A course or not a course? Either way, a nifty park to throw in.

To depart from my enigmatic start - this is a totally charming park. Medium hills, thick pines, other trees, lush grass, and a central pond make for about as good a city park setting as you could imagine. I played here as the day was beginning to cool off, and it was lovely.

Three of those elements - great trees, big hills, and water hazards - make for great disc golfing. I threw some really enjoyable downhills, carefully shaped drives, and nervy water carries during my time here.

The seven DISCatchers are good, and their placement carefully thought out to provide a variety of approaches and greens. This is good, since most rounds here will involve rethrowing to the same basket a couple of times.

Okay, now the big problem: there are neither tees nor tee signs. Period. This is literally just baskets in a park. The definition of safari golf. Is it even a course if there's no defined layout?

Even if you did follow a layout such as the current 18-hole recommended on a certain app, you're going to be looping back on yourself, throwing across and back over fairways, and undoubtedly running into other throwers if any disc hurlers are out at the same time as you.

I hate to scrape so hard against this course. I really enjoyed most of the tee locations suggested by GPS, which made truly compelling shots. But its capacity, at best, is one group, and its flow is infinitely malleable.

Beyond this, there is a big issue of things being in the way. "Things" refers to people and buildings. Two baskets bring the playground into play, several options play over sports courts or storage sheds, and all of the water carries will put fishers in danger all around the pond. Add in some blind walking paths and mid-fairway picnic tables, and you have a safety nightmare.

I loved playing at Ford Park. It had all the gameplay elements of a great city park course. Unfortunately, its lack of clear flow, on-tee nature, constant human and civic risk, and the inability to play the entire property thoroughly due to high numbers of park-goers all draw this back more than substantially. It's a bit of an impossible rating, but overall I wanted to be nice and called it Reasonable. If you want nice safari golf, go ahead, but PLEASE be ultra-cautious of all the innocent park-sharers.

~Similar Courses: Well, none really. But if you ignore the glaring flaws, the gameplay has the feel of Earlewood Park (Columbia, TN), McCurry Park (Fayetteville, GA), or Tyus Park (Griffin, GA).

Nice park that is also good for the family and dog, good baskets, friendly players, water holes, not a lot of ob and relatively clean bathrooms. I like the kinda safari style of course.

Possibility of picnickers in the park and some baskets and tee pads are near tables. The 2 maps are outdated based on the added ground markers for teeboxes.

Met 3 groups that were helpful but each group had a different idea on how the course was to be played. I understand that the city will not allow tee signs but maybe an updated map could be posted some where in the park. and on this site.

• Lush park with lots of other amenities including drinking fountains and bathrooms
• Subtle Elevation change on a number holes
• Good mix of moderately wooded and wide open hoels
• Water! The pond comes into play on a few holes including one hole (Hole 5 I think) that goes almost directly across one of the ponds.
• Nice, clean Discatchers with (correct) numbering on them, I wish the tees were the same way
• Doesn't ever seem to get crowded with Disc Golfers, and the non-Golfers are aware that there is a DG Course here and largely stay off of it with their picnicking.

• No marked tees or tee signs anywhere. I played for the first time and had to be a guide for a 5 person group using only the map from DGCR. Needless to say, I felt like I was geocaching at times trying to match up terrain with an aerial view of the park.
• Occasional picnickers and fisherman can get in the way of your tee shots, especially on weekends. Not the worst I've seen, but I did have recalibrate my tee off position on 2 holes. Since there are no tees anyway this really didn't matter much

I went to a recent family gathering at Ford Park in Redlands, and after finding out the location I was determined to play the DG Course while I was there. It was a large family birthday party, and I was fairly confident that no one played Disc Golf. I brought 5 extra drivers and putters to see if anyone would like to join in the fun. I got 4 of my relatives (who were all first timers) to go out and throw the course with me. Teeing off on Hole 2 my cousin shanked one of my loaner discs right into the pond! I had a good laugh on that one. Then another one of my cousins ended up a foot from the water which is on the left side of holes 3 and 4. Lots of good laughs, and a good opportunity to give a quick lesson on anhyzers before I ran out of discs.

I was pleasantly surprised by both the beauty and variety at this course, especially with the elevation change and the water mixed in - This is rare in Socal for 9 hole courses. I would almost say the course exceeded my expectations, but the lack of any tees or tee markers really puts a dent in the rating here. With proper tees and signs, this course could easily be a 3.5 in my opinion. I wasn't as lucky as the previous reviewers; I didn't see a single other disc golfer out there and thus had no frame of reference as to where to tee off. I had to approximate where the tees were located based on the course map/aerial shot found here on the course page. My family were good sports about the whole thing, but it was especially annoying when I came to what I consider the signature hole which is over about 150 feet of pond, then down an embankment to the basket which is at a slight hyzer angle. My noob companions decided not to throw it (they felt bad about losing discs earlier in the round), But I ripped my Archon over the body of water to within 20 feet of the basket, then clanged the putt for a birdie. The way I threw the hole, it was about 290 feet.

Safari is definitely a possibility here, but really not my style - I like Safari golf about as much as I like Pole Holes. Teepads/Markers are an integral piece of course design, and the rating on this course takes a big hit because that element is missing. If I was in the area and had some time, I'd definitely go back and play again - but I think I'd hang out near the first tee for a while and attempt to procure some locals who are familiar with the layout. That might make it a bit more worthwhile.