Hocking Peaks DGC course is located off Route 664 just outside Logan, Ohio in the Hocking Hills Region. The hills provide beauty as well as challenge on this 18-hole, par-61 course. Enter the park through the large gate and proceed to the traffic director. From here they will send you further into the park to the clubhouse near the start of the course to pay for your round.
Once you've paid, head to the rear of the clubhouse and head up the concrete stairs to your right. The tee pads, pro and amateur, for hole 1 will be on the hill at the top of the stairs, just to your right.
The first three holes are all wide open with well-mowed grassy fairways. While the fairways are mowed, go off of them and you will be punished. The rough is tall grass with a mix of thorn bushes and other weeds. Not only can you come out with cuts and possibly bleeding, finding your disc to begin with can be a challenge. These holes also have elevation in play, but nearly every hole on the course has some elevation change come into play.
Hole 4 is one of the more unique holes that I have played. The tee pad is near the top of of a small ravine with a small creek in the bottom. The very tight, wooded fairway plays the length of the creek, using the area above the creek as the actual fairway. The basket sits just to the right of the creek near the bottom of the ravine.
After hole 4 you will come back out of the small wooded area, the tee pad just on the edge of the woods is hole 9. Continue up the hill past this tee pad and the tee pad for hole 5 is about 10-20 yards away. Hole 5 is a wide open shot, again it has a nicely mowed grassy fairway, with tall grass as the rough. Another nice uphill elevation change adds challenge to what would otherwise be a fairly plain hole.
Hole 6 takes you back into the woods with a short, but tightly wooded, ravine shot. This time you won't be playing down the length of the ravine, but across. The basket is hard to spot, but if you walk to the right of the tee pad you can see it just left and behind the platforms for the zip line. This hole is also the first that plays around the zip line course. While there was no one on the course while we were visiting, please be careful of riders that might come into play on the next few holes.
Hole 7 is a short, extreme downhill shot. Moderately wooded, this can be a very easy birdie, but if you do overshoot the hole, or come up short, the rough can easily hide your disc and is made up mostly of thorn bushes. Also be careful on this one as you make your way from the tee pad to the basket. The hill is very steep and the path is small to non-existent, sticks, logs, and leaves all make the footing very unsure. It is also very slippery when wet so be sure to take your time. They could really use some stairs, bridge, or rope railing here to hold onto as you make your way down.
Hole 8 is a beautiful wooded downhill shot. It plays near a small creek and has many trees to protect the basket. Another one where you should watch your footing. The small creek that runs near the basket has mudd that feels like quick sand. I had a small mis-step and sank past my ankles, nearly losing my shoe. While I'm sure this isn't a problem all year round, it is something to look out for if there is water in the creek.
Hole 9, one of my favorites on the course, is a mostly open hole with one catch. About 50 feet of the tee pad is a thick patch of trees with an almost circular window to toss through. If you don't make it your disc can end up sitting pretty bad either on the same/wrong side of the woods, or down in the small ravine that holds the fairway/basket for hole 4. From the woods/ravine its another 300 feet to the basket, so its not a place you want to be and a great upshot would be needed to make 3 from the woods.
Once you are finished with hole 9 make your way back down the stairs you started on and back down to the clubhouse. This would be a great time to stock up on beverages and/or snacks either at the clubhouse or your car. At this point we had been playing about an hour and a half and obviously were only nine holes in. Once you have your beverages make your way up the other set of stairs opposite the ones you just came down to get to the back nine.
The tee pad for hole 10 will be right at the top of the stairs. The hole is one of the easier, more straight forward holes on the course and shouldn't pose any problems as long as you stay out of the rough, it can be thick on both sides of the fairway.
Hole 11, another shot over a small ravine with water, is the last wooded hole on the course. Short but techincal, it can go either way. Make it through the trees and easy par. Catch a bad bounce of a tree and your shot can leave you with a lot of work, either down in the ravine, deeper in the woods, or with the same shot to contend with again if you hit a tree early.
HOle 12, another one of my favorites really took us by surprise. By this point you will have thrown a couple different holes that look exactly like this one from the start. Just in front of the tee pad is a rolling hill with the basket over the hill down a perfectly mowed fairway. Only this hole is different. Once you throw over the hill your next shot will have to travel through a window of trees and over the small ravine from hole 11. From there just up a short hill to the basket. A lot of thought and planning had to go into this hole and the guys at Innova did a great job.
The rest of the holes, 13-18, are all pretty open. While normally I find this monotonous and boring theses holes still had character. Holes 13 and 14 have great elevations changes, of course, and also boast some of the best views of the Hocking Hills on the course. I could sit on the bench by the tee pad for 14 and watch the sunset over the hills, this is one of the most scenic course I have yet to play in the state of Ohio.
HOles 15 and 16 are two great sweepy downhill shots. Again the views are great and the holes themselves are beautiful with green, grassy, perfectly mowed fairways. The maintenance on the open holes really is incredible. The pathways from basket to the next tee pad are mowed as nicely as the fairways making navigation easy to see and follow, another great touch to this course that is not only functional, but also visually appealing.
Hole 17 is another must get bridie. A nice, short anhyzer (RHBH), go off the fairway and you can be in deep. The rough on holes 15-17 can be disc eaters so keep an eye on your discs and maybe even get a spotter down by the woods. I lost one on 16 and all three of use saw where it went in. Be especially careful in the rough on these three holes, the briars are particularly big and can really tear through some skin.
The last hole is pretty standard. A medium length hyzer shot over a rolling hill its nothing spectacular, but a decent finish to the course bringing you right back out at the clubhouse and the parking lot. The path back down to the clubhouse/parking is pretty much non-existent and you'll want to be careful making your way down. There are some holes and dips that could easily roll an ankle, but just be on the lookout and you should have no problems.
Overall I really enjoyed this course. Its one of the most visually appealing courses in Ohio and is fair for all levels of play. One thing you'll want to be aware of is the amount of time it takes to play the course. I think it ended up taking the three of us right around 3 hours or so to play all 18. That said, also keep in mind that they try to close around 6:00PM to 6:30PM and an employee must stay on property while you play. We got there late, around 6:20ish, they were suppose to close at 6:00. She politley asked if we could come back another day, but once she found out we drove an hour to play she kindly let us make our way up to the clubhouse to pay and start our round. This really made our day and I give a big shout out to the staff. We made sure we left a little extra for the attendant to make it worth her time as we really appreciated getting to play the course. One last thing you'll want to know before you head to this course is that it is a hike. Elevation is present on every hole and there is a lot of walking up and down fairly large hills. None of us are in great shape by any means and we made it through, but there were some breathless moments for all of us for sure.
I only have a couple knocks on the course, and none of them will really keep me from playing this one again. The first, and biggest con, is having to pay $5 per round for a course with natural tees. I think for that price some concrete or rubber tees are in order. The other cons, using that term loosely, would just be from the lack of traffic or newness of the course. Some of the wooded fairways don't really have paths worn/cleared making footing pretty rough in some spots. I'm sure that it will get a lot better over time and become less of an issue. The course could also use some trash cans, there are none on the course, and a few more benches throughout.
The pros on this course more than outweigh the cons so if you are in the area stop by and check it out. The park has many other activities as well so you could make a day, or weekend trip easily. Besides disc golf they have a zip line and ropes course, giant water slide, paintball, atv rentals, and OGO Ball (Look it up.) I can't wait to get back out and check out some other activities as well as play this course a few more times.