-Elevation change: This course plays in a former quarry. You start at the rim and play down and back up 3x over the course of 18 holes. There are big downhill (1, 10, and 12) and challenging uphill holes (11 and 18). In some cases, there is a slight hump in the fairway that makes it more difficult to judge distance. Due to much of the course playing on a slope, bad shots can wind up way offline.

-Equipment: This is a DiscGolfPark course. If you've played one, you mostly know what to expect. Standard DiscGolfPark baskets with blue bands, plus a white banded practice basket. Course map. Concrete tees instead of the usual DGP turf. Nice, signs at both sets of tees and truly excellent navigational signage. The DiscGolfPark baskets feature a metal arrow welded into the bottom of the cage pointing to the next tee. In the few cases where the red and white tees were in different directions, a second arrow was added to show the way to the reds. Additional signage is added as needed, like on the transition through the woods from 11 to 12 (including an alternate path in case the direct route is flooded) and from 14 to 15. The two water holes have clearly signed drop zones. Due to all the up and down and the rough nature of some of the terrain, I really appreciated the extra effort to make it clear where to go next. There are solidly built wooden bridges between 12 and 13 and between 13 and 14.

-Design: Due to the largely open nature of this course, I was pleasantly surprised that I couldn't just throw hyzer after hyzer. Outside of the two water holes (13 & 15), this course never felt repetitive off the tee. Both water holes are around 250' from the long tees and require 230-240' to clear the water, but 15's basket is situated much closer to the water and it's very easy for a good but not great drive to yield a death putt. The course loops back to the start after 9, with the parking lot on the other side of the soccer fields in case you need to refill your water. Holes 9 and 18 use staked OB to define the dogleg left fairways. Not my favorite design feature, but it's not overused here and both holes are probably better as a result.

Multi throw holes: I prefer a few multi throw holes amidst my mostly par 3 golf and The Quarry delivers. Holes 1 (white only) and 9 are par 4s, with 1 playing fairly soft and 9 playing significantly tougher. Hole 18 finishes things off with an excellent par 5.

-Playable for a variety of skill levels: Each hole features red and white tees. Generally the reds changed the line in addition to shortening the holes. Both felt appropriately difficult for the stated skill levels. Hole 18 long/white was the exception. I'd consider it at least blue level in difficulty, maybe even approaching gold. Birdie is out of the question for a white level player (outside of 3 excellent shots and a throw in from outside circle 2). I wouldn't change a thing though. This is a killer finishing hole. Just keep in mind that the red tee is probably closer to white level.

-Foliage: Since this course is situated in a former quarry, there aren't many large trees to contend with and almost all are found on the front 9. When we played in April, there was virtually no shade outside of the path from 11 to 12. I'm not sure I'd want to play this one in midsummer heat. Lots of up and down hiking with the sun beating down on you. The relative lack of trees is the only major con in my book, but it really limits the rating ceiling for an otherwise excellent course.

-Shot shape variety: There are a lot of fairly straight shots and a few that finish left, but only 16 white has a right finish and there's nothing preventing you from throwing a rhbh hyzer there too.

-Gimmicky design elements: Holes 8 and 16 feature baskets elevated via a really long pole. Both have the cage about 6' above the ground. While I'm not against elevated baskets in general, using a longer pole is my least favorite method. I don't know that either hole really needed the elevated basket. Hole 7 has an artificial island green made of a rectangle of railroad ties in an attempt to give this very short hole (from either tee) some teeth. I'm not really a fan of artificial islands.

-Finish: While some of the fairways are fairly smooth, there is plenty of rough terrain. Watch your step or risk rolling an ankle. There's a path (more like a gravel service road) that must have been used for heavy equipment that cuts through a few holes on the back 9. It sounds like this will eventually be replaced with grass. It was fairly dry when I played, but I could see the need for small bridges to cross the low area on 2, 3 and 18 in wetter times. Right now 2 and 3 had stepping stones to cross the (tiny when I played) stream.

-Tee size: I'd have liked the tees to be at least 2' longer. Since most of the holes are on a hillside, starting behind the pad is often awkward.

This course is a really fun and fairly tiring spin. If you're planning to pair this with the nearby Starved Rock course, I'd play this one in the morning as Starved Rock has infinitely more shade to block the midday sun. There are what looked like real bathrooms near the parking lot and a picnic shelter and playground as well. Although both were in use, I didn't see any of those park users ranging out into the course, probably since they'd have to hike back up. The two soccer fields weren't in use, but multiple games could make the decent size parking lot fill up fast.

While this course is a former quarry and you'll see some large rocks in places, most of the fairways are grass and it was surprisingly easy on my bag full of base plastic.

Hole 18 kicked my ass, but I loved it. It's an 850' beast of a par 5 that opens with either a downhill or cross valley shot (depending how far you throw). The OB seasonal stream is maybe 325' from the tee. From there it plays steeply uphill and eventually doglegs left. OB stakes define the fairway and green. Basket is behind the leftmost large tree at the top of the hill.

I played the longs and my son played the shorts, so I think I got a good feel for both layouts.

Fishing conflicts: I forgot to mention that we saw a group fishing on 13's pond. There's plenty of cleared space along the far bank to allow for fishing and disc to coexist, but only if both groups are aware and respectful. On 13, they were setup well away from the basket and we could throw safely. We greeted them as we passed by and they moved to 15's pond while we were playing 14. When we got to 15s tees, they were fishing from 15s green. Before I could even ask, they offered to move, which we gladly accepted.

Coming back around, we stopped to chat about how the ponds were fishing. Apparently these two ponds are stunted (I think that's the term, with a ton of tiny bass and not enough food to allow them to grow large enough to be worth catching). The plan is to introduce muskie to thin out the bass and let them grow large enough to be worth fishing. They said there's another pond that has much better fishing, but it's a 30 minute additional hike from the parking lot.

If the muskie plan works as intended, these ponds could get more popular for fishing and hopefully the park responds by clearing out more spots along the banks that are out of the dg spray zone. Some signage to alert both groups couldn't hurt.