The Hopewell Middle School DGC is a nine-hole, par 19 layout ringing up at just 1125'. The course is short, as the length and par let on, but the heavily wooded holes help make up for where distance lacks. While the course is open to the public during non-school hours, one would assume that the intended players are kids and non-traditional disc golfers. In that regard, the distances make sense and are appropriate. For the experienced golfer, even recreational tournament players, this course could be compared to a putt putt course for the stick golfer. Taking all things into account, I had a reasonably fun round here.

Hole one was easy to find (behind Basketball courts at the foot of the bridge) and the layout, being so short, was easy to follow. The rubber tees were in good shape and did more in the way of identifying the next tee than anything else. After all, you'll find a run up is never necessary. The green prodigy baskets are bright enough to spot in the woods and of course they are in near brand-new condition. The course loops around with nine ending near hole one.

Over all, despite the heavily wooded and short layout, the course offered all the diversity it could muster. Namely a few left and right turning shots with a little elevation here and there. There are a few holes where a creek comes into play, and with it a couple deep ravines that you'll definitely want to stay out of. Hole eight might have been the most remarkable with a tunnel shot following a concrete retaining wall that can be used to your advantage if playing the bounce off towards the basket. As might be expected, hole seven, the only par 3 on the course, is probably the toughest hole. There you'll find the most obstacles and quite surprisingly for a 171' hole, the potential for a youngster to get in whole lot of trouble.

Like I said, I thought the distances for the course were appropriate given the audience. But I think for the intended user, the course could be cleaned up a bit. There is a big difference between a challenging fairway and one that is not suitably cleaned up at installation or properly maintained. Most of them did have passable lines but others were sketchy. But if nothing more than for the sake of aesthetics, safety, and at times clearer site lines to the basket, some thoughtful pruning would have been welcomed. There's some briars off the beaten path and several areas where you need to look out for barbed wire, both on a fence near a basket and random strands on the ground.

Speaking of safety, I thought hole 7 was something else. I am not sure of the level of experience or skill of these school kids, but this hole was rough. For a new DG playing kid, I imagine it must be like a stroll through a morgue or watching genuine autopsy footage, only satisfying those with a grimmest of appetites. For those of them that are not gore hounds, they'll be looking out for the tee pad that greets them with a 15' deep cliff just off the front of the pad. The hole continues around the rim of the gorge playing down to yet another shallower gorge to the basket. Nothing most folks can't handle, I just know how parents can be with kids involved.

Kudo's to the person/folks who made this course possible. I think it's really cool that DG is available to school kids on their school grounds. I wish I was introduced to the sport sooner and had a chance to play at PE, etc.

The neighboring Northwestern Middle School, just 10 minutes away, is the Polar opposite wide-open cousin of Hopewell. But being so close to one another, if you are looking for some short holes to introduce kids to the sport, you might as well hit them both. Moreover, a little farther away is the par 2 course in Woodstock, Dupree Park, with a balanced mix of hole types but keeping with the short hole theme.

For the more serious golfers, I found it worth a stop to play it once to add another to the "played course" list.

Like the few other short school/church courses I've reviewed, it's always tough to give it a fair rating. After all, for what it's designed for, it would probably rate higher than a general rating that users look for in a course on this site. For that reason, I am going to rate it as a solid 1.5. For a school course, I'd give it a 3.