-Beginner oriented nine hole course in a pretty park with lush grass under a mature oak canopy
-Distances (130-240') are appropriate for the target audience
-Most holes require some line shaping
-The baskets for holes 2, 3, 7, and to some degree 9 are tucked into the wood line
-Porta john at the parking lot
-With the exception of hole 1, this is a safe design with baskets away from roads or places where other park users congregate.
-Nice green powder-coated DGA baskets

-Natural tees are already showing wear. Two were worn to bare dirt.
-No tee signs
-Front of tees are marked with spray painted foul lines and hole numbers
-Holes 4, 5 and 6 play parallel to one another and in the same direction. So much backtracking in such a small space. Such poor design.
-Navigation is difficult due to the lack of easily visible tee markings and non-intuitive routing. The app that shall not be named **cough**UDISC**cough** saved me a bunch of time with the map.
-Hole 1 plays closer than I'd like to a heavily used little league field. No real danger of hitting the field itself, but spectators behind the dugout on the first base side are potentially in play.
-Holes 1 (200' and wide open) and 7 (131' and accessible with straight and left to right throws) are just too easy for most players

The experience here will be dictated by whether or not there's a little league game going on when you play. We arrived just after the last game of the day had finished and decided to skip hole 1 while the players and their families were filtering towards the parking lot or street parking. Holes 1, 4, 5 and 6 will have some game traffic as teams are arriving and leaving. Everyone had cleared out by the time we got to hole 4 and we played hole 1 after hole 9.

The baskets feature a lightly padded fabric wrap around the post. The branding sounds like it's intended to reduce noise, but it may also result in reduced bounce backs. I use piece of a pipe insulation to quiet my practice basket, but I've never seen something similar on a (maybe) permanent course.

Is this course in its finished state? Could the layout be a work in progress? Actual tees and signage in the works? I have no idea, but reversing hole 5 would be an easy upgrade. Ideal plan would be to utilize some of the densely wooded area and remove a couple holes and reroute the 1-6 cluster-funk.

I agree with everything in the excellent review below, outside of the description of the neighborhood on the other side of the river. Lyons and Riverside Lawn are pretty run of the mill working class suburbs. Riverside proper, where the course itself is located, is fairly bougie. On the south side of the bridge, you'll find Stella's which offers Chicago style fast food (Italian beef, hot dogs, Maxwell street polish, etc.) and covered batting cages. My uncle lived a block from Stella's when I was growing up, so maybe I'm biased, but I've played dg in way sketchier areas than this.

- well maintained park
- brand new green DGA baskets
- next tee indicators on baskets
- ample parking
- navigation flows fairly logically
- disc golf area is mostly separate in multi-use park
- opportunities for deer spotting
- porta potties and a few garbage cans
- good place for beginners to start testing some obstacles with limited distance

- virtually no amenities
- natural tees only marked with spray paint
- no tee signs
- entirely flat
- limited obstacles and technical challenge
- backtracking between a few holes
- safety hazards due to compactness of course
- vibe that this community doesn't want disc golf around
- could be much more interesting with woods more in play
- general area is not the nicest

Indian Gardens is a brand new course in the Chicago suburbs, and the first new course within 45 minutes of me in some time, so I had to check it out. This course is never going to be a destination, but has some potential. I hope they are not finished, as it was just installed this year and is desperately in need of some navigational aids and tee signs.

The course is relatively uninspiring as its completely flat and while moderately wooded on some holes, is mostly devoid of major obstacles while also being shot in distance. The wooded area near holes 2 and 3 looked cool; it's a shame this was not incorporated. The flow of the course is fairly logical but it's incredibly difficult to find the spray painted marks for the tees on the ground unless you are within about 10 ft. These won't hold up long either, so hopefully something more permanent is planned.

The baskets here are very nice and new, and some are shrouded in more wooded areas to make some approach challenges at a minimum. Holes 1-6 are crammed into a pretty tight area of the park and while I don't see this course getting very busy, if multiple people are throwing there would be safety concerns.

The area seems very concerned about disc golf in general; this course page says "please be respectful of our neighbors" and there are pads on the poles to mute the sound of the chains. I've never seen this, and I don't really think chains clinking is that loud anyway. If that's how disc golf is able to coexist in Riverside, so be it I guess, but I think it takes away from the feel of the course - love me some chain banging noise.

Holes 4, 5, and 6 all throw the same direction and force considerable backtracking so none are throwing towards the road and the houses across the street. Again, it feels like the community didn't want this course here, and makes me wonder if it just shouldn't have been put in. Maybe the designer was just paranoid, I don't know. This admittedly keeps discs from being directed towards the houses at all.

After hole 6 you have to cross the entrance drive to play 7-9 and that loops you back to the parking lot.

With some tee signs and directional aids added, I could see this course being a 2 or even a 2.5. It's a decent course with some improvements in a pretty nice park. Riverside itself seems ok and the neighborhood right by the course is very nice. However, the area you drive through on the way in is much worse, and I wouldn't want to be there at night.

Overall, this one's more of a bagger than something worth traveling to. It would be a quick round if you could find the tees, but in its present state its fairly frustrating. There are some mature trees and so it's a good "next step" for someone who has only played wide open courses, but anyone with significant experience is going to be a bit bored here.