Rockburn Branch is a pretty and popular neighborhood park featuring rolling hills and a good variety of hole designs. A few holes are wide open and a few have fairly tight gaps, but for the most part this is a moderately wooded park-style course with moderately wide grass fairways.

Each hole has two tees and two baskets. Depending on the combination chosen, course length ranges from roughly 4,400' to 6,900'. This enables a wide range of players to match course difficulty with their skill level. Many holes offer a choice of lines to the basket, which is a nice feature.

Short baskets are red, and long baskets are white. Baskets are mounted level and catch well. Long tees feature level and adequately sized concrete tee pads (but see cons). Post-mounted signs at each long tee include a descriptive map and distances for each tee and basket combination. "Next tee" arrows on each basket help with navigation. Course amenities were nicely done.

Two practice baskets - one by the parking lot, and another near the first tee. The practice basket by the parking lot is elevated on a boulder. This is decorative but odd because no other baskets at the course are elevated.

Lost disc drop-off at the park maintenance shop, across from the elementary school as you drive out of the parking lot.

Serious and inexcusable safety hazards are abundant throughout this busy neighborhood park. Walking paths are in play on many holes, blind in some cases. The most egregious was hole 17, a 360' bomb off a big hill. Pedestrians and those playing the short basket may emerge from behind cover and cross the line of fire. During a recent round I had to stop my playing partner mid-runup when a pedestrian suddenly appeared walking across the fairway. To quote a repair guy we hired to fix some bad drywall work: "What drunken sailor made this mess?"

But wait, there is more. Some of the paths between holes cross fairways. Examples include between holes 3 and 4, and between holes 14 and 15. There are also tees in reach of a poorly thrown drive on several holes.

Yeesh.

More mundane cons are also present. Concrete pads at the long tees felt very smooth, and could become slick in wet or muddy conditions. During the growing season, rough on several holes can eat discs. No tee sign or post at the short tees, which are natural and marked by a wooden toe board.

This is a popular course so expect frequent backups on nice days. Fairly long walks from the parking lot to the first tee, between holes 10 and 11, and then back to the parking lot after hole 18. Directional signs would be helpful on some of these long walks, especially where paths branch.

Rockburn Branch was redesigned to remove holes located in the floodplain and the adjoining forest conservation area. Unfortunately, the holes that were removed were some of the most memorable in the local area. Years later I can still vividly picture some of my best (and worst) throws on those holes.

Sure, the old course had plenty of filler holes, safety issues, and conflicts with non-disc golf activities. But man, those memorable holes compensated for many faults.

Since the redesign, Rockburn is just . . . bland. With most of the "wow" holes gone, the course's flaws seem much more prominent. Which is a shame, because this should have been (and perhaps still could be) a lovely neighborhood course.

I expect to replay this course occasionally, and would be delighted to bump up my rating if some of the more notable safety issues are addressed.

Excellent concrete tee boxes, flush with the ground, long and wide. Well groomed course with Mandos clearly marked. Excellent map at each tee for the hole.Plenty of hills, turns and distance to challenge. Two baskets per hole to cater to differently skilled players.

Tee maps show two tees per hole, but there is only one tee.

Loved it!

- Nice use of the topography and just enough hole layout variety to provide fairly consistently different looks and challenge throughout your round. For the long baskets, this includes uphills (#2, 10, 12), downhills (#3, 6, 13, 15, 16, 17), a left dogleg (#11), and right doglegs (#4, 14). And all of this is combined with enough distance (to the long baskets) to challenge intermediate players from the long tees.
- Two baskets per hole, and there's now 4 tees per hole. That's the most variety in ways to play a hole that I've seen on any course anywhere. If you're looking for the most challenge offered, play the long tees to the white baskets.
- Long concrete tees on every hole and they are all level.
- Very descriptive tee signs with nice sketches of the hole layouts that are actually quite accurate. That's a real rarity, so you really have to appreciate the effort that was put into the graphics - thank you!
- The hole lengths range pretty widely no matter which tee you choose to play from, with a few reachable birdie opportunities (such as #9) and some that require a big arm just to hope for par (like #15).
- Practice basket by the first tee, and you finish where you started.
- #17 is awesome! See "Other Thoughts" for more.

- Seems that the course is constantly changing, which makes drawing comparisons across reviews and over time really tough. For example, the pars on half the holes have already changed since I played here earlier this year. Just pick something and stick with it so those of us who want to regularly play the course can easily remember and compare our scores across rounds.
- There's plenty of parking, but it's a fairly long walk to the first tee and there's no sign from the parking lot about which direction to walk to get there. A sign would be very helpful here. As it stands, you're "just supposed to know".
- Some of the tee pads are ice-slick smooth, as other reviewers have mentioned. #18 is especially bad. I about ate concrete here first try (which never happens to me), chalked it up to being distracted and tried again, and same thing happened on my retry. Enough said.
- The layout is confusing in places and backtracks way too much. Places where navigation is particularly tough is finding the #2 tee, realizing that the tee you pass while playing #3 is actually the one for #5 (not #4), walking twice along the fairway of #4 to first find it's tee tucked back in the trees then to make your way from its basket to the fifth tee when you've finished the hole (seriously??), and figuring out where to go after you finish #11. Next tee signs would go A LONG way to helping this.
- Along with the navigation issues are a couple fairway-tee conflicts. These include the #5 tee being right in the #3 fairway and the #2 tee being right in a left hazard area of the 18th fairway.
- The white basket for #11 is in a horrid location: it's hidden shortly behind a building from the tee and shortly in front of another building, and to get there you have to throw right through a picnic area and across a rough path. So you're faced with a blind tee shot that can't be thrown when picnic-goers are there, and you're trying not to hit buildings too. Needs redesigning (again) badly...

- There are many mixed thoughts both in my head and in prior reviews here due in large part to the constant changes going on at Rockburn, but in my book I'd say it's a solidly-fun course thanks to the topographic and length variety with fairways that stay open enough to be fair. The great points are somewhat even with the drawbacks, thus my 3-star rating.

- If you're like me and waiting/slow rounds bother you, try to play it at off times or during the winter when there are less pedestrians along the many trails/sidewalks.

- The signature hole in my book is definitely #17. It's a really fun, long and slowly descending downhill par 3 with a roller-containing ridge all along the left side of the fairway that just begs you to bomb it as hard as you can from the tee. Then your approach shot is still slightly downhill, with both baskets positioned in nicely-level spots to act as disc-catching greens. Yes there's a walking path all along the right side of the hole, but when there's no one walking it this hole is awesome! Just don't shank it right or you'll be digging through dense brush down by the creek...

- It's literally the closest course to I-95 in the entire state of Maryland! This obviously makes it the easiest course to add into a roadtrip traversing through the Baltimore-D.C. area. (Side note: why is it that Maryland courses seems to spurn the I-95 corridor? Us road-trippers need more courses right along the interstates like this!)

Two new (Veteran) baskets per hole.
Two tee locations (long 5'x15' concrete, short toeboard) per hole.

The elevation changes, ranging from mild to moderate, represent the entire gamut.

Most holes have a walking path, typically quite visible, in/near play.
Many holes have another's tee/fairway/basket relatively near.

Some of the concrete tee are too smooth and/or too flush to the ground, so can be slippery.

Some drainage issues near holes 8-9, currently being addressed.

This course is set in a multi-purpose park, and is intertwined with walking paths in its near entirety. The park is very popular, the course more so, therefore if you come to play on a mild weekend day, expect a very slow game, as the course will be packed, and the walking paths will be in frequent use by non-players.

From the tee, only a few holes would be considered tight - some are openish, and most provide decent-sized throwing lanes. A few holes let you choose which window you'd prefer to hit.

Approach shots will tend to be more challenging, as most baskets are guarded by some number of trees (only one hole is poke-n-prayish), and/or the greens can be a bit fast.

Depending upon tee/basket choice, distances can vary greatly, from a sub-100' ace run, to 500'+, although most will fall into the 225-425' range.

Favourite hole: #13. A valley shot, with the baskets being higher than the tees. Scattered trees early/mid create window choices from both tees, then trees late offer a couple windows to approach the baskets.

There are a lot of good holes here, unfortunately crammed a bit upon each other, and with the (nearly) omnipresent walking path. A great play when not crowded, not so much when a traffic jam.

All new baskets - 2 on every hole. Really good, new tee pads. A ton of clearing was done. It's well maintained. There's still some good elevation changes, although less than old Rockburn. If you play to the long baskets, new Rockburn is still a challenging course.

There remains a lot of other Park users on the course - nothing new here. In fact, there could be more park users than before - the park seems more popular now that a lot of clearing has been done. There are places where you have to wait for pedestrians and there are places where you could hit pedestrians. The course has been here for years, so most non-DGers on the course know they're walking on a DG course. Most are very polite and they tend to yield to the DGers rather than demand the reverse.

If you know anything about Park planning, you know that most Park managers do not want traffic in and around moving water, creek beds, etc. They especially don't want people crossing creeks via large rocks or wooden platforms. Old Rockburn had all of that, including creeks that you had to cross. It's not surprising that eventually, Park management put a halt to it. I've always been surprised they allowed it in the first place.

So.... with the mandate to remove the holes and foot traffic near the creeks, you had to figure that the re-design was already facing an uphill battle. I believe that by removing access to the creek areas, there was a less desirable plot of land to work with. I also believe that the maximum value was reached with what was left to work with and that's why I gave it a 3.5 rating. Add 2 new baskets and concrete tees on each hole into the mix and the trade-off isn't that bad. New Rockburn has GREAT amenities with the re-design, but it's not as good as old Rockburn.

Last time I played new Rockburn was a Sunny day in mid-January and the course was packed with pedestrians. Nearly all of them yielded to the DGers because the course has been here for years and the locals know the deal. My experience with Rockburn is that it has the coolest pedestrians - they don't have the attitude that your playing DG on their hiking trail.

New Rockburn is still a good course and I'll drive 45 minutes to play there every single time I get the call from my crew saying "we're playing Rockburn". Sure, I'll miss old Rockburn - especially the old back 9; everyone I've talked to misses the old back 9. But everyone also LOVES the new baskets and new tees and Rockburn remains a better-than-average course. Despite the course being a little less than what it used to be, my prediction is that it's going to become even more popular than it was.

Challenging course. They are still in the process of updating the course, but I really like the course. Hole 16 is very fun. Great mix of open land holes and wooded holes.

No maps or signage.

Been playing this course for years and really enjoy playing it.

See "other thoughts".

See "other thoughts".

My context for this review is partially related to the "old" layout, which I'd played many times over the last seven years or so. In that earlier iteration, which about half of the current layout follows closely, the biggest issues with the course design were:
-Interaction with other park uses, especially pedestrian paths on nearly every hole.
-Thick rough, especially prickly invasive species.
-Holes interfering with each other.
-Poor teepad condition (slick rubber mats).
-Playability of several holes near the creek after rainfall.

So it was a joyous day in my household when it was revealed that Eric McCabe would be redesigning the course! It has been a real letdown to see that although the holes near the creek have been removed and extensive clearing has made many fairways much more playable, resolving those particular issues, it's possible that all three other major problems with the course are worse. I'm not ascribing any particular blame to Eric; my understanding is that he was given some untenable locations for holes, gave his input on the layout, and Howard County then ran with the concept and did what they wanted to do all along, which was just remove the holes closest to the creek and forest protection areas. So what do we have now?

-New baskets, which is nice. Having two per hole seems like kind of overkill especially when the pin positions don't play dramatically differently or there are several visible from a single teepad.
-The holes that follow the "old" layout aren't appreciably better than what was there before.
-New concrete teepads, several of which were poorly finished and consequently are smooth and slick. It's amazing that of all the things for a contractor to bungle they NAILED bungling essentially a standard sidewalk section. A couple also have the tee sign posts immediately behind the pad or the sign facing the wrong direction.
-Holes still playing into each other, and still directly interfering with walking paths, playgrounds, and other park features. See below for a rundown of each hole, with hole interference reflected by the hole most likely to throw onto another.
-A recurrent theme of holes not clearly being designed for a particular user skill level, and consequently also not having hole pars set to a consistent difficulty.

1. Essentially the same as the old layout's hole 1. Walking path to the left; visibility can be limited throwing over the initial hill. An okay hole otherwise.

2. Essentially the same as the old layout's hole 2. Throws directly across a walking path, which can be blind especially from the left. Some potential for discs to get onto 6's fairway.

3. Essentially the same as the old layout's hole 3. Throws directly across a walking path, and has a playground in griplock territory to the right not far off-line of the route to the red basket. The proposed mando approximately 200 feet off the tee won't really solve the issue of discs potentially leaking onto 5's teepad.

4. Essentially the same as the old layout's hole 4. Walking to this teepad requires coming around a blind corner directly into the flight path of the hole. Walking to the next teepad requires backtracking from the basket directly into the flight path of the hole.

5. Essentially the same as the old layout's hole 5. Long shots that stall out can certainly reach the walking path.

6. Essentially the same as the old layout's hole 6. Throws directly across a walking path. Perhaps the greasiest teepad of them all; it must be skated on to be believed.

7. The first new hole. It's fine. The short basket isn't much of a hole. The long basket is a pretty good hole.

8. The second new hole. It's fine. A very obvious mud problem will develop in the middle of the hole.

9. A reorganization of the former hole 8 by shifting the teepad to the left and throwing in the same direction. The old iteration threw directly down a walking path, but at least had the courtesy and decency to have full visibility. Now there's a hole without a real gap to the long basket, a bizarro left turn to the short basket, and an oblique blind intersection with one of the prime pedestrian and bicycle paths in the park. There's also a sucker route to throw over the left side, which goes directly over top of hole 2's teepad and potentially onto hole 18's fairway.

10. A mashup of the former hole 10 and 11. The shape of the hole is not terrible but there is a walking path running down the entire left side, with obstructed visibility of the end of it. Making it out of bounds won't stop anyone from going over there, so good luck protecting other park users.

11. A reorganization of the former hole 12 by shifting the teepad and basket both to the left. Short sawed off drives are bound for hole 16's teepad. The walk from hole 15 to 16 will naturally take other players directly across this fairway. The flight path goes directly across a walking path which is blind from the tee.

12. An entirely new hole. It's pretty good but not clear whether it's decided to be a par 3 or 4. The teepad for hole 13 is inside 10 meters of the white basket.

13. An entirely new hole. I think of all the new holes or reconfigured holes this is the best one.

14. An entirely new hole. Depending on where you land the red basket for hole 12 could be a more obvious target than the actual baskets for hole 14. There is a walking path directly to the left of the hole and teepad.

15. That same walking path from holes 11 and 14? It runs down the entire left side of the hole, as well as within 15 feet of the basket on the right.

16. Essentially the same as old hole 13. A downhill hole with a wide spray zone where there is a walking path shortly in front of the teepad, AND both basket positions are directly beyond a walking path. That's a real shame because the hole practically begs you to throw multiple shots.

17. A downhill hole with a wide spray zone where there is a walking path marking the right boundary of the fairway for its entire length. The white basket would actually be an amazing pro-level par 3 if not for that.

18. Hole 18 is parallel to hole 2, but 18's teepad is set back by approximately 200 feet. 200 feet is about the distance that many inexperienced disc golfers can throw before the disc hyzers out 50 feet to the left.


I can see it now. You read this (you made it this far; way to go champ!). You see how many holes I claim are intrusive to walking or biking paths. You think I'm being overdramatic. You see that it's been a while since I've reviewed anything and must assume I've got an agenda behind a 1200-word takedown. You dismiss the review wholesale.

Go play it. If you haven't seen many courses, or don't dabble in design concepts, or haven't been hit with a disc before, bring someone who has done those things along with you. It's REALLY dumb how much time, effort, and money was invested into "redesigning" this course without resolving the real omnipresent issues. Especially with the recent influx of new players, and based on my observations more people using the park for other purposes, this stands out as a prime example of why thinking only about disc golf doesn't tell the whole story. If disc golf was the only thing in this park the course would be a solid 4 or higher (pending teepads and signage being properly installed). As it stands now, I waffled between a 2 and 2.5 because of how many ongoing user safety concerns there are.

First-rate infrastructure (I'm assuming the remaining signs go in). Well-maintained, both grassy and wooded fairways. Really fun holes to play with plenty of challenge, elevation, woods, everything. It's as if the 18 coolest possible holes were chosen in isolation without regard to anything but how each hole plays.

Interference all over the place. Drives go across or parallel to active walking paths. Baskets are blind so you don't know if they are clear of players or pedestrians. A playground is just 30 degrees off line from a tee pad. Tee pads are in line with throws from other holes.

When you are waiting on the tee for 10 minutes for a baby carriage which is on the paved path between two parallel fairways that catch each other's discs, you aren't playing. So it's not really a disc golf course at that point. It's just a concrete pad for twirling discs on.
When you can't throw where you want because you need to avoid another tee or a playground, you aren't getting the most fun out of the hole.
Yes, interference is enough to justify the low rating. Think of it as a 4.5 disc course that gets shut down randomly half the time, and sometimes doesn't let you play the holes at their best.

Great new baskets. This area is rife with Mach 3s that love to spit out good putts. These DD baskets make weird noises but they catch really well.

Great elevation changes and shape-demanding fairways.

Tee pads are still slick - especially when it rains. Caution advised.

The walk from 9 to 10 is a doozy.

Go play this course. It's not Patapsco or Seneca but it is a fine course with a lot of really fun holes.

The course has certainly been invested in. The tees are wide and cement, and the baskets are new and beautiful. Upkeep is also great: fairways are clean, paths through the park are pristine, and greens are wood-wood chipped or generally clear.

The recent renovation came at the cost of my favorite aspects of this course. Particularly, I remember loving holes 15-18, with touchy downhill and uphill throws, and tight woods shots, as well as the par-4 early in the course that involved going down across the stream. All 5 of these, my favorite holes on the course, have been replaced with generic park golf holes. I felt as though I threw the same shot for 5 or 6 out of the first 9 holes!

Even though every hole has an "expert" pin, these pins are often just longer, rather than technically difficult. Similarly, on the front half of the course, I felt that the short pins were often too short for an interesting shot to be had.

I remember this course really fondly back in the day as a place to make the drive to in order to get some isolated walking and golfing in. It was always challenging, and there were a couple of really signature holes that just weren't available at other courses in the area. Sure the course was a bit overgrown, but I felt that it added to the experience of being isolated. Now, the course is beautifully manicured, but a lot of its charm and challenge have been lost

I think that this course now functions much better as a local disc golf course for the area. And indeed, investments in the course itself, as well as paving of the paths through the course have meant that it is now absolutely JAMMED with people. I am sure this was the goal of the re-design by the county, but for me it was a pretty disappointing return since I last played 3-4 years ago. I do not think I will be making the trip again for a while.

Another observation that I had while there is that the course has been basically clear cut from last I saw it. Especially holes 6-12/13 have been really cleared out. This was disappointing! It really ruins the illusion of being isolated in a park. For all the positives of the manicuring of the course, this was a big downside of the enormous amount of wood-clearing that has been done.