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Patriot's Park reviews
11
0
Patriot's Park Makes Me Feel Sad To Be An American
Reviewed:
Played on:Jul 10, 2022
Played the course:once
Pros:
Patriot's Park is a tricky 18-hole course just outside of Greenville, IL. This course is one that has a lot of potential, but not enough attention and maintenance to be worth a drive off the highway.
Location of Patriot's Park is off Rt. 140 outside of town and isn't too close to any other course other than Greenville College (which is not worth to commute from this course). There are gas and food options in Greenville proper as well as in Pocahontas of the highway, depending on which way your GPS takes you.
Park Amenities are kind of sparse but check all the boxes. There are shelters, bathrooms, and a field that it looks like they can use for sports like soccer. There's also in the back of the park that offers fishing.
Course Equipment that is in place is in good shape. The baskets are Gateway Titans that are all in good shape; Gateway Titan baskets will be the last thing to be destroyed the next time an Asteroid caused an extinction event. The signs that are present have most of the information you'd want: a hole layout, pars, distances, and what pin is in use.
Course Design at Patriot's Park is a mix of open holes around the open fields near the front of the park and shaped, tight wooded holes. This course requires you to be very intentional with your shots, otherwise you may be in thick rough or in for a long search for your disc if you have a bad throw on the wrong hole.
Shot Shaping is a must for this course, as you will find yourself needing to use a bit of everything to be successful here. There is a good mix of left and right turning holes, making for a variety of options regardless of if you are left or right-handed, and whether you are forehand or backhand dominant. Other holes like hole 1 allow for multiple options. Plenty of shots on this course are tunnels, requiring precise fades or careful slip ups. Even the more open par 5 of hole 9 is tricky, as ending up on the sides of the fairway can easily add throws to your score.
Elevation is present throughout this course as well. There are many pin placements that are on the edge of hills or at the bottom of drop offs, requiring you to be careful with your approaches to avoid having birdie opportunities become bogeys.
Location of Patriot's Park is off Rt. 140 outside of town and isn't too close to any other course other than Greenville College (which is not worth to commute from this course). There are gas and food options in Greenville proper as well as in Pocahontas of the highway, depending on which way your GPS takes you.
Park Amenities are kind of sparse but check all the boxes. There are shelters, bathrooms, and a field that it looks like they can use for sports like soccer. There's also in the back of the park that offers fishing.
Course Equipment that is in place is in good shape. The baskets are Gateway Titans that are all in good shape; Gateway Titan baskets will be the last thing to be destroyed the next time an Asteroid caused an extinction event. The signs that are present have most of the information you'd want: a hole layout, pars, distances, and what pin is in use.
Course Design at Patriot's Park is a mix of open holes around the open fields near the front of the park and shaped, tight wooded holes. This course requires you to be very intentional with your shots, otherwise you may be in thick rough or in for a long search for your disc if you have a bad throw on the wrong hole.
Shot Shaping is a must for this course, as you will find yourself needing to use a bit of everything to be successful here. There is a good mix of left and right turning holes, making for a variety of options regardless of if you are left or right-handed, and whether you are forehand or backhand dominant. Other holes like hole 1 allow for multiple options. Plenty of shots on this course are tunnels, requiring precise fades or careful slip ups. Even the more open par 5 of hole 9 is tricky, as ending up on the sides of the fairway can easily add throws to your score.
Elevation is present throughout this course as well. There are many pin placements that are on the edge of hills or at the bottom of drop offs, requiring you to be careful with your approaches to avoid having birdie opportunities become bogeys.
Cons:
Course Equipment is not complete on this course, an gets worse the further into the course you go. Baskets are all accounted for, but signage and tee pads are inconsistent. Hole 1 has a turf tee pad that is worn but serviceable, after that, you either have pavers noting where the natural tee pad is, or nothing at all, leaving you to pick where you want to throw from. Once you get back to hole 13, signs start disappearing too, with some pavers that appear to have been removed and set aside, making me wonder if the last few holes of this course are intended to not be played anymore. There is also no directional signage around the course, which is a real problem because....
Navigation and Course Flow are a significant challenge on this course. Holes 1 and 2 are easy enough to find. From there, hole 3 requires you to walk around the fairway of hole 2 to access. After ole 4, things get dicey. Hole 5 was nearly impossible to find, as it's back in the woods and has a sign that faces away from the trail. I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't need UDisc to play a course; any schmuck with a new disc and an interest should be able to go to a course and navigate it for course flow to be considered good. That said, even with UDisc we almost skipped 5 because it was so hard to find. Holes 6 was also tricky to find, and hole 10 is not within sight of hole 9's pin. Transitions from holes 10 to 11, holes 11 to 12, and holes 12 to 13 are also rough and would be very hard to figure out without UDisc. And don't get me started on the last few holes of the course either. Overall, it's just a tough course to navigate.
Course Upkeep is probably the worst aspect of this course. It's clear that the disc golf course here does not get much attention, and it feels like a forgotten aspect of this park entirely when you play any of the wooded holes. Every wooded hole on this course has a very narrow fairway that can be discerned, but most if not all of them are too narrow to be reasonably make for a fun hole of sic golf given how unforgiving the rough is around this course. Hole 5 has what felt like four turns to it, and if you don't land in the five or six-foot-wide fairway, your disc is gone. I threw a zone what felt like 100 feet on hole six around a corner to what my friend and I agreed should have been in or near the fairway. That zone was never seen again. A lot of the pin placements are also not kept well at all. Hole 10's pin placement is in the woods after a tee shot in a field and requires you to throw over a little creek to the pin. This pin has no direct route to access it, and I could not tell you where such a trail or bridge was supposed to be. Most of the wooded holes are the same way; there are just enough clues to where to go next in the woods or where to throw to let you guess where the pin or next hole are, but you will need to walk just about every fairway to be sure if you want to leave with all of the discs you brought with you. Hole 18 is the perfect end to this course, being a shot over the pond to a thick green and a pin you can't see from the tee pad. Just what I want to throw over water to.
Navigation and Course Flow are a significant challenge on this course. Holes 1 and 2 are easy enough to find. From there, hole 3 requires you to walk around the fairway of hole 2 to access. After ole 4, things get dicey. Hole 5 was nearly impossible to find, as it's back in the woods and has a sign that faces away from the trail. I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't need UDisc to play a course; any schmuck with a new disc and an interest should be able to go to a course and navigate it for course flow to be considered good. That said, even with UDisc we almost skipped 5 because it was so hard to find. Holes 6 was also tricky to find, and hole 10 is not within sight of hole 9's pin. Transitions from holes 10 to 11, holes 11 to 12, and holes 12 to 13 are also rough and would be very hard to figure out without UDisc. And don't get me started on the last few holes of the course either. Overall, it's just a tough course to navigate.
Course Upkeep is probably the worst aspect of this course. It's clear that the disc golf course here does not get much attention, and it feels like a forgotten aspect of this park entirely when you play any of the wooded holes. Every wooded hole on this course has a very narrow fairway that can be discerned, but most if not all of them are too narrow to be reasonably make for a fun hole of sic golf given how unforgiving the rough is around this course. Hole 5 has what felt like four turns to it, and if you don't land in the five or six-foot-wide fairway, your disc is gone. I threw a zone what felt like 100 feet on hole six around a corner to what my friend and I agreed should have been in or near the fairway. That zone was never seen again. A lot of the pin placements are also not kept well at all. Hole 10's pin placement is in the woods after a tee shot in a field and requires you to throw over a little creek to the pin. This pin has no direct route to access it, and I could not tell you where such a trail or bridge was supposed to be. Most of the wooded holes are the same way; there are just enough clues to where to go next in the woods or where to throw to let you guess where the pin or next hole are, but you will need to walk just about every fairway to be sure if you want to leave with all of the discs you brought with you. Hole 18 is the perfect end to this course, being a shot over the pond to a thick green and a pin you can't see from the tee pad. Just what I want to throw over water to.
Other Thoughts:
This was one of the last fun rounds I have had in recent memory, and I wouldn't have guessed that it would end up that way when play holes 1 and 2. This is a course that starts great and gives the impression of being a course I would comfortably rate as being middle of the road or maybe even a little higher, but the further you get into the round, the more the upkeep, lack of complete equipment, and unforgiving fairways add up to a disappointing experience. It felt like no one had played this course in weeks before we came along.
On a more personal gripe, the tight fairways and trails led to my friend and I needing to be careful of spiderwebs with literally every step we took, as they were everywhere. We know that we looked like fools pretending to be Anakin and Obi-Wan around the woods with sticks, but constant waving of sticks in front of us wasn't even enough to keep us from walking into some.
It feels like a lot of the wooded holes, especially 13 through 18, play along what the park intends to be trails for hikers. It's obvious that park upkeep is not maintaining the wooded holes at all, and perhaps never got this course to its intended level of upkeep judging by past reviews. The note in the course description noting "This course isn't officially open yet; the park district is still clearing holes" has just been accurate consistently since 2015. This course would honestly be better if it was just a recreational 9 in the more open areas of the park. Holes, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 9 are actually fun to play, and I would rate those holes higher by themselves than the course as a whole. The attempt at 18 holes here just leads to bad transitions, ridiculously tough wooded shots and hole transitions, and a frustrating round of golf.
If you're driving along I-70 and want to bag some courses but have limited time, Silver Lake in Highland just down the highway should be prioritized above this course. Unless you're a dedicated course bagger, I would recommend skipping this course. Patriot's Park has the potential to be either a great intermediate-advanced course or even an exceptional novice level 9-hole. Given the history and current state of the course, it is a disappointing round that leaves you to wonder what could have been.
On a more personal gripe, the tight fairways and trails led to my friend and I needing to be careful of spiderwebs with literally every step we took, as they were everywhere. We know that we looked like fools pretending to be Anakin and Obi-Wan around the woods with sticks, but constant waving of sticks in front of us wasn't even enough to keep us from walking into some.
It feels like a lot of the wooded holes, especially 13 through 18, play along what the park intends to be trails for hikers. It's obvious that park upkeep is not maintaining the wooded holes at all, and perhaps never got this course to its intended level of upkeep judging by past reviews. The note in the course description noting "This course isn't officially open yet; the park district is still clearing holes" has just been accurate consistently since 2015. This course would honestly be better if it was just a recreational 9 in the more open areas of the park. Holes, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 9 are actually fun to play, and I would rate those holes higher by themselves than the course as a whole. The attempt at 18 holes here just leads to bad transitions, ridiculously tough wooded shots and hole transitions, and a frustrating round of golf.
If you're driving along I-70 and want to bag some courses but have limited time, Silver Lake in Highland just down the highway should be prioritized above this course. Unless you're a dedicated course bagger, I would recommend skipping this course. Patriot's Park has the potential to be either a great intermediate-advanced course or even an exceptional novice level 9-hole. Given the history and current state of the course, it is a disappointing round that leaves you to wonder what could have been.
