I really enjoy this for training accuracy
2 18 hole courses here!
Nice hill training and hike

Pretty short, can be monotonous
Lacks open bomber type holes. Or any long stuff.

You could play this with one or two discs. I bring a few of the same molds to work lines and control. I throw a long disc on 2-3 holes per 18.
The tee pads are natural, but holes mostly short enough that you don't need a big run up! This is true for both the courses. I enjoy it here

-Great for all skill levels with Blue, White and Red tees. -Very fun layout, each hole is different and challenging in its own right.

-Poor/lack of signage to lead to the next hole, can be confusing for first time players.-Many of the hole placards have fallen over at the tees, others are just gone.

Great course, would love to give a higher rating if the signs were better/updated.

Black Bear is the other of 2 19 hole courses that start within about 100 yards of each other . The course starts near what looks like a kiosk , a little uphill and close to the #19 tee box . After #1 , which was a cement tee , you go immediately to natural tees with framed wood , almost never gravel . There are 3 tee positions per hole , some harder to find than others . The parking lot is small , so you may have to park on the side of the road if it is busy . I saw no bathrooms when I was here , but a nice shelter to relax between rounds or at the end of your day is near the 19th hole basket . The wall in the shelter has a nice kiosk in it .There is also a lost disc box here . A nice touch . The signage is much the same as Golden Bear . Wood , some faded with Black Bear on it , hole # par and distance . On some you can read elevation of the hole ( ? ) . The baskets are yellow banded Discatchers , which are my personal favorite for woods courses . They spray painted black on basket rungs to tell you where to go for at least some navigation . Print the map . If you don't , you will lose a lot of time between a few confusing basket to tee locations . This course is also fragmented . There are long walks between 11-12 and especially 13-14 , where you cross at least 1 bridge to get there . They did spray paint some of the trees to help keep you on track . be alert to where you are .
The course starts you off with a drive on #1 that wraps around a large tree to a hill that goes straight up to the basket .The next is a shorter downhill grade shot . Then #3 is a cool putter throw straight downhill . stopping your putter is another thing . That shot starts your journey through all woods holes until you pop out of it . after hole 18 . The 19th hole is a shared hole with Golden Bear . The holes range from a lot of up and down throws to throws on the sides of hills . This course is technical and will test your patience . The holes play short , even playing from the longs 177' to 303' . There are many midrange drives on this course . I would avoid going for a lot of aces here , just because of you clip a tree or get careless and throw too much speed on your putter , it may jump on its side and roll 100' away ( like mine did ) . Not an incredible amount of foliage on Black Bear , but the leaves , especially in autumn will hide your discs . I am not a fan of holes that start and stay on a hillside, so you may have to bend your putter shot here on occasion . There is a creek on a part of this course , but it is really not utilized like it could have been . There were no real memorable holes here . I enjoyed the downhill putter run and hole #1 the best . What you will get here is a hole by hole , elevation by elevation play. There is fun here , especially when there are a total of 38 holes on the premises . It took me about 80 minutes to play Black Bear , a group of 4 should take 2 1/2 hours . There are some nice bridges connecting you with parts of the course .
The course ends with an island hole , left to right with trees and brush swatting down any direct path to the basket .

----Safety . both for others and you . A few blind shots can hit someone looking for an off-course drive . Also , if the ground is wet , you will take chance after chance keeping your feet underneath you while playing this course . Wear sturdy shoes if you have them .
----Navigation ; The navigation is spotty at best . holes 11-12 and 13-14 divide the course up and will include long walks with them .
---- Equipment : I have to gripe on this . The signage is worn out and needs a replacement bad . It might be a longshot to ask for someone to haul cement or gravel up into the woods , but carpet or turf would do just fine .
----Disc Risk : lots of chances for rollaways here , and they can roll a lot . A spotter might be able to help the cause , but if you are playing alone , accept the consequences or watch your drive like a hawk . It will be terrible in autumn . I clipped a tree and had to go down an embankment over 100'
The course needs a Port O Potty here , and a bigger parking lot . No front and back 9 . You never get to the shelter until after hole 19 .

I may sound like I am unimpressed by Black Bear , but I just see some untapped potential here . There were a lot of players on both courses while I was here . The locals are friendly and seem to want th course to upgrade , too . Still , you can't beat 38 holes of technical shot disc golf after you parked your car . Fun Factor ? This course has it . As long as you keep your cool , concentrate and don't overplay the holes , you shoiuld score pretty well here . Risk/reward pin settings will test whether you want to go for it or play it safe . I kind of wanted to give this course a 2 1/2 , but when I look at the whole body of work , upping it to a 3 seems more logical . Bring a cold beverage or 2 after your round so you can sit in the shelter and make fun of errant shots to the #19 island green ( I tried that and got stuck pulling out a disc caught in a tree from some girl ) . Be mindful if you are coming here that they have a random doubles tournament here on Wednesdays from March through October .

-More variety than Golden Bear, especially with holes 1-3 being different in character than the rest of Black Bear and most of Golden Bear.
-Great proximity to Virginia Tech
-fun, challenging holes in the woods

-trails in poor condition in places
-can get very muddy
-many of the less interesting holes are stacked up towards the end of the course

-Black Bear has the slight edge over Golden Bear for me but not by much at all. They are very similar, however the extra variety on Black Bear gives it the edge for me

I had a difficult time actually finding this course. My GPS led me to the other side of the park. There is a sign over there and a path leading into the woods. I wonder if that trail would ever lead to one of the courses? Using my highly developed disc golf course finding intellect, I finally drove around and found the actual course beginnings.

Both courses start near a large picnic shelter. There is a kiosk here as well as a big trapezoid shaped concrete tee pad. Unfortunately, other tee pads are dirt with just a front board. but nice wooden signs. The baskets are older, yellow Discatchers with the #'s on top. They show up well in the thickets here. A rung is painted black pointing you to the next tee.

As I happen to love these short, hilly courses, Black Bear featured a number of fun little throws. I really like # 3. It's an almost straight down, 177' touch shot. I think the only other courses I've played that features a hole this steep, straight down in one of the Rooster Rock courses in Oregon.

This course has three pads for each hole. The Reds are children's lengths, lots of sub-one hundred foot holes. The Whites probably average 200' and I believe there were longer Blues but they weren't exactly easy to locate.

After a long hot, walkout I came to # 12 and it's extremely comfy bench. I could have taken a nice long nap on it.

The course fell apart on the back nine. There were two or three extremely long and confusing walkouts followed by three short uphill holes in a row.

The back nine rates about a 1 in my opinion. The long walkouts and less than thrilling uphill holes. I was more than ready for my round to end after the first nine.

The teepads are not good and would be treacherous in wet conditions.

The overall lack of distance is a turn off for many players.

After nine, I was digging this course. Midway through the back nine, I was tuned out and ready to get off the mountain. The back nine is really a poor design. By the end of the course, I was tired, sweaty and ready to hit the road.

Do you like hiking? If so, this course is for you! No, really, apart from maybe Highland Hills in NC, this course and it's twin brother will require the most hiking you'll experience on a course.

There are multiple "tees" for each hole, in typical Mitch Hoeppner fashion, just in case you want to throw your putter from a little further back...

Holes 1-3 had me excited. Neatly manicured fairways and gaps to hit, nice pads and signs and hole 3 is a sweet shot straight down the hill. If you float a putter, you might lose it. I recommend flicking a firebird as hard as you can at it! (Read as sarcasm)

The scenery is really nice. As I previously stated, this is essentially a hike with a little disc golf sprinkled in. There is plenty of wildlife, trees, creeks and other natural beauty to behold, so soak that up.

I recall a few benches here or there that were definitely necessary along the way. BRING LIQUIDS. Especially in the summer, you'll need all you can carry. There is also a very nice gazebo area at the entrance to both courses which will give you a perfect picnic spot between the two or a break at the very least.

You know how when you hike you discover little things along the way? It's the same here as well, but what you discover are disc golf holes. I don't mean that in a good way, I'm alluding to the fact that there are significant navigation issues here. There are several spots where the walk between holes are FAR too long and spread out. It isn't intuitive in the least and you'll regret not having a map.

The holes here are really too short. Apart from the first few holes and maybe 1 or 2 in the woods, you'll be throwing mostly putters and mids.

The tee pads aren't pads at all once you get inside the woods. They're toe boards. Like I said, you won't really need much of a pad to stand-still bomb your aviar.

You know how the hiking was a pro above? Yea, well some could certainly view it as a con. My wife was ill-prepared for our round and I suspect others will be as well. This isn't a course to go casually play with your family unless they love that sort of thing...

You won't really test your entire game, at all...Tight wooded putter shots will be the name of the game here. If you need work with that sort of thing, this is a perfect place to start.

Plenty of ace runs to be had out here, all the while soaking up the natural beauty the blue ridge mountains have to offer. Don't expect to bomb out any drives, you'll be practicing your putt and approach. Bring hiking boots and plenty of liquids/food. You'll want to play Golden Bear too, it's the better of the two courses.

+Challenging
+Engraved signs at each tee pad
+Easy to drive to/free parking
+Bonus hole (#19) for tie-breakers

-Hard to navigate in spots
-Almost entirely wooded
-Some fairways feel almost non-existant
-Terrain can be very steep
-Occasionally the next tee pad is hundreds of feet from the current basket

The Black Bear course is fun overall but can be obnoxious with the amount of trees in the fairway and at times feels a little random. Certain holes, such as hole 14 are very steep and have virtually no fairway. Still worth playing but in my opinion it is not quite as good as the neighboring Golden Bear course.

1.Good use of elevation

2.Well placed in woods, one of the best woods courses I've played.

3. Variety of fairways, tight ones and open, fun for all.

4. Baskets easy to spot in woods.

1. No real open holes/long holes. With a few of these it would be a great course.

2. Easy to navigate once you play the course a couple of times but difficult for new players. Paint on the baskets pointing to the next hole would be nice.

3. Three medium length walks between holes. One shorter one between 5 and 6 and a long one between 11 and 12. Then a long one that can be confusing from 13 to 14. Cross the creek and follow the path.

4. Tee Pads. They look nice in the woods but they are all dirt (except 1 which is concrete). They get slippery in the rain.

This is my home course and I have played it more than any other course. For a course without any long holes it still has a good variety, some lefts, some rights, and you do still need a good variety of shots to play this course well.
The crowds have been lessened significantly when the added another 18. Trash isn't that big of a deal but a few trashcans would be nice (even though the people too lazy to carry out would probably still litter).

The use of woods is perfect on this course, been playing it all year since it opened and still finding myself in a new spots with new looks.
Best Holes: 3, 13, 16
Worst Holes: 7, 14

- Nice tee signs
- Good workout

- Bad tee pads
- Poor layout
- Long walks between holes
- Workout

Miss the old Golden, just because you put in 36 holes doesn't make it a good course. the tee pads are really rough ( saw a couple of near wipeouts because of dished fronts and obstruction). The numerous long walks between holes is a big part of the poor layout. Some of the fairways could use work to keep shots from being pure luck. Overall i was disappointed with this course. I think it really shows, not just anyone should be able to design a course.

- Nice small wooden signs
- Good course to practice mids
- Nice park
- Orange flags marking trail to next tee

- unlevel natural tees
- trails are muddy
- difficult to find blue tees
- red tees are silly short even for rec level (<100')
- a little repetitive wooded 200' holes

I had high hopes when I pulled into the parking lot and saw all the signs and pavillion. But unfortunately I was underwhelmed by the actual course. The flow is a little odd with long walks across the creek and back just for two holes. Most of the tees are so small or rough that all that's safe is "stand-still"; which is okay since none of the holes are long enough to require more than that. It's a good course to go practice your up-shots and you won't need more than mids and putters. Maybe they can find some places to add longer tees.

Weaves through the woods. Some of the original great woods shots are saved

Mando signs can't be read from tee pads. Wooden signs pointing directions to baskets are very hard to see. (maybe paint them). 2 of the worst walks I've ever experience on a woods course where disc golf is the only thing other than nature trails. Tee pads are awful. Really seems half done and half luck in the woods and too much uphill walking and bad disc golf

Really disappointed in general. Signage is nice. Even short holes can be fun. Experienced players need a mid range and putter. Okay beginner and rec course but the flow is so bad it's hard to even recommend for thar

1. Large natural tee pads
2. Tees have distance, map, and elevation change
3. Multiple tees
4. Easy navigation
5. Great use of elevation changes throughout the course
6. Benches at some holes

1. No trash cans
2. Undergrowth, but as it's played more it will get better
3. Tight paths and a couple long walks between holes

So this course was split from the old Golden Hills course. The first 5 holes are from the old course and I believe all the others are new. Course has a really good layout through the woods and mountain. Undergrowth is still rough because it hasn't been played much since it opened. All par 3's and really a fun and easy course with plenty of short holes that can bring you back from a bad throw. Ends at the parking lot which is nice. If you have played the old course pay close attention to the orange flags so you don't start playing the Golden Bear course. LOVE hole 3. The park has a portapotty, 2 practice baskets, and a pavilion. Update sidenote - How about instead of thumbsdowning the only 2 reviews you post a review? The review below has 5 thumbs down and 2 ups, and only 5 people have marked this course as played so you people need to chill out.

- Beautiful trails, great hike
- Carved Wooden tee signs
- Orange marker flags help first timers
- Elevation changes make for pretty shots

- Layout could use an edit. Four holes in a row are straight up hill and can be frustrating.
- Trash throughout course. Needs a disc golf clean up day.
Graffiti: People, if you ace a hole, celebrate! Then go on with your day. Don't then whip out your sharpie and write your name on the sign. Act like you've been there before.

The area is a gorgeous part of the state, but this course could greatly benefit from a redesign of half the holes and better maintenance.