Good tee pads
Good map at the beginning of course
Good tee signs

18 holes are smashed into a small park. When there are short tees and long tees on holes there's not much difference. Not many mature trees to navigate through. Could be harder when windy was very light when I played it. Baskets are old and spit out putts. The baskets are all bunched up together and on a few holes I threw to the wrong basket. Confusing. Needs updated.

Carter Park is a windy, conveniently located routing that shows its age with open, by-the-numbers golf. Bowling Green is known for being consistently breezy, and this little park course is no exception. Most holes are pretty open and may feature a couple of trees, but the wind is the primary challenge. Beginners will have an excellent time learning about headwind, tailwind, and crosswind and their various effects on discs in these conditions, which are relatively uncommon in the Midwest.

Concrete pads play to older DGA baskets that still catch surprisingly well, and almost every hole features a plaque that shows the distance, vintage rec par, and a hole diagram.

Carter is conveniently located near Bowling Green State University, a large off-campus student housing development, and I-75. College students and road trippers alike will enjoy stopping by for a quick round.

The course was designed in 1995 and it's starting to get a bit long in the tooth. Holes 6-10 play in a fairly compact area that wouldn't have posed a safety concern 20 years ago, but sits right on the edge of comfort with modern disc technology. Courteous golfers should probably wait for nearby pads to clear in this portion of the course. There's also some fairway bleed to watch for on Holes 13-16, especially if a strong gust of wind takes your disc off its line.

Most holes are instantly forgettable, which is more a fault of the land than the design, but Carter nonetheless leaves rather little to write home about.

Water retention appears to be a real issue here, with the Hole 15 green being the first area to saturate. Other trouble spots include Holes 5 and 6 along the edge of the property, as well as a handful of other low spots scattered throughout the circuit.

The routing can be a little confusing the first time, especially after Hole 2. Head left toward the road for the Hole 3 pad, not to the right for Hole 12.

The distances seem to be off on some holes, especially in the aforementioned section of Holes 6-10.

Carter would be a 2.5 were it not for the saturated fairways and greens nearly every time I've played. Slogging through the water kills the fun factor for me, and in my four visits I don't think I've ever seen the course completely dry. As a result, I feel obligated to dock the score.

I'm a BG alum, and I wish I had discovered disc golf in college. I would've whiled away many hours at this park instead of hacking away at the nearby, now defunct Forrest Creason ball golf course. Speaking of, that land would make a great place for a disc golf course...

Updated after playing for the first time in 8 years 11/22/12
I'm leaving my original review as a tribute to a course that used to be very good and is now very average.


(No longer true)Mix of open and wooded holes.

(No longer true)Forces you to try different shots.

Perfect course for beginners,(<--True, now false-->) but challenging enough to keep long time players interested.

Well maintained park and short rough make it virtually impossible to lose a disc, which is a good thing, since...

...Nearby college ensures the course is almost always packed. Fortunately, pace of play is good, and people are considerate about letting faster groups by.

Adding a few selectively placed trees would make the opening few holes more interesting.

(Update Massive removal of trees makes this course too easy and has highlighted how close some tees are to other baskets.

(update Carter Park has been scalped! The signature, formerly extremely difficult holes 6 and 7 have lost over 20 large trees and are now virtually wide open holes. Other holes in this area have been thinned out significantly as well meaning that it's no longer safe to have certain tees in their current positions, as the open conditions encourage shots OVER those tees! Some moron didn't think before they busted out their chainsaw! In addition to the massive overthinning of the orchard area they have also removed a humongous oak tree that used to guard the basket on hole 12 leaving this as an overly easy straight shot, and they've also removed a huge patch of scrub bushes and trees that guarded the 16th pin. Overall this is now a boring course that will only interest beginners. Don't waste your time.


This is where I learned to play, and I used to shoot par or better using nothing but a Champion Eagle, so it's more than accessible for beginners. Given the proximity of BGSU, this is perfect, as it brings lots of people to our sport. However, as you add discs to your bag, this course becomes much more playable. Its a course that allows new players to enjoy the game, and then teaches them to evolve their game.

Some people want to nitpick the fact that the course is mostly open. They are obviously NOT locals, as when the infamous Blowing Green winds kick up, this course plays entirely differently than it does on a calm day, and par becomes an accomplishment instead of an expectation.

Now that I'm back to playing after an 8 year layoff, I can't wait to play Carter next time I visit BG.