Salem DGC reviews
19
0
Three Putt
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience:
29.9 years
158 played
131 reviews
Not a disc golf course, more like a lawsuit waiting to happen 2+ years
Reviewed:
Updated:
Played on:Dec 31, 2020
Played the course:once
Pros:
Salem is a little out-of-the way nothing-to-do rural town where someone obviously has caught the disc golf bug; there are baskets in the City park and at a local school.
If there is any bright spot to Salem DGC, it is that after you navigate the dangerous conflicts and ill-conceived shots that make up this "course" you will never again have to hesitate and think when someone asks you what the worst disc golf course you ever played was.
If there is any bright spot to Salem DGC, it is that after you navigate the dangerous conflicts and ill-conceived shots that make up this "course" you will never again have to hesitate and think when someone asks you what the worst disc golf course you ever played was.
Cons:
Whoever it is in Salem who caught the disc golf bug has no idea what a disc golf course looks like. There are so many problems with this "course" that it's hard to decide where to start.
The park is too small for a disc golf course, so the idea of cramming a course in this park is flawed and doomed to fail from the start.
There are no tees or tee signs. You throw from the last basket. UPDATE: There are evidently posts now where you are supposed to tee, but they are right next to the last basket you threw to so...questionable if that is actually an improvement or not.
Throwing from the parking lot to the first visible basket makes you throw a hyzer down a walking path to avoid throwing over a ball field outfield.
Throwing from that basket then leaves you looking at six baskets with no way to know where you are supposed to throw. Amazingly, the route you are supposed to throw is the one that makes you throw through the playground.
From there you throw over walking paths and through a pavilion directly at the swimming pool parking lot, then back over walking paths toward the basketball courts, then back to a basket that is in the middle of the park that you already would have thrown by twice if you had figured out the flow, then over a walking path directly back at ballfields (with an optional anhyzer route through the playground) and finally past a pavilion and over walking paths to a basket on the far end of the park. Then since you are on the opposite side of the park from where you parked and you have only played seven holes, you make up two shots to get back to your car.
All of these shots criss-cross so if there was someone on each hole you would get thrown at on every hole, sometimes from two or three directions.
There are a handful of trees in the park so you can hit one, but most of the shots are just open. The challenge in the design appears to be not hitting any pedestrians. It's simply too dangerous to play when anyone else is it the park.
The design is breathtakingly bad, shocking in how little fun factor it holds and astonishingly dangerous. If it qualifies as a course, it is easily the worst disc golf course I've ever encountered. The best thing I can say for it is that it is marked so poorly and has such an unintuitive design that most people will just walk away shaking their heads in awe of how massively someone failed with this project.
The park is too small for a disc golf course, so the idea of cramming a course in this park is flawed and doomed to fail from the start.
There are no tees or tee signs. You throw from the last basket. UPDATE: There are evidently posts now where you are supposed to tee, but they are right next to the last basket you threw to so...questionable if that is actually an improvement or not.
Throwing from the parking lot to the first visible basket makes you throw a hyzer down a walking path to avoid throwing over a ball field outfield.
Throwing from that basket then leaves you looking at six baskets with no way to know where you are supposed to throw. Amazingly, the route you are supposed to throw is the one that makes you throw through the playground.
From there you throw over walking paths and through a pavilion directly at the swimming pool parking lot, then back over walking paths toward the basketball courts, then back to a basket that is in the middle of the park that you already would have thrown by twice if you had figured out the flow, then over a walking path directly back at ballfields (with an optional anhyzer route through the playground) and finally past a pavilion and over walking paths to a basket on the far end of the park. Then since you are on the opposite side of the park from where you parked and you have only played seven holes, you make up two shots to get back to your car.
All of these shots criss-cross so if there was someone on each hole you would get thrown at on every hole, sometimes from two or three directions.
There are a handful of trees in the park so you can hit one, but most of the shots are just open. The challenge in the design appears to be not hitting any pedestrians. It's simply too dangerous to play when anyone else is it the park.
The design is breathtakingly bad, shocking in how little fun factor it holds and astonishingly dangerous. If it qualifies as a course, it is easily the worst disc golf course I've ever encountered. The best thing I can say for it is that it is marked so poorly and has such an unintuitive design that most people will just walk away shaking their heads in awe of how massively someone failed with this project.
Other Thoughts:
Parks departments have insurance; if the person in charge of the Salem policy ever realizes what this "course" is it will be pulled instantly. It has so many risk-assessment red flags that it's astonishing that it ever got installed.
I live about 30 miles from this "course" and didn't know it existed; the only thing I'd heard anyone mention was "a few baskets by a school." The disc golfers who live in this area don't consider this a disc golf course, and neither should you.
I live about 30 miles from this "course" and didn't know it existed; the only thing I'd heard anyone mention was "a few baskets by a school." The disc golfers who live in this area don't consider this a disc golf course, and neither should you.
12
0
Dangerous and ridiculous 2+ years drive by
Reviewed:
Played on:Mar 29, 2020
Played the course:once
Pros:
There are baskets. You can throw at them. I wouldn't throw at the ones the course says. Make up your own course and play safari, it will be safer.
Cons:
First off. Navigation. this course has none. The basket you think you would throw at is not the basket.
DANGER! It's seems like whomever designed this course didn't plan for anyone to be in the park other than disc golfers. EVERY HOLE has you throwing at something inappropriate. Multiple holes have you throwing OVER THE PLAYGROUND or the basketball courts or THROUGH PAVILIONS. How about throwing multiple time at and over the road. Yep. got that too, its absurd. All the above happens by Hole 6. and that's when I turned around and left and continued on back to St. Louis.
DANGER! It's seems like whomever designed this course didn't plan for anyone to be in the park other than disc golfers. EVERY HOLE has you throwing at something inappropriate. Multiple holes have you throwing OVER THE PLAYGROUND or the basketball courts or THROUGH PAVILIONS. How about throwing multiple time at and over the road. Yep. got that too, its absurd. All the above happens by Hole 6. and that's when I turned around and left and continued on back to St. Louis.
Other Thoughts:
This course should be torn out and the baskets placed somewhere else preferably a dedicated disc golf course. 1 hole you play has you throwing at some sort of mechanical building, another directly through a pavilion people can rent out for parties. It's laughable.
2
10
thechriswaterman
Experience:
2 played
2 reviews
Great course 2+ years drive by
Reviewed:
Played on:Aug 2, 2016
Played the course:once
Pros:
Long holes guarded buy buildings or trees or both
Cons:
Marshy area around hole 6. Hole 2 can have cars to drive over from tee shot.
Other Thoughts:
Worth playing if in area.not a course for beginners. Needs some mandos to make a few holes safer for people in park.