Clinton Hills is a new for 2020 18-hole course in the metro east region of St. Louis. This course is one of three local disc golf courses to be installed on golf courses in the St. Louis area in the past few years, and provides plenty of open shot opportunities while utilizing trees and other obstacles throughout the plot of land.
Clinton Hill's location is in Swansea, Illinois, and is one of 4 courses in Swansea and Belleville. B.I.G, Citizens, and Bicentennial are all within 4 miles of Clinton Hills, making it easy to play a few courses within a short amount of time if you want to hop around. Other options like Mascoutah and Woodland Chains aren't too far away either. Clinton Hills is also just a couple of minutes off of Route 159, making for plenty of food and gas options not far from the course. Van Man Discs, one of two pro shops in the St. Louis area, is located on site and provides great disc selection and customer service. There's also a restaurant, Fletchers, on site as well.
Park Amenities at Clinton Hills aren't as robust as your typical city park. Now known as the Swansea Clinton Hills Conservation Park, the main focus of the park is land restoration. In addition to disc golf, the old cart paths now serve as paths for local walkers and bikers. At least some parts of the land are also being used to provide space for more wildflowers and other native plants. There is also space utilized for outdoor learning spaces for the community. The lakes on site are also available for catch and release fishing. In terms of other infrastructure, the parking lot provides ample spaces as a result of it formerly serving both the old golf course as well as other businesses, and there is a shelter and bathroom next to the lot for park-goers as well.
Course Equipment is all fresh and in great shape. The course sports white and blue Dynamic Veteran baskets that stand out in the park and catch discs well. The course has newly installed turf tee pads that are nice, level, and feel good to throw off of. Additional mulch will be put around these pads shortly. The tee signs are well done overall, providing pars, pin distances, and a graphic of each hole to not pin locations and OB locations. There's also a larger course map at the parking lot, located on the far side of the bathroom next to the path that leads to hole 1. It's a little out of the way, but there's a practice pad by Van Man Discs with a nice green if you want to warm up before your round. It also sounds like golf carts could be an option in the future as well.
Course Design at Clinton Hills focuses primarily on open shots off the tee that require accurate placement to either set up for your second shot or birdie opportunity. The holes at Clinton Hills provide a nice mix of obstacles around the fairways and greens, allowing opportunities for advanced players to push down fairways and giving newer players a comfortable number of obstacles to navigate with minimal risk of lost discs. There aren't many clusters of trees on the section of the property allotted to the course designers, but there's enough tree coverage and elevation around to make for some fun holes of disc golf.
There's a decent amount of variety at Clinton Hills when considering a number of factors. There're some good moments of elevation that help elevate the layout of many holes. There're uphill shots on 7, 9, and especially 11, and downhill shots on 5, 8, 13, and 17. While the course is overall very open, there is some shot shaping required on this course. Holes 2 and 9 both end to the left, while hole 7 is a tough uphill shot that ends to the right behind a large tree. Most of the other holes are open enough for either forehand or backhand dominant players to be able to throw their preferred shot, with certain trees playing a factor when it comes to how much angle you put on your line. The course has a good mix of distances used, ranging from par 3s as short as 269ft. to the par 5 on hole 5 at 931ft when in the long placement. While not everyone will be able to throw far enough for a birdie on every hole, par should be attainable on every hole for a wide range of skill levels. While most of the holes are open, hole 9 provides something different with its left turning tunnel shot to set up to the green up the hill. Miss your landing zone here, and you'll regret it.
Course Accessibility and Difficulty are accessible to a wide range of players. While newer players might find some of the hole distances daunting, there isn't a lot of places to lose a disc, and shorter drives might avoid obstacles that longer drives will need to avoid. Intermediate players will be able to challenge for scores under par, especially with the shorter pins. This course, while having some hills, is pretty accessible in terms of terrain as well, a benefit of the ball golf history of the land. Cart users will be at home here, as this is one of the most cart friendly 18-hole courses you will find anywhere.
Course Highlights - Hole 5 feels obvious; nice and open, with the creek and cart path coming into play as you try to place your first and second shots. I found hole 13 to be very fun with the large downhill slope, with the creek and path on the left being there to punish hard fades. Hole 18 is a nice finishing hole, with the lake on the left and path on the right. This isn't anywhere near the longest hole, but it's probably the most intimidating.