While most of us never thought about Stanwood needing a course, it did. Why? Because there wasn't one anywhere near there. It's a trek from Seattle, but if you were a disc golfer living in Stanwood you could never get a quick round in because the nearest course was half an hour away. Well, that's been fixed with the addition of Church Creek. It's not a challenging course for anyone but a beginner, but it gives locals a place to play and a reasonable course to introduce new players to the game.

Equipment: The baskets are brand new, beautiful, deep Mach V's. I'm 100% against theft and vandalism, but I wanted to steal all nine of them. The orange band around the top with the course name was a wonderful touch (and made me want to steal them even more).

The teepads are concrete, which was a very pleasant surprise. An out of the way and wooded course like this would normally have a worn in dirt patch for a tee, or possibly a bit of gravel (Fredericksen, Howling Coyote, etc). But whoever did this course secured sponsors and then actually USED them. Well done.

Navigation: Each pad has a nice metal sign on it that shows distance and one possible path to take. Very nice. There's also a nice sign with a map overview and an introduction to disc golf right before the Hole 1 teepad. My inner editor was quite bummed at the typo in the very first sentence, but I won't let that affect my rating...

Design: I found myself wondering how designers do it by the time I was halfway through my opening round. That's a good thing. They took a little used and slightly wooded area of a random park by the high school and somehow designed a golf course. It looks like the number of trees they had to take out was relatively minimal too. They utilized every bit of the area they were given. There are semi-technical shots and fairly open ones, right and left turning, uphill and downhill, and even a short shot across a ravine that is just threatening to steal your disc and/or shoes. Screw you ravine. I'll just overshoot the basket by a country mile like I did both times through.

Amenities: I could care less about amenities, but if you do? There's a trash can in the pavilion by the 1 pad, and there are bathrooms between the 9 basket and the parking lot.

Equipment: The teepads are a bit short. Every hole except for 9 is laughably short for any players who are intermediate and above, but they still felt short. That's the only equipment con though, which is amazing for a niner in the middle of nowhere.

Navigation/flow: The navigation is hurting. Most of the baskets are relatively close to the following tee, but they didn't even bother to tape the baskets. An easy fix, but considering the time and effort they put into this course? I'm surprised they missed it. The flow is a bit off in areas too. The worst areas are the walk from the 7 pad to the basket (due to the ravine), and the walkouts from 8 to 9 and 9 to the parking lot.

Design: It's pretty clear that the 3 and 4 fairways are going to be treacherous mud pits for most (if not all) of the year. They're natural runoff areas to the creek, and if they're anything like hole 2 over at Blyth Park they won't dry out for more than a month or so each year. They're fun holes that the course would suffer without (especially 4), but they're still gross.

It also seems like hole 9 was tacked on as an afterthought. They threw eight decent holes together, and then had to find somewhere for the 9th. So it kind of feels like they slapped a tee down by the baseball diamond and just said, "I don't know. Throw it that way a few times. Wherever it lands, put in a basket. Who cares if that basket is in a prime location for basket theft?" I did like that that hole made me think though, and I saved par (or birdie according to the tee sign) both times through with insane shots that shouldn't have worked... So I guess I can't fault the designer TOO much...

Don't trust the GPS coordinates on this site. They'll take you to a port-a-potty by the high school. Once you've turned off of the main highway into town, ignore your GPS. Just look for the park on your right.

This course is what it is. It was designed for families and rec players, but that's kind of where it falls short. Who wants to take their family out into the woods to dodge random buried trash/broken glass and slide around in the mud for nine holes? The ease of play is there for new players with the exception of hole 4, but if they take 4 out then they might as well take the course out. That's probably the best hole here. So the course isn't spectacular for new players, and it's too easy for more seasoned players.

That said, it's a fun little course and is great for putt and approach practice for those more seasoned players. I highly doubt it will ever be too crowded, and it's absolutely worth a stop if you're driving from Seattle to points north and don't feel like battling the summer crowds at Silver Lake.

The newest course in Snohomish County is a shorter course geared towards easing neophytes into the game or what has become known as "family friendly". The course is located in a city park with a baseball field nearby and the course plays in and around the forested area just off to the side. There is a big green course kiosk within sight of the parking lot looking away from the street and the first hole starts just behind it. The baskets are all Mach 5's with an orange metal ring built into the top with the name of the course on them, pretty slick looking actually. The tee pads are all concrete though a little short but you don't need much here anyhow. Hole one starts the RHBH hyzer holes which is about half of the course, what follows are short but fun ace runs for most people with some elevation changes and a few valleys to throw across. The last hole (hole nine) is the toughest on the course with multiple routes, a low ceiling, a small bog and of course it's also the only hole on the course over 300 feet.

I'm not going to go heavy into the length of the course as a con because this is what the designers have intended on doing and with their intention they have done a great job just know that if you are an experienced player you won't need a driver at all.

The course is brand new and the city ( or county?) has been working on the course with heavy equipment but there are still lots and lots of sticks and rocks and other things making footing an issue on the course, even just walking through you have to be careful. Also this course is muddy right now and may or may not be playable in the winter.

Hole eight could be a dangerous situation if someone were to get out of control. The baseball field is directly behind it and there is a residential neighborhood just to the right of the basket. It would take a pretty bad throw to do real damage but I've seen crazier things happen.

Speaking of the baseball field, there is a walkout from eight to nine which walks right by the dugout on a narrow strip of grass which is already muddy and eroding away, I think more traffic here isn't going to be good for it. There are other areas of the course especially in the hillier sections where erosion could become a real concern.

This course is super fun to play with lots of ace runs, makes you feel like a pro when you play here. This course reminds me of a combo of the nearby courses in Lake Stevens and Bothell so if you like either of those courses you will like this course as well. It seems like Snohomish County is finally starting to get some courses in that are halfway decent, for the first ten years or so I played we only had a couple of places to go, now we have some options which will take a bit of pressure off of some of the older, heavily used courses.

If you like frozen yogurt (who doesn't?!) check out "Sweet Bliss Frozen Yogurt" just down the street in Stanwood, they have little dividers in the cup which is just plain genius.