--Easily accessible from I-35
--Free to play
--Concrete tees/new-ish Prodigy baskets

Nearly featureless piece of open land

Great courses typically flow over epic landscapes, capitalizing on craggy hills, towering hardwoods and pristine lakeshores. Living Waters starts with none of these advantages.

Formerly a golf course--think Augusta or Pebble, and then imagine the opposite of that--this is now church property, and an unpretentious pole-shed church at that. To the north sprawl Amazon and Fed-Ex distribution centers. Tree lines to the east and west set the borders, but don't keep out the aroma of nearby fields fortified with cow manure. A construction company forms the southern border and small aircraft buzz low overhead from the airstrip less than a mile away.

Inside these boundaries stand a few dozen trees that offer context for the layout, but not much strategic obstruction. I spoke to a staffer who said they just lost 5 big ash trees to the Emerald Ash Borer. I should have picked his brain about future design elements, but with no sign of other plantings and the concrete poured, my guess is that it will stay roughly as it is. I'd estimate the plot of land at roughly twenty acres, and flat as a pancake? No, good friends, this is Minnesota...the yardstick of flatness is lefse. LW almost nails it.

The church could have tried to jam a lot more holes in here, and they are certainly not averse to cramming in various other elements: a putt putt course, basketball courts and a playground. They ended up building 12 holes. The space/hole ratio and the lack of encroaching features allow for average length of 385 per hole (Blues). There are 4 par 4's ranging between 500 and 600 feet, and the longest par 3's are just over 400, both playing somewhat "down lefse". The shortest hole (217) requires roughly 150 feet of carry over a cattail pond, but the wary can just play around it.

Overall impression? It's a free course and a pretty good place to work on your form. Go ahead and throw 10 discs off one tee. You'll find all of them even if your precision is somewhat lacking. It's close to the freeway, and reasonably close to my house. I think I'll play here again, but there are far more interesting options starting just an exit or two up the interstate, and nearby Kenwood Trails is quite good for a freebie. Historically churches have been tax-exempt since the founding of our country on the basis that their existence serves the Public Good. If they want to invest the time and sweat to put a disc golf course on it without even the slightest attempt to proselytize those taking advantage, I'd say they are serving the Public Awesome.

Living Waters Church is home to a pretty solid 12 hole course on the site of an old ball golf course. Being on an former golf course it's on the more open side, which is to be expected. The design is pretty good though as far as incorporating the edge of the property and the limited amount of trees. Not nearly as open as I was anticipating (dreading) when pulling in the lot. There's a pond in play on holes 8 and 9 to add a little challenge. It will require a pretty poor drive to reach but is still a risk on each. The course is pretty flat overall but the wind will be a factor due to this on every hole.

The baskets are nice, new orange Prodigy's. These are all in great shape and catch pretty well. They're Prodigy's so you need to jam them in there, but they catch when you do. One basket and pin position per hole.

There's concrete tee pads on the long pins and natural tees for the shorts from what I could tell. We played the longs so I can only speak on the condition of those. Nicely sized, level and grippy. None of our group of three had any issues with these at all. Definitely glad to have these over grass from the longs. Two tee locations on most if not all of the holes from what I could tell too. Ups the replay value and caters to all skill levels.

There's no tee "signs" per se. There were blue painted blocks by the front end of each tee pad in the longs the had the hole #, distance and par on them. Hole # and par on one and the distance on the other. Every basket is visible from the tee for the most part so these are just kind of a nice bonus.

Well designed course. I generally dislike this type of course but this one was actually pretty good. The flow makes sense and there's no lengthy walks between holes on the course. Easy to follow and straight forward play. Enough challenge to force some actual shot shaping on a few holes and not just throw it as far as possible. Excellent use of what was there to work with.

Free to play, Most likely never going to be too busy and great for all skill levels, even if you're just making up some shorter safari tees for kids.

As much as I praised the design above, it has it's drawbacks too. The main one being how open it is in general. This isn't going to be for anyone who prefers tight, wooded golf. That's not happening out here. That said, it starts to feel a bit repetetive by the end due to this aspect of the property. It is what it is though.

The course doesn't really end by the parking lot. I thought it was going to going into hole 11. Turns out I was wrong. It's not a huge deal or anything but seemed like a weird way to end the round. Either way the last hole wasn't going to be a signature hole. It would make more sense to at least have it end closer to where you parked. The bonus, and maybe intended result of this, was that we had to walk by and ultimately play the mini golf course that's also onsite. So only kind of a con. You won't see me reviewing courses on Minigolfcoursereveiw.com anytime soon though lol.

Limited play time here due to being on church property. Though I'm not exactly sure where the church IS in relation to the course. Just be sure to check on availability before just showing up.

Surprisingly fun little course. I liked the fact that they didn't try to jam 18 holes in here. I also liked that they didn't just make this 9 stupid long holes. Twelve feels just right. I'd actually play this again. Not worth going out of your way for but well worth a look if in the area. I wouldn't compare it to the Preserve even in the slightest, but it's good for what it is.

Some really long holes that still require shot-shaping and good planning for landing zones to keep it challenging. Very well maintained and beautiful property. Almost all the baskets are nice Prodigy ones.

Not all baskets are the same, there are some lower quality baskets mixed with the newer nice Prodigy ones. No really technical/wooded holes.

I really love this course. It reminds me of the Airborn Preserve quite a bit. The property is great and I see a ton of potential here. Lakeville has one of the best technical wooded courses in Kenwood and this makes a nice more open complement to that course. It gives you an opportunity to work more with your drivers than other courses in the area. I look forward to seeing what happens on this course in the future. I'll be really excited to see if they get all the baskets updated to the prodigy baskets. I'd also love to see it somehow upgraded to a full 18 if they have enough extra space or creativity to make it happen without changing the current layout too much.