This course has done a good job taking advantage of a defunct golf course and turning it into a dg course with some variety of shots.

> well manicured
> gorgeous trees and fairway lines with snow capped mountains peaking out
> it's pretty hard to lose a disc here
> holes between 250-500ft
> good day trip visit to this area
> general store on site with food/discs
> restaurant on site

It's not hard to get around, but signage is minimal.
> tee pads are undersized turf
> lacking elevation changes

It's been a minute since I've played a new course. Or at least since I've reviewed one. Let's see if I remember how to do this.

Equipment: It's a pretty new course on a disc golf exclusive portion of property. Sure there are random dog walkers and the like, but this isn't a park where you take your kids to vandalize weird looking BBQs with chains on them and "DiscCatcher" stamped on the top. So yeah, the baskets are in perfect shape.

Navigation: Every teepad has a sign, and every basket has tape pointing you to the next tee.

Design: I really enjoyed this course. It does what you want courses to do. It challenges you with different looks. You go from a short ace run to a long, low ceiling shot to a guarded basket. A right turning tunnel shot to a 220' wide open triple mando. Then a bomber hole, another shorty with an obstacle in what you think your line should be, another guarded pin, and on you go. The designer did a great job of providing challenge on a relatively open property. The little bit of elevation comes into play, and you need hyzers, anhyzers, rollers, and probably thumbers. There's plenty of variation, and for a fairly open space there's a lot that can punish bad shots (OB, water, and bunkers to be specific).

Equipment: Word is there's going to be a redesign, and that's why the teepads are temporary (read: awful). But as of now, as I write this, they're terrible. Not much better than a bare patch of mud behind a landscaping timber would be. The signage, while present on every hole, is also tiny, hard to read, and mostly vague. Just a hole number and distance.

Navigation: The signs are the only con with this. If you follow the tape from one basket to the next tee, you're fine. But then you have to guess where the basket is on some of these holes, because some are blind. There's also no indication of things that the locals will tell you. Like how the road and everything on the tee side of it on hole 10 is OB. Or that the shorty with the pond behind it is an island hole with the road being the limit.

Design: I honestly don't have any design complaints.

I really liked this course a lot. I've never been a fan of disc golf on ball golf courses because more often than not you can throw a terrible shot and still save birdie or par. But this one did it right. Sure there were a few holes that I have zero chance at even parring, but that's not on the course. That's on me for not working on the shots that I need to. I like being challenged, and I like finding new shapes that I need to work on. I definitely recommend playing here with someone who knows the course though. You won't get lost without them necessarily, but the little things that a local can tell you will make it a better experience. And you'll have more fun playing the course the way it was meant to be played.

- Gorgeous, spacious property with levels of maintenance every other course should envy. Beautifully kept short grass (very relevant to my next point on rollers). Bathrooms are also on premises leftover from the era of the ball golf course (must admit I haven't been inside them yet).

- Roller central! You will not find a course more friendly to rollers of all shapes and sizes. The grass is incredible and apparently constantly maintained, and there is nothing in the way anywhere on the course to disrupt your rollers. Even the limited foliage is trimmed very carefully at the ground level. Some of the holes make the strongest case for roller from the teepad that I've experienced (looking at you, hole #2).

- A few holes offer chances to throw far (#2, #13, #18).

- *Teepads! Recycled turf pads were added for every hole, and they are lovely in all conditions, contending for my favorite teepads in the region. Their addition bumped my rating from 3.0->3.5

- Zero elevation change, the entire property is perfectly flat.

- Lack of technical shots and technical greens, not much to be done here with the vast majority of the foliage being rows of neatly manicured trees. Most holes still find ways to generally shape lines to the basket, but the windows and range of available angles are very wide. For me, the bigger gripe with this comes when there aren't any places where bad shots will be penalized scoring-wise AND the up shots are always just a question of distance. To bogey on this course, you will have to botch a wide open shot and/or miss a close putt. The course design uses every element available to prevent the pin positions from being out in the wide open, but the only times I've had to attempt a putt longer than 11ft (udisc enhanced scorekeeping :] ) were the result of approaching the basket from more than 250ft away.

- Only one multi-shot hole (par 4), this surprised me about the layout, because the park looks like it has the room (especially on the front 9) to have some longer holes. Some of the Par3s (#2 & #18) are elite-level distance that can feel like multishot holes for lower arm speeds.

*Updated after the turf teepads were adding in 2020

If you like playing on a lovely, manicured, well maintained golf course, then this is a course for you. The Cascade Golf course in North Bend ( It's just one minute off the I-90 freeway) closed down around January 2019. The forward thinking council members from the city of North Bend quickly passed a bond and bought the wonderful property for a cool million dollars. They seem to have a wonderful, amiable working relationship with designer Getty, seemingly giving him carte blanche control to design a top notch course. There is a caretaker on the grounds who mows one fairway everyday.

So the course is in pristine golf course condition. The Disccatcher baskets are set. The tees are currently marked by ribbons but concrete pads and signs are forthcoming. With no golfers to worry about, designer Getty, is able to cross fairways to design the most interesting and challenging layout. He's still working on the multiple tee design. The course he and I played is probably recreation difficult but with the multiple tees he has planned, I see it playing from beginner friendly up to advanced level. It will never be as challenging as Shelton Springs or Sea Tac but it will be so much prettier and inviting for all. The baskets are set in the most difficult positions Getty could find but it's still fairly open. Mature Douglas Fir and Maple trees abound here. Rollers are and will remain an important skill you'll need to score well here.

There are restrooms on the property. The city has plans for a spray park as well as a playground but I don't envision those affecting the course as well. There is plenty of space for all.

Getty is working hard on his design here to avoid the wide open expansive feel that most of our courses which have been added to ball golf courses have. The good news is there will be no green fees here while the bad news is you won't be able to rent a cart. I guess you could trailer your own cart in.

The absence of any hills limits what Getty can do.

There is one lake which could possibly come into play on # 10 but no other water.

It will be a no risk type course. There is no nasty rough, no fence you might sail over, no stagnant, brackish water to contend with. Other than missing a Mando and adding a couple strokes to your score, South Fork shouldn't be a stressful experience.

The course might still be a little too open for some player's tastes.

I believe some players might also feel that rollers come into play a bit too much.

While South Fork DGC is impeccably maintained and manicured, and very lovely indeed, without any hilly or mountainous terrain, it is missing the big wow, big air downhill factor that many of us love on our courses. But I still believe, when finished, it will be in the top dozen of courses in Washington.

I think I was set to give South Fork a 4.0 but after carefully considering the flatness and relatively tame nature of the course, I'm going with a 3.5. It is still a must play in Washington state.