I think the actual layout and structure of the course is really nice. Several hard holes with technical shots if you want to make birdie. I thought the land was used well, and it was shaped well. I want to say before I move on to the "cons" section that I really liked the hole layouts by themselves, being the area between the tee box and basket.
I do want to point out that most of the reviews I read talk about how shady/sketchy the course is... I thought it was nice. Sure the neighborhood isn't great but you aren't actually playing in the neighborhood. There were people walking, playing ultimate and disc golfers. No part of the rating I gave was based on "questionable surroundings".

We both actually thought the park was nice. I saw very little trash, and none of the questionable people.

Talk about a course that needs some help, which thankfully is supposed to be coming this year. I could easily see this course being a 3.5 or 4.0 rating with a revamp.

Tee boxes - some of the worst I've played on (which I really only play courses rated well but still). A collaboration of sidewalks, mats, mud, and a concrete pad here and there. The best is the spray painted sidewalks for blue/red/white tees. I can appreciate using what you're given but that is pretty ghetto honestly.

Signage- Not one. Nothing to tell you where to go or how far or anything.

Baskets- Pretty bad, I usually take what I can get on baskets but these are needing replacing. Half are "shorty" baskets which seem to have about a foot less chain to hit.

Benches/trash cans - Don't remember seeing any of these around the tee box.

Layout (from basket to next tee)- Not the best, but not the worst. Just an arrow in the right direction would be great.

I played the morning after a hard rain so it was slippery throughout the course. I shot +2 out there and had a couple of tee shots where I was more worried about breaking an ankle/leg than where my disc was going.. which does not help a disc golf round.

The holes themselves where really nice. Good shape, and use of natural obstacles throughout. New baskets and a major overhaul of tee boxes will jump this course rating up about 1.5 discs. I just hope they'll handle the basket/tee box problems and add a little length to the holes when they can. Adding a couple long holes would be nice if possible.

The potential is there for a great course and I'll be interested to see it once the revamp is done.
As for right now I'd much rather play Victor Ashe, Groves Park "The Mounds", or probably even Admiral Farragut than this one.

Great mix of hole types..you have tight narrow tunnels; wide open long shots; sweeping doglegs it's a good mix of stuff for someone who is driving in the high 200s. If you are more advanced or just can throw the heck of the disc throw Reds for more of a challenge.

#2 and #6 are great holes for finding discs

Trashy
The shady characters dont really bother you, (if you dont bother them/believe in stereotypes).

hole #7 blue tee pad SUCKS after a hard rain.
city needs to mow more often..throw a disc w/ razor blades on some holes to help mow the grass.

Some teepads could use some TLC

Great use of space. I really dislike Victor Ashe b/c the space is underutilized. They could easily expand to 27 (individual) holes in the existing space that's being used and still run double pins on a few. Morning side is nice and close to downtown and gives you a lot of different obstacles to contend with.

If you are from out of town hit up Pluto Sports #1(downtown) for good course maps and info

The only pro is it gave me a chance to throw.

A lot...A pet peeve for me is trash which this course has a lot not to mention the shady charecters lurking around. Thank goodness I look shady myself so was not bothered but when you see matresses and clothing all over the park something is up. Itts a shame I chose this park tovisit when I was travelling.

Hard to find most of the tee boxes. I think I made up my own course when I played of course had one eye opened on the neighbors.

Trash, trash. Trash all over the place left me feeling bad after attempting to throw this course.

A nice enough park not too far frowm downtown Knoxville. A few holes were difficult to find including the tee for hole 2. Many of the tees are indicated by spray paint (red or white) on the asphalt paths. Most of the blue tees have clearly marked tee boxes. Nice varied of shots and is fairly beginner friendly. Longer tees are more challenging. Nice elevation changes.

Tees need to be clearly marked.

Overall a nice play. A little on the boring side but try to find the long tees to challenge yourself.

I've played this course at least 40 times and it isn't really all that bad, just very neglected in terms of maintenance and updates. If you can find the longer tees, you'll definitely be challenged. Most everyone plays from the blue tees. I'm still learning how to play the game, and this course is both challenging and playable for me.

There are 4, yes 4 sets of tees for every hole (I think... but honestly I haven't found every tee for every hole yet).

Regardless of what you might think, they made the best of the land they had to work with. I respect that.

If its your first time playing here, you'll probably get turned around. There is zero signage (unless you count the spray painted hole numbers on the walking paths). As of february 2011, the course has seen better days.

The area is not a good area, lots of interesting characters passing through to say the least. If you're playing with a group I don't think you've got anything to worry about, but if you're there alone I'd make sure you look over your shoulder every now and then.

If you're looking for an aesthetically pleasing place to play, this isn't it. I have never seen more trash in a public park. It is a dumping ground, bottles everywhere, cardboard, old furniture, clothes, crutches, garbage bags full of trash.

Hole #1's basket location has changed, and I don't have the means to do so, but it would be nice to see the information changed on this site. I don't think the entire course layout needs to be changed, I like it actually. But this course needs signage, new tee pads, and new baskets. But honestly, I can see why these things haven't happened. The possibility of vandalism at this course due to the surrounding area seems high.

I'd really like to see a practice basket put in at this course too, when you need to warm up you're always in someone's way.

This 18 hole course is fairly spread out in a city park that is pretty much just a disc golf course and paved walking trail. The design from hole to hole is the strength here offering a lot of variety- with varying degrees of open to wooded, moderate elevation including baskets on side hills, as well as many other unique challenges using the features of the park, both natural and man-made. I enjoyed the fact that each hole was unique.

The course supposedly offers four sets of tees per hole, and if you played here often and knew where to find them this would keep the course interesting for many rounds. A lot of the different tees drastically change the look of the hole.

This course is older and shows its age. It has been neglected and many of the baskets are in rough shape. Navigation is difficult and can be frustrating. (We had trouble finding several holes and spent a lot of time searching for any tee and we had to ask other players a couple of times if they knew, but they were just as lost as us!) There are 4 sets of tees per hole, but good luck finding them. We were doing good to find one tee and we ended up just playing each hole from the first tee we could find. The tees are inconsistent- combination of concrete, sidewalks, dirt, carpet, etc. adding to the difficulty of finding tees because you don't know what to look for.

The park itself is located in a not-so-nice looking part of town. You have to park on the street which made me a little uncomfortable to leave my car. The course was littered with trash everywhere, large boxes, carpet, and a lot of clothes giving the appearance that many other "activities" happen here after dark.

A couple of tips: 1) print a map and/or get a local DGer to show you around 2) spotters are recommended on holes #2 and #4 for sure 3) the last few holes are actually across the street.

This could be an excellent course, as the holes themselves are pretty good, but it needs some major work (some of the other reviews say that improvements are in the works, and I hope so.) The area looked shady and so did some of the people we met, but everyone we saw kept to themselves and those we talked to were nice and we did not have any problems.

Knoxville as a whole for disc golf would rank in TN below the Nashville, Memphis, and Bristol areas in my opinion. OK if you are passing through, but don't make it a priority destination.

Creative use of the land provided. I especially liked the rock soldiers guarding the basket on Hole 7. Multiple tee pads on every hole (easy)white/blue/red/orange(hard). Friendly local disc golfers. Very effective use of mandos and OB to increase the variety of shots required to score well. Mixture of concrete/natural tee pads. Every single piece of elevation was used effectively. Not many amenities but I did see a nice playground for the kids around the Hole 17/18 area.

Navigation was hard in spots. Some of the baskets were very old and single chained. Anyone in the park not playing disc golf looked very seedy. Some holes had no tee pad, just a marker in the ground or a line on some sidewalk, which did make mud an issue.

A short walk down the trail from 9 to 10 was hard to spot through the leaves. Crossing the street for Hole 14 would have had me scratching my head as well without the help of a local. We followed a couple the whole time so navigation really wasn't an issue. Also, a twitchy dude with a big scrape over his eye asked asked me what the fastest way out of the park was on Hole 6. He told me a long winded story about getting in a fight at the apartment complex nearby. He seemed nice enough... Anyways, I enjoyed playing through the blue tees. They were just enough to be challenging for the mid-level player. I look forward to coming back to play the orange tees, which in most cases drastically changed the way each hole played.

my favorite course in knoxville. changing the setup though. it's in good hands (stan mcdaniel) though for sure. not sure when that's going down. if you play this course from the red or orange tees it is one of the most challenging you will find. i loved it. very easy from the blues.

holes across the road are close to field that almost always has ultimate players everywhere. it's in the ghetto.

I loved this course. Course has tons of different holes with lots of different looks at the pen. Has shorter holes and longer holes. It has the variety that I like, and the holes are just pretty.
Great teepads
Good, deep baskets
Lot's of tee options
There is a map layout of the course their.

Hole #1 was almost impossible to see for the blue tee. I got lucky and found a guy right their and asked him. Course can be a little confusing the first time.
Kind of in a ghetto area

Love the look of hole #2 and throwing from the mound of #8. Fun course with a cool layout

This is the oldest course in Knoxville and on a few holes does show its age. That being said the layout in the space available is incredible. Several shots look about as big as a postage stamp from the tee only to open up into a wide open fairway. The variety of open and narrow holes lend to this courses playability.

Bad reputation of the neighborhood does hurt the appeal of this course. In the past the area has been a questionable area and it hasn't lost that rep. Lack of facilities reasonably close does hurt a little as well.

Course description.

Hole #1 has been moved in recent months to prevent damage to cars parked along the road. The old blue tee at the top of the hill is now the white tee. The basket has been moved in from around 300 ft. to around 175 ft. from the white tee.

Hole #2 has to be the most intimidating shot at first glance. The hole plays through a HEAVILY wooded fairway sloping steeply down from right to left. Poorly placed puts have a very good chance of rolling far off down the hill.

Hole #3 plays down a hill through a tight fairway through about a dozen large trees. Basket is at the bottom of the hill in a V created by the trees.

Hole #4 plays through a hole in the tree line and up the hill on the other side. Fairway opens up quite a bit on the other side of the trees.

Hole #5 plays across a hill sloping moderately down hill left to right.

Hole #6 is one of the gems of this course. the hole play for about 150 ft. or so up a hill and doglegs left at the top opening into a fairly sizable putting area overlooking the river.

Hole #7 is a slight right dogleg fairway with the basket about 250 ft. away sheltered by two large boulders.

Hole #8 plays from the top of a large mound into a narrowing fairway sheltered by a large willow tree. This is another signature hole on this course.

Hole #9 follows an uphill track to the left through several large trees narrowing slightly near the top.

Hole #10 is a tight opening drive opening up into a spacious fairway all the way up to the basket.

Hole #11 is a straight on shot with a slight fade left to a basket sheltered from above and in front by several Bradford Pear trees.

Hole #12 is a dogleg right along an open fairway lined by Bradford Pear trees down the left side and a fairly steep hill covered in thick brush on the right.

Hole #13 has a wedge shaped fairway opening up towards the basket. The basket itself is sheltered by a large oak tree.

Hole #14 one of the two newest holes to the course. The basket is sheltered by over a dozen medium sized trees and tees across a large open drainage basin. Routes on either side of the raised basket.

Hole #15 is a dogleg left through a large group of trees and plays to another elevated basket.

Hole #16 this is the other new hole. The hole play uphill to the right to a pin across the path from a large gazebo.

Hole #17 is a straight shot for about 150 ft. then fades right. Fairway is narrow as it plays between several large trees to the left and moderately thick brush on the right.

Hole #18 is similar in layout to hole 17 yet plays completely different. The hole travels for about 175 ft. and fades left to an elevated pin placement.

Fun course with several short tight ally shots. A good mix of flicks and back hands. Two tees a red and a blue. There are numerous birdie opportunities on this precision course. Given the space the course was designed well.

Poor tee signs; the reds are difficult to find on each hole. Also no concrete or well marked tee pads. The course is very short and does not allow for any real bomb shots.

This is a great course to practice your precision mid-range shots.

Interesting terrain with some truly memorable holes (almost all on the front nine).

Insane variety in tee placements - there are four tees on almost every hole, provided you can find them. White is a must-deuce on every hole, Blue is manageable, Red is very difficult but fair, and Orange is just plain crazy.

Secluded and used almost exclusively for disc golf. That said, this course is CROWDED if you play at a peak time.

Almost impossible to navigate without the help of a map or, better yet, a local. Some tees are extremely difficult to find.

Only one poured concrete tee. The rest are either natural or lines spray-painted on sidewalks.

The only parking is on Hazen St. which, in addition to putting your car at some risk from drives on #1 and #14, leaves your car in a fairly suspect area of town.

Zero signage, trash cans, bathrooms...any sort of amenities.

Baskets haven't been changed since the course was installed in the early 80's. Gives the course some character, but they can spit out some questionable putts.

It seems like the cons heavily outweigh the pros when reading reviews, but they tend to leave out the most important part - this course is just plain fun to play, mostly because of its personality. Winding through steep elevation changes and some impressive trees, throwing to ancient and weathered baskets, it's a different breed of disc golf than what you'll get at a course like Victor Ashe.

I live roughly equal distances between this course and Victor Ashe, and although the latter is better-maintained, stocked with amenities, and in all respects a pro-caliber course, I'll play here instead 9 times out of 10. It's just more fun.

I couldn't find any.......

Very very sketchy neighborhood. Launch pad? are you kidding me, we found a painted blue line with the number 18, on the bike path, with no direction of which of the baskets to throw to, WTF? We also found a white line with the number 16 on the bike path too, are these the tee pads? NO-one was there (cept the few dudes walking in the road) and my car was parked alone with out of town plates on it, I was expecting it to get broke into. Absolutely no signage, no marked baskets, no tee pads, cept for the bike path I guess. Did someone mention a map? Where do you get them? We left after about 30 minutes of trying to figure out how to play this course, absolutely ridiculous.

I guess if you find somebody that knows where you throw from and too, it would be ok.

The course is on a piece of property that seems mostly devoted to disc golf, with great hills and a nice mix of open areas with scattered trees, and more densely wooded areas. The course takes advantage of this variety with lots of hill shots, with some great basket placements on hillsides or among boulders to add some fun risk factor to putting. There is a really nice mix of holes where you can rip it a little, and ones where you really need to hit a line to stay out of brush or keep from ending up way down a hill.

There is a nice variety of hole shapes, with multiple lines required to score well, especially from the tougher tees. It felt pretty balanced between right and left turning holes, with a few straight shots thrown in too.

There are (supposedly) four tees on every hole, and the ones we found added another level of variety to the course. Many offered totally different looks at the hole from different tees, so you wouldn't get bored playing here often. The couple local players we met were really quite nice and helpful, and were more than happy to help us navigate the course. Despite other reviews, we felt entirely safe in the neighborhood and on the course, and when we had trouble finding the beginning of the course there were some neighborhood kids who pointed us in the right direction.

The navigation on this course is nearly impossible without local guides or a map (or both). We had a hard time finding tees at all on many holes, and ended up playing a mix of red, white and blue tees for time's sake. It's also often difficult to find the next hole often, especially when the course crosses the street into another part of the park.

The course is poorly maintained, with rusty baskets, run down tees, and no real signage. On top of this, the park is a complete mess, with trash everywhere including broken glass around many baskets and tees.

The holes across the street didn't flow well with the rest of the course, and had a totally different feel. They weren't bad holes, but they were in a more heavily used park with lots of foot traffic on the walking path that came into play on nearly every hole.

This course has a huge amount of potential. The design is solid, with some really nice holes. If some work was put into cleaning up the park and marking the course so that the tee pads were visible, this would easily be a 4 disc course. As it stands, this course is still worth playing if you have a map, or preferably a guide, and if you don't mind doing some exploring to figure out the course.

Beginners will find this course a little tough, though there are short tees that help with that. More experienced players will have a lot of fun negotiating the various challenges this course presents.

Good mixture of long open shots and technical woody shots, fairly well kept, easy access, good elevation changes

poor take-offs, confusing hole lay-out for 1st timers, sketchy neighborhood (though most of the neighbors seem really nice)

This is my most visited and favorite disc golf course and I frequent it. It is in the early process of a redesign with parking and a more practical hole layout being the main changes. neighborhood kids from the surrounding low-income housing have caused trouble in late afternoons so I would recommend going with a friend, though it is usually throwing rocks and such at the worst.

Like everyone has said, this course is well layed out and alot of fun to play. Back in the late 90's the back nine was destroyed to make way for road construction. It has never been the same.

Very shady area of town, this place has been a crime zone for years. Don't hang around after dark!

Worth playing but, I can't help and think back to the good old days.

This is a really fun course with a good mix of technical shots and opportunities to let it rip. With lots of elevation changes and a few mandos, no two holes are alike. There's a wide open meadow surrounded by 15-18 that makes a nice driving range for pregame warmups.

The layout is a little tricky and signage is bad to nonexistent. You have to look out for colored metal poles that designate the teeboxes on some holes, spraypainted rocks or lines on the sidewalk on others. As other reviews mention, there is a little bit of a litter issue, and sometimes you'll encounter some transients. They keep to themselves, but just be aware that they're there. Hole #2 is a pretty easy place to lose a disc in the woods.

Overall this course is a lot of fun. Your best bet is to play it with someone who's been there before so you can find your way around.

Close to the school I go to. Easy to find. Pretty fun course. It is very compact which makes for a shorter walk time from hole to hole.

A lot of trash on the course. It is also confusing trying to find some of the tees and some of the holes.

*UPDATE: hole 5 has been lengthened by about 30ft and the basket is hard to see against its new background but it is on the same line as the old position. There are also some new mandos but you can see those fairly easy for yourself.
If you read this before you play then know that the 6th hole starts up the hill and back towards tee 5 and the hole is up the hill through the clearing. It took me forever to find. They have supposedly repainted the tee areas so they may be easier to find now.
If you go I would suggest going in the afternoon during the week to avoid the local hoodlums and don't go alone.

Great variety in distances, good mix of left, right, and straight shots, very creative basket placements (trees, rocks, etc around basket adding challenge, multiple tee pads on each hole

street parking only, very dirty, no tee signs, very hard to navigate, no trash cans on course(have to go off the course and use the ones in the park), no bathrooms, tee pads vary and are very hard to find all of them

First I want to say that this course has all the makings of a great course 3.5 - 4 discs. The layout and obstacles on the course are amazing. Hole #7, for instance, the basket is surrounded by huge boulders, adding a lot of character and challenge to this course. The tee pads leave a lot to be desired, but if it weren't for all of the other cons this wouldn't be an issue at all, I have definitely seen and played on worse. The real issue with this course is the maintenance. I don't think I have ever seen a dirtier and down right disgusting course out of the 45 that I have now played. There was broken glass surrounding almost every basket, as if people had been using them as bottle catchers instead of using them to catch discs. The amount of other trash was also amazing to me. Beer bottles, diapers, and used contraceptives were the abundance of the trash. We also found about six shotguns shells laying around the basket for #10. All of this was a real shame because the course itself is amazing and if taken care of properly could be amazing.

When you come into the park you will pass the park sign on the right, and continue just past it, you will see the sign for the course, and the tee for #1 on your right. You can park along the street hear the tee for one.

The course has four tees for each hole, but they can be very hard to locate. We played from the blue tees, some of which are nice concrete tees, others were spray painted lines on blacktop walkways throughout the park. The best advice I have is to print the map if you are a first timer. There is not one at the course, and its almost impossible to find all of the tees without it, many of them as I said before are painted lines on blacktop, so you can't see them from any distance.

The shots on this course are amazing, there is a very good mix of left to right as well as wooded and open holes. They also did an amazing job of using the elevation changes that they had to add more challenge to the course.

I would want everyone to get out and play this course at least once, but there are some things I would be prepared for and some things that I just wouldn't do. If you are going to get out and play this one, I would leave the kids at home, with all of the trash and broken glass its not a great place for them. I had my dog with me and was worried for him because of the amount of broken glass that was around, we just tried to keep him in the grass, and away from the baskets, it seems the blacktop and baskets were the main targets for the bottles. I would also recommend playing with someone or a couple people you know. Like I said the course itself plays great, if you can deal with the cons, we did and it wasn't horrible, than get out and give this one a try.

Update: After some discussion in the forums and some thinking I decided to change my rating a bit. Someone had asked me were the litter problems really enough to give it a two disc rating? After some thinking I decided that while the litter was bad, the course itself played really well, probably a 4 disc course without the litter and other maintenance issues. There were some navigation issues, but there is map online, so I guess I should have printed it out and it would have been a lot easier. So anyway what I did was take my original score, 2 discs which was based more on the upkeep, and the score of 4 discs which the course play gets and used the average. Sorry for the rant, but I do think this course deserves to get played a my original rating might deter some people from giving it a chance.

This review is based on playing the red tees (not the longest ones since they were not defined when I last played it).

What I personally like and how this course stacks up:
1) Holes with good risk/reward. Fair, but harsh punishment for bad decisions or execution. == B
2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities for me. I throw 300' accurately, 360' max. == A-
3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography == A-
4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion. == C+
5) Bonus points for multi-shot holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them. == N/A

It's all about feeding the addiction, so I ranked this course subjectively based on my own "personal addiction factor". The grades above tell how well the course will draw me back to itself again and again and again. Since I have played a decent number of courses (125 18-hole, 64 9-hole as of mid 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar addiction tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they choose courses to play and explore.

Over time, I expect to fill some of my reviews in with more descriptive verbiage...if what I can add 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....that's the fun of things here. See my profile for my rating philosophy.