(3.289 Rating) A City Park course done right.
- UNIQUENESS - Probably my favorite aspect of the Riverside course was the variety. Four of the first five holes are relatively open shots, but starting on hole (6) the shot shaping demands really start to pick up. The wooded stretch of holes (9) thru (13) are very technically demanding. Hole (12), my favorite shot, is tight 25 foot downhill tunnel shot. In addition to the wooded holes, there are also a couple of minor water clears, pockets to shoot into, blind shots and some bomb-it opportunities. Depending on the basket placements, lines will break in both directions and I was personally greeted with an even distribution on my round. In all, I found the Riverside course to be an entertaining mix, and it required the use of every disc in my bag.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - An absolutely charming way to start a round. Hole (1) throws over the gracefully looking 60 foot wide Milwaukee River. Hole (1) had head high grass framing the right side of the fairway and had wildflowers blooming everywhere. In addition, my round was alive with scores of wildlife. During my round I saw several species of ducks, geese, deer, squirrels, rabbits and a red tailed hawk. I was impressed by the beauty of the course and it added to my round experience. Perhaps I caught Riverside at the perfect time of the year.
- CHALLENGING - I think this course is a bit more challenging than the rating indicates, although perhaps the wind I dealt with is giving me a bad read. At 5,700 feet Par 54 from the back tees, advanced players should be 3 to 4 down on average as the course will require a mix of shot shaping and power. Intermediate players will struggle to maintain even par from the backs and the short tees should challenge rec players.
- CHARACTER - Really nice sized concrete tees, and half of the holes with two of them. The pads seemed to be at least 6 x14 and got wider at the back. Great large sized, appealing and informative tee signs and seating at a majority of the holes. There were a few missing signs however (see cons). A community board with league info, unfortunately no course map. There were also alternate basket placements at every hole. I initially thought there was a practice basket driving up, but it was actually (18) basket.
- SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY - With the two sets of tees on about half of the holes, Riverside is going to allow for a fair and challenging round for a wide swath of skilled players. It's nice that the front tees take out the water hazard on (1) and (17) and also take out a big chunk of distance on the long sweeping holes like (4) and (7). In all, I think this course will keep rec thru advanced players pleased and entertained.
- MAINTENANCE - The maintenance crew that keeps this course up was doing an amazing job during the time period I visited and I hope it continues. Well mowed fairways, no trash, and wisely the areas well off the unbeaten path, were left untouched.

The issues with Riverside are minor. I found the course to be above average in all 5 of my main review categories. (Fun Factor, Character, Uniqueness, Difficulty and Raw Beauty)
- NAVIGATION - Several holes have missing tee signs. I didn't keep track but I think there were at least six missing. There is no course map on site so be sure and download or print the DGCR map as I had to peak at it a few times. Traversing the course wasn't too bad. I probably spent no more than 10 extra minutes trying figure out the layout.
- DISCONTINUITY - There are some pretty substantial gaps in this layout. (15) to (16) is an 800 foot walk. (3) to (4) is almost 500 feet. Getting to tee (1) is also a long walk from the parking area and you have to be aware of those teeing off on (18).
- TIME PLAY - Probably not the quickest par 54 rounds. I was running between a few holes and it still took me over an hour solo. I could see four seasoned players spending 2 1/2 hours out here or more.
- WIND - The first few holes and the last few holes are mostly wide open. I was not fortunate on my visit and had to deal with 20 mph gusts. Hole (17) may seem easy on paper, but throwing into the gusts over a river and onto a blind fairway was not a pleasant felling. I really gave up on my throw and it fell 200 feet short.

My favorite of the three courses I hit this day. Riverside starts off wonderful and also has several other memorable shots. Riverside is far from being championship caliber, but the course's challenge will definitely appeal to wide range of skill levels. Couple this with a beautiful landscape and just enough amenities, it's no wonder this course is rated as high as it is.
- RANDOM FACT - There are five courses in Wisconsin called Riverside Park. The one in West Bend (this review) is rated the highest.

Hole Length. I do prefer holes where I can air out my drivers.
Teepads. These are flared and I've never seen larger ones out there. Think: Tendick, but in an XXL size. Perhaps these were on a portion of the holes only, as I believe this course grew from 9 to 18 holes at one point.
Location.... with Slinger having closed up, and no other decent 18 hole courses (that I know of) around the Washington Co. area, this was a welcome addition.
Not too crowded.
Water hazzards. There are two shots over a creek you have to make when playing from the pro's. Nice design implementation!
Tee signs are very well put together.

The only thing that I would pick on here is that the pro pads just "felt" like the only option to play from. I don't generally play from anything but the am's, but I felt like the course was designed around the longer tee positions. Perhaps this will be improved over time. Much of the am pads I either missed, or there were no cement pads in that location.
The walk from 15 to 16 was a bit much, but I don't see any way around that.

Playing from the pro pads wore me out. I like the long holes over a shorter technical course like Valley View or LimeKiln. Playing this for the first time, I just wasn't prepared for back to back 400+ ft. holes I guess.
When you park in the lot, find the walking path and take it into the park. The first hole's pro pad will be on your right. The am pad is a few minute's walk down onto the hole itself, though I don't know why anyone would play from there....

Set in a city park, but with nice open and wooded holes, along with a bit of elevation that makes for some fun tee shots.

Great catching baskets in good shape. Nothing to complain about here.

Concrete tee pads on all long positions, and nearly all natural tee pads for the shorts. Hole 4 is the only hole with two concrete pads.

GREAT signs at each hole. Very large, with all the information you could want. These are possibly the most visually appealing signs I've seen.

Navigation is easy, with the flow of the course being very intuitive. The only transition that could cause any issues is from 3 to 4, but follow the paved path, and you're in business. Really nice setup for tournaments.

Lots of fun lines here, along with a couple bomber holes from up on the hills. The wooded holes offer a lot of different lines, with most having a forced line that you'll need to hit to score well. Also, a really nice mix of distances keep the course feeling fresh from hole to hole.

It would be nice if the short tee pads were concrete and had more than just rudimentary paper signs, but honestly, I don't think I've ever seen anybody playing the short tees.

Wind can be a huge factor on the more open holes, especially the shots from elevation.

It can get very wet here in the spring...there are some lower wetland areas that can flood out, making it very difficult early in the season, unless you're wearing your mukluks.

This really is a solid course in a nice park with man other amenities. Rentable pavilions, playgrounds, baseball diamonds, etc.

There are two parking lots, one that sits near the beginning of hole 3, and the other that sits near the basket of 18. If you park here, you'll need to walk up the path to the practice basket and Hole 1 tee pad.

Overall, a really solid course, especially if you can throw 350-400'. Lots of scoring opportunity, or, if you're off that day, lots of high scoring opportunity. Definitely worth a couple spins if the opportunity presents itself.

Nice looking chainstar baskets on every hole. These were all in great shape and caught nicely. The tee pads here were probably the best I've ever seen in about 90 different courses so far. They are huge, level and grippy. They start out about 8 feet wide in the back and flare down to 4 or 5 feet wide in the front. Also every tee pad had a bench on the back part which is a nice bonus. They incorporate the river that runs through the park on holes 1 and 17 which is a cool idea here. There's a decent amount of elevation here as well. Nothing too drastic but enough to keep it interesting in spots. There's also a good amount of heavily wooded, moderately wooded and mostly open shots here. The distances also vary nicely on this course. There were two sets of tees on most holes too. The longs being concrete and the shorts being grass/dirt. There weren't signs on every hole but at least half it seemed if not more. Again, like the tee pads here the signs are the biggest and best I've seen to date. They show a nice topographical diagram of the hole layout with hole locations, tee locations, distances and pars. Very informative and easy to spot. The flow of this course was excellent. Hole 1 starts very near the parking lot and 18 ends right next to it. Every hole in between flows nicely to the next hole. Also all the holes keep a safe amount of distance away from each other. All said this is a very fun, well rounded course. It's still new too so it should only get better with time.

It can get a bit busy it seems but with a course this nice that's to be expected. Other than that this is a really nice course with not much for cons. I could say the short tees would be better with concrete but again I'm sure that's coming eventually.

This is definitely worth a trip here if you're in the area. Good challenge for intermediate to skilled players alike. Many things they did here I would love to see new courses do in the future. This one won't disappoint.

Nice mix of shots. Long bombs, short curves, and wooded shots. Long tees are good shots; short tees are short.

Course can get very busy during peak hours.
About 1/2 are concrete, 1/2 are not.

Good course to play if you're in the area.

Overall a relatively calm park course, nice signage and tee pads on the permanent holes (1,2,3,4,5,6,12,13,16,17, and 18). Benches on every hole that I can remember. Nice mix of wooded and open holes with some elevation change (the most notable of which I would say are on 12 and 16).

Dirt tee pads can get muddy and the hillside on hole 2 can become squishy after rain. The walks between 3-4 and 15-16 can be a bit long. Some players unfamiliar with the course will start on hole 3 causing some confusion.

When throwing hole 12 keep in mind the disc can skip a large amount at the bottom. Holes 5 through 13 can be cut off from wind on a calm or moderately windy day as opposed to the other holes.