I don't know where to begin with this John hauck designed course. I really wish they did quarter ratings because it's more of a 3.75 then 3.5. It's got an amazing sign when you pull in just like a regular golf course. It's got a very friendly pro shop with selection of disc " mainly west side " available. It's got red and blue tees for am/pro players. The course itself is very well maintained and virtually impossible to lose a disc, unless you throw one in the pond on the backside I think hole 15 or 16. It's got a good range of holes and distances from couple Ace runs to a par 5 and plenty of par 4s if playing from blues. Nice tee signs and baskets are in great shape. Tee pads are plenty long enough for the run ups you'll need. It's truly a good course, on a good property for disc golf. Great use of the trees they do have.

I only have a few knocks with tall firs, I feel the fairways could be a little more defined with steaks or something marking the ob lines, and separating the fairways. It's obvious on most holes but some markings wouldn't hurt on a couple others. Navigation can get a tiny tricky. I played with local and we still accidentally skipped from hole 9 to 13 kinda easy to miss some holes if you haven't been there. Some private property lines make you walk a few extra 100 feet instead of easier path to the next hole but I understand those. I really wish they had little steaks up showing the ob but I'm being picky.

5 dollars to play but the upkeep is for sure worth the price.

Very well maintained
Pro shop with some discs and drinks for purchase
Many holes present ace run options

Very tight course, some greens are right on top of each other
Some of the longer holes should probably be par 3 given the lack of challenges/Obstacles

This course is about a 45 minute drive from my house... if it were free(The green fee is very reasonable, I just have courses that are closer and free), closer, or a little more spread out I could see myself playing it often... it has a lot of potential, and they did an awesome job with the space they had available.

Look, I know John Houck gets more than his share of love. He's the only designer that I or many other players could even name. But he got that reputation for a reason, and it shows here. This is a former ball golf course that easily could have been turned into a crappy, unimaginative course.

Hole 13 is the best example of this. I would not have thought to take this massive portion of the course and make it one hole, but it's a great multi-throw hole. Your drive needs a hyzer between some of the signature tall firs to the landing area, and all-out distance will not necessarily be rewarded. Then there is a left-to right angling fairway to the pin on a ridge and behind a guardian tree. On, and the fairway slopes downhill toward a pond. There aren't a lot of 900-foot holes that I would applaud, but this is one of them.

Other fun holes include 3 (a long drive down an alley of the firs) and 10 (a forehand with two routes to a basket on a hill). As always with his designs, holes tend to have landing zones, so you need to think where you want to put the disc, not just how far you can bomb it.

There are two concrete tees on most holes. I played both. The blues do more than just add distance, usually forcing a drive between several trees or making a turn more difficult.

The course generally avoids the most boring hole in disc golf: the 350' semi-open hole. The majority of players will never birdie that hole and rarely bogey it, making it a real yawn. I don't remember any of them here.

The signage is the type you see on most Houck courses, showing all the ways to get to the hole.

A lot of the course is fairly open. They have planted coniferous trees in the fairways. They are generally tall enough so that you can't throw right over them, but not enough to dramatically change the hole.

The limited size and the openness also limit the impact of great design in some spots. While I like the mix of long multi-throw holes (550+) and short holes (under 300), there seemed to be more than a few really short holes shoe horned in.

One hole I have mixed feelings on: 15. It's a very short (175' or so) downhill shot, but the basket is just past a little ridge that leads down to a lake. Losing a disc here seems pretty likely if you play enough. That said, I really had to think whether I could trust a forehand hyzer or backhand hyzer to lay down, and you could do a wimpy lay up for 3 if you were really worried about it.

The pro shop sells good beer that you can carry with you (no bringing your own) and has complimentary water and coffee.

I struggled with whether to give this 3.0 or 3.5. When the trees grow in 5-10 years from now, it will be a different course. For now, they made the most of what they have, and it's well worth a visit.

Finely manicured fairways with carefully contrived basket locations help generate interest for what is a relatively flat piece of land with little obstruction. The sparse "Tall Firs" are utilized to high potential and effect a good half dozen nifty holes. The placement of the short and long tees provide excellent leveling of distance skills if not changing the course a great deal for a second round.

I have few negative thoughts. I am glad it is not the closest course to my house as I'm sceptical it would hold up to many repeated rounds, and while it is clear the green fee is being put to use on the course that would be a detriment as well. As an occasional day trip or to fill out your playlist it is definitely a go.

It was immediately clear upon arival that I could leave my hiking boots and long pants in the car. Some days that could fit the pro or con category. Having spent so much time lately in trees with heavy underbrush today it was a pleasant respite. The course map makes it look jammed tightly together and it is, but I spent the whole front 9 as part of the third of four groups and despite some errant launches all around there were few that caused dangers or delays. I believe the course is deliberately layed out to keep that to a minimum.

This course, about 1/2 hr east of Everett, is on one of the oldest ball golf courses in Washington, recently bought and converted to disc golf. It is fairly well laid out on the space available, which is less than I expected having played other converted courses.

There are some cool holes, like 2 which is a tight tunnel shot to the pin on a hillside. Despite this being one of the shortest holes and my good tee shot I still had a double bogey(hit the basket and rolled downhill twice). I appreciate holes like that. Hole 15 is a short downhill shot with an OB pond behind it that gets into your head.

The Pro Shop was very nice, the guy working it was very polite and knowledgeable with loaner discs to try, there are a couple Westside discs I will get because of him.

While I enjoyed playing there, I must say I expected more. A Houck designed course with a ball golf course worth of area to work with, must be epic!

I admit, I played the shorter tees so didn't see all the course had to offer but having played a number of high end courses this one seemed to offer little but long mostly open holes with little risk. The few OBs mean you probably lost a disc, while most shots can go pretty errant w/o going OB.

That being said, there are a number of holes that are dangerously tight, 2 and 3 are separated only by a net,(2018 update: net gone, this area is dangerous) my drive on 6 crossed the tee for 8 w/o being OB, and 8 and 9 are close enough that a bad shot is well into the other fairway.

One good place for a tight OB on a hole is 5, supposedly the path just past the hole is OB, but I was told they extend the green in a 30' circle which crosses the path.

Some of the holes are a little hard to figure where to go, either path to pin or where next tee is, even with map. 10 and 11 were the worst.

What bothered me the most was the par. 63 may be reasonable for the long course(still seems about 3 high) but it is the same for the red tees and that is way too high for a 5.6k ft course. I shot a 60, reasonable score, but it bugged me that it was a 3 under. By my 6th birdie on 18 it wasn't a joyous occasion as it should be but depressing as it felt unearned. My daughter, who has played many courses with me over the years, felt the same.

2018 update: tee signs missing on many holes and pro shop closed despite calls to owner and waiting for 45 min to an hour. makes it hard to feel it is worth the $5. Charging sets expectations higher.

This is an interesting course that I mostly enjoyed and will play again but I had high hopes that it didn't meet. This course is worth hitting while in the Seattle area but there 5 others I'ld hit first if time was limited.

One thing in it's favor, they planted a ton of trees that will make this a much more interesting course in 10 or so years. I'll revisit this review as necessary

2018 update: I've been told by many people "play the blue tees, that's where the course shines!" I did that today and my opinion of this course hasn't changed. I didn't throw particularly well and was only +5, too low for a 7000ft 'pro' course. Too many easy par threes, and I had a shot @ par on the 900ft par5 even with 2 bad throws. This is a course with a feel good par, not what I'm looking for for $5. Still an ok course but I have fundamental philosophical differences on design. In the future I'll play a closer course that doesn't charge unless I'm with someone that REALLY wants to play here.

Started off the morning round with a thermal coffee pot and condiments waiting for us out on the registration table! Now that's a first class welcome.

They converted this from an old ball golf course and went and planted dozens and dozens of cedar trees to help shape the course. It's a pretty piece of land that will certainly mature into a better course over time.

Giant fir trees are scattered about the land and one hole has a nice little pond that is the backdrop for a short downhill hole that you will want to run the ace, but probably shouldn't! The course is well manicured with large fairways with nice tall grass dividing fairways. The tall grass is fair ground, but the neighboring fairways are OB. The course has a lot of joy for long arms, but enough short ones to balance things out. I thought the designer (Houck) did a nice job with the land.

The dual tees were a very nice touch -making a big difference in challenge from long to short. Hole #3 is special - the short tee starts at the beginning of an alley of "Tall Firs", but the long tee starts around 100 feet further, making the firs like a double mando bottleneck. It takes an already interesting hole to another (but tougher) level.

Pins were often placed on little hills to make the putts nerve wracking.

This is not a con so much as a wish - for those little cedar trees to mature. Some of the holes were a bit too wide open for my likes. Just not enough obstacles on some holes to punish errant shots. Honestly, I thought the tall grass should be OB until many trees mature.

The hospitality by Paul was exceptional. He sells discs in his pro shop and will even let you test drive the molds during your visit!

This course reminds me of the video I saw of the Worlds at Chili in Rochester in 1999. A lot of open holes there but they planted tons of trees there and built mounds to place pins on to add to the challenge in the present and future. The pros seemed to be throwing one big hyzer bomb after the other because there were not enough tall trees to go around. Ironically, this courses designer (John Houck) was commentating the coverage and probably thought of Chili when he designed Tall Firs.
As trees mature this course should get even better. I originally rated the course a 4 for style points, but it really is a 3.5 at the moment for me.

This is the first John Houck designed course in the state and is on an old piece of land with lots of history. This used to be a par three (ball) Golf course and it was foreclosed on some time ago and now it has been bought and converted to a DGC.

The tee signs and tee pads remind me of Horning's Hideout near Portland, OR. Both the signs and pads are extra large and the tee signs show amazing detail as well as accurate distance from tee to basket. There are free course maps available at the pro shop (where you pay) for the few tricky areas but overall navigation isn't too tough. The biggest problem is getting on the tee pad, looking out over the fairway and seeing two or three baskets that could be the correct one but a little investigation and you can figure it out easily.

I really like how the course keeps you from getting comfortable like a really good baseball pitcher will change speed and location this course switches between par four 550+ feet mostly open holes to 225 foot holes in dense trees. It goes like that for a while back and froth. The property has some small hills and a little bit of elevation that was mixed in beautifully. Holes like #10 make me smile with a moderately low ceiling, moderately wooded well defined fairway downhill, dogleg right. Then the basket is tucked up under a tree with low hanging branches and on a small hill making your upshot tricky if not careful. This hole is only 265 feet or so but is one of the toughest par three holes on the course as well as one of the funnest.

There is a lot of out of bounds here both 'artificial' and natural. There are two ponds on the course with the blue tee for 16 throwing directly over the pond, with maybe 200-225 feet needed to clear, this hole is also slightly uphill making this a little harder than you might think. The previous hole (#15) is a short downhill throw with the basket on the top of a slope heading straight for the pond 20 feet away. Usually I would call a downhill less than 200 foot hole an ace run but unless you hit the ace you're going to have to go fishing or wading for your disc. The artificial' out of bounds is of course neighbors yards, across paths and across adjacent fairways that have been mowed and flags have been placed in the grounds to help out even more. The course is a bit crowded in areas (more on this in the cons sections) so the OB in these circumstances as well as the mandos protecting certain areas not only maker the course harder but are necessary in keeping it safe as well.

Like I said the course is a bit cramped in areas and there are a few spots where it can be a little dangerous. The walk from nine to ten takes you across two or three fairways and every time I go through that area I keep my head up and pay close attention to what's going on.

They have went and planted trees on the open holes and this will make it more challenging and fun right now they aren't tall or big enough to really effect shot selection or punish bad throws. This will take care of itself with time though.

The short tee pads (red) are designed with new players in mind and do that quite well as these holes are the same par but are much much closer than the more interesting blue pads. I'm not a huge fan of shorter tee pads (even though sometimes it's needed) I'm much more interested in just different tee pads. I like two tee pads with two different kind of shots maybe the red blue pad is a hyzer and the red pad is somewhere else and is an anhyzer but they are roughly the same distance but I digress...

The history of this property dates back to 1928 when it first opened as a 3 hole (ball) Golf course and is interesting, I recommend checking out the history of the course on the Tall Firs Facebook page and you don't need to have a Facebook account. This place has a club house/pro shop and a bistro is in the works as well. You've gotta hand it to Paul Clark and John Houck for getting a decent course here in Snohomish County.