Ironworks Hills DGC is a nice 18 hole course with great tees, signs and baskets. There is a bit of everything, it takes a balanced game to get around and score well. The frequent elevation changes are not huge, but not subtle either. The woods can be dense, but several holes are mostly open, and usually require big drives. Layout is good for the parcel of land it is on, and mostly pretty easy to follow.

Birdie chances are there on most holes if you execute off the tee. The par 4 holes (three of them) are different from one another. 6 starts in the open leading into the woods, and you need a good 2nd shot to get the birdie. 9 is wide open and basically flat, if the wind isn't strong, much easier to get a stroke back. 14 is a just a twisted monster hiding in the woods. Good luck on that one, you'll probably need it.

Many of the par 3 holes are really fun too. I liked hole 2 very much. A thin gap in the trees gives passage down the steep hill to a basket in the flat lawn below. Putter flick put me close, but caught just enough limb to push it outside of my reliable putting range. 7 was a cool left to right downhill with a mando. 11, 12, and 13 play short, but tight lines in the trees take great accuracy and/or luck to pass through unscathed. 17 is longish, but has enough downhill slope to give you a shot if you nail it off the box. I did and made the putt, making it my best hole of the day for sure.

The fairgrounds and adjacent woods were well kept and very clean. You can see the players and staff here take great care of the place.

A couple of the wooded holes have extremely difficult windows, nearly too small to hit. On the other hand, open holes can be too open, like on 8 and 9, but there isn't much to be done there, outside of plant more trees and wait.

Overall a fun course, with fresh gear, and great mix of disc golf throws. I shot a 62 (+5) with 2 birdies, on 9 and 17. 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13 and 14 all dealt bogies. Lots of room for improvement, just not enough time to go back to back.

Worth checking out if you are nearby, for sure. Enough great courses in the region to make Ironworks Hills a good addition to a killer road trip.

After its major redesign which added variety and a full 18 hole round, this course now contains some serious fun factor. The old nine hole course was touted as the longest such in Kentucky, so most of the new shots are shorter and technical woods holes, giving the course an overall balance of nine big arm holes and now a full nine precision ones. With a course map/sign, mailbox for scorecards, and excellent new tee signs, each hole has (or will soon have) timber framed concrete tees and DGA Mach II baskets, improved with an extra set of chains to make them disc gobbling 24 chain styled. There are lots of bridges where needed, and they range from excellent (like those after hole 3) to utilitarian (after hole 5). There are some really well done stairs as well, the best being the much needed ones on hole 2, that are made from concrete filled old tires. Nice railings there, as well.

The disc play starts out just inside the fairgrounds gate with a couple of exciting short holes up and then down the ridge on your right. Hitting the tight line on #2 to park or ace the hole would thrill any player, not just the Intermediate skill folks for whom the overall course seems now to be targeted. (Did I just write that? My English teacher would be so proud.) After the longer, blind third hole, you'll re-enter the woods for a couple of shorties, including the ace run 5th, where you'll want to just empty your bag trying to run the back-stopped basket. (Careful, I found a disc obviously left behind after somebody's tree kick; but it's easy to lose count if you're throwing them all!). Then it's out to the middle of the field & back, a couple of holes for the big arms, and on to the back nine.

This is where the course gets really fun. Entering with a naturally fading downhiller on 10 (the basket is just below the big Sycamore), you get to thread through the tight tree gaps for a few short holes, reaching the 'Lord of the Rings' guardian trees in front of 13's slightly raised basket. Extra compliments on the use of the 8 foot high durable plastic snow fencing guarding the 11th tee and the 14th fairway! 14 is the creek meandering, downhill, 420 foot 'Beast', where good judgment and control are the only way to tame it. Hole 15 lets the big hyzer guys show off (at least until the newly planted white pines grow in), before you crank a tight, firm shot out of a woods gap to the open on 16 (similar to the new #6 tee). The last two holes work downhill to surprisingly tricky basket positions (slope beyond on 17, and island green on 18).

Thoughtful design and an eye towards the future mean this fun course will hopefully stay exciting for years. Where needed, a tee position has been pulled back a little into the woods to emphasize the desired line, rather than getting away with the sky hyzer line that opened up with a new line of telephone poles. The aforementioned pine saplings now ring basket positions to make them trickier in just a few years. The punishing tight woods lines will open up over time and use. And there are multiple pin positions on several holes to control erosion and increase the variety. Kudos!

Though the flow is fairly intuitive in most places, there are currently a limited number of signs for the 'next tee' (needed going to 2, 3, 10 & 17). The tees are varied right now: most of the old ones are good-sized concrete, but 7-9 are oddly small. The new holes (2, 10-16 & 18) are boxed and mulched, awaiting the park's commitment to the upgrade. And in the wetter seasons, the holes down on the flats and in the first section of woods seem to hold on to some mud. Oddly, I felt the new woods holes didn't have this problem, except around the 10th basket, which they plan to build up with mulch from the cleared debris.

Careful: hole 7's tee pad is aimed straight at the woods, but the basket is a good 25-30 degrees left of that line. Finally, the parking for disc golf is limited. With the gate being closed at 4:30, there's only space for a couple of cars outside, near hole 1. When available, and not busy with other fairgrounds activities, the lot up above hole 8 might be best, but that overflows in such a way that non-players (say, horse folks at a competition) seem to want to park too close to that basket.

I lucked out meeting Lewis and Matt (happy birthday, even though I doubled your age the week before!) wrapping up one of their obviously weekly Saturday work sessions, and got to play the new half of the course with the guys who've been doing all the work. Saw the last of the new tee signs installed, and heard about the plans. This is a fun course that deserves not just the regular Thursday night leagues and an occasional tourney, but some out of towners stopping in to check it out. It's worth a visit!