Good concrete level tees.
Great tee signs with detailed information of distance, par and OB.
Defined maintained fairways where you only end up in rough areas with a really poor shot.
Easy to navigate as the baskets are marked to show where the next tee is.
Great baskets that never allow a spit out if you hit center.
Practice basket by parking lot on a slope so you can practice putting with elevation changes.
Good variety of open and wooded holes.
Variety of challenges with distance and placement/accuracy.

No benches.
Base on elevated baskets look bad.
Purple baskets are dark and don't stand out so well if you don't know where they are.

No trash cans, but there's no reason you can't carry out your empty containers.

+ Like the other courses at Codorus, excellent fixtures: poured tees, great signage, Prodigy baskets (although the purple baskets are distinctive, they're a bit hard to spot on the wooded holes)


+ Plenty of distance for big arms, with lots of room for error if those big arms aren't really accurate


+ After a big uphill par 4 on hole #6, you'll find yourself playing wooded holes that feel very different from the rest of the course. Notice the older concrete tees - these holes were originally part of the Red course (and they're the best holes on Purple)

- Working with the most open sections of the park, the design tries hard to create interesting holes, but the efforts can feel a little gimmicky: they're placing some baskets in between trees, and positioning some tees right behind trees. Hole #14 is downhill but come on: it's a 500' par 3


- The final four holes are a loop: they're open, shorter than the rest of the course - and pretty dull. They liven up one of the short par 3's with an island, but this is still a bit of a letdown


- Beginner-friendly signage that explains scores and the shapes of shots, but they seem to run out of disc golf things to say, and become bland inspirational messaging halfway through the round

~ As the most open of the three courses, Purple is going to feel the effects of the wind, especially during the starting holes. The wide open lake creates alleys for gusting wind, and you might consider skipping Purple on really windy days


~ Purple is a different kind of course from the other two. It has the least interesting holes of the three courses, but it complements the other two by offering things the others don't: it's longer, more open and has the most dramatic elevation changes. Big arms can score here - as long as the wind isn't up


~ Each of the three Codorus courses is assigned a color (Blue, Purple, Red) and all the amenities are painted to match (signage, baskets, even the posts holding the teesigns). There's never any question which course you're playing


QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE THREE CODORUS STATE PARK COURSES

Blue:
Most "park style" of the three, largely open fairways with trees to dodge. Shortest of the three, although some back tees are available


Purple:
Longest and most open of the three with some long bomber holes early. Lots of elevation change - enjoy watching your discs soar. Layout has some "stuck in'' holes


Red:
Most varied of the three: includes park style, waterside, open, and deep woods. Longer than Blue, shorter than Purple. True wooded back 9.

You're not going to get beat up much by rough
Long enough with enough hazards to be challenging but without being too severe.
Nice tees and some fun lines you have to try to make
Baskets are in excellent shape
The view!
Hilly in parts, but nothing too strenuous. It's all park style grass, well taken care of.

Some of the holes are bordered by somewhat busy roads or parking lots
One tee, one basket, every hole.
It can be very very windy next to the lake, almost unplayable at times.
The last 4 holes are kind of on top of each other, all sharing one field. 15 is a fun island hole with a fortress barricade, but the last 3 holes are sort of just crammed in there with not a lot of excitement.

It's a very pleasant recreational course that someone really good would have no problem beating up. I'm not a huge fan of 490-yard par 3 holes, but it is downhill at least. The Island hole was probably the most fun, I like islands with a raised barrier around them. At 267 feet, slightly uphill, it's a pretty challenging heave to get it in there. #1 is kind of a bad hole, a severe sidehill par 3 crammed in between a parking lot and a street, but after that the course quickly gets better. 2-16 is pretty enjoyable. 17 and 18 are sort of a bland finish, both holes sort of shoehorned into a field

The Codorus State Park courses were always fun to play, but historically signage and tee pads were always lacking here. They've been going through some significant upgrades since 2019 (not just in course layout, but features as well), and I'm happy to say that the results are very nice.

- Professional, informative tee signs have been installed at every tee. To me, good signage is one of those things that separates a lot of decent courses from really good ones. There are no "Next Tee" signs/arrows, but I realized after a few holes that there is white tape wrapped around one metal arm of each basket that indicates the direction to the next tee (see photos). Navigation was no problem on this course.

- Tee pads were all nice grippy concrete. The pads were the standard size and provided ample working room for your drive. Most of them were surrounded by level-enough ground, so if you needed a longer run-up, or wanted to drive at a slightly skewed angle, the ground would frequently accommodate it.

- The majority of the holes (12 out of 18 by my count) on the Purple Course are long open drives, so if you like to air out your drivers you'll enjoy this course. On most of the holes some feature or combination of features (trees, elevation, OB, etc.) was used either near the tee or near the basket to make the drive/approach more challenging. Hole 17 was the only truly wide open hole. Holes 6-9 and 11-12 were more-wooded, but certainly not tight, fairways. None of the holes on this course were particularly technical, and there is very little rough to deal with on most of the holes.

- Bathrooms can be found with a short walk from Hole 1 to the boat launch area, and you'll walk past more bathrooms when playing holes 5 and 12. Unfortunately they do close down for the winter season.

- There's a practice basket near the parking lot.

- Like the Blue Course, the setting is very pretty, but with a more open, park-like flavor. A great place for a hike even if you're not throwing discs.

- There's only one tee and one pin position for each hole, so everyone plays the same hole regardless of ability/experience. Some of the longer open holes could be discouraging for newer/younger players who aren't able to chop off 250+ feet in a single drive.

- Wind is a huge factor on this course most days. Depending on the hole you will have to deal with either headwind, crosswind, or tailwind on the majority of these open holes. While this does add interest to the game by forcing you to learn how your discs operate under different windy conditions, it can also cause a lot of unexpected shanked discs, and it will definitely reduce your drive distance on many holes.

- Many of the long open holes are bordered by roadway and/or parking lots. While these are played as OB, the aforementioned wind can cause frequent errant drives that seem to gravitate towards these areas. This can be dangerous for players, drivers, and cars alike, so keep an eye out for vehicles when making your drives.

- No trash cans anywhere on the course. This is normal for the PA State Park courses, but unfortunately some players don't follow the carry-in, carry-out guidelines so you will find the occasional bottle or trash along the course. Please pick up after yourself and/or others.

- No benches at any of the tees either.

The Purple Course is not my particular cup of tea, so I won't often choose to play it when I come to Codorus. That being said, everyone has their own style of Disc Golf they like to play, and the Purple Course I'm sure fits right into someone's preferred style. If bombing discs across mostly open space is your thing, you'll probably enjoy this course. And the six wooded holes add variety for those who enjoy that style of play more. I'm glad they split up the two 27-hole courses here into three 18's. Each course now has it's own flavor to it, and you don't feel pressured to play those extra nine holes every time you come. The tee-pad and signage upgrades also make these courses feel really polished. Codorus State Park is well worth the trip if you don't live close, and for those of us who do, it's an absolute local gem!

The Purple course offers a decent mix of open, park-style, and wooded holes. Rolling hills add interest and challenge. Nice variety of hole lengths, ranging from 237' to 538'. Course offers everything from big bombers to ace runs, including some fun downhill and challenging uphill throws.

Several memorable holes. Hole 6 (I think) is a 444' valley shot, finishing uphill through scattered trees with a low ceiling. Hole 15 is a 264' island, slightly uphill, with a tree blocking the pure hyzer line (missing the island plays as a hazard). Hole 14 is a long downhill bomb, open but narrowing as you approach a protected basket. I also enjoyed the reachable downhill holes that require you to hit one of the available lines through scattered trees.

One grippy and reasonably long concrete pad on each hole (but see cons). Grass has always been well mown during my many visits to Codorus. Pretty views of the lake and marina feature throughout the course.

Tee signs mounted on wooden posts are color-coded and include a hole map, distance, par, and direction to the next tee. A white spoke on each basket also points to the next tee.

Baskets were mounted well, and cross-linked inner chains caught good putts. Color-coded baskets (purple for the Purple course, etc.), and a color-coded lost disc box for each course. Raised baskets on a few holes.

Indoor bathrooms available at several locations.

Despite a mix of open and wooded holes, overall the Purple course is more open than I prefer. Quite a few holes offer little to no penalty for throwing significantly off the intended line.

This is a multi-use park, and the disc golf course is intertwined with other activities. This means that non-disc golfers are frequently in the line of fire, especially on pleasant weekends. In addition, several holes play uncomfortably close to roads and parking lots.

New concrete pads are a bit narrow, sometimes making the run-up feel constrained. If you have a long run-up, note that a few of the pads have a small drop-off at the end. One tee and one basket position per hole.

I love how each course is color-coded, but occasionally had trouble spotting purple baskets in the shadows.

Work has been done to clear underbrush but disc-eating rough remains on several holes. I lost one disc during the round, and spent a bit of time searching for wayward drives. There is also a fair amount of poison ivy in the rough, and occasionally on the fairway.

Generally navigation was pretty straightforward, but in a few cases I relied on the UDisc course map to find the next tee.

With completion of the purple course, Codorus now has three full 18-hole courses on site. Previously Codorus had two full 27-hole courses (Blue and Red), but the courses were redesigned for 2019 Am Worlds. The Purple course incorporates several holes from the old Red course, plus (if memory serves) a few new or redesigned holes.

The Blue course is my clear favorite at Codorus, offering more of the challenging wooded holes that I favor. I have a slight preference for the Red over the Purple course, again for the greater preponderance of wooded holes. That said, newer players or those who unaccountably prefer fewer obstacles might find the Purple course more forgiving and enjoyable.

Whichever course you prefer, it would be easy to spend a lovely day throwing discs at Codorus. There may even be a mini course (I saw a few mini baskets but did not check whether the whole mini course was playable).

The course passes by the parking lot after hole 14, so you can stop by the car before the last 4 holes.

Breezes off the lake can be a factor on several holes. Not a pro or a con, just a thing. No fee to enter the park, and a multitude of other activities to enjoy besides disc golf.