My DG buddy & I decided to head out of town to Rocky Fork today to play the old South Beach course, only to be disappointed to see the decline of a place that used to be tournament worthy. The good news is that we then decided to check out the 'Campground' baskets, thinking we'd find only a practice area (since that was the latest listing here). What a pleasant surprise to find nine (smallish) concrete tees and nine baskets which have absolutely changed this into a permanent, fun, nine hole loop, safely designed for Novice to Recreational players!

Boasting DGA-ish, hot dipped galvanized baskets of a slightly angular type, and 3' or 4' by 6' flush to the ground concrete tees, this course has holes ranging from the starter putter 90' hole guarded only by a low hanging sycamore branch, all the way up to a couple of nearly 250' flat holes with greens lightly guarded by clean, park trees. Then it uses the gently rolling elevation available on holes 3,4,6,7&8 to great effect. The 'best' hole might be the downhill 240' hole 4, which requires a significant level of shot shaping through trees and branches to reach the green below. All holes except maybe hole 2 (hyzers might get out over the wiffle ball field) and 5 (there's a hidden park bench just blind round the bend in the fairway) are fairly safely designed, away from the many, many other activities available to the camp park users.

The small parking lot at the camps store puts you right between the 9th basket and the 1st tee, and they have discs for sale, and can give you a map inside.

I mentioned a couple of places where the other park patrons may legitimately get into a fairway, but disc golfers obviously need to use discretion if and when the park is busier. Skip a hole rather than ever throwing on someone who probably doesn't grasp the hazard!

The course does not have a lot of length, and will not challenge the bigger arms, but advanced an open players should consider this a par-two, putter course anyway. The extremely small tees lead you to more of a one step or standstill delivery, so it may be better to try that for a change of pace if your x-step has you coming on to the pad from behind.

Other than that, there aren't a lot of cons. It MAY be a course they prefer to reserve for paying, camping patrons, but nobody questioned us as visitors, and the lady in the shop was very pleasant when I dropped by to inquire about a map.

Overall, this little (ex) 'practice area' is now THE Rocky Fork State Park lake course we're more likely to visit out here, since the remaining nine holes out at the bigger South Beach side course aren't as much FUN.