Scottlandville Park, (or, LHC DiscGolfPark, though I still don't know what the LHC stands for) is a large beautiful park on the north side of Baton Rouge. It sits just between a freeway and an airport, but neither seem to cause much of a disturbance to the course.

I played this course for the first time in May, after the greenery has fully come in and grown in THICK. Luckily, the fairways are mainly open field with large, old oak trees, so even though some lines had to be a little tighter, they were still pretty fair and open, and the park itself was beautifully gowned in green.

There are so many things this park does so much better than other parks, I don't know where to begin. But I guess I should make a decision otherwise this review is going nowhere, so why not with where you start- the tee.

I've never played a "DiscGolfPark" before, but apparently they are all astroturf filled with sand. They worked really well on every hole, despite several of the holes being worn down to almost just the sand. I don't know how they worked, but it felt like teeing from perfectly smooth natural grass. There were a couple that looked like a volleyball court after some brush grows into it, but the sand didn't slip, and I didn't even notice after I threw. So I guess they work! I also really liked the tee signs at every hole with the clearly labeled OB. It's hard to mess up a tee sign, but I've seen it done, and this course does it well.

The holes are an excellent mix of short and long (more long than short though), and the more open holes nicely correlate with the length. I don't know if there were any "gimme" birdies that didn't require you to miss some trees, keep it low, or just didn't let you throw the open hyzer shot to the basket. Every hole in the 200-350 range was still a thoughtful throw. I thoroughly enjoy that type of disc golf where you must challenge yourself to maintain a competitive score. The long holes are appropriately open for their length. If you don't hit your landing zone, you're going to have a much more challenging approach. This comes into play most on holes 17 and 18 I believe.

The baskets are (as of this writing) excellent condition DisCatchers. They don't look brand-new anymore, but they catch well and that's what counts!

There's some decent elevation in the park. I would hesitate to say "hills," but there are clear uphill/downhill shots.

Navigation was a little off at times. Despite multiple course maps (which kind of contributed to a little confusion, because you pull up to the one at hole 16's basket/3's tee pad first), there were a few holes where it wasn't immediately obvious to which basket you're throwing, and on the par 4's/5's, you start to wander as you wonder to which basket you're throwing. Avery- put numbers on the basket! There's that big ol' yellow band at the top, just slap a number on it!

Water comes into play on a lot of the holes, and sometimes it's blind. LHC DGP swallowed two of my discs today, including a midrange I've had for 7 or 8 years. I was a little frustrated by it, but it really didn't contribute to how I rate the course. It was just bad luck.

It should be noted there's little bits of broken glass almost everywhere on the holes by the pavilions. Holes 6 and 7 were the worst of the worst. So don't make the mistake I did and bring your dog out here to play with you (she's fine, btw).

This park is a great compliment to Highland Road Park farther south. I would say this may edge it out a bit in terms of which is the better course, but that may change if Highland ever installs teepads or tee signs.

That being said, I think the description "Very Good" describes this course perfectly, and to some it may even be "Excellent," so a rating between a 3.5 and 4 is probably right where it should be. I loved it and can't wait to play it again this weekend, and then again in the fall when the green clears a little bit!

Beyond adding a disc golf course to a location that has hardly any, this course is very well done. This course has only been open a few weeks so this review will allude to some things that will probably be improved over the next few months or so. But even then, the designers and installers did a great job with the land they had.

To avoid earthen tee pads, the installers put in astro-turf pads on patches they leveled off and they work just as good as concrete as far as avoiding slips on drives. The course is a great mixture of long holes, short holes, tight shots, and shots with options. Elevation changes are always difficult to come by in Baton Rouge, and the folks who put this in did a good job in using the terrain to carve out blind shots on a at least 3 holes and some risk-reward shots that are tempting but could be punishing. Another really good idea was the metal plates on the bottom of the baskets that point the way to the next teebox. You may have to take a circuitous path to get there, but it shows you where it is, at least. A few holes are (in my opinion) noteworthy:

#5 is a left to right par 5 for which you have to be a long thrower to have a chance at seeing the basket after your first shot. I'm not long, so it took me 2 average shots to get a good line on it. Danger behind the basket makes it more of a technical approach than a rip-it-down-there shot.

#8 is a hard turning left to right short hole with a water hazard all along the right side. The prevailing southerly winds are going to make this hole very difficult to shoot for from the the tee on most days.

#9 is a tunnel shot, which I typically do not like, but this one is wide enough to not make me pucker up and even if you get through ,the basket is semi-protected by tress.

#11 is a slight left to right par 4 that will be difficult to birdie due to the protective trees that will require setting up the drive to set up the second shot.

#13 isn't so much of a tunnel shot as it is a limited options shot - which side of the various trees should I go on?

#14 is an uphill blind tee shot for which you'll have to look at the basket as you go down the hill from #13's basket to the tee to know where it is. The basket is under many trees making it necessary to use a high glide disc to get it close if you didn't already do so on the drive.

#15 and #16 make novel use of the highway ramp overhead to avoid any hyzerbomb approaches and are short enough to birdie with some technical shots.

The walk to the #17 tee is a little lengthy, but follow the arrow on the #16 basket and the sidewalk, and you'll find it. While walking to it, look left to see the #17 basket so you'll know where it is and what the terrain looks like.

Once you get to #17 teebox, look right and up the hill toward the park entrance to get a sneak peek at #18's basket.

#17 makes use of the water on the right side to make a remarkable par 5 hole that is probably birdie-able for most above average disc golfers (of which I am not) but only if they are careful on the approach. It's almost a peninsula.

#18 is a long par 4 (seems like it should be a par 5). Unless the picnic benches are out of bounds - and they probably should be - it will take two long and accurate throws to have a shot at a long birdie.

A small negative is the location, but they had to build it where there was already a park, so that's that. What I mean by location is the directions to get there take you within walking distance of the park, only to require making u-turns and driving on 2 or 3 separate roads for a mile or two before you're finally there. But it's worth getting there.

Another slight negative is the location of the #18 hole. It truly would have been difficult to do it any other way, but as it stands now, once you finish 17, you have to walk across #2's fairway to get to a bridge to get to the other side, and then either across #1 or along the fairway at least to go around to get to #18. It's easily a 750 foot walk to go 100 feet.

With a little age and a little more TLC from the installers (and the golfers themselves, of course), this is going to a real gem.