprising considering it's in a forest. The course makes its way around tree lines of a more open area of the park, with only a few holes truly traversing the wooded environment that surrounds the course. While there is a playground area that the park goes near and other roads that the course runs along, the disc golf course largely uses land not shared by other amenities given the dead-end road that the course start and end resides at.

Variety is plentiful at Mt. Airy when considering multiple factors. While this is not the longest course you will find by any means, the pin distances throughout the course can range from 200 to 700 feet. There's a nice mix of longer and shorter holes on site, with different distances peppered throughout your round. The course also has some good elevation changes throughout. While there are a good number of largely flat holes, there are other holes that will require shots uphill, downhill, over small valleys, and over hills. In terms of shot shaping, there's a mix of fairways that go straight, left, and right, making for a course that both fit and challenge disc golfers dominant in either hand and favoring either forehand or backhand throws. While some holes on site are pretty straight, others offer either multiple shot options or force you to throw a particular shape. This course may slightly favor players whose go-to drive fades right, but as an almost solely RHBH player, I didn't have any issues on this course.

Course difficulty at Mt. Airy is very accessible to a variety of players. As other folks have said, this course feels like a nice balance between Lincoln Ridge and Idlewild in Kentucky. Lincoln Ridge is seen as providing a fun, relatively easier round of golf, while Idlewild is one of the harder courses you will find and is full of challenging risk/reward situations. I agree with the sentiment that Mt. Airy is a nice balance of the two. Newer players will be challenged by Mt. Airy, but will be able to bite off as much as they are comfortable with without punishment here. The park style holes mean that it's pretty easy to see where your disc lands on most holes, which is a nice plus for those who are looking for a most stress-free round. Intermediate players will find this course to have a good level of challenge, with longer pin placements providing challenging situations that will test both distance and accuracy for your birdie or par. While many of the shorter pin placements will likely be very easy for upper-tier players, the longer placements on this course are nothing to scoff at. The C placements on site provide plenty of distance and more extreme angles, which will challenge the vast majority of players. It looks like pin placements are changed often on this course, and you will find a mix of long and short placements on any given non-tournament round, making the replay factor at Mt. Airy high for all skill levels.

Course highlights, for me, would be holes 1, 5, and 15. Hole 1 is a beautiful opening drive over a hill to pin placements guarded within a wooded area - an exciting start to the round. Hole 5 is a long and tight hole that wraps to the right for a difficult par. On my round, there were two baskets to choose from on this hole, so if you want to harder pin placement, keep going along the street to the right to find the far placement. Hole 15 is probably the prettiest hole on site, with a long downhill drive to a B placement that is in an open spot of land surrounded by downhill slopes from the basket, making for risk-reward situations on every throw you make on this hole.

This course can get pretty crowded given its popularity and location. I finished my round before 9am, and the parking lot was pretty full when I left. I think having other disc golfers playing when you are is a positive, but keep in mind that this course gets busy enough on weekends that you may be waiting to play a hole at times.

I played after a period of snow melt and rainier days, and I was overall very impressed with drainage on this course. That being aid, two spots stuck out to me as areas that were still fairly muddy. One spot is in front of Hole 1's tee pad, and that other is around Hole 15's tee pad. This didn't negatively affect my view of the course, but be careful of these spots and other lower lying areas on course after rainy periods.

In terms of variety between woods and park-style holes, those who are looking for more wooded holes may leave Mt. Airy a little disappointed, as most of the holes are more open with more mature trees and tree lines making up the shape of fairways and shot angles needed. Some RHBH players also may not appreciate the course design here given the amount of right turning holes. Again, as a RHBH player, I didn't have any issues on this course, but there is a noticeable percentage of the course that seems to favor right-ending shots.

Safety may be a negative for some on this course. Some holes play pretty close to the road used to access the disc golf course, and some other holes play near a busier road as well. With the number of trails in the park, you may find hikers around the course area as well. I personally didn't find any of the areas on the course to be problematic, as you can see down the road or fairway on all of the holes that are impacted the most by other park uses. Just be careful and look before you throw.

Keep in mind that the rough around some of the holes can get pretty dense, especially when the vegetation on site is in season. Risk/reward is nice to have, but if you see your disc going towards the woods, make sure you watch closely to see where it is landing.

Others have noted navigation as being a issue, with some of these issues perhaps coming from earlier designs. Hole 5 to 6 and then hole 6 to 7 could be a little weird the first time you play, but I can't think of any other spots that had awkward transitions. I didn't have any issues navigating this course on my round, but I believe The Nati has maps available if you want one. Udisc will also get you through a round here easily if you are having any navigation issues.

I have been trying to think of how to properly describe what makes this course work so well, and the right words are failing to come to mind. I think the easiest way to describe this course, in my opinion, is that it's greater than the sum of its parts. At first glance, it doesn't look like a 5-disc experience. It is primarily open park-style holes. It's not exceptionally long. Holes 7 through 9 can come off as a bland section of the course. What's here to put the course above most others?

I think of the climactic sequence in the film Ratatouille when I think about this course (spoilers, sorry). When cooking for the extremely critical Anton Ego, Remo chooses, well, Ratatouille as the dish he serves the critic. This dish doesn't have any uniquely spectacular ingredients; it's made of a mix of tomato, eggplant, squash, and zucchini, with a sauce made of very typical and common ingredients. But when Ego tried the dish, he's left dazzled and humbled by the dish, which takes him back to his memories of growing up and eating his mom's cooking.

This course, to me, is the disc golf equivalent to that ratatouille. The course design has a lot of more simple attributes to it that you can find on many other courses, but I think it executes those attributes better than most other course that I have played. Many of the holes on this course may not immediately come off as exceptional on their own, but when all 18 holes are combined, they add up to a very enjoyable round of golf that results in a truly exceptional experience.

I think another thing about this course that relates to that pasta dish is how accessible it is. Mt. Airy is a course that a very wide range of players can play and enjoy. Newer players will not be overwhelmed by the majority of the holes here, but intermediate players will also enjoy the challenges of this course. No part of this course is overwhelming in its challenge, nor does it have to be. A course doesn't have to necessarily be difficult to be exceptional, and Mt. Airy is a great example of this. This isn't the course that comes to mind when you're looking for a pro-level tournament; Idlewild is just down the highway for that. But if I'm going to recommend a course for the average disc golfer to have a fun round, Mt. Airy is hard to beat.

Mt. Airy resides in the greatest setting for a course I have come across to date. The pro shop on site is such an amazing thing to have on any course, and Mt. Airy's is truly fantastic. There's plenty of seating around the pro shop to converse and chill before or after your round or rounds here. The practice and warm up area is the best I have seen on any course so far. And the forest setting makes for a truly sublime background for a round, far away from the noise and business of the city this park is surrounded by. I started my day of golf at Mt. Airy at the crack of dawn around 7:30am, and I went on to have what was the peaceful and relaxed feeling round of golf I remember having in my almost 14 years of playing this fine sport. This part of Mt. Airy Forest truly feels sperate from other park uses, something most other park courses can't say. That comes with having almost 1,500 acres of land to play with in this park, and this course takes full advantage, truly feeling like a slice of disc golf tranquility separate from other activities.

I know I'm in the minority with how high of regard I hold this course, but one thing most can agree on is that Mt. Airy is a fun course that lives up to it's play and favorite count on this site. This is a well-known course that is beloved by many, and it more than lives up to its reputation.

I chose Cincinnati for my first solo disc golf road trip because of Idlewild. The biggest reason I want to go back is Mt. Airy Forest. This course has stuck in my mind and will continue to do so for a long time, and I recommend that you add it to your bucket list. You won't regret it.

This course was great. It was well taken care of. Facilities on site were good. Awesome pro shop with nice and helpful staff! Good mix of shots. Holes were challenging but not too challenging for an recreational player. If we're ever in the area again, we will definitely be back and will recommend it to our friends traveling in the area.

I have no cons for this course!

Everything was great.

Stop in the Pro Shop....AWESOME Selection of discs!

One of the nicest settings for a course I've had the pleasure to play in - a simply beautiful course in a scenic park.
• Variety: Loaded with it. Fairways of all shapes and sizes. L/R/straight, and more complex fairways. Well-wooded/moderately wooded/ lightly wooded, with some fairly open off the tee playing to well wooded fairways or approaches. At least one Ace Run (more depending in pin placement)/ bombers, lots in between, with a nice mash-up of all these attributes (including elevation) over 20 well-conceived holes. All holes were quite fair and even the tight ones didn't feel pinball-like. Most holes offer many lines, a few (like the mando on 3) force you to go a certain way. Several holes with blind pin placements and pins that were nicely tucked away or otherwise well-guarded. Pure bombing ability can help on a few holes here, but typically only if well placed. Most players will be better served placing tee shots to set up their next shot on some of the longer holes, or risk playing from a difficult lie to a very limited window framing the back end of the fairway. A superbly well-balanced and quite complete set of holes overall.
• Elevation: Outstanding. Often big, sometimes subtle, but used in all sorts of ways to enhance challenge and eye appeal. Long, sweeping up-hills and down-hills, plenty of pins on slopes or near drop-off to create risk/reward. At least one hole playing up then down over a rise. 17's long, undulating fairway was memorable - big arms may be able to bomb it over most or all the peaks and valleys, but noodle arms could get stuck in a trough making it hard to see the line you want to hold going forward.
• Aesthetics: Scenic hole after scenic hole with picturesque vistas from the tee box. Can't tell you how many times I stepped to the tee and thought, "Holes like this are why I love this game." Looked beautiful even though fall had peaked weeks ago. I can't imagine it's anything but gorgeous in spring and summer. Stand outs for me: 5, 10, 13, 15,17.
• Equipment: Red baskets are easy to spot in the woods and look cool to boot. Perhaps a problem in the past, tee signs looked nice, free of graffiti, show all three pin placements with distances,and were helpful in finding your way. Concrete tees were in good enough shape to be a non-issue.
• Pins get rotated through three locations to keep things fresh for locals, vary the challenge and help keep areas around the pins from becoming ever-increasing circles of dirt (pins were in the long position for my round).
• Challenge: Long (C) pins are at least blue (if not gold) level, and definitely harder to reach than the A and B positions. Depending on the pin placement that day, Mt Airy is suitable for most skill levels, but I can see higher rated players finding the shorter A & B layouts a bit too easy.
• The 'Nati. Chances are you don't have a selection of discs like this near your house ... or the opportunity to pick the brains of a PDGA Hall of Famer like Fred Salaz.
• Practice putting green with two baskets, room for long approaches and a warm-up driving range w/net - maybe if Fred's not too busy, he can watch your form and help you out.

These pale in comparison to all the positives here.
• Several holes play close to parking and roads (Hole 2 has you playing right over a road). Probably not as big a safety issue as it could be here, but discs hitting asphalt is a pet peeve of mine - and that's a decent possibility at Mt Airy.
• Missing the thrill of a water carry.

Some have mentioned signs and routing/navigation. All I can say is signs must have been redone - they were great during my round. I had a guide, so no issues there. I can see where a few spots were tricky, but nothing seemed that hard to follow... print the map or pick one up at The Nati - all the roads near holes actually make it easier to follow on the map.

Absolutely loved this place, and can't wait to return. My thanks to all who had a hand in selecting the location, designing/installing the course and maintaining it to this point. I was impressed with the design of the holes and taken by the course's beauty. Brains and beauty always make for a potent combination - I freely admit I'm smitten. Can't believe it's not pay to play.

I've been fortunate enough to play some truly phenomenal courses since discovering DGCR: Lincoln Ridge, Moraine State Park, Deer Lakes, Leviathan, Burchfield Park, Rogers Lakewood, WR Jackson at IDGC ...all superb courses that go beyond excellence. None of those left me with the desire return that Mt Airy did... can't wait to play it again. Mt. Airy struck me with the same desire to come back as Flip and the Headrick course at IDGC. I don't recall squat about benches, trash cans, brooms and stuff like that because I was too damned busy enjoying myself to care.

Have to say Idlewild's more challenging and if I were picking a course for a "Pros Only" tourney I'd give it the nod. But just as I won't knock a course for being above my skill level, I can't knock Airy just 'cause there are tougher courses out there - playing to the longs here is plenty challenging. Given the choice to play Idlewild or Mt. Airy, I'll pick the latter - it simply was a more enjoyable round, and that's my reason for playing.

Given the strength of all the pros, how easy it was to look past the cons, how much I enjoyed the course relative to other fabulous courses and my desire to return, I feel comfortable awarding a Mt. Airy 5.0. Obviously, I'm in the minority, but I could care less. I've provided solid support for my rating... and I'm already trying to figure out when I can play here again!

So much to say, The Only course with a Pro shop on site, warm up area and two practice baskets, driving net.... lots of info!

20 holes in the total lay out, well manicured! No poison ivy

If you lose a disc, you have a good chance it will be returned. The Nati pro shop will call you

Great signage, tee signs are well labeled with A B C spots to inform you where the basket is. Benches and brooms by tee box! one has a shelter, so there always a place to rest!

5 water fountains around the course on holes #'s 1 ,4, 11, 12, &14 good clean water, deuce juice! yum.

Good mix of holes, loads of elevation changes, and plenty of well placed trees in your way! some holes in the woods, some open, avg. hole length about 375 ft.

They have leagues, and tournys, and weekly doubles

With all the pros, the cons are its popularity, not that's a bad thing, but people tend to jump around the course, and it can cause sudden delays.
There is one time you may feel lost, or out of progression.. after #6, walk back up #5's fairway, and look for #7's pad

I guess another weird thing is the course plays close to the road on #2,4,5,7,8,14, which makes that a technical OB if you cross the area. but it adds to the challenge in my opinion

If you want my reason for the ***** stars here's why....................................

when it describes "nothing could possibly done to make this course better" That's a dumb statement...
There is always a way to make a course better. Add a pond, add more holes, covered tee boxes, solar lights on basket tops. tree stands for spotters and photographers.
This course is well maintained, and has the potential to expand beyond the 20 holes it has now......

Mt. Airy is an outstanding course. There are a lot of challenging holes here and many times Airy will get the best of you. There's a lot of variety and plenty of hazards. There are several holes that would qualify as the most beautiful and epic in all of disc golf.

There are some long and treacherous holes here, but they don't seem unfair. They usually involve a first shot to a middle area and then a different type of shot to get towards the basket. The few shorter holes have their challenges and do great to add to the variety. And there are some average length holes that have some different hazards that make each unique. There's some more open areas where you can air it out and some fairly wooded areas. Like I said before - a lot of variety.

The way they are using the alternate pins makes this course different almost every time you play it. You can (and I have) play this course over and over and never get bored. It works on every part of your game.

If I was picking the best 18 holes in all of disc golf I would probably pick 5 of the holes at Mt. Airy.

Busy - that's because it's a great course! No water in play anywhere. A few of the shorter holes may feel like a let down after some of the majestic holes, but I think that makes the course diverse.

This should be on your list of courses not to be missed.

The improvements to this place have been amazing. I remember playing it when it was only 9 holes! The pro shop, the practice holes and throwing area are unmatched. The new baskets and alternate pins are huge improvements. Every hole has been taken care of and improved over the years with mulch, gravel, tree trimming and new benches. I can't wait to see the new signs! Thanks to the guys who do a great job on the upkeep of this course!

Long challenging course. Great variety of scoring holes and hole where pro par is literally for pro's. Hole 5 is a 700+ dog leg right that is a challenging 4 let alone a 3. 17 in long pin placement is also a challenging par, great course to play if your looking to challenge yourself. Shooting 54 (pro par) is a pro level score. very clean course well maintained. mixed baskets being replaced with new baskets and new huge pads are in the works to be in by the end of this season, also new sleeves for alternate pin placements on nearly every hole. A great course only getting better! Nati Disc Shop at first tee, if you have not been stop in and see the guys. they are all great help and the shop has one of the best disc varieties you can find. Hosts weekly ace fund and weekly ace fun random doubles. Annually CC and Flying Pig.

Could easily be a major quality course with simple additions and changes, Allot of the small cons are in the works to be fixed but seems to be taking a while for work to actually begin. New pin placements, baskets and pads could easily skyrocket this course to the top ten best.

This course offered a wide variety of challenging holes. There is beautiful scenery and some really long holes.

A 687ft par 4 with a dog leg right? Wow, the par for the course is pretty tough to get. Also, the course map needs updated because it is easy to get lost on the hole progession.

The course wasn't crowded and I hit the best shot of my life (100 ft above and around trees to sink it on the second new hole), so it was a good day. If you get lost on where to go, make sure to ask. After hole number 4 you have to walk straight around an old white building to find the next hole, which is a little disappointing.

Very aesthetically pleasing, one of the most beautiful courses I've seen. Very challenging, will challenge even the pros. Conveniently located 5-10 minutes away from downtown Cincy. You will have a great time.

There's just a few of these:
Some tee signs missing, two holes were moved due to erosion (one of them my favorite previously).

This course is my favorite in the Cincinnati Metro area. It combines thickly wooded holes with beautifully sculpted hills and wide open fields. Holes #2 and #4 have some of the best and most aesthetically pleasing hills I've seen incorporated into a disc golf course.

Hole #10 is a beast and will greatly challenge even the most masterful of disc throwers. But then again, so will most other holes on this course. And although you may be getting your brains beat out scorekeeping-wise (which WILL happen), the course is just too fun not to NOT be having a great time

This course combines many of the different aspects that make for a terrific dg course, and they are blended together excellently to create a course with an amazing overall flow.