- Two tee pads for every hole keeps it fun and interesting
- Concrete tee pads and Dynamic Veteran baskets in great shape
- Good use of elevation including the uphill hole 1 perched on an outcropping and the downhill hole 3 guarded by OB and trees
- Holes 5-8 are the most wooded section of the course and also play near the creek making disc angle when hitting the ground very important
- Roads and parking lot played as OB which makes the course more fun, challenging, and safe
- Good variety of right to left/left to right holes so it doesn't favor any throwing style too much
- even the more open holes like holes 8 and 9 have at least one tree near the basket or guarding the fairway
- Good variety of short and medium par 3 holes
- Excellent course for introducing people to the sport

- Some holes even I can birdie which is to say they are very short
- Most holes are too short for advanced or pro players which limits the course to challenging only accuracy and shot placement
- Some are challenging and some more towards a gimme birdie
- A few strange transitions between holes leave you pulling out Udisc and in the old days traveling golfers would be roaming around searching for the next tee pad in many spots

Earlier in the day I played the Eric McCabe designed Lake Durant DGC and the Lost Loksi DGC just north of here. I didn't do much research into this course as it was an after thought, basically I came here because it was close to the other two. I'm glad I did come here as the course was a bit of a surprise to me, much better than I had expected. A really well done 9 hole course as a 3 star rating for a 9 hole course from me is fairly high praise. If you're playing the other two I mentioned don't skip on this one! If you have limited time or want to cool down/warm up this is a good course for that.

Some fun lines to throw and good use of topography. There are many different shot shapes needed for driving effectively from these nine tees. There are uphill, downhill, hyzer, and anhyzer lines, and also different shot shapes within that. A few holes have choices off the tee. Hole 2 is just an interesting drop-off shot down a hill with a sidehill pin position that is very intriguing.

Concrete tee pads, good signage, good baskets.

The tee pads are strange, being long and thin.

Hole 1 throws across the road where cars enter and exit the parking lot and then cars can appear quickly - take care!

There are several other holes that play very close to other park amenities. We had to wait for non-disc golfers on a few tee pads. A kid also picked up one of our drives and walked it back to us and asked, "Is this yours?" I guess EVERYONE doesn't know what disc golf is yet after all.

This is a fun little 9-hole course and a good stop for a quick round. The variation among the holes is a big plus for this course, relative to many other city park niners. Just watch out for the park patrons out there who don't understand our sport yet!

- great incorporation of natural elevation change from some high hills all the way down to dropoff into a natural creek
- full color tee signs
- quality Dynamic Discs Veteran baskets in great shape
- well mown and maintained park
- some garbage cans and benches
- really cool shots on holes 5 and 6 along creek ravine
- some decent technical challenge for a city park with plenty of tree obstacles requiring accurate throws

- some pretty big safety concerns
- tee signs all seem to point wrong directions, and a couple are missing
- concrete tees, but the most ridiculously narrow ones I've ever seen
- shared space with walking path, skatepark, playground, etc.

Overall, I enjoyed Carl Albert Park. My main concern was safety, as this is a heavily multi-use park and the disc golf course, while generally having some of its own space, plays very close to a lot of other activities, particularly the walking path. There are also some downright dangerous plays near roads/parking lots with hole 1 being the biggest violator. Throwing across the road leading into the parking lot is a no-no for me.

With that being said, this course is a lot of fun. There's great elevation change, particularly on holes 1-3. Add natural obstacles from trees and other plants and these are holes with some decent challenge. Holes 7-9 probably are the most basic with more open and flat space, but the course is an enjoyable mix of shots. I really prefer courses like this to be 9 holes and not try to do to much. These are 9 good holes and cramming more into this space would just create repetition and cut length from good holes. I do wish the creek could be incorporated a bit more, but considering it appears to be on the edge of the park I think the designers used it as well as they could.

Hopefully the course is just undergoing some maintenance, because when I was there multiple tee signs were up out of the ground. The remainder seem to face weird directions not corresponding to the throw direction, which is rather confusing. Thankfully, the full color maps on the tee signs made it clear where to throw next. I found navigation here a bit confusing. There are 2 parking lots you can use; hole 1 is close to the larger parking lot that you will pass first (closer to major roads). If you are getting to the pool area you have gone too far and will end up in the lot between holes 2 and 3.

The concrete tees here are apparently an improvement over the original natural tees, but they are ridiculously narrow. I've never seen anything like this. I made them work but I don't know who came up with this. Ironically, they're quite long and probably used as much concrete as a "normal" tee.

This park is light on some of the amenities, but most park district type parks are. I had an enjoyable round here and as long as you can look out for the safety hazards, I expect others will enjoy it too.

Great elevation changes. I have never played a 9 hole that used the natural ups and down better.

Good distance. Not only on holes but walking around.

Nice park.

Good but silly skinny concrete tee pads.

A few holes up a few holes down and nice tree placement and a few against creek. Pretty nice.

Just a little walking back from basket to tee but over all well worth it.

This is a nice park. I played in middle of day and no one was here. It is worth the stop if you are any where near the town.

If you like elevation changes very nice. If you hate walking up and down small hills. Not for you.

Carl Albert is a newly redesigned course, which I have heard really improves the safety and overall play-ability of the course. The course does not really interfere too much with the walking trail as it was prior to the redesgin

The course has a little bit of everything within its 9 holes. It has water hazards that are fair. shorter more technical holes as well as longer, open holes. There is a little bit of elevation change as well.

The course has new Dynamic Disc baskets and colored tee signs plus small concrete tees. There are two course maps at different parts of the course depending on where you start at since hole 1 is a bit of a walk to start at.

Hole 5 and 6 were easily my favorite holes on the course. Hole 5 had a river on the left and the basket was tucked around the river. As a RHBH you need to throw a smooth overstable disc through the trees and get a good skip for a chance at a 2.

The concrete tees were a bit silly. The were long enough, but they were only about a foot and a half wide.

It was not immediately obvious where some of the next holes were. I made a rough map uploaded here on DGCR that should make it easier to navigate by using it.

Hole 7 does have a little bit of walking path in it. Just beware before throwing that your throw is clear.

This course was a lot of fun. There is a large amount of variety in it. It is a quick play and easy to get off from the highway, which is what I did.

Being the only course in the area, this is a great course to introduce new players to the game while still giving more experienced players challenge on every hole.

editors note

This course has been redesigned sense this review was written. I have seen the new map, was told today that new tee pads have been poured and new signage is on the way.

The re design was mostly done for safety of the other park users. However, it looks like it will be an even more fun 9 hole course and I look forward to getting up there and redoing my full review.
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Original post

Very nice DD Veterans baskets
Very nice Tee signs
Good use of elevation
Decent use of the natural fairways between trees

Oh where to start
Grass tee's - most are fine, but a few of them, specially #7 are sloped and hard to get even a 3 step run up. (Found out tee pads are coming soon)
Tee signs are very hard to figure out on a few of the holes. Seriously, they look great, but they do not face the direction you are throwing and you have to study the sign to figure out the hole on some of them. (specially #3)

You throw across the entrance into the parking lot on hole 1
you throw over a picnic bench and risk throwing into a pavilion (that had people in it today) on hole 2
Hole 3 is crazy, you have pavilions on both sides of the fairway and a swing set in the middle of the fairway, on top of that you are throwing across the road. Oh, and this hole is 535ft on a 9 hole course.
Hole 4 might be the MOST dangerous hole I have ever played. If you throw even slightly right and clear the hill and tree's, you shot is going right into a pavilion that you CAN NOT SEE if anyone is in it from the tee.
Hole 5 throws across a street and OVER a picnic table. I literally had to wait to throw because of traffic.
Hole 6 is GREAT, It is actually a very nice hole.
Hole 7 throws across the sidewalk, not once but twice.
Hole 8 throws from the sidewalk (only cement tee pad) but it crosses the sidewalk next to the basket.
Then you have hole 9, sign says sidewalk and across OB, yet the shot is down the sidewalk that had people walking and jogging on it. Not to mention this is another 500+ ft hole.

Then you have the basket placement for hole 9. It is really close to the parking lot, for a right hander, the upshot is going to want to cross the edge of the parking lot.

I think I said everything I needed to say in the Con's. If there is ANYONE else in the park, the course is almost unplayable or at least has unplayable holes.

Other than that, if you have the park to yourself, the course is pretty fun, that is the ONLY reason I gave it a 2.5 was because it is one of the most dangerous courses I have played.

Would I play it again? Yes, as long as the park is not being used. So not on a weekend, maybe a weekday.