Engler Park hosts a recreational 18-hole disc golf course that has a mix of wide-open shots as well as others that bring water, wood lines, and other obstacles into the mix. This course plays on the easier side for the most part, but has enough variety or challenging moments to be both accessible and fun for a variety of skill levels.
LOCATION of Engler Park is on the south side of Farmington, off Highway 67. A turn onto New Perrine Road and a right onto Airpark Drive will get you to the entrance, where you can swing right and park in the second parking lot to find the big course map and sign. There are food and gas options aplenty in town, but you'll want to stop a couple exits before this one on the highway if you're coming from the north. As for nearby courses, the two 18 hole courses in Park Hills made for a nice day of disc golf for me and my friends, where we managed 3 18 hole courses between 8:30am and 2:30pm; all three come with a collectively nice variety of styles as well.
AMENITIES fill Engler Park; other than disc golf, this park hosts two lakes that are apparently used frequently for fishing, a baseball field, tennis courts, trails, soccer fields, and four pavilions. There are also two nice playgrounds as well as a nature sanctuary. You'll see plenty of these as you walk the course, and will also get some time to take these in while walking back to your car from hole 18. Bathrooms look to be seasonal, but there was a port-o-john after hole 18 when we played.
COURSE EQUIPMENT is pretty nice at Engler Park. The baskets are Gateway Titans thanks to the Dave McCormack design, and they catch great. The baskets are in great shape; I'm not sure if they're the originals from the course opening 12 years ago or if they've been replaced, but all Gateway baskets tend to look like they could survive an atomic bomb. Each hole has two concrete tees that are nice and grippy as well. The tee signs also have just about all of the info you could ask for: Pin locations, distances from each tee to each pin, which pin is in use, par, and a hole layout. There are also plenty of trash cans throughout the course, so don't be a litterbug.
COURSE DESIGN at Engler is primarily more open and spacious with the fairways, with occasional wooded holes and other obstacles coming into play. Between the two tees and what variety of obstacles and elevation are incorporated into the design, a round here should be fun for a wide variety of players.
ELEVATION isn't a huge factor on this course but comes into play a little bit. Hole 4's fairway has a sneaky amount of downhill play to it, which can lead to overthrowing the green a bit. Hole 7 is a fun downhill shot are well with a couple trees to navigate. Hole 9 plays uphill, hiding the lake that can eat up shots that go long. 13's primary pin location is on an elevated hill, which will make any putt nervy.
SHOT-SHAPING is something you won't always need to full consider, but some holes will ask for some specific. Holes 5, 7, and 14 are left turning shots, each with varying challenges such as a lake on the left on hole 14 and a downhill drive on 7. Holes 10, 12, 13, and the long pins of 17 and 18 are all right turning shots. The rest of the holes are pretty open and can handle a variety of shots with some exceptions. Hole 3 is tight and wooded which will require a straight, slightly right ending shot. Hole 6's pin is around an island of trees and cabbage, requiring a left or right ending shot around to the pin.
DISTANCES are pretty accessible as a whole, with total distance being between 4,600 and 7,200 feet give or take a few, depending on which tees you throw from and the pins in use. There's a lot of short A pins on the course; as of this review's posting, UDisc has four holes under 200 feet in the A positions from the short tees. When longer pins are in place, holes like 9, 13, 16, and 17 will make for genuine two drive holes. The pars on site are pretty forgiving, with birdie or at least a par being pretty easy to achieve with decent accuracy and a little power in your throw.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL is on the easy side at Engler, with this being a rec-intermediate course for the most part. That being said, some holes do have some risk/reward factors or obstacles that could give newer players a hard time. Holes 9, 14, and the long pin in 17 can bring water into play with a poorly thrown shot. Hole 16's short pin is also tucked really tightly into a tree line in a way that makes it a very hard birdie.