Disc Golf Course Review

a DGC at a brewery? Siign me up! Crossing Ohio this isn't far from I-70. In the parking lot I asked about checking in and an employee said just start, no fee. Each tee sign has can holders and drinking while playing is encouaged. The course is flat and very quick to play. The baskets on 7/26/24 had just been extended and not updated on UDisc yet so it plays slightly longer but all par 3's still. No litter, very clean property. Mostly shaded which is nice on hot days.

Only 9 fairly simple holes. The fairways are close to each other and can interfer with each other. As a course alone, it is nothing special yet rated 4.25 here, huh?

I bought to go beer after playing, their "Commune" IPA is very tasty. If you're in the area for beer/food, Three Tiger Brews in Granville (about 12 min's away) has great food.

Rayner Park is a nice, spacious plot of land in Mason, MI that is dotted with old growth tree trunks. It has, or rather had, 9 pole holes for disc golf that play around the south half of the park.

It's mostly pretty open looks here, but there are a couple of those tree trunks to work around on pretty much every hole. With several holes just over 300' and the added challenge of hitting 4x4 poles versus landing in baskets, this course is beginner friendly but by no means "easy" if you assume that all holes are par 3.

The park has trash cans, benches, and porta potties available.

This course has, or rather had, only nine wooden tee poles and nine wooden target poles. The tee poles have a slanted top, and a hole number and rough map engraved on the side you throw from (so oriented like a normal tee sign). The target poles are visually different (because they have all four top edges beveled), which I appreciated. Those also have the hole number engraved, and both sets of poles have the tops painted white for extra visibility. So yeah, the tees are natural and the targets are poles instead of baskets - but all of the above is passable.

The real problem, as I have alluded to twice now, is that some of the poles have gone missing. Specifically, I could not find the tee poles for #1-3, or the target pole for #1. That makes 1/3 of the course unplayable, and makes the walks between holes if you want to play a full round (which already seemed longer than necessary in a few spots) even longer. You'll need UDisc to attempt to navigate the remaining holes.

Another problem is the location of a couple of the target poles. #9's is literally 3ft from a pricker bush that is damn near impenetrable. The highlight though, is #4's. This target pole is literally IN a soccer goal net. That doesn't seem great for either sport!

There are a couple of other potential multi use issues in play, although nothing else was egregious.

It's pretty much flat terrain here.

I want to be clear about something - I'm not anti pole hole! I think they provide a different challenge that can be refreshing once in a while. But with a bunch of them missing, it felt like there might as well just be no specific disc golf infrastructure in the park at all. I could have just as easily made up a safari layout using tree trunks and other park features as obstacles and targets, like I did countless times growing up. That made-up layout could be just as fun, and flow better, than what's left of the "course" here.

I left this course thinking I was going to hand it my third 0.0 rating, but then I drove to and played the next course I'll review over in Dansville and that atrocity made me reconsider and bump this one up to a "low 0.5". Regardless, there's no reason for non-baggers to stop here.

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Originally opened in 1992, with stone dust teepads installed in 2015, Tinicum remains a good, long and varied course…but it's showing its age and lack of improvement. First, the good things:


Design features a variety of open and wooded holes. Many of the open ones have narrow fairway strips mowed in. The wooded holes are technical, requiring shapes in both directions. Most of the wooded holes come in the middle of the round, when you're playing along the back of the property, closer to the canal.

Roughly half the holes are just open bombers, but the middle of the layout challenges other parts of your game. In addition to a few straight tunnels, you will need to move the disc in either direction, you'll need low distance, and you'll need to hit designed lines. Pretty comprehensive challenge.


Designers did a lot with a largely flat setting - and figured out how to incorporate every slight elevation change available.


Overall a good challenge that will most often be appreciated by bigger arms. There are 3-4 placements for most pins. If you come on a "C" and "D" day, you'll find open par 3's that average 400' and treed par 3's that average 325'. I don't know how often the positions are changed, but my six visits over six years have always found the longs.

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- The biggest negative is the teepads. Installed with stone dust over ten years ago, many have become deeply rutted with narrow channels that make runups difficult or impossible. Use the grass next to the tee. Some of the wooden "dials" indicating the pin in use have become faded, or are missing altogether.


- The signage is good, and they indicate the general direction of the next tee, along with tape on some of the basket spokes. But there are a few long walks (one of which backtracks a hole), and a few directional arrows would help.

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The overall impression is that course maintenance since 2015 equals mowing, and little else. In the meantime new courses within a 25 mile radius include Ryan Kelly Green Monster, the overhauled 18 at DeSales, and the remodeled 9 at Unami. There are also the "classics" that continue to improve with tweaks like Sellersville, Jordan Creek, both 18's at Tyler, and the recently-reopened Nockamixon. Add improved NJ options like Tecumseh and Fields of Dreams.


This course holds a special place for me because it's where I "rediscovered" the game after moving to NJ from Minnesota. But Tinicum feels like it's been passed by with all the development at other courses in the nine years since those stone dust tees were installed. I think the more recent reviews here are accurate to give a 3.0 rating, and I've brought it down a full point since giving a 4.0 in 2018.


NOTE - STORM DAMAGE SUMMER 2024: Recent storms have brought down a lot of trees on both sides of the main road (holes 1, 2, 4), and some of the towering pines that characterized the obstacles on holes 7, 8 and 9. Some of these holes are compromised, but playable. I didn't reduce my rating because of this, since it's a temporary situation. But I'm afraid hole #7 is going to lose a lot of its towering guardian pines, because they're probably not going to leave in 20' tall stumps.

-- Good use of land with several well-designed holes. The course is moderately wooded, and a creek comes into play on the first four holes.
-- Those four holes are the best part of the course. DGCR and UDisc disagree on distances, so I'm estimating, but No. 1 is low 300s mostly flat through a few trees before downhill to a basket on a plateau. Nasty algae-covered water sits 15 feet past the basket. Two and three are around 200 feet and have that nasty water left of the fairway. Four is nearly 300 feet with a mando tree about 80 feet in front of the tee that forces you to throw directly at the water.
-- Veteran baskets.
-- Restroom in park (between 8 and 9).
-- Picnic tables throughout park.
-- Trash cans.
-- Map on site, near No. 1 tee and a pavilion.
-- Nice playground equipment, so you've got something for the family to do if you are using this as a stop on a road trip.

-- Holes 6 and 8 are poorly designed. Six is about 270 feet but has you throwing down a 10-foot wide tunnel between a 12-foot fence at a tennis court and a 5-foot high fence. Both fences are OB. In addition, you've got multiple angled metal support bars for the taller fence AND a line of pine trees more or less in the middle of the tunnel. That tunnel is approximately 80 feet long and starts a few feet in front of the tee. Once you clear the tunnel, you find a basket in the open except it's sitting underneath a giant sign with three support posts in your path. No. 8 is more than 700 feet (UDisc says 816) with a mando tree about halfway forcing a sharp left turn to take a building out of play. You've got an OB road about 50-60 feet short of the basket, which sits on a man-made island. Miss the island, and it's a penalty. The mando, the forced island and a hole that is more than twice the length of the second-longest on the course makes this a poor fit all around. Then you've got a 400-foot walk to No. 9. If the basket were placed left/short of the building, you'd have a mid 200s length hole with guardian trees and OB road behind the basket. There would be no need for the mando, no forced island, and the walk to 9 would be perhaps 100 feet.
-- The walk 6-7 is probably longer than the walk 8-9, so you've got two really long walks on a 9-hole course.
-- Baskets are not numbered. It's not a huge problem, but as you play hole 8 and throw around the building, you see basket 5 at about the correct distance before you see 8, which requires a sharper left turn.

-- Disc loss potential is fairly high, mainly because of the water.
-- No. 7 is either a pro of a con, but opinions are likely split. It's either 260 feet or 335 feet with a 20-foot wide fairway. You've got OB road right and OB fence left. You've also got three trees spaced about 40 feet apart as you approach the basket. Thirty feet on the other side of the fence is a 4-lane highway, so not only is noise an issue, a sudden gust of wind from moving cars or trucks could affect your disc.

Challenging wooded course that helps you work on hitting tight gaps and requires you to shape both backhand and forehand shots to score well. Great elevated wooden tee boxes with turf!

Boy oh boy there is so much to like here. Gorgeous long wooded holes through mature pine forest. Nice grassy fairways, elevation of all kinds throughout, a couple water holes, blind tee-shots, quite a few big bombers while also plenty of placement par 4's, a couple of playful elevated baskets and tricky greens.

27 holes with two tee and two basket options for most holes. Layouts ranging from 8500' to 11600'.

First 11 baskets criss-cross through a mostly open park but baskets are smartly placed around tees, a pond, and between banks of trees to keep things quite interesting, with elevation coming into play throughout. Holes 1 and 8 are really the only particularly dull shots.

Holes 12-27 then play throughout a beautifully mature forest, with many elegant par 4s that demand all sorts of shots. Perhaps a few too many 480 left-right par 4s but it's all quite beautiful.

Holes 15 asks you to hit an uphill gap around 250' or so while minimizing any fade into the rough. From there you'll have around 300' or so to go straight with a fade into a fast downhill green. Left side is much easier than the right.

Hole 16 demands a long slow turning left to right shot as the fairway gradually descends that hopefully gets you about 350'+ down the fairway. Enough turn will allow you to poke a low tight approach to a heavily guarded green behind a large disc-eating bush, anything short on the drive is going to demand some sort of sky anny or overhand shot to hopefully cut through the trees and crash into the tiny open grove.

Painted C1 lines, some roped and flagged fairways and OB, many freshly poured tee-pads, there is clearly a lot of work being done on the course and I think it will get better and better.

There are restrooms, but no drinking water. The open holes are easy for more recreational level players while the wooded holes from the golds will challenge the best players.

Gold tee pads range from freshly poured concrete to just dirt on the ground, with some unfortunately uneven rubber mats as well. Silver tees are solid throughout though perhaps a bit too many are tilted up or down along the grade which will frustrate (or challenge!) your footwork timing.

Signage throughout can be uneven, clearly the course is in a period of improvement and the current signs are not always correct and the visualizations of the hole maps range from accurate to out-of-date to somewhat bizarre. Udisc too is not entirely up to date but between the two you'll be able to manage something.

Baskets are similarly uneven, from some Mach V's in pretty good shape to an absolutely busted rust-bucket on Hole 10. Doesn't really bug me but a little odd considering how much infrastructure work is clearly being done throughout the course.

While I think the hole design is top-notch, the rough can be quite rough and I wonder if there will ever be enough traffic to keep things beaten down. The poison ivy is having a great time and the fairways in the woods would benefit from more frequent mowing.

With 27 holes and four different layouts available, there's something for everyone. But I'm left wondering if there's a truly incredible selection of 18 that could be 4.5 or even 5 stars. Tourney's typically play the back 18 holes, though I find myself missing holes 2 and 4 and 6. The final nine set of wooded par 4s, each of which are quite credible on their own, as a set can begin to run together. With so much to work with, I feel there's a great opportunity for the local club to carve out an 18 holes that flows into the woods and back out and back in again, with variety and surprises throughout, all of which would create a delicious experience of an afternoon.

This is a course that could be great and some things about it are appealing... it is a technical course (kind of), but mostly rough. I like the challenge of having to be on target on virtually all holes.

No real signage. Most holes have a small wood sign on a tree that indicates what the tee/hole is. No tee pads... OK, you can call them "natural" - I like concrete pads or at least something that is obvious that, that is the tee. Hole 1, I didn't see anything indicating where the tee is, there is two spots that I thought could be the tee? Some holes are fairly obvious where the tee is (dirt). Many holes it is hard to know where the next is, I eventually found them all.

Not a typical disc golf course, in this case, I don't think that is a positive... my opinion. Hole 11 apparently is a memorial for a person... interestingly positive. I only used a mid-range disc, in fact a couple that I don't use often (Innova Stingray and Cobra, also used a Buzz and my Bergs too) I was afraid that using other, more stable discs with any fade, I would lose them down the hill, into the trees/bushes and rocks/"boulders".
Interesting course, especially being in the "middle" of Kansas City, it was a pretty good workout. Without improvements (better tee pads and signs) I won't likely play it again... maybe consider with others that know the course.

Cardinal Crossing DGC is a 6-hole layout that plays around the back of a church in Mason, MI.

This is a nice little layout for churchgoers and beginner/rec level players. For having only six holes, the variety is decent. Quite a bit of the course plays through a flat open lawn next to and behind the church, but the designers did a nice job of incorporating a thick wooded area on one edge of the property. Only the first hole is completely open, with the others all bringing the wooded area into play to some extent. The terrain is also gently sloping in the wooded area. If no one is around, additional fun could be had by making up safari holes between the baskets.

The baskets are blue banded DiscGolfPark models. These are becoming one of my favorite basket types. They catch great and have the little arrows welded in the bottom that point towards the next tee.

The tee signs just have the hole number/distance/par and a picture of a cardinal. They are alright, although I would have liked to see a rough line on the blind holes.

The course flows well from hole to hole, and has one trash can and bench available.

The course is way too short and easy to challenge better players. There are only two holes over 200', and even those are both under 260'.

The tee pads are only small rubber mats. As of my visit in mid July 2024, there are also piles of wood chips around each tee that look like they were newly dumped there. I do hope that someone spreads these out more, as the current loose piles create uneven footing not on, but immediately around the rubber mat pads.

No kiosk, practice basket, or porta potty.

The US-127 freeway is never in play, but defines the property line at the back of the wooded area. Disruptive road noise here will be a constant.

If using Google Maps, note that the pin location here is correct for the first tee but that there is not actually an entrance drive off of Peachtree Pl. The only entrance to the church is off of South St.

Overall, Cardinal Crossing DGC is nothing special but it's a nice option for beginners and rec players to get a quick, risk-free round in. It is appropriate for the target audience. After playing the cramped, unsafe 18 that I said should be 9 at Kyle's Corner Course up the road, I really appreciated how the designers of THIS church course chose an appropriate number of holes for the space available. It might look crazy that I have rated this course half a disc higher despite only having six short holes, but that's how much I value safety in a course design. If you're in the area or passing through, this one could be worth the quick stop.

What starts as a simple, kid-friendly, pitch-n-putt course turns into a tougher, high-lost-disc-potential course that might sour some players.
- With just a little work, Stevens Park should reach its intended audience. It's clearly a beginner-to-mid-level layout. 14 holes, 2400 feet, 173-foot average layout.
- If you stopped at hole 8, I would bring kids and beginners and think they'd have a good time. It's a fun, simple layout up to this point with a couple of fun holes. Of the front 8, #5 throwing over the park road, downhill layout is the most memorable in the is section.
- First 8 holes are easy to navigate with tees generally close to the last hole's basket. Sometimes TOO close as with #2 & 3, and #4 & 5.
- Holes #9 – 11 are going to have varying degrees of challenge and, more so, frustration. Let's just say the lack of clearing and maintenance on these holes is essentially non-existent. Nothing like 2 long searches for discs within 40 feet of the basket.
- Hole #11 should be an absolute blast if things were cleared more. Downhill, throwing through one of the two gaps in the trees, over a creek, to an essentially hidden basket. It's only 206 feet, so putter or mid gets you there. With so much underbrush, throw bright pink if you want to spot your disc.
- #13 is a fun, short, tight uphill, basket on an upslope shot. Make a run at the basket because anything hole high is getting knocked down 10 feet past the basket. The underbrush is also catching any disc, so don't worry about rollaway shots. This is as close to an automatic 2 for players as you're going to see on a course.
- Tee signs are simple, but useful. Hole number, distance, and sponsor.
- It seems to be a perfectly nice small-town park. Large playground, walking trails, ball fields, swimming pool, and a skatepark.

Holes #9 – 11 are going to destroy a lot of beginners & one-disc players interest in the game. #9 has a fairway, just don't miss it when throwing your blind tee shot. It's only 111 feet, yet it can be a frustrating hole.
- #10 has no fairway. The problem is that the rough is tall, thick ground covering so anything that lands in it gets immediately covered up. Even seeing where I thought my disc landing, I had to spend a minute or two to find it.
- Then there's #11. This should be the course's signature hole. I love the makeup of it. The problem is the upkeep is severely lacking. It's a blind tee-shot throwing through one of two gaps between the trees and over the creek. To find my disc that was 30ish feet from the basket, I had to search a solid 10 minutes, searching everywhere, including a couple walks back to the tee to see if I could visualize my disc's flight. It landed in the English ivy that you can't see from the tee. I'd recommend making the basket much more visible from the tee, if for no other reason than to help your approach.
- Baskets are precipitously close to the next hole's tees on multiple layouts. If the course was crowded this would be an issue. Here, it's more of an observation.
- A couple of short, simple open holes. For a kid's layout, they're fine. I guess.
- It's weird the variance from wide open 100-foot holes to layouts where you could lose a disc 40 feet from the basket.
- You're in small town SC close to nothing. Coming from Charlotte, when you're driving way past Lancaster, and it's still a commute, you're out of the way.

Don't expect any frills during your round at Stevens Park. Only 3 of the 14 holes can be considered somewhat challenging.
- The rest of the course has minimal challenge, short holes, or simple (aka boring) layouts.
- #6 is the longest hole on the course. 286 feet and uphill. That's followed by one of the shortest, simplest layouts with #7 at 129 feet.
- #14 is one of the tougher tee shots on the course. You need a left to right tee shot as the right side of the fairway is wooded and thick growth.
- I wish there more holes like #14 on the course. Between some of the simple layouts, the squeezed together holes, and the simple fact that 14 holes is a weird number for a course, a couple changes could be good. Combine several holes to make longer layouts, such as combining #2 & 3, #4 & 5, and #12 & 13 and you could turn this into a better 9- or 10-hole layout.
- Or find space to add 4 more holes. There is more room beyond and left of #11.
- Kershaw is typically one of those towns you're just driving through. I think this was probably the first time I stopped in the town on purpose.
- For what it is, it's a fun, simple layout.

Kyle's Corner Course sounds like it plays around Kyle's yard, but actually plays around Wayside Chapel Church southeast of Lansing, MI.

About 2/3 of the holes here play through an open field next to the church, with adequately wide grassy mowed fairways and taller but manageable grass off them. The remaining 1/3 of the course plays through a tightly wooded area behind the field. The best holes here are the couple that bring both of these areas into play on the same hole. My favorite hole was #11, a 360' fairway that has a very gentle reverse "S" shape and starts in the open but gets more wooded as it goes. A few tree trunks guard a green that also has a small wall in front of it. Another interesting hole is #15, which starts and ends in the woods and has the basket only about 50' from the tee pad. The catch is, two clearly marked mandos force players to throw out into the field and then work their way back in a huge loop. The listed hole distance is more like 315' and that felt correct.

The baskets are older looking, which was surprising for a new course. They must be hand-me-downs from another course. They still catch fine, and have blue flags on top with the hole number. For some reason hole 7, and only hole 7, has two baskets installed.

I can't really complain about the tees or signage. The tee pads are flat and level pieces of turf. The tee signs have all of the details you could ask for, including hole maps that are detailed enough to indicate other baskets that are in play (which I'll get to in a second ). It looked like the tee signs were brand new, and had not yet been installed for the last few holes. Each tee sign points towards the next hole, and there are arrows on the bottom of the baskets and extra navigational aids in most places needed. Other than a weird transition between holes 4 and 5 where you have to walk around the main church building, I had no trouble navigating.

I think this property probably has just enough space to comfortably fit a 9-hole course. Instead, the designers tried to use every inch of terrain the church owns to jam 18 in - and that creates tons of safety issues.
- Right off the bat, the first hole is sandwiched in a 20' wide strip defined by the parking lot on one side and a 55mph road on the other side. The tee pad is closer to the parking lot side and there is a line of tree trunks running between the primary fairway and the road - but the basket is also tucked into the treeline a little bit. This encourages a RHFH throw or turnover shot for RHBH-only players that could easily overshoot or kick off a tree into the road.
- Roads, parking lots, and church buildings each come into play on multiple other holes.
- The holes are all really close together. Hole 5's "fairway" is essentially nonexistent, as it plays over hole 2's green and hole 6's tee area. By square footage, I bet more of the field area is mowed fairway grass than unmowed rough. You can see about eight or nine baskets from the parking lot if you look for them. On one of the wooded holes my drive kicked off a tree, floated ACROSS an adjacent fairway, and landed in the NEXT fairway adjacent to that. I was the only person on the course on the Friday afternoon I visited, but if just a couple more groups were trying to play there would have been major issues.

Another problem appears to be drainage. The area that contains the tees for holes 16 and 18, and the basket for #17 is not supposed to be a water hazard - but it was flooded when I visited. I don't mean "a little muddy". I mean a 50' wide "pond" with a foot or two of standing water depth. I believe Lansing is a bit above average in precipitation so far this summer - but the Course Conditions here indicated that the same area was flooded in February.

The course plays flat other than a small berm near hole 7's basket/hole 8's tee.

A few of the holes in the field have zero obstacles between tee and basket. A couple of the holes in the woods felt like "poke and hope". And there isn't much variety in between those two extremes.

Extras like trash cans, benches, porta potty, kiosk, and practice basket are missing.

I wanted to rate this course higher, but between the safety issues and flooding concerns I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Before seeing the flooding issues and unfinished tee signs on the last few holes I was thinking a 2.0 rating. In its current state, there is no reason for non-baggers to play here. I'd recommend that this one be redesigned into a more spread out 9-hole course that stays away from the low-lying area, the parking lots, and most importantly the roads!