Kiwanis is a great course. The most obvious pro, to me, is the variety in the holes. The course makes great use of the land in the park - no two holes are alike. The course provides plenty of chances to air it out, but also has plenty of technical, wooded holes. With two tees (red = short, blue = long) and two baskets (yellow = short, orange = long) on almost every hole, the course appeals to recreational players as well as pros. I would recommend playing a few rounds here, if you have time, and taking advantage of the different tee/basket combinations.

The course has clearly gotten a lot of TLC since some of the early reviews were written. All of the baskets are very nice and appear to be new. The course layout has been redone recently and is very well thought out. The long (orange) basket for #9 serves as a practice basket, and there is actually enough room to throw drives and use it as a practice hole, which I've never seen before. The bulletin board by the tennis courts has information about upcoming events, and scorecards/maps and pencils can be found in the mailbox by the blue tee for #1.

I really only have two complaints about this course, and I have a feeling that they will be addressed eventually so I'm not losing sleep over them. First of all, the tees are all natural - usually I don't mind this much, but I just played a tournament here in the rain and the tees were quite problematic. Also, they are marked by pavers in the ground, which are tough to see sometimes. Framed-in tees would provide more traction, and would also be easier to find.

My second complaint is the lack of signage on the course. There are tee signs on some holes, but not all of them. This is probably due to recent changes in the course, though. Also, there are a few signs pointing to the next tees, but there need to be more. The map provided on the back of the scorecard is very helpful, though, so be sure to pick one up.

#9 was the hardest tee for me to find - after finishing hole 8, follow the fence past the baseball field and down the hill towards the road. The red tee throws between the two big trees, with the basket straight ahead about 400 ft. This tee would be a lot easier to find if there were a sign, but once you play it once it's not a big deal.

Overall I think that Kiwanis is a great course. It's well worth the 40-minute drive from Charlottesville, and if you're ever in the area I definitely recommend checking it out (it's only 5 minutes from 81).

I have heard people say that this is the 4th best course in the state, behind The Grange, Loriella, and Walnut Creek Park. I'd put this course above Loriella, but I think that Bryan Park in Richmond belongs in that conversation as well. All in all, a great course that is a must-play for Virginia disc golfers.

There's all kinds of variety here. You've got short tees and long tees. You've got 8 holes that have two permanent baskets; the extra orange baskets are snazzy. You've also got 6 holes on the back 9 with Gold basket positions. Add it all up and you've got 5 layouts to choose from! Throw in elevation variety on almost every hole and a decent amount of terrain variety. There are some holes in the woods, a few open grass, several with challenging foliage, and a few with scattered trees among nice grass. Oh yeah, there's fantastic length variety too. On the long layout I played (Blue tees to Orange baskets) there were all kinds of differing lengths (6<299/ 3<399/ 5<499/ 2<599/ 1 of 620/ 1 of 700).

-The natural tees are adequate, but it would help if they were framed, and a couple were sloping instead of level.
-There are some potential safety issues. On a few holes you throw dangerously close to park roads, and some shots can be hard to see cars.
-Navigation: Hopefully you can get a map on the score card near the course message board. Without a map it would be hard to find your way in a few places. Finding tee 3 would be confusing. Some tees were hard to find, even with the map. (Blue tee 9 was very hard to find; both of hole 14's and 18 Red tee were also hard to locate.) Some baskets were also hard to see from the tee.

Course Level of the long layout (Blue to Orange baskets) = Blue (most suited for Advanced players rated 925-975)

At a few spots the variety of layout options can become a weakness because the multiple baskets can make it hard to figure out which basket to throw to.

The tee signs were merely average with only the length on them. The rough is fairly open, but there were thorns, thick brush, and debris in places. There can be lots of wind on the open holes, and there was some soggy ground in some places.

I especially enjoyed the finishing holes, 17 & 18, because they feature the nice park setting of grass with scattered trees that I've really grown to like.

All in all it's a good course with a few aspects that could be a bit better. With all of the variety I bet the locals never get bored there, though.

NOTE: Look in the "Links/Files" section for my files with Hole-by-hole evaluations, and a more detailed Overall review. You can also read more of my reviews and rating notes at the Yahoo Group, DG Course Reviews, http://sports.groups.yahoo.co...ourseReviews/

With two sets of tee areas (red closer, blue farther) on each hole, and two baskets (yellow closer, orange farther) on 8 of the 18 holes (1,2,6,7,11,12,14,16). you can play the course in various ways.

Scorecards, with map, available at tee #1 (near practice basket, apparently former orange basket #9)

Signs, with distances, at most holes to help you find tees and baskets.

Nice variety of open, fully wooded, trees-partially-in-play holes, with left, right, S-shape, and straight shots all needed. Some minor change in elevation on most holes.

Favourite basket location: #2 orange, in the middle of a terraced mini-cliff.

Could not find sign on #9, #18.
Grass tee areas.
Tee areas marked by ground-level concrete red or blue squares in various states of (dis)repair which can be difficult to find.

Some parts of the course rather unattractive, in former (current?) dumping areas. Holes 7-8, 12-15, 14 in particular, not very attractive.

If there are no maps/scorecards at tee #1, this would be a difficult course for a first-time visitor to navigate.

The shortest course (red tees to yellow baskets) average ~265', the longest (blue to orange) just under 400', and the middle two are similar in length, averaging around 325'.

Info for #9:
- the orange basket no longer appears to serve that function - it is now the practice basket.
- the blue tee is near the parking lot behind home plate of the nearby baseball field
- the red tee is quite some distance away, near the road
- the closest basket is actually #10 - #9's is farther away, to the right of the white pine trees

Having multiple baskets along with multiple tees really allows a single piece of land to serve as many different courses.

Challenging course. Nice elevation changes.

It look like a real, actual dump. garbage everywhere. Cinder blocks, furniture and junk all over the place. Also, the tees are a little hard to find even with a map, which was poorly designed. Thorn bushes everywhere, too. Not a pretty course.

Has potential, but would need tons of work. Not sure how anyone could call it a beautiful course unless you were from New Jersey. Definitely not top rated, either. Bryan Park (Richmond) and Walnut Creek Park (Charlottesville) blow this course out of the water.

Lots of variety. Large course. Very addictive. Beautiful Park. A variety of baskets and tee boxes.

Bathrooms? Drink machine? Signage. A few bad tee boxes.

The Kiwanis Kourse at Montgomery Hall Park is awesome. I read in a Hampton Roads magazine that it was the fourth best rated course in Virginia. It's number two for me, after Hawk Hollow. Fortunately there was a good map on the back of the scorecard, because course navigation was difficult. The course was re-designed last year with a few new holes. It's not as much fun as the old course, but now it's a much "truer" disc golf course. Holes 9 and 18 are outstanding and there is a wide variety of other challenges on the course. A few of the tee boxes are terrible (uneven, uphill slant), and Hole 15 (new) is a throw-away, but the park is beautiful and uncrowded. This is a great course to visit. Staunton also has the Frontier Culture Museum and a recreation Shakespeare theater that are worse visiting. The Montgomery Hall Park Course is 3.5 hours from my home, but I plan on visiting three or four times a year. The course is very well maintained, but could use a lot more work to spruce it up. Try it, you'll like it!

Most holes have two pins, multiple tees, and even different possible pin placements. This cousre does do a great job of using park space. A great deal of variety in hole styles.

Just better signs, and tee markers.

Might have to exsercise some patients. During rec. sports seasons this is a very busy place, and some holes are dangerously close to fields: baseball, football, etc.

Good variety of holes, some open and grassy, some through the woods, some gradual uphill, some hills sloping to the left, others to the right. Makes good use of available park space.

Some holes are a bit rough (13 & 14) and be careful of poison ivy. Navigation could be a little better. I like the low impact paving stones as tee markers, but they were sometimes hard to find. We were lucky to have a guide our first time at this course.

Lucked into an informal tournament during our visit. Met lots of great people, and may have to make a return visit, if this is any indication of the typical Virginia Disc Golf Community. Great course! Kudos!

Length, park setting

No teepads, brutal rough on a few holes

The Kiwanis DGC at Montgomery Hall is about half classic park course, meaning it features well maintained and mostly open fairways, with enough shrubbery and trees to at least make you think, about one quarter classic Virginia woods course, and about one quarter ragged, high risk woods course, with thick undergrowth, watery bogs, and otherwise daunting tee shots. And finally, Montgomery Hall is very long, with par from the white tees (red tees play shorter) perhaps 66 or even higher. All 18 holes have both white and red tees, but unfortunately they are natural, and eight of the 18 holes also have dual pins. So the course doesn't have to be so long, but certainly is if you play white tees to long baskets.

The course starts off well; grab a map from the box near the tee, and let it fly through a tight spot of two cedar trees before an open and well mown field beyond. Get out into the field and you see one regular basket giving you a standard par 3 challenge, and beyond an orange basket back inside the treeline and adding 300 feet to the hole. So right away you get both sides of the course, if you play the long version of the hole; open park land, and tight mountain woods. Overall, the demands of the course are reasonable, with no fairways too tight, and really no hard curves or doglegs - so some players may even consider the course a little too straightforward. And on the more open holes it's mostly grip and rip, but with some slope or trees in play and thus in mind. Interesting basket placements also put some extra emphasis on your short game, for some holes. The long version of #11, for instance, puts the basket just over the lip of a very steep fall-off, with absolutely no room for error. The only concern is there are just a few holes where veering off the fairway is dangerous, with very thick undergrowth easily capable of snatching your disc. In addition, when I was last there in late spring 2009, two holes were made much harder due to the presence of basically an extraordinarily large mud puddle, and another nearby hole was cut across by a soccer field under construction. These cons may not be present in drier seasons, especially once the construction is done and the drainage is improved.

Those three or four holes in the thick woods and/or negatively affected by the construction aside, Montgomery Hall is a nice, flexible course that can be tailored to both your skill level and preference. Beginners can play red tee to silver basket, those who don't like the woods can mitigate that factor to some degree by not playing to the orange baskets, and everyone else can play a long course that requires both distance and control.

I've often wished that the many nice parks throughout the state also featured disc golf, and I've often wished that the many fine disc golf courses throughout the state were just a bit longer - Montgomery Hall succeeds on both counts. I hope that Montgomery Hall represents an evolution in Virginia disc golf, from the older short courses set in unused woods far from the main area of otherwise nice parks to long, well cared for courses playing in and around the main part of parks without interfering. Because there is plenty of space in the state for more fine courses like Montgomery Hall.

Favorite Hole - #17 - Slight downhill shot through a grove of large oaks and maples.