If you want to see an angel, you got to find it where it fell. If you want to get to heaven, you got to raise a little hell.
Pros:
Roberts Park is the main park in a small rural community of about 2,000 people in the Ozarks. It holds a baseball field, tennis courts, pavilions, play systems and a 9-hole disc golf course. The park is well cared for and features several wood carvings of bears and other animals. The theme has carried over to the posts that the disc golf tee signs are on; they have hand-carved animals like owls and cardinals on them. It's a very cool feature.
Otherwise, the course is a beginner/recreational-level niner. The park has some elevation so there are a couple of fun elevated tee shots and variety to the holes. The hole distances don't get over 280' (and that is a downhill throw) so you can throw putters on most of the course if you choose. The baskets are Mach 5's in good shape, and the course flows well so it is easy to navigate (there is a walk from 9 back to the parking lot).
Cons:
Roberts Park had the usual small town issue of not having a park actually large enough for disc golf, so the course is sorta crammed in around other park uses. You throw over walking paths, you throw near play features, you throw next to backyards, you throw at a swing set, you throw over a basketball court, you throw at a pavilion, you throw at a baseball outfield fence. The danger is somewhat mitigated if you are throwing low-speed putters, but we all know disc golfers start by buying a Destroyer and throwing it on 110' holes. There really is no safe way to have the course in this park. Holes 5-6-7-8 are probably the worst; hole five shoots toward a pavilon, hole 6 has a swing set to the left of the fairway, hole 7 shoots over an outdoor basketball court, and hole 8's basket is close enough to a pavilion that I've hit the slab with my shot and been in C1 for my putt. It would be very hard to play this course with other park users present.
The tees are not really marked, you just pick somewhere by the tee sign and let 'er rip. The tee signs for the most part are just next to the last basket; it makes it easy to find your way around but it's not a safe design.
There are a few trees in the design on the early holes, but once you get past hole 3 the course is pretty open. The park really lacks enough natural obstacles for it to really pop out to me as being a lot of fun. The course does what it can with elevation, but the lack of trees really hurts the experience.
Other:
The design of Roberts Park would be a big issue if it was in a suburban park in a large population center, but Cabool is an isolated rural town halfway between Rolla and West Plains i.e. it's halfway between nowhere and nowhere. There isn't any reason for anyone to be in Cabool unless you live in Cabool, and it gives those folks something to do. It's an OK recreational course with some fun shots and some really cool wood carvings on the tee sign posts, but it says something about a course when the highlight of it is the tee sign posts.
