So I met the designer, HB Clark, last year at the 2018 BG AMs and told him how I've played a bunch of his courses (26 to date) and thought his newly installed Panther Creek in TN was his finest achievement. HB's immediate response, "You haven't played Mahr!?" (Note:If you aren't familiar with his work, check out
http://www.bluegrassdiscgolf.org )
Mahr has been on my list ever since and finally got to give it a go. I reviewed Panther Creek as a 4.5 and in my top 5 and now Mahr Park has joined the ranks. In the same way Panther Creek is like a giant, exaggerated woods course, Mahr Park is a giant, exaggerated city park course. Hole 3 embodies the spirit of this course: Long top-of-the-world drive, somewhat forgiving but necessary line to hit, water to navigate, and tricky basket location.
Based on the previous reviews, I knew I'd be in for a hike. I somehow grossly underestimated how extreme it really is. These nicely manicured hills are HUGE. Simply being able to finish this course felt like an achievement. I doubt there are many 10,000 ft DG tracks that aren't on ball golf courses. It's actually very, very hard to believe that this much publicly maintained land could be devoted for disc golf! Regular mowing and trimming is evident and it's a very tall task to cover this vast area. Between the fine nearby Madisonville City Park DGC and Mahr, I have a suspicion that (hot take!) the residents of Madisonville/Hopkins County pay the highest percentage of their income taxes for disc golf than any other municipality.
-There were at least 5 top-of-the-world drives (1, 3, 9, 14, 18) but all except 18 required a somewhat specific line to hit. As a normally 300-350ft guy, I UDisc-measured a few drives (holes 14 and 18) in excess of 450ft here. Incredible.
-Par 4s were mostly legit 2-stage shots where you need to hit a landing zone or gap in order to execute the next shot
-Water hazards abound. You'll have a few water carries off the drive and a few water carries before the green (even a "hidden" pond 20ft from 18's basket that's unseen from the tee.) Hole 10 gives you the chance to bite off all you want from maybe 270ft to 350ft over water--the more you bite off the closer you get to an ideal landing spot for this Par 4
-Hole 9 mercifully loops back to the parking area for the chance to refuel
-Tree density is just enough to require a variety of shots from the tee and upshots. All the lines are fair. Even if you're not a 400+ft thrower, if you hit all your lines, you have a shot at Par.
-Despite some ugly construction down the hill from hole 3, this park is pristine. The back 9 looks like a former golf course (was it?) and is almost maintained like one.
-Baskets, tees, signs are all of the top-notch HB standard.