Johnson Park is an 18 hole course located in Racine . Drop by a bakery if out of town and order a Kringle for you and a friend . They are the Best . There is a parking lot , big enough to handle a decent crowd . The park is multi use , so be aware .
The Equipment : The tees vary on this course , from pavers , to Rubber , to dirt , and other items in between . Standard DGA's for baskets here , says Gateway Titans on the front , but ..... Hey , there is literally NO signage here . There are some mowed paths to try to keep you on the right track . You might have to walk down the fairway to figure out where the basket is . There are alternate pin positions here ( I almost tripped on a couple ) .
The Landscape : This course can roll , it can jump to plateaus , it can cross a gully or 2 . The basket can sit on a hill . Not a scenic walk , and not a typical park style course , except for the very beginning and the last couple of holes . There is a creek that will come into play on a few of the holes , too . There is some dense rough all over the course . Make sure you follow a ricochet drive or you will be looking for a while . It is fun to try to guess the mowed path you are supposed to be on while playing here .
The Highlights . Hole #1 is a good started hole . You drive drops down and the green and basket are on a level piece of ground up on a hill . with low canopy trees blocking serious attempts at the basket . #2 is a gully shot with a tight fairway . #3 is another gully shot with the basket perched on the side of the hill to the right . Perfect angl for a rollaway . After that , I am guessing which hole is which . On of the holes is a downhill drive where the fairway is an S curve . One has a drive right to left to an elevated basket sitting on a hill with a creek right behind it .
Signature Hole : #15 ? The fairway starts uphill through a narrow pass , and opens up a little to an elevated basket . It is the best looking hole on the course
The course design is very good here . Designer Brandon Thenault should be proud . Solid holes .
Time : It took me ,,,, I don't know how long it took me . I think I am still out there looking for hole 12. Try to pair up with a local . You can navigate with them in just over an hour .

#s 1-4 Navigation : I deducted 1/2 point right off the top for navigation issues . Of all the courses that I have played , this one needs an online map or one in the kiosk possibly the most . Even though there are paths cut out of the long rough that sits everywhere , , sometimes those paths split off into different directions . You may wind up at some tee pad , but because there is no signage at the tees , you aren't sure if you skipped holes or not .A Twilight Zone episode at it's best . Be prepared for walks between holes . Bring water for yourself ,,,, and a compass .
Disc Risk . High . There was a family of 5 that came out of the woods and asked to borrow dscs in order to finish their round . They were almost out of all of theirs . I Never heard that before !! Take turns spotting . The grass is high , the course can become technical ( ricochets ) and the creek can be high after a rain .
The Elements . Speaking of rain and the elements . This course will be tough to play after a good rain . Too many steep hills without steps and creeks to navigate . Wear boots ,waterproof if possible . I saw a couple of snakes while playing here . Also , be careful reaching for a disc in the high grass .
Equipment . No tee signs ? No Map ? This course has been around for 4 years ( 2016 ) . This course is in dire need of both ,,,, And Next Tee Signs , too .

The course , even with all of the cons , is still a good one . I like the design , but I could never grade it higher until they control the rough and add navigation and at least a pole with a number on it for a sign . Lots of good holes here . I just can't guarantee that you will find and play them all . If all else fails , go to the bakery in Racine and tell them you want a Kringle . Don't let this side trip be in vain .
My Recommendation . Absolutely not for newbies or families . 1 Discers will possible be O discers before holes 12 . Local ams or intermediates might like it here . There were several groups out here when I played . Pros might even get some good practice here . I don't normally say this , but it is a terrible play for the traveler , or out of towner or Course Collector . Too much time is wasted looking for your discs and the holes . You might want to skip this one at present , at least until they have time to straighten out the flaws . It is a shame because the course is good otherwise .

We'll start with the good - the pure quality of golf at this course is very good to excellent, and gave me vibes of Kaposia Park in St. Paul, MN. Really good use of elevation, fair, but challenging fairways and lines to hit, solid variety in length, direction, and general "type" of hole. Risk/Reward was very prominent - you play close to the Root River a few times, and if the river's running high, you'll have a flooded ravine early in the course to contend with. Several baskets had serious elevation challenges to contend with...you'll be dealing with championship rolls here often if you're not careful.

Outside of a couple of natural tees (this is very clearly a "work in progress" course), the tees for this course were a mixture of brick-lattice and hard plastic tees - they got the job done and were all plenty big. Baskets were a mix - there was a random Innova Discatcher in there, but most were of some triple-chain variety that I didn't recognize, but caught really well. Trash cans were present at at least a majority of holes.

Seemed like every hole had multiple pin positions, from what I remember. The rough was not as bad as it appears at first glance, but still could get pretty gnarly if you really shank a drive.

Navigation - I'm not going to sugar coat this...the navigation was extremely frustrating. I'm not lying or exaggerating to say that progressing through this course is the most difficult time I've ever had at a disc golf course, and that I was incredibly lucky to catch up to a couple of players who let me follow them through the meat of the course...I nearly walked off in frustration, it got so bad. I remember exactly one tee sign on the course showing hole number or distance, and outside of a handful of random wooden signs saying "hole X" so as to suggest to walk a certain way to get there...good luck trying to figure out the hole to hole transitions on your own. Basically "look for worn down grass moving away from the basket, there ain't much else".

Making things more frustrating was that a map of the course was basically impossible to find online (nothing on DGCR, or at the course itself), and when I asked the guys I followed where on Earth I could find this, they suggested using UDisc...sorry dudes, I know you mean well, but I'm not buying a subscription to UDisc to figure out where TF to go today.

Fair amount of blind holes, but many, if not all, had high flagpoles raised from the top of them to aid you with locating the basket if you couldn't see it from the tee. If you're playing by yourself, or are a first timer there, it would certainly not hurt to give the fairways a walkdown to check out where you're throwing regardless, though.

There was a prominent walking path criss-crossing this course with white spray-paint lines laid down denoting the path. I feel like something similar could have been used to denote the path from hole to hole, but a hint to keep in mind is that outside of a 75'-100' concurrent stroll down the walking path at one point, the hole to hole transitions , while crossing the walking path often, pretty much stayed distinct from the walking path. The continuation to the next hole was usually close to where you intersected with the walking path, so if you find yourself going down the walking path for any significant period of time, you probably are going the wrong way.

Overall, this course has real potential. It's obviously still a work in progress - one of the natural tees (maybe it was hole 8? It got tough to remember what hole was what, given the lack of tee signs) had a stack of bricks by it suggesting that another brick lattice tee was next to be laid down, but the navigation was such a problem that I couldn't rate it any higher than I did.

After speaking to members of the local disc golf community about the logistics of this particular course's maintenance, and coming to realize just how MUCH work has been put in (mostly) by a local player Brandon Theriault, how much of a labor of love this has been for him, and how little help he gets from the city, I am going to bump this review up a bit. The core issue still stands - the navigation at Johnson still needs a lot of work, but I am going to cut Brandon some slack - he works his ASS off to make this course a thing for the community.

This course is easily a 4 with better course navigation though, if not a 4.5. I hope to come back and play some time soon, and if the navigation improves significantly, this course is worth a trip out of your way to play.

-Good use of available elevation
-Good mix of tight, wooded lines and open prairie/park style holes
-Great location for course on underused section of public park
-Cool deck/rubber teepads on hole 7 and 10 with 10 having built-in bench
-Challenging basket locations, most seemed to be tucked up and away adding to the challenge of certain holes.
-Brand new Gateway baskets, first time I've ever played on them and they seemed to catch fairly well
-Low number of non-dg traffic most of the time I would guess. Unless there is a large gathering at the park in which case Hole 1, 17 and 18 would become unplayable.

-Trash; I have never seen so much trash pile up so quickly on such a brand new course. Really disappointing to see especially with the number of trash cans and trash bags out on the course.
-Lack of signage, not a huge con because the course is so new and I expect that to change
-Natural teepads, sure concrete or more rubber pads are coming soon
-Long walks between some holes but not a big deal as there was plenty of orange paint and next tee signs while I was there and I am sure these will be upgraded as well.
-Rough is exactly that on some holes, rough. This will improve as the course breaks in and really makes you concentrate more on each shot.

Came to check this course out over the weekend. Course itself is laid out very well and I can't wait to see what this course will look like as it breaks in more. Very rough around the edges but there is a very solid design in place here.

It was very refreshing/challenging/intimidating to see the number of dog legs (left and right) and other types of blind shots here add to the level of difficulty. This could be a con to some and I definitely had to take my time and scout the fairway before each tee shot but it made for a very rewarding feeling to come back after and find my disc/discs in the fairway most of the time.

Did see some paint for long and short tees on a couple of holes which will really add to the appeal of this course.

I will definitely be coming back and it is certainly worth a stop if you're in Racine.

-close to Milwaukee metro
-a cool mix of park golf, prairie golf, tight woods, elevation, blind
-walking from hole to hole is pleasant
-couple of cool benches
-challenging fairways and nice basket placements
-baskets are really cool

-the course still seems a little rough cause it's pretty new
-garbage cans should be bigger
-concrete tee pads would be nice, sure its coming
-prairie grass is really high easy to loose discs

nice to see another course pop up. makes trips to racine kenosha area better with more options other than parkside. this course is high risk/reward. you could easily be scrambling out of some mess if you go too far off the fairways. once this course is more worn in, maybe with a few improvements and alternate pin placements it could be better than just above average. If you don't end up looking for too many discs you should have a pretty fun time