Disc Golf Course Review

Nice looking park, scattered large trees throughout with a wooded dry valley running down the middle. No other activities in the park, except for playground equipment and tennis courts at the edge of the park.
The DISCatchers are in good shape.
Tee signs on every hole, except #11, they aren't needed on most because you can see the basket from the tee, except #11.
There are paving stone tee pads, but they are pretty small.
This is a really good beginner/family course. Distances range from 108' to 281', so nothing too long and really no rough to speak off, unless you overshoot a couple of holes into the valley.

The tee pads are really small, maybe 4' X 4', so if you need a runup, you have to plan if your plant is going to be on the pads, or just short on the level grass.
I believe all holes are straight shots, except #12 that turns left to right. Most of the holes require some shot-shaping, but nothing too drastic, so not a lot of challenge for intermediates and above.

I used this course to bag my first Ontario course on a trip to the UP of Michigan. You have about a 15 drive through the Soo from the International Bridge, where its $4.50 to cross, each way, and you do need a passport.
Kind of an interesting layout, the first 9 holes are all basically the same, straight ahead throw, flat ground, just some shot shaping required. Then the last 3 are all different and interesting:
#10 -- After #9, head around the trees at the end of the valley, shortest hole on the course, you are throwing 108' to the basket on a narrow ridgeline.
#11 -- then drop down behind that basket and the next tee is in a depression (possibly drainage area), the longest hole on the course plays longer as its uphill and between two large trees you have to split.
Finally #12 -- really the only dogleg on the course, left to right around a tree and bush, just 138' but don't overcook it, like I did, because the wooded valley is just behind the basket.
Overall, not a bad course, located right in the city, so easy to get to and plenty of parking, not much chance of losing a disc and a pretty quick play. Oh and perhaps best, located right down the street from a Tim Hortons. I definitely surprised my wife after a stop for TimBits.

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Baskets are DisCatcher Sport 24's held in place with sandbags. Grass tees. Excellent signage (and each hole is named).


Very nice use of natural hills providing elevation changes (only holes 3 and 5 are flat).


The layout is beginner-friendly and very short, with enough variety to keep from being boring. There are a few slightly left-to-right shapes, one basket up on a bluff with steep rollaways possible, and one basket placed in a chute of trees across a shallow valley. A lot of creativity went into the design.


Short holes = lots of ace runs

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- Hole two has the basket right next to a gazebo. Not a really good spot for a 175' downhill hole with the basket just to the right of a park amenity. Hole 3 has an equally questionable layout. This one is flat and straight, 210'. But there's a fenced area and bathrooms just off to the right of the fairway. Any bit of griplock puts you inside the fence (OB) or on the bathroom roof.

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~ Overall a very nice course for beginners, especially if there aren't people taking advantage of the activities close to holes. I just wonder if designers have enough idea of how fast discs fly and how much they can hurt!


~ uDisc marks this course as "seasonal" because the baskets are pulled in mid-December.

Grafarholt is an 18-hole course located just outside of Reykjavík, the largest city in Iceland. This 18-hole layout superseded a previous 9-hole layout at the same location, and appears to be almost entirely different.

This course has a great mix of holes. It plays as mostly a tight technical round, which in itself is uncommon for Iceland. Typical fairways have clearly defined lines to hit, with tightly spaced conifer tree trunks on either side. There are left turns, right turns, and straight shots. You'll be pulling many discs out of your bag to try to score well here. A few moderately open to almost wide open holes (mainly near the beginning and end of the course) balance out the overall layout. Those more open holes have OB areas that are clearly defined by stakes and ropes, and elsewhere a couple of mandos are clearly signed as well.

This course offers challenges for any level of disc golfer by way of having three signed layouts. The shortest Red layout makes for a nice rec-level round that would be approachable for beginners. The medium White layout (what I played) is a good challenge for your average disc golfer - hole distances average about 85 m (278'). The long Blue layout provides the closest thing I found in Iceland to a championship level round - adding another 426 m (1400') of total distance to the Whites.

The other striking thing about this course is the elevation changes. There are significant uphill and downhill fairways, "flat" holes with elevation changes just off the fairway, and precarious basket positions. Hole 11 is the most dramatic. This has a top-of-the-world shot from the tee. It plays 152 m (499') from the long Blue tee, or 116 m (381') from the White tee. It's a steep enough downhill that big arms will probably be able to reach the basket. For those of us who don't throw as far though, the fairway is quite narrow - no wider than a flat technical fairway would be. This gives it way more of a technical feel than your typical downhill bomber hole.

Besides #11, I really liked #7 (a big left turn playing uphill in the forest), #9 (a straight downhill shot with a moderately wide fairway but a double mando halfway down), and #17 (a flat and mostly open hole but with these unique "rock bunkers" guarding the approach to the basket). Picture a sand trap at a ball golf course, but filled with small rocks instead of sand. I wondered if these fill with water at certain times of year (there otherwise is no water in play on the course).

The equipment here is mostly great. The baskets are yellow banded DiscGolfPark models. The tee pads are large cuts of turf mounted perfectly flat. The multiple layouts are for the most part accomplished via 2-3 tees per hole and a single basket, although #10 had two installed baskets. Tee signs indicated that multiple pin positions exist on some holes as well.

Speaking of those tee signs, there is a really nice one at one of the tees on each hole (always at either Blue or White). These signs are SO nice - besides having all the info you could ask for, they are just a joy to look at with the dark green background. Among the nicest looking tee signs I have ever seen. The other tees have simpler but still passable little signs, with the hole number and distance.

There are benches at most Blue tees, and a couple of trash cans scattered around. Besides the standard DiscGolfPark welded arrows, there are also a few other navigational signs nailed to trees.

There is a large kiosk at the parking lot, complete with course map. Behind that is what I believe was a small pro shop (closed when I visited on a Tuesday afternoon, unfortunately), three practice baskets, and the second nicest driving range I have ever seen (after Eagles Crossing in Missouri, USA). The driving range has four more practice baskets, each at different distances off of the five tee pads all in line.

Hole 11 is both the best and worst one here. That fairway is honestly too tight for how much elevation change is lost along it. The trees on either side are pretty thin on the ground, but they are evergreens that could catch a disc and keep it from ever reaching the ground at all. This fairway should honestly be 2-3 times as wide to be more realistic.

Stairs have already been installed at a steep transition between holes 13 and 14. There are a couple of other steep spots where similar stairs would be helpful. I would definitely recommend wearing your hiking boots when playing this one.

Despite the effort with navigational signage, there were several spots where I could have used another arrow and had to pull out my photo of the map. Some examples include 7 to 8, 10 to 11, 11 to 12, and 16 to 17.

The kiosk map only showed the Blue and White layouts, and also had a few small inaccuracies for those layouts (e.g. tee pads shown in incorrect positions). The overall idea of the course on the kiosk map is correct, but a fully accurate map would be even better.

Duplicating the beautiful tee signs at all tees would be amazing.

There was no restroom available when I visited. Maybe inside the little pro shop when it's open?

Amazingly, this course is free to play. I would happily shell out 1000 ISK ($7) to play a course of this caliber.

The remains of the old 9er here were still visible in a couple of places (e.g. old tee signs). Since the signs had a different style than the current ones, this was only interesting and not also confusing.

=== Disclaimer and Award ===
I'm an American from the state of Michigan who played 14 courses in Iceland while on vacation. My ratings and thoughts are therefore relative to the other courses I played in Iceland - but also the hundreds of US courses I have played. Furthermore, I use the entire 0-5 rating scale per DGCR standards. For example, a 3.5/5 may be seen as a negative on Amazon or UDisc - but here it really does mean "Very Good".

I am giving each course I played in Iceland an informal award, because every course has something special to offer.
This course's award is: Best in Iceland.
UDisc has this course rated #1 in Iceland for 2024. Although there are (as of this writing) 80+ courses in the country that I did not get to play on this trip, I DID play the rest of UDisc's top 5 - plus nine other courses all around the country. I have to say that I think UDisc has this one correct. Very, very good course here. If you are a serious disc golfer visiting (or obviously living) in the Reykjavík area, this one is a must-play!

This rolling, hilly 18 hole layout was the first hole we played as part of the USDGC doubles layout in 2024.

The variety of shorter wooded holes, longer more open ones and the vast elevation changes make it an incredibly interesting play and test of skill.

We apparently didn't play the normal holes 14-16 due to storm damage but I loved the layout we did play and with the diversity of shot types and shape they got it into that quickly after a hurricane I can't give it less than a 4.

Pretty hot take for a 3.4 rated course and it's probably not always this good but I really enjoyed it and though the Innova team did an amazing job getting in shape for a big event.

The pads are mainly concrete with a few turf mixed in(these may have been temp for the event) and great Innova pro 28 baskets. A couple of which were appropriately elevated.

It really has a lot of elements you want in a true test of skill course, tight wooded holes, a long par 5, top of the world shot, a couple of open bombers and very little filler.

The only cons I do have with it are the two holes that seem like filler to me. There is one that is a 250ft uphill extreme hyzer that I only ever saw one player get close to and it was on an extreme lefty anhyzer that I think he did by accident. The other is a short very wooded hole with a goofy line and an elevated basket inside of a tree.

That one I guess isn't a terrible hole, but a good bit more goofy/tiki course style than the others.

Obviously it seems this close to the river they get some flooding and it holes water in spots but only a few affected the course(mainly hole 4 being very wet). We did find a couple of dead fish by the 5 tee which was funny.

So it's not pro tour level like Winthrop gold, but it's an excellent blue level course. A good MA1 player will want to be -5 or better but could easily get over aggressive and end up even or worse. I would happily play it again and actually had more fun there than many more acclaimed courses.

This was essentially the warm up and putting practice area for Westminster during USDGC doubles. It's got nice red banded baskets, an easily accessible layout and the kiddos could play here and learn.

Possibly more of a practice area than a course, but it's fun, wooded and right by a very good course.

It's tiny, and you are basically doing circle two or just outside putts through mild trees. It's kind fun but barely a course.

It's safe, nice, in a good park but you would never go there to play this unless you just want to pad your ace count. Which is barely legitimate at this little course.

Looking at the course pictures uploaded to this site in 2012, this was once a nice-looking course with nice looking baskets. Unfortunately, it's now 2024.
- Very basic yet effective layout. Aesthetics aside, this is a nice small-town park.
- Five wooded holes and four wooded holes offers some nice variety.
- A little bit of rolling hills throughout the park gives a taste of elevation.
- Outstanding views. Love the mountains as your backdrop.
- #8 is most scenic, most fun hole on the course. Short hole throwing over a small creek to a basket protected by several trees.
- Multiple ace run holes throughout the round. Lots of layouts you'll want to throw a second disc off the tee. #1 & 3 are two of the better holes for this.
- Each hole has a second basket location. Play through twice. Or throw twice from the tee and knock out two layouts at once.
- Big field good for practice.
- Good course to for casuals and beginners.

The pictures on this site make the course look a lot nicer than it is. Maintenance has been somewhat lacking over the past decade plus.
- Paint is chipping off the baskets. Tee sign for #6 was layout in the field, closer to where #5's tee should be located. #5's hole in turn, was missing its own tee sign.
- Not of all of the course is playable when park activities are taking place. On the Saturday morning I was there, a group of kids soccer games was just starting. Had to skip #6 and part of #7.
- There is enough room here to create a more varied layout. Based on the old pictures (again), they did replace a couple good holes with lesser ones.
- Unless you consider a trash can an amenity, course has zero amenities.
- It'd be nice if dual baskets were more varied. #3 & 9, especially, had both baskets within about 20 feet of each other. On both holes, my tee shot landed right in between both holes, and I had an easy birdie putt to either basket.

Heritage Park is about as no-frills as you'll find. Thankfully, the layout is just good enough on its own, that it's not a problem.
- If you're in eastern TN, this is an easy course to bag to add NC to your played list.
- #4 is your wide-open, slightly downhill tee shot. Most scenic tee shot on the course as you're looking at the mountains when throwing.
- #5 has you throwing from the open to baskets on the edge of the treeline.
- #6 & 7 are the most boring holes as they're wide open with minimal obstacles. At least the second tee on #7 is closer to some trees.
- I had to drive an hour out the way to finally bag this one. I realized if I didn't do it now, when would I ever bag this one?
- If you're coming from the east, on NC-74, this is the last course you'll play in North Carolina. From the west, it's the first. Probably not the first or last image you want of North Carolina's disc golf scene.

18 hole course is one of the first on the east coast and features a straightforward layout without the bells and whistles present at other courses. Relatively easy to score well yet still attractive for all levels of play with its "unofficial" alternate tee areas. Has some neat holes- 10 and 18 come to mind- and pavement OB areas on several holes keep you honest. RU-Douglass features a good balance of moderately wooded, manageable holes and although there is really only one tee off area per hole, it can be modified to lengthen the course- as is done for the annual Jersey Jam.

No added features like a welcome kiosk or lost disc box. Dirt tee off areas hold puddles after heavy rain, and erosion is a serious issue. Could use directional markers in some spots- it took me 15 minutes to figure out where hole 9 begins the first time I played. Holes 16 and 17 run parallel to one another, and there are always vehicles parked directly in front of the access way in front of the hole 18 tee pad. A couple of the unofficial "alternate tees" are flat-out ridiculous and don't offer a quality shot off the tee. Baskets are notorious for spit outs. Beware of students walking to class.

One of the oldest courses in the country, Rutgers-Douglass is a fun play, and over the years a loose playing environment has been cultivated. R-D is not physically grueling, making it a great place for multiple rounds and for the casual player. This was the site of my first ever tournament and competitive playing experience, so I will always have a soft spot for it, but judged on it own merits, R-D is not on a par with some of the other 18 hole courses within the NJ/PA region. That said, the "Jam" layout adds immeasurably to the course, and the over-the-water hole and 650 foot drive down the hill are outstanding holes which can measure up to many holes at other courses. Rutgers could use some upgrades and sprucing up but is nonetheless still a fun place to play.

(1.169 Rating) A disjointed niner with a lot of issues
- COUNTS AS A COURSE PLAYED - 9 baskets, 9 tees and a posted course map. Count it. The gameplay is generally MA3 and MA4 level shots. Hole (3) is a visually striking tightly wooded ace run. The overall gameplay felt like disc golf, but just barely.
- QUICK PLAY - I ran this one in 22 minutes. There's a huge play gap after (3) and a lengthy walk after tapping out on (9). I figure 30 minutes for the quick bagger that walks the course like a normal person.

A lot of extra walking.
- LAYOUT FLOW - Tee (1) is a plus 400-foot walk east of the course map. Tee (3) is another plus 400-foot walk after basket (2). The gap between (3) and (4) is a ginormous quarter mile walk (0.4 KM), that also requires double backing up (3's) fairway. After that, the transitions are a bit more reasonable with only (5) to (6) separated by more than 300-feet.
- FINISH FROM PARKING - For those that didn't think there was enough walking between holes, there's another 700-foot walk back to the parking area. For those that want to do a second loop, the walk to (1) from (9) is more like 1300-feet according to google maps.
- SIGNAGE AND NAVIGATION - Taking a photo of the course map or having a navigational app is a must. I don't see how someone can figure this layout out, without having one of those. The tee signage unfortunately is completely destroyed. I could tell it was there at one point as a 1-inch wide sliver of the old sign was present on several of the metal stakes.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE AND VARIETY - Holes (1) thru (3) I found appealing as an MA2. They require hitting shots thru either woods or tall prairie grasses. After (3), the course is generally open field shots, except for hole (7). Wind will be the biggest challenge. No water in play and elevation impact maxes out at 20 feet in grade change.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - I went with 30 percentile. Had holes (1) thru (3) not existed, this figure drops to 15 percentile.

Raiders Disc Golf was the first course I hit on PEI. There's is really not much good I can say about this place, except that thankfully all my other PEI hits were all better than this place. For those traveling to Charlottetown, I say skip it, unless they are intentionally trying to rack-up the courses played totals. Overall, a solid "poor" 1.0 rated course to me and the lowest of the ratings I have given to a Canadian course to date. (Note: 21 Canadian courses played as of this review.) Locally it reminded me of The Fox Hole. Other courses that come to mind include Valleydale in Birmingham Alabama, Hurricane Alley in Mobile Alabama, Bill Wood in Northeast Georgia, O'Brian Park in Chicago, Deuces Wild in Traverse City Michigan and Dodgeland Middle School in south central Wisconsin.

The Black Course at Grand Vue Park in Moundsville, West Virginia is defined by elevation and distance. Situated high a top a ridge along the Ohio River valley, most every sort of elevation change related challenge is represented: uphill, downhill, sidehill, level fairway shelf that falls away on one side, and the occasional roll away green. It's all here.

This is a big course. One tee per hole plays to white (short) and black (long) baskets on the multi-throw holes and black baskets on the par 3s. The white layout comes in at 7746' and the black at 8687', but due to all the ups and downs it plays and walks much longer still.

Par is 70 for white and 72 for black, so while scoring isn't impossible for us mere mortals you need to string together big drives to do so. There aren't a ton of trees, but the hills keep you honest. Many of the multi-throw holes have a flat-ish intended fairway and if you miss to the wrong side you're likely to end up at the bottom of a big hill.

There are some excellent panoramic views from a few spots on the course. I imagine what the course would lose in beauty with the leaves down for winter would allow for near 360 degree views from the highest points.

Baskets are nice Innova Discatchers with white and black bands. Tee signs feature a nice map and distances to both pins. Most holes have amply sized, level, turf tees that are in good repair.

Grand Vue Park is landscaped like a (very hilly) city park. Lots of mowed grassy areas with the occasional mature trees interspersed with some wooded areas. I believe hole 3 is the only fully wooded fairway and it has almost no elevation change in play. Overall, this course is more about controlling placement than controlling flight path. Not my favorite style of disc golf.

In the pros section, I mentioned that most tees are nice. The rest leave something to be desired. There is at least one undersized concrete (hole 2) and three natural (holes 16-18) tees contend with.

Hole 1 asks you to throw over a park road or a small parking lot on your 1st or 2nd throw. Hole 7 allows you to throw a huge downhill bomb, but there's a parking lot along the left of the fairway for the 2nd 2/3 of the hole. I played on a Saturday and the lot was full due to a wedding. Not the safest design on a busy weekend.

Hole 12's pin is located within a tight jail of small trees. This is sure to yield some fluky results.

Due to the fairly open terrain, you can often see the next tee area, but the navigation wasn't always intuitive. I didn't see a course map on the way from the car to hole 1 and ended up relying on the map in the other app more than I'd prefer to get around. For sure, the elevation played into that since no one was volunteering to hike way the hell down some of those hills to see if the next tee was down there. Way easier to check udisc.

The Black Course was redesigned at some point prior to 2024. The changes included removing what looked like the "signature" hole. Old hole 18 (1000' downhill bomb with probably 200' of elevation loss) is no longer playable. As far as I could tell, the tee pad for old 18 is/was somewhere inside the fenced ropes course that covers the hill top now. Current hole 15 plays to the old hole 18 baskets. I expect you could still play something like the original hole 18 as a safari hole, but I'm not sure there's a level spot to tee from.

There is a very short 18 hole course with yellow baskets that initially overlaps with the black course, but soon separates entirely. The barn near the start and end of the course has ice cream and supplies. The ropes course mentioned above is also the starting point for a few wild looking zip line routes.

-- Quality Patriot baskets.
-- The best hole isn't a fit for the course. This is 6 holes behind a church; the likely audience is church members learning the sport. No. 3 is 399 feet, straight for about 350 feet with OB fence for private property right. Then you've got a sharp right turn to a basket protected by trees and sitting within 10 feet of OB fence on two sides. It's a good hole, but newbies are going to get frustrated and lose a few discs. The course then finishes with a 524-foot hole across a wide-open field.

-- Navigation. For a six-hole course, that's not good. Only three holes have tee signs, but those are tacked to trees or storage sheds; there are no poles to help you find a tee pad or tee area. A few holes have rubber mats for tees, but mostly you are left on your own to figure things out. UDisc helps, but not enough. I spent more time looking for tees than playing the course.
-- Land is not good for disc golf. Flat, no water and few trees. The trees are all at the edge of the property, and they aren't very well used.
-- No map, water or restroom.

-- Course is located behind the church in an open field. The church sits on the corner of FM 2495 and County Road 4807.
-- When you turn onto County Road 4807, go to the end of the church building and park. The first tee will be to your left beside the road.
-- Any course is a good thing, and a couple of holes in the mid 200-foot range with one or two trees are good for beginners. However, the harder and longer holes, along with walking in an open field, are likely to turn off a lot of people.