Making the most of the elevations, and providing tight intended lanes into the available rough in and around a washout low bowl area near the Scioto River in Grove City, Ohio, the Scioto Grove disc golf course is interesting, challenging for the recreational to intermediate player, and will give you all the workout you might want. Boasting level (if a little small at 4'x10') concrete tee pads, excellent signage (check your 'next tee' notes before leaving each tee), and solid, still-new, green Prodigy webbed baskets, the course begins just west of the archery structure with a path-side 300 footer to loosen your arm. Stay right of the shrub line but in-bounds left of the path.

The signature hole here is clearly throwing down to a peninsula between wings of the retention pond on hole 3, where you may not even be able to see the water from the tee (caution first timers: water to the right, water to the left, and water long). Even hole 4 has a best line of flight (for rhbh players) right through the 'no swimming' sign and fading left over the pond. The scrub grass and gravelly soil here makes it feel a little like 'death valley', as you roam up and down the edges of the bowl, throwing blind (obstructed by cedar? pines?) down to the clear (for shorter arms like mine), then back up a typically tight approach to a rollaway basket position. It's definitely a 'different' experience for central Ohio.

These factors were enough to have me pull my numerical rating down about a point from what might have been a 3.5: Only holes 1 and 2 will be accessible to most players if it's slippery wet. The fact that, after three years, the only way into the bowl after teeing off on 3 is to literally rappel down a rope climb. The slopes are not super long, but they are that steep …on 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, getting to 14, 17 & 18. I was a little surprised that the course seems to be fairly heavily played and enjoyed, but nobody has even tried to put in steps. But then again, steps won't help you access your disc when you've missed most of the 15' wide fairway gaps on many of these slopes anyway.

It's clear what the designer intended: to hit the gaps, and play it as it flows, but bigger arms will almost always be able to spike up and over the intended gaps anyway. The gaps are sometimes almost ridiculously tight (I'm talking particularly of the upslope on 14: the grove of trees on the green didn't cause me as much consternation!)

Finally, on the safety question, it felt like the majority of the course played away from other park activities, but this all changed for me when we got to 17, when we waited for an older hiker as she meandered around toward the end of the fairway for a few minutes, while we watched an archer shoot at a buffalo target about 100' to our right. When we almost got lost deciding whether to go right or left on the path after hole 13, we spotted what looked like a hiking trail marker, meaning there MAY be trails out her we didn't know about.

I drew up the first map uploaded here on DGCR, so I hope it will be helpful for first timers to find the flow of the course. A quick hole by hole guide:
1 - narrow strip of grass west of the archery pavilion, but plenty of room to hyzer out over the path
2 - tight lane slightly left to right
3 - peninsula downhill fun but challenging (brig a 'disposable disc if you're going to 'go for it')
4 - 'no swimming', so disposable disc if trying that fade, or go way around left over dry land
5 - first blind bowl edger out left to right around the cedars to upslope basket position
6 - lane shot with a scattering of trees to throw over or around (private property right of green)
7 - longer lane, field grasses border the cut fairway, bigger arms simply hyzer fade in to green
8 - similar challenge, but more guardian trees, and last 50' slightly doglegs left
9 - from elevation down to flats, try to stay right of those pines
10 - back up the slope with a gap and a rollaway green to remind you of 5
11 - probably a true par 4-5, can throw down to landing zone near 14th basket, then try to sky hyzer over top
12 - right to left fade down the opening, trying to fade back to base of hill blind left
13 - a tunnel shot very similar to 2, then carefully climb down the path left to
14 - pretty much an open field fade for rhbh, and definitely 'runnable'
15 - short hole to small mound, but guarded by shrub right and pine left
16 - across death valley, sometimes stays marshy to the left of the intended line, again pines guarding green
17 - another valley crosser to just on the slope, looks like middle to right side of gap is best
18 - short but very steep uphill (tight) gap, so figure 250'ish feel, and gets you right back to the parking area

Creative use of space

Feels totally different than anything else in the area. Uniqueness would normally be a HUGE plus in my book.

Forces me to THINK about shots instead of just throwing. I've come up with a couple of creative lines/throws here that I'll incorporate on other courses

Sits in a low-lying area and retains water. It's been muddy every time I've been here.

Needs LOTS more play to beat in the rough areas. I've left a couple discs behind. This will get better in time, but it's tough out there at the moment.

The teeny tiny teepads.

I really want to like Scioto Grove. It has many features I like such as high risk/high reward shots, unique feel, good use of elevation and has holes that reward all types of players. However, having been out there 3 times now I've decided it's unlikely I'll be back. The teepads are so short that they affect my run-up which leads to lost accuracy. Loss of accuracy leads to errant shots which proceed to fly into the deep rough, leading to me spending more money at DIsc Golf Mart. To be clear, we're not talking just a foot or two short. I'd guess these are 4 feet shorter than the pads at Hoover. There are a lot of flaws which I'll forgive, but tiny teepads that (usually) aren't level with the ground behind them isn't one of them. My biggest beef with this is that it's really difficult to fix teepads after the fact. Trees can be trimmed. Baskets can be moved. So on and so forth. I realize the budget may have been limited but I'd rather have seen a good 9 hole course here with better tees.