Eugene, OR

Stewart Pond

Permanent course
3.55(based on 7 reviews)
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wolfhaley
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 20.5 years 1165 played 745 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 17, 2024 Played the course:once

Pros:

Stewart Pond is a mixed bag of an 18 hole course. The majority of it plays in some field areas with a few modestly wooded holes sprinkled in. Even on the more open holes there's pretty much always some trees to deal with. Moderately hilly terrain on the beginning and ending holes with the middle section being almost completely flat.

The baskets are Innova Discatchers. These are all in good shape and catch great. Hole 18's is a pretty cool elevated pin too, which spices up the last hole a bit. There's a single basket and multiple pin positions per hole.

Good sized concrete tees on each hole. These are all poured level and they have good traction to them. One tee pad per hole.

The design is actually pretty solid for the land they had to work with. The majority pf the holes are between 250 and 400 feet, but they did fit a couple 500 plus footers in there. The course actually requires some shot shaping off the tee for as open as it is. The few trees out there are used well to create some challenge from the tee. It doesn't appear like it'll be much of a challenge walking up to hole 1 but it actually is.

The tee signs are nice. Big. bold signs attached to metal posts. These things have a pretty solid hole map showing the different pin positions as well as the hole #, pars and distances to each placement. All the info you need.

Cons:

The course played mostly in what felt like a hay field. The grass was mowed by what had to have been a tractor. Like a farm tractor. This made looking for discs in the fairway a challenge. Don't recall ever playing in stuff like that before. Pretty obnoxious. Hopefully it's not always like that.

There's nothing on the signs to tell you what pin is in play. This is one of my biggest annoyances when you have multiple positions. You either need to walk the fairway or take a wild stab at which one is in the ground.

The parking lot is a little bit of a ways from hole 1. Not a huge deal but it's a little tricky to find the start of the course without a map. It doesn't look at all like there'd be a course out there from the lot, much less the road driving to the lot.

I'm not sure where the pond was. I didn't see one anywhere. I didn't even see any water of any kind in fact.

Other Thoughts:

This course was decent. A little too open for my taste but it did have some challenge to it. I'm not sure how the hell it's rated as high as it is. It's a 3 at best in my opinion. Worth a visit if you're in the area but not worth any sort of trip out of the way to do so. Kind of a letdown honestly. At least based on it's rating.
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8 1
The Valkyrie Kid
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 46.4 years 1562 played 1507 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Two And A Half Season Course! 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jun 2, 2016 Played the course:once

Pros:

What a great piece of land to build a course on. There are basically two separate areas, a large sloping, meadow area with scattered mature trees and a lower, could be wetter area comprised of large Oak and Ash trees.

You park in the parking lot at the dead end of Stewart Road. Walk in past the sign listing all those environmental groups who are not going to be happy with discs golfing trampling through their lovely, pristine piece of land.

The course has these nice, large concrete tee pads which are rounded off at the front end. This helps in navigation right away. The tee signs are currently just small laminated pieces of paper attached to small sticks. I would hope to see them replaced with more permanent and vandal proof signs. The baskets are new Discatchers with the red number on top.

Stewart Ponds starts out with three consecutive holes climbing upwards. They are 240', 250' and 300' but provide a challenge with their hills. # 4 finally gives you a chance to throw some air, it's 410 down the hill. Now holes # 5-15 all play through the lower forested area. They're almost all between 250' to 350' and all come with tight lines or mature trees or some kind of obstacle. Then 16-18 lead back to the sloping meadow area. # 18 concludes your round with a 490' downhill blast.

Stewart Ponds is long enough and technical enough to provide challenge for most players. It's not Blue Lake or McIver but probably plays similar to Dexter or Alton Baker in difficulty.

Cons:

Long and could be confusing walk into # 1.

You're playing on a field of grass (18" high). This would result in an awfully wet walk after rain. But it doesn't rain in Eugene, does it?

BLM lands make me nervous. There are so many environmental groups involved here. I'm afraid if two discarded cans are found on the ground, there could be pressure to close this lovely course. The course designer has pretty much assured me that this area of Stewart Pond is designated for recreation use thus will be mowed regularly and all the environmentalist will accept the course. Good news!

The site has some lowlands area, combined with tall grass could make this course not playable in winter and large parts of spring.

Current signs are just laminated papers attached to small sticks. Vandals will trash them.

Other Thoughts:

If I was convinced that this course was to be mowed on a consistent basis, I'd feel a lot more comfortable. With all these environmental groups having a say, I think they might wish to keep the grass high. If the grass is kept 12-18' tall, it's means players are going to forever be searching for discs and wet feet will be the norm half the year.

I'll be looking forward to coming here again in the future and see what's going on as regards to tee signs, cutting the grass and in general, tolerating that small minority group of our disc golfers community, who tend to be lazy and sometimes discard their bottles and cans in the brush.
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Designer response by jeverett
Hi Valkyrie Kid,

Thank you for the Stewart Pond review! I don't know if I can assuage any of the 'cons' you listed, but I can at least provide a little background as to our relationship with the BLM. ;)

The footprint of the course is a tiny portion of the BLM's overall West Eugene Wetlands holdings, and one of the few areas designated as primarily for recreation (rather than habitat restoration). Thankfully, there aren't a lot of environmental groups and interests involved here. The site itself has a history of large-scale illegal camping, and it was the BLM (as opposed to our local club) that actually originally proposed disc golf on the property. We're also trying to be proactive about mitigating the impact of disc golf on the property, of course. :)

We've been working hard on getting a more frequent mowing schedule, with a mower rather than a tractor, and are hopeful that mowing is going to be more frequent. Long grass is indeed a drag. :( Amenities like real tee signs are also now funded, and will be installed this Summer. :)

In terms of the layout (my primary responsibility), yes, I would agree that the most-comparable course in terms of difficulty would be Dexter. Dexter is very slightly more technical, but Stewart Pond is slightly (200-300ft) longer.

If you would be willing to make one tiny change to your review.. In attempting to be mindful of the neighbors to the south of the property, we're trying to encourage players to come in on Bertelsen Rd. rather than Bailey Hill Rd., and then take Stewart Rd. to the parking lot right before the dead-end. i.e. Not parking on the Bailey Hill Rd. end of Stewart Rd.

Thanks again! If you're ever back in the area, I'd be happy to play a round with you out there!
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