Pros:
Konarcik Park has a really nice disc golf course. There is a balance of five wooded shots, five shots with the Lollipop Pines in the fairway, and eight park-style shots. The park has a nice rolling terrain so the course has nice elevation changes. Holes 2, 4, 14 and 18 are over 400' with 18 being in the 700' range. Holes 5 and 9 are ace runs. The wooded shots are on the shorter side, but holes 6, 10 and 12 pitch up and play longer than they measure. The course has good variety and can play somewhat tough. It creates an Advanced/Intermediate challenge while retaining a lot of fun elements, so the course can cater to a wide variety of golfers.
The course has Gateway Titans in good condition. The course originally had two dirt tee areas and two pin placements per hole. The course now has one concrete tee and on some holes the old second tee placement can be found, but they used a mix of white and blue placements for the concrete tees so it can be confusing trying to find them. The tee signs are still the old signs showing the multiple tees and listing multiple tee distances.
There are a couple of creeks that can come into play and a pond that I guess you could throw into on seven, but there is no real water carry on the course and no real OB issues. There is a mando on hole four to keep you away from the ball field on the right.
The course is a bit in the middle of nowhere, but as you pull in there is a sign directing you to parking and the first tee.
Cons:
There are some flow issues here. Holes 1-6 flow fairly well, but when you walk out of the woods there isn't a sign to get you to 7. 7-8 are pretty easy to figure out, but there needs to be a sign by 8 telling you what path to take to hole 9. The 9-10 transition isn't the best and could use a sign. The transition from 11 to 12 is the really long, golfless walk and it does have a sign once you walk down the hill from 11, but there needs to be a sign near the basket to tell you down the hill Is the way you should go. 16 to 17 is another long walk and it's confusing which way to go from 16's short placement. Finally 17 to 18 is another long golfless walk. There are a few "next tee" signs, but not nearly enough to accommodate the meandering flow.
The basket for 15 is kinda stuck in the area of 7's basket and 8's tee, which in most cases I wouldn't mention but the reason for all the wandering on McCormack courses is to get good shots that don't conflict with each other. It was weird to see that shot sorta crammed in on a McCormack course. Hole 9 as well is kinda sorta close to a playground and isn't a great hole. It also has a weird flow from 9 to 10. It seems like there would have been someplace in that park for a better hole and the flow from 8-10 would have been better. Again, I wouldn't mention it except it was weird to see on a McCormack course.
The Lollipop Pine holes are really tight lines; at my skill level I end up playing poke and pray and try to sneak something around them. There is a lot of air there so it works most of the time. If you were really insistent on threading the needle on those holes, the lines are probably a little too tight on them.
Not a con to me but a criticism I have heard is that it isn't a "hard" course. Some of the St. Louis course are used for an A tier and have long, pro-challenging placements that this course lacks. If you are looking for the hardest of hard courses, Konarcik Park isn't that course.
Other Thoughts:
Waterloo is on the way to... Waterloo? It's a good 25-30 minutes from Jefferson Barracks to Konarcik Park, which makes it hard to add into a day of disc golf. The course is a bit overlooked in the St. Louis area.
I've wondered why Jefferson Barracks has such a better reputation than Konarcik Park because on most days they play to about the same difficulty level. My guess is that Waterloo doesn't host a PDGA event and doesn't have a tricked-out pro-challenging pin placement like Jefferson Barracks does. Jefferson Barracks is rarely set up in that all-long setup and on most days plays a lot like Waterloo, but the fact that it can be set up in a tricked-out pro-challenging setup helps with the reputation. Konarcik Park just doesn't have that.
Every time I walk away from this course, I'm glad I made the trip. It's a fun round with a healthy amount of challenge. It's got good variety and makes for a good round for a wide variety of skill levels. Waterloo is a bit of a trek, but it's worth the driving time to check this course out.