Box Elder, SD

Douglas Schools Disc Golf Aboretum

1.15(based on 5 reviews)
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14 0
wolfhaley
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 20.5 years 1165 played 745 reviews
0.50 star(s)

2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 18, 2021 Played the course:once

Pros:

The Douglas Schools Arboretum course plays across from Douglas middle school to the east. The area has a creek with lots of cattails running through the middle of it.

The baskets, that were present, were mixed. The majority of them were Mach II's I believe. There was one DD Patriot too. One pin position per hole from what I could gather.

The tee signs, where present, are the generic DGA white plastic signs with the stickers indicating trees, creeks OB and such. These had the hole #'s and distances on them too. Also next tee arrows.

The tees were concrete. These are more than sufficient for a course of this length and was more than I was expecting when deciding to play this one at the last minute on a whim. One tee per hole.

The area was clean and the course is permanet and free to play.

Cons:

Where to begin, I'm not sure how many baskets are actually here. It appears at least 2 were missing. I couldn't find a basket for hole 6 or 7. I did see a random basket but couldn't figure out where you would tee off to it. It didn't make any sense based on the map here on DGCR.

The DD Patriot basket had the smallest space from the top of the cage to the bottom of the band. I've played on tons of these types of baskets before. They must've somehow modified the center pole and made it shorter for some reason. It was also leaning to one side pretty heavily.

In fact, most baskets were no longer level, if they ever were. The cage on the practice basket was pretty mangled. Not sure if this used to be the basket for 6 or 7 or what.

There was no tee pad for hole 5. It appears it used to be where the backyard of a brand new house on the east side of the property was. The tee sign was laying in the fairway of hole 4.

Even if all the baskets and tees were there this would be a terrible design. There's one bridge that goes over the creek that you would have to cross 4 times. It'd take over a hour to play this. And that's if you didn't lose a disc in the thick, thick cattails.

This course looks nothing like the pictures on here from ten years ago. You wouldn't even think it's the same place if you seen it today.

Other Thoughts:

This course might have been a 1 to 1.5 when it was first installed. Maybe. This is one of the worst courses I've played in a couple years. Definitely takes the award for worst of the worst 2021 edition. Don't waste your time here. I travel all over to bag courses and even I regret stopping here. You'd be better off playing literally anywhere else in the area or even not playing at all. Abysmal course.
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5 0
mndiscg
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 16.4 years 502 played 494 reviews
1.00 star(s)

Short School Course 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:May 10, 2013 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Signage
-Nice baskets
-Cement tees
-A good form of recreation for the Jr High kids of Douglas Schools.
-Decent length for a school course.

Cons:

-Can be very overgrown. It wasn't too bad in May when I played but it was already getting there and I imagine it is only mowed a few times yearly.
-Can also lose discs in the bog near the stream, lots of cattails in there.
-Getting across the stream was fairly hard, steep-ish muddy banks and no bridges.
-Could be quite windy.
-Lots of ticks and other bugs to be found when the grass gets high.
-Holes all seemed the same.

Other Thoughts:

This is a decent attempt at building a course on school grounds. In order to make it better they would have to build more bridges over the creek, keep it mowed somewhat often, and drain the bog better. I wouldn't stop here unless you are a course bagger as there are plenty of better courses in the Black Hills including Jackson Park and Omaha Park in nearby Rapid City. If you do decide to play, come in the spring or early summer, wear pants, and be prepared to spend time looking for discs.
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2 0
jcdillon28
Experience: 23.6 years 15 played 4 reviews
1.00 star(s)

Bahhh 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 12, 2009 Played the course:once

Pros:

This course is short and the baskets and tees are easy to find and navigate. It has a couple holes that have a tree you have to go around.

Cons:

Really no variation in hole length. Even though the course has alternate hole placement the alternate spots are just about the same length,

The vegetation here makes this course almost unplayable in a few spots. I recommend wearing pants and covered shoes. There are lots of prickly weeds every where.

I played in the summer when school was not in session and it appeared that the only spot that got cut down was right by the basket. Which is fine but the waist high grass and cattails make it pretty darn hard to find a disk.

There also only seemed to be one bridge at the front of the course. So getting to hole Five was a hike. You end up going across the bridge a few time but you have to walk to the front of the course only to walk back down the course.

Other Thoughts:

My brother and I played this course and we spend more time trying to find our disks than we did playing. For the size of the course it was crazy how long we were out there.

We ended up loosing two disks out there. One on hole one and one on hole six. The growth was so thick we just could not find them. The creek was pretty much dried up but down by the cattails was just a bog.

I recommend having a spotter on holes 5, 6, and 7. If you don't have one and your disk ends up in the cattails and waist high grass good luck finding it.

This would be a decent course if it was mowed down some.
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2 0
dosahl
Experience: 16.7 years 45 played 16 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Timing may be everything 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 7, 2009 Played the course:once

Pros:

Course is gentle. The tee to basket and basket to tee is easy to navigate. Course is easy to find and easy to play.

Cons:

This is a long pants course. The vegatation was high when we played it. It was a hinderance to speed as we spent quite a bit of time searching in the weeds even though we were not far from the basket. It seems as though the course was and is fairly well maintained but we had to use the bridge too many times to make it a smooth course.

Other Thoughts:

Timing is part of the course depending on the time of the year it is played based on the vegation. After a cutting, course would be better to play, but as previous review stated, hay bales on course. Over all this is a easy play course for those who are still learning and trying new techniques.
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5 0
DGtourist
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 21.5 years 188 played 106 reviews
1.00 star(s)

Kids these days have it all. 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 27, 2008 Played the course:once

Pros:

This course is in a field just across the street from a jr. high school and behind a housing development. The course has well built cement tee boxes. The course was very easy to find, someone wrote good directions, the first tee was right across the street and the last basket too. The course is signed with distance information. There are some mature trees near tee boxes and baskets and a small creek used prominently. For a jr high school course, there is some honest distances. I would not recommend this course for any highly skilled players. It seems mostly good for beginners, in fact my daughter enjoyed it. I had the course all to myself when I was there.

Cons:

Essentially this course is just a big open hay field with a small creek in the middle of it. In the creek area there are some trees to be found, otherwise the course is wide open. When I played one of the main obstacles was cubed bails of hay. Which I can only imagine was a good thing because otherwise I think the grass would have been waist high. The course bridges that provide access to the back three were thrown into the creek when I was there and it made getting across near impossible.

The course does appear to be on school property and I imagine the course availability is limited to non-school hours. I played in the summer and just parked in the school lot, I imagine that during the school year you may need to find another place to park. There also seems to be some sort of nature trail along the creek area which may cause you to have to wait. It can get very windy here.

Other Thoughts:

I did not go into this course with high expectations, and it did not disappoint. This is maybe the fifth course I've played at a jr high school and it always makes me jealous a little bit how lucky these kids are.
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