Northwoods Nature Trail is a simple 9 hole course that has tee signs for every hole listing distance and par, permanent single chained-baskets, and natural tees along a walking trail for the Northwood Forests Neighborhood. The course features a nice range of distances for the holes with the shortest being 189 feet and the longest being 336 feet.

The walking trail plays between homes at times and there are moments when a creek runs alongside the trail as well.

Hole 6 has a fun basket placement across a deep creek/ditch. It was easily the most memorable hole on the course.

The grass along the walking trail was cut.

If I had an orienteering map of this course, the "rough" would not be labeled as such, it would be titled "Fight". If your disc lands even three feet off the fairway, you might lose it, but you will almost certainly have to fight your way through the wall of growth to find your disc. I know because this happened to me a few times, where I could see my disc 3 to 4 feet away, and I had to fight to get it back.

The holes don't appear to be designed with much attention to shot variety or disc flight. The tees and baskets are merely tucked to the sides of the sewer-line where this walking trail was built. Until you reach Hole 7, which plays down an actual walking trail where I was able to touch leaves on both sides of the fairway with both of my hands stretched out, which then makes an almost 90 degree turn to the basket. Then finishes with a whimper on Holes 8 & 9 which just play back-and-forth in the same field.

When I played through, there were no baskets for Holes 2 or 4. I looked pretty hard for them too. The baskets that they do have are single chain baskets that are definitely showing their age. So I ended up just playing to the next holes tee sign. Then I made it to Hole 6, which had the best design out of all the holes, just because of the throwing over the creek. But the bridge that you are meant to use to cross the creek, is taped/boarded up with Caution and Do Not Enter signs. I could have climbed down into the dry creek and climbed back up, but I chose to risk it. I could tell why the bridge is "not in use".

The course plays out in a straight line. It's possible there was meant to be a way to play back in the other direction, but once I dropped my putter in, on Hole 9, I just wanted to walk back to my car. The walk would have at least been pleasant if the rough along the creek side of the trail hadn't been so thick, so it was visible for more than just fleeting glimpses. The rough was so thick I don't think I even noticed the creek until the hike back.

There was nobody else on the trail the day I played, this could be due to the bridge being "out", but I could see that becoming a conflict on a busy day.

I respect that someone wanted to build a course along this walking trail, it would be a decent use of mixed use land within the neighborhood, but I doubt it sees much use from the locals. I sometimes view courses as a one-and-done when it comes to playing them. This probably would be something I would recommend to others to list as a none-and-done unless the course sees some improvements, or that person is just really desperate to bag another course in this specific area (and all the other courses have been bagged.)

If you choose to play here anyway, just bring a midrange and a putter that you don't mind losing forever, just in case.

Due to the absolute thickest of thick rough, 2 baskets being missing, the bridge being "condemned", it being a course meant for the residents of the neighborhood - I have to give the course a 0.5 rating. The only reason this course isn't getting a 0.0 from me is because there could be a fun course here if it were cleaned up a bit.

I can imagine the course would be fun for local kids to play and learn the game if the rough was cleared out some, but if you aren't staying on the fairway the game would not be fun at all here.

Favorite Hole: 6

Northwood Nature Trail is a fun, simple layout. If you live here, I think it's a great option. If not, prepare for a lot of wasted walking.
- A simple, straight ahead 9-hole layout. The course starts on a nature trail, right next to the neighborhood's main road. You follow the trail throughout, making this a (mostly) easy course to follow and play.
- Course is relatively simple in its layout. There isn't room (width or depth) to create a lot of variety in terms of length or shaping. As such, throwing a putter or mid-range off the tee on every hole and you'll be fine. That's all I did. The variety is basically slight dogleg left or right, teeing off on the left side of the trail or the right side.
- Course is easy to par. Course is a little more challenging to rack up the birdies, due in some part to the risk of a disc ending up in thick rough alongside a creek. Do you want to be aggressive off the tee and possibly risk getting scratched up or searching for a long time for a disc? Or do you throw a disc straight ahead, leaving a 30 foot putt?
- #6 is fun in that you throw over a bridge to the putting circle. It gives you the added risk of laying up, or being aggressive, which brings the risk of the creek into play. At 270 feet, length isn't the challenge here. The challenge is a blind tee shot to a slight dogleg right basket protected by underbrush. This is the only hole I could see on a full 18-hole course.
- Fantastic concept for a course if you're in the neighborhood. Your exercise is playing disc golf. You can sneak out of the house without being noticed. Shoot, in these work-at-home days, you could play a round of golf while being on a conference call, and make it back home within 5 minutes. Nice!
- There are tee signs. They're decrepit. They at least list the distances and give a general shape of the hole's design.

If you don't live in the neighborhood, or close by, it's hard to quantify this as anything more than a stat-padder.
- Poor flow. Fo' sho', flow blow. So po', yo' go. Yo' no mo' go-no throw. D'oh.
- The first tee is right next to the neighborhood's main road. You then play deeper into the wooded area, often playing right behind people's backyard and finally end up in a field. You then walk backwards, past #8's tee, then #7's basket and tee, all the way back past #1. You play a 2200-foot layout and make a half mile walk back to the road. I guess you could play reverse disc golf.
- The course is built on the and around the walking trail. I played on a Wednesday morning while I had time to kill. I came across multiple people walking the trail. Be diligent when throwing.
- As it is a walking trail, part deux, the fairways aren't necessarily designed for a course. They're tight in spots, most notably the dreadful #7, and don't flow as fairways might. You also play holes #8 & 9 in a field that, at least when I was playing, had knee high grass. From experience, I doubt this is a high priority maintenance area for the lawn care company so the tall grass is probably to be expected.
- The rough is THICK. On #9, my tee shot lands 25 - 35 feet from the basket, but it was in some nasty thorns. It only took several minutes to navigate them to get to my disc just so I could chuck it near the basket.
- Some holes had multiple tee pads. Actually, I think most holes were supposed to, but signage was inconsistent.

The NNT is a good mid-range practice course. I had two mid-range discs and a putter, and rushed through my conservative, bagger round without many issues.
- For a regular/local, you probably start playing this course aggressively. In that case, yes, there are some holes that have an ace-run vibe to them. Yes, you could try to shoot 9 under. You probably could even leave a lost disc in the rough and come back the next day to retrieve it as you know nobody else will be looking for it.
- The theme of holes #1 - 7 is to place the basket close to one side of the fairway, bringing the rough into play. For all nine holes, actually, if you throw slightly long, left, or right, you're in the rough. It is a pattern.
- #9 would be a fun practice, multi-shot hole if the rough wasn't so out of control. It's no joke that any shot 10 feet long, left, or right of the basket is in the thicket. It turns a fun layout into a just-get-out-of-here-without-any-scratches tee shot.
- The course is listed as private, for the neighborhood only. I parked right next to the walking trail's entrance and played without issue. YMMV.
- I'm not a fan of playing deeper and deeper into the woods one-way, then walking the duration back. There's not a shortcut as you'd be cutting through people's yards.
- It's a perfectly decent practice course. With some awkward tee positions, you do feel as if you're throwing secondary shots on long par 4s or 5s with odd approach angles to the basket. If you view this as a nine-hole course, you're going to find flaws. All told, enjoy the course for what it is and you'll be fine.