- cool creek hazard on holes 1 and 9
- well maintained park
- variety of brick and rubber tees are generally serviceable
- large tee signs with maps
- hole numbers on baskets
- baskets are serviceable
- tried to incorporate limited elevation change on holes 5 and 8
- some variety in hole lengths
- course map

- essentially entirely flat with some very limited (<10') elevation changes
- major, major safety hazards everywhere
- while baskets are serviceable, these older Innova DISCatchers only have one layer of chains and could be improved upon
- flow is weird and involves crossing fairways
- navigation isn't really intuitive
- virtually no obstacles on holes 2-8
- likely can't play full course if baseball is going on
- no real amenities; no bathrooms, practice basket, etc.

Leo Leathers Park feels like another one of those Chicago nine hole courses where some park designer who had never played disc golf was like "hell, every other city has a disc golf course, this park has unused grass, let's put it in!" - and then proceeded to put in one of the most mediocre courses you could imagine.

The equipment here actually is pretty decent. However most of the holes are wide open, flat, and very repetitive. I can't imagine anyone but the newest beginner enjoying this, though if you lived in the neighborhood I suppose having this course so close would be nice.

With the relative boredom of the course and the endless list of safety hazards, I really can't in good conscience give this course any more than a 1. There are signs on the entry drive warning of low flying discs since holes 1 and 9 throw over the drive - cmon, if you had to create a sign for this you should know how bad an idea it is. Similarly, many fairways play WAY too close to each other, especially for such a beginner-geared course. Walking from hole to hole causes you to cross near fairways which isn't great either. Thankfully, no shots really throw towards the playground, which is the cardinal "municipal park safety sin" in my book. Only one other person was playing while I was here, and he still had to wait for one of my throws on a different hole due to interference issues. While I can't imagine this place ever being busy, it would be a nightmare if it were.

Hole 9 is actually pretty cool, throwing over the small creek in the park where they are trying to restore the prairie area. Hopefully the native plants don't get too trampled by players retrieving discs. Unfortunately, one hole can only offset so much of the doldrum of the rest of the course.

The tee signs here have nice big maps - they look a bit clunky with their giant homemade wood frames, but they serve their purpose well. As Valkyrie Kid noted, some of the "extra" info on the tee signs is actually pretty rare - things like the vertical elevation change (where this existed, it wasn't much). This would be really cool to see on more advanced courses with a lot of elevation change. There is also a decent size parking lot and indicators for where tee 1 is, though the rest of the course has none.

I don't necessarily mind this course for a quick round if the park is vacant, but wouldn't want to play with other groups here. It isn't going to do anything for an experienced player and isn't really worth a trip unless you're trying to bag everything around.

Relatively short and open. So if you are looking for a quick round (e.g. at lunch) to work on mostly approach shots and putting, without loosing your discs, this can work. The first two holes and the last hole are fairly interesting, but the rest are just open, with a few of those including some elevation change.

Almost too short. It does have three holes over 300 ft., but the rest are short. Maybe Twin Creeks in Buffalo Grove is shorter, but this is the next shortest in the area. Except for #2, the course is so open that you really don't have to think about shot shape at all. If you are looking for a course that truly requires different shot shapes, this ain't it. Also, the baskets are only single chain I think, and they are looking a bit tired at this point.

Go to this course for a quick round (I did it in 25 minutes by myself during lunch) where you can work on basic, mostly shorter shots and putting. Some elevation change and some trees/obstacles on 1, 2 and 9 make it somewhat interesting, but otherwise it's pretty basic.

Layout of the course is simple. Easy to move from hole to hole. Love some of the tee pads are made out of paver stones. Good for beginner to play at; not to many obstacles unless you're playing #1 or #9 with roadway to parking lot (minor).

Minor con, as mentioned above, #1 and #9 can be tricky for beginners to play over creek.

Best time to play is early spring or late fall to avoid playing around neighborhood residents using park. Best course to practice drives/mid-range shots.

Leo Leathers Park is a large sloping park with a playground by the parking lot and a ball field. The slight elevation is used effectively here.

The tee pads are nice level rubber mats. There is a course map at the beginning. The tee signs are unique in that they give you all the usual information PLUS they show some added info like, distance to bottom of hill or distance to the guide wire. It helped me to read some of my throws. The baskets are older Discatchers with the yellow band. Some are single chain and some double chains. There are garbage cans around the park. Sign pointing the first hole.

# 1 starts over by the entrance. It's a 336' slight uphill toss with the street on your right. # 2 is a short (208') tunnel shot. # 4 is a short 181' downhill. # 5 plays across the park to a basket that sits up on the slope. # 8 is 330 across the park and across LF of the ball field. I don't believe this field is used for games.

And the # 9 would be a great hole but possibly it's proximity to everything is a concern. It's a long downhill throw of 436' but it's only 337' to the entry road. The basket is tucked in beyond the ditch and only about 10' from the walking path and then only about another 40' to the back of the neighboring houses. The parking lot is probably 60 feet to the right. So there's a possibility on # 9 of with either your drive or your second shot of:
1) hitting someone/car on the entry road into the park
2) landing in the ditch
3) hitting a car parked in the lot
4) hitting someone on the path beyond the basket
5) banging your second shot off the neighbor's house or patio door
And is spite of all this, 9 is a fun, challenging hole.

Single chain baskets.
You have to walk across # 5 landing area to get to # 7 tee pad.
Hole 9 has lots of issues and dangers lurking.

I think the designers did a decent job with the small area they had to work with. The course is a little bit "out there." It's not your typical flat, little Chicago 9'er. It has a personality of it's own. It is fun and the stress level is low. Without much chance of losing or hunting for discs, that makes this a pretty attractive beginner or easy rec course.

Small 9 hole course located in a small city park north of Chicago.

Discatcher baskets, in good enough repair. A couple nice placements on hillsides. One pin position per hole.

Natural tee pads, in good enough shape for a course of this magnitude. A little rutted, but nothing severe. One tee position per hole.

Nice signage...it looked like they had been updated recently. Big, and full color. They helped immensely with navigation, as the holes are kind of just scattered around a big field.

Lots of ace runs, if that's your thing. Great spot to take kids and beginners, as there's nothing too daunting. Hole 9 is the exception, coming in over 400', with a basket position tucked next to a creek and slightly downhill. It was a hole that would fit in well on just about any course.

There's just not much to this place. Wide open fields, with just a smidge of elevation as the main factor, outside of Hole 9.

I would imagine this course becomes unplayable if there is traffic in the park. It's a decent little spot in the middle of a decent neighborhood, so I'm sure it's well used.

There are worse things in the world than Leo Leathers. While it's certainly nothing to go out of your way for, it's a decent little neighborhood course, and I'm sure it's a blast for little kids and super casuals.

- Rubber tee pads & originally nice signs
- Used the available space well
- grass is nicely mowed
- Garbage available
- Playground for little ones (family friendly)
- Hole 1 & 9 are a good challenge
- Ok baskets

- A majority of the tee signs are vandalized
- A few of the tee pads become puddles after a good rain
- Except for hole 1 & 9 the course is an open field/ace opportunity
- Tightly packed holes pose a safety risk as players aim at a hole close to a tee pad.
- Many of the DisCatcher baskets are rusting

Overall, a nice little community 9 hole course. The little space that is available is used well. Only a couple holes pose a decent challenge. It's a good beginner course as many other reviews have mentioned and is great for more advanced players to work on your putt & approach game. The vandalism is a little bit of a setback, but the original signs looked like they were very nice when installed.

- Course is set in a small residential park, so pedestrians and such could cause some interference. Otherwise clear for DG.
- Park has some interesting features, like a small creek, some pretty good elevation changes, and some trees here and there. Holes make good use of these things, with some uphill and downhill shots, some elevated/sloping greens, and a long shot that goes over the creek. Trees aren't too big an obstacle, but are used to force an anhyzer shot on hole #1.
- Wide range of hole lengths, with a few ace runs under 200', two around 330', and a nice downhill bomber over 430'. Helps to mix things up a bit.
- Good baskets, for the most part (#7 had a few loose chains). Signage is excellent. Teepads can get very slippery with mud, if dry they're fine.

- Biggest con with this course is the jacked-up design. The holes themselves are decent enough, at the expense of the layout. Baskets and teepads within other hole's fairways, walking through holes to get to the next tee, it isn't pretty. Would be a nightmare if the course was busy.
- Some of the teepads were almost dangerous when I was out there, with tons of mud. I could see it being a constant problem in any wet conditions.
- A lot of holes are wide open, with little thought needed.

- Overall, a pretty decent course with some good length and a few interesting holes. A little bit of everything, and hole #9 is a great downhill bomber with the creek in play. More experienced players will get bored with most of the holes, but beginners and casual players can enjoy some longer holes, noticeable elevation changes, and various hazards.

This is a look and throw course. Look at the basket. Throw at the basket. Not much more to say.
Nice tee pads.
Good signs
Some park ammenities - playground.
Some attempt to use elevation, but just what they had... no elevation improvements to the land.
Fun factor is a yes. If I Iived right close I would play here all the time for practice, but I would travel for serious play.

Zero golfer ammenities.
Use of terrain, the fit all 9 in here... but no real imagination was used to do it. 1 and 9 shoot across the creek.
No real length variety. 1 and 9 are longer, 3 is short. all seem soooo similar.
No tee options or basket options offered.
No signature hole on this course. 9 might have had a chance if the water really came into play. Most shooters will lay up on the near side and land the next shot right near the pin. No reall challenge to that.

This is my disc golf course rating system. Each element of the course is worth ½ disc for a total of 10 ½ disc units or 5 full discs of rating.
My 10 categories are:
1. Quality of tee pads.
2. Quality of signage, both individual hole signs as well as a sign board and course layout at the hole one beginning location.
3. Course amenities. Benches at tees, garbage cans on course, disc bag posts/hooks, next tee arrows, etc.
4. Overall park amenities. Things like bathrooms, drinking fountains, playground areas, anything that improves the overall location.
5. Overall use of available terrain features. How well did the designers use what they had to work with?
6. Changes in elevation. Some courses have this occurring naturally. Others have created it. Either way it is vital that a good course is beyond flat... even in Iowa or Nebraska.
7. Variety of hole length. Is it mixed up? Some long, some short. Keep things interesting.
8. Tee and basket options. Are there tee options and/or alternate basket locations? Can the course be played different on different visits?
9. Signature hole? Is there one hole in specific that leaves an impression? Creates a unique memory?
10. Fun Factor - Purely subjective on my part. Did I have fun?

See the above pro and con boxes to see how each category scored.

My home course. Got me involved in disc golf, but I can't rate it too highly now that I am a more experienced player. Although great for begginers, this course is way too easy for better players. 9th hole is pretty fun, 2nd hole has an interesting design, and the first hole is not bad. Very easy to ace a number of holes, the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th in particular. Great signage, tees and baskets. New rubber tees are the best I've ever played on. Just to clear up the speculation, the 3rd and 6th holes were both shortened a couple of years ago because homeowners were complaining about discs landing in their backyards. The sign for #3 hasn't been updated since then, and this is why it seems impossible that it is 180 ft. On windy days this course plays 3 to 6 strokes harder, no joke.

Extremely short, the 3rd hole is probably the shortest disc golf hole ever made. Incredibly easy, even on bad days an experienced player will shoot around 15 under. It might be a good idea to make this a par 3 course. Too many of the holes are wide open and do not punish poor shots.

I heard that the village of Mundelein was thinking of expanding the course to 18 holes, adding forest holes and the pond/river behind the forest as water hazards, which I think could make this course worth some travel time.

Good for Beginners

1st hole is far too short and has a creek just behind it to swallow an over drive. hole 4 is a little short... but plenty of recovery room before you hit private property... No tee pad for the second hole. Holes cross over one another... poorly planned and not many trees. mostly open

Leo Leathers is a super small neighborhood park. There is a small parking lot with a tennis court, basketball court, and baseball field. It's pretty much wide open with a few minor elevation changes. A creek comes into play on #9.

New rubber tee pads were installed summer 2009.

There are 9 Innova DISCatcher Baskets and tee signs.

This course is very beginner friendly. It's pretty short and open.

Hole #9 is awesome! It's 436 feet playing downhill. You have to throw across the parking lot road entrance. There are several big trees protecting the basket and a creek in front of it.

Holes 1, 2, & 9 are ok. Just play that loop. The rest of the course is a waste of time.

This is a great place to practice when no one else is there. From the parking lot every basket is within driving range.

The course is short and open with very few obstacles.

The design is poor.


There are crossing fairways. Many of the baskets and tees are very close together. Surprsingly this course gets a lot of play so this becomes an issue.

This is a multiuse park. During peewee football they are in the way and cars are in the way on #9. Watch for pedestrians!

Mundelein gets my vote for 2 of the worst courses in Illinois. Diamond Lake is 2 miles away and it's another bad 9 holer.

Check out my Illinois Top 10.
http://discontinuum.org/index...1486.msg68704#msg68704

Good rubber tees.
Good signage.
Three holes over 300 ft.
Hole #9 is 430 ft. across an o.b. road and a creek. Fairly small green...pretty nice shot; though, wide open until the end.

Very short, very wide open course. Even one of the 300 foot holes is downhill, making it play shorter. One hole only 120 ft.

This course was the first of a full day of nine hole courses for two of us. It ended up being one of the worst of a pretty bad group. With that said, tees and baskets were in good shape and park was well maintained. Hole #9 is a decent hole. We got stuck in mega traffic for an hour, within 10 minutes of course.

1) #9 is simply a cool ending hole. Its too bad they didn't use the creek more to their advantage in the design, but that makes for a great ending hole and truthfully I was happy to have played the course because of #9 alone! It isn't worth a trip alone, but because I was hitting 7 other new courses (to me) that day it was not a problem for me.

2) Course has nice signage including a directional to point you to the first hole from the entrance road.

3) Beginner friendly because there is no deep rough or anywhere to lose your disc (until the creek on #9, but is totally avoidable).

4) Good rubber teepads.

5) Tee signs have lots of info including distance, and diagram.

6) Although not real punishing the drainage swale helps add to the feel of the course. You might lose some distance or roll down the hill slightly because of it on a couple holes (#1 specifically).

7) Although overall the course is fairly short, it is nice to see 2 holes around 330' and another (#9) at 436. That 436' plays longer because of an upper ceiling of trees and a creek that those trees can easily throw you into!

1) Crossing or very close fairways. Course is setup as a 9 holer and would be a better course as a 6 holer using all of the same features, just making it less crowded.

2) Holes 3-7 are simply too close togther and don;t provide much challeneg or interest either.

3) Distance on #3 of 180 leads me to believe the tee or basket was moved at one point but the distance was not changed on the sign.

I have more positives than negatives, but overall this course still leaves a lot to be desired. It doesn't challenge anyone but a beginner, it is poorly designed for the property and size ( I would have only made 6 holes or something), it is pretty flat and wide open. The only real redeeming quality of this course is the creek on #1 tee and #9 basket.

Holes 1, 2, and 9 are nice, and have some degree of challenge.

The entire course is in an open field. Most of the holes have adjacent fairways that make it uncomfortable if the course is crowded.

Holes 3 through 7 have no trees and are simply open shots.

Baskets 3, 6, and 9 are too close to private backyards.

A telephone pole and guide wire are in play on hole 5.

There isn't much positive to say. I've played courses throughout Illinois, also in Wisc, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Maine, N.C., Florida, Arkansas, and Nevada, and this course is at the bottom of my list.

The course plays through a large open field in the middle of a small multi-use park. There is a little bit of elevation, and the course uses it as much as possible. One small area has some nice trees and a creek, and two holes take advantage of this to make things a little more interesting.

The baskets looked like they were in great shape other than some ace graffiti. There are nice signs throughout with hole layout and distance (though many of the distances seemed a little off), and a full map of the course on the way to the first tee.

The design of this course is pretty horrible. 7 of the 9 holes are ace runs through an open field, with multiple holes under 200'. Many of the holes play right on top of one another, and often throws will go right over other tees on the way to the basket. The first and last holes are interesting, but both play over the main road into the park which is an issue when there is a high volume of people coming and going. The last hole also throws very close to the parking lot, make sure you don't park at the end of the row.

For such a poor course, there were a surprising number of people out playing. Most seemed to be players with absolutely no idea about course etiquette, which made the safety issues at this course far worse. When you have people who don't know to yell fore or wait for the group in front of them, and who are throwing bosses at 165' holes, someone is going to get hit (only one in our group did...). Combine this with a busy park that shares the space, and it's a real bad thing.

This is definitely a beginner friendly course, with short holes, easy navigation, and no chance of losing a disc. It won't teach you to be a very good player, but it is an ok place to start. More experienced players will find no real challenge here, and will likely be frustrated by the crowds of oblivious people.

This course isn't worth making a trip to play. The other Mundelein course is more fun and interesting, and not too far away from here. If all you want is a place to rack up the aces and disc shaped bruises though, this one's for you.

Holes 1 and 9 are not bad. Those are tough deuces to get and they have some real length. This is where the 'Pros' come to an end for this rinky-dink 9 holer.

Every other hole. Short. Flat. Nothing in your way. Boring. What more can you say? Its just not fun. Not alot that could be done to make this small park into a nice course. A couple fairways actually cross!

Don't go play this course if you have other options.

It is a great place to practice your short game. Other than that, there is no reason to play, or go.

Just a biiig open field. Not much to it.

You could never loose a disc! so that is nice.
But really, try and find a way to get to another course in the area.

What I personally like and how this course stacks up:
1) Holes with good risk/reward -- D
2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities -- C-
3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography -- D
4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion -- D+
5) Multi-shot holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them -- NA

I ranked this course subjectively based on my own personal enjoyment factor...more accurately my "personal addiction factor". Since I have played a decent number of courses (115 18-hole, 50 9-hole as of early 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they chose courses to play and explore.

Over time, I expect to fill some of my reviews in with more descriptive verbiage...if what I say adds anything to what has already been written. For now, my list is more important to me than the verbiage of my reviews.

I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me. See my profile for my rating philosophy.

Okay, here's the thing with Leo Leathers. It is a big open field with virtually no obstacles (trees, shrubs, other players, etc.) with some long drives that are good for both beginners and for those attempting to adapt new throws into their game. Losing ones disc would be pretty tough.

The fairways cross. If there are other people there (which admittedly is not the norm) you have to watch where you walk and throw on every hole except 3 and 4 because people could be throwing right at you and they won't even be off the path to the pin.

Just to summarize:
Good for practice
Bad for just about anything else. A very boring course.