Each individual hole is though out very very well and it is very fun to play. This course punishes bad throws, but not to the point where it is impossible to save par. Some courses I feel like I'm just practicing, but this course I had to PLAY. I played the red tees and I had a good time and a god challenge. If you are anything less than an experienced intermediate player, you should play the first time from red tees and then from the blue, because from what I saw, the blue is considerably more difficult. This course appears to be on an old ball golf course which is an interesting change of scenery for me.

This course is pretty easy to navigate, the front 9 is separated from the back 9 but that doesn't make anything super difficult. The holes are right next to one another with minimal separation, so if you throw askew you may have interrupted someone else's game. While this is the case with pretty much every course, it is especially true here because of how crammed it is.

I am a teenager, I don't need a parent signature to play on this course. But when I went to play with my younger cousin (and not his mom) we had to drive his mom out and back. Bit of a pain but understandable. Please be respectful of the neighborhood around this course so players can continue to play this great course!

This is not an overly technical course in the sense of it being densely wooded, lots of elevation, or lots of hazards etc. If you are expecting an "epic" course, this is not it. That said, it is a very solid, professional-feeling disc golf course that gives you the chance to work on a variety of shots.

- Excellent signage.

- Excellent tee pads, with the reds being a beginner/amateur level pad and the blues being for more experienced players. You don't need to be advanced/open to play the blues like some courses, rec or intermediate players can handle the blues no problem.

- Great little pro shop with friendly staff and decent Dynamic Disc gear and disc selection (No Discraft or Innova as of April 2017) and good beer selection.

- Apparently a great place for small, local course events etc. though we were just passing through and played ourselves.

- $5 to play is very reasonable.

- It's a former ball golf course, so it's got great drainage and it's generally pretty open, you're not going to worry about losing discs and you'll be dry unless it's monsoon season or something. We played end of March after a few days of rain in running shoes no problem.

- As someone who throws thumbers, tomahawks, forehand flicks and RHBH drives, I loved the fact that I got to pull pretty much every shot out of the bag on this course. Good mix of easy ace runs, wooded corridor shots, wide open drives, dog legs, with a few minor hazards thrown in to challenge players.

- Hazards/adjacent housing are obvious when they're potentially in play and you're not forced to throw anything towards a backyard/water hazard that wasn't clear. You can easily play it safe if you want to, there aren't any situations where you feel like you need to play it overly safe because the hole was laid out too dangerously.

- When they designed the course they put in a lot of saplings that won't have their true impact felt for another decade or so. Still a great course, but it's in its infancy.

- I'm not sure 18 holes is the best size for the course. For business reasons I understand the necessity of having 18 holes, but if this were my personal course I would have done 12-14 holes with the space. A few of the holes feel like they're filler holes, but it's not enough of a negative to detract from the overall experience and let's be honest, who doesn't like a few super easy 200-250' ace runs?

As a former ball golfer, I love this course for being a truly converted disc golf course. Tall Firs is a former ball golf course that is legitimately converted to disc golf, and they did as good of a job as they could with the space and vegetation available to them. Would play this over a ball golf course with baskets on it any day of the week.

Definitely worth checking out, I'd love to see more courses like this pop up!

I think this course is about a 3.75, I gave it a 4 as I felt a few of the ratings were a little too low and the average could be brought up.

Tall Firs in Monroe, Wa is a premier, dedicated 18 hole disc golf course from one of the worlds best designers, John Houck. It is a different world from your city park style. Its truly wonderful to play a big beautiful course without randoms walking dogs or berserk children running through your line. Worth $5 every time.

• Signage is very good.
• Concrete tee pads.
• Most holes have blue and red tees.
• Good shot variety.
• Lots of long and wide open which is fun, and great for practicing distance lines on the course.
• Great pro shop full of trilogy plastic with loaners that you can try before you buy.
• Paul Clark is a tremendous host and does an incredible job maintaining and improving this young course.

• Some fairway overlap, but not a big issue.
• Long tee 5 gets wet and can be slippery which is a bummer because its a long fun drive when its dry.
• Some of the Red tee pads should be longer. Some of the Red pad positions are still over 400' so no reason to be shorter than the blues.

This could be a pro or con depending on what you're looking for, but right now this course isnt the most challenging.

As the flora grows in and the pine sprouts turn in to great big trees the challenge of the course will grow.

For now, for me anyway, its a nice place to practice distance and have a fun, less frustrating day of DG.

+ Excellent signage
+ Multiple tees on many holes
+ Pro shop on site has free coffee and loaner umbrellas
+ New DISCatcher baskets
+ Good variety of hole lengths
+ Some slight elevation changes
+ A few wooded holes
+ Wide fairways invite you to drive with all your might on the 500+ft par 4s
+ Visually appealing with the rolling hills, roughs, and occasional trees
+ Definitely worth the $5

- Not very challenging regarding shot variety--many holes are just wide open grass from tee to basket and the wooded holes have generous gaps
- I didn't mind the lack of benches as our group never had to wait, but it's true that there was no place to sit

so everything is pretty great about this course
-mix of short technical and long let it fly tees
-lots of tees actually had a red and blue tee pad!
-every tee box has a map of the basket
-every basket has a flag and is clearly marked
-the roller net along the little pond is great kept my putter out of the weeds
-the $5 all day play fee is great, i am more than down to pay some guy for his time to make sure that I don't loose my disc is the weeds and that the baskets are clearly marked

-course flora needs a couple of years to reach maturity
-benches would be nice along a couple of spots
-a map at the beginning of the back 9 would be good its kind of confusing finding 10 on the side of the barn
-a net around the septic tank plot would be pretty cool...just saying

great course! the guy running the pro shop is super friendly, always willing the chat and talk about throwing discs and will probably go out for a few holes with you.
the pro shop could use some more variety but I'm sure that will come with time.
i got there early and there was even free coffee!

Everything about this course has been done first class with seemingly no expense spared. After playing the new course across town being built on a shoe string budget, this place felt like the Taj Mahal.
The course sits on the property of an old ball golf course just over a mile outside of Monroe. The property features a semi-well stocked Pro Shop and I understand a Bistro is in the works. The loaner box is a great idea if you want to try out a disc before buying. The $5 fee for unlimited all day play is more than reasonable. There is a red metal box for your donation if the Pro Shop is locked. Parking is plentiful and picnic tables are provided are the warm up area. There is also a fire pit for those chilly NW evenings.
There are two sets of tee pads. The blue were over-sized trapazoid shaped, concrete. The reds were concrete with a couple of rubber matted ones.
The signs were wonderful,John Houck design.
Houck did use every bit of the property to the fullest. The terrain is mostly flat with a touch of elevation and two holding ponds for water run off. These are both used to the max with the # 15 basket being placed right in front of the pond adding a slight pucker factor to that otherwise short easy downhill throw and then you have a fairly easy carry over the other pond on # 16.
75 trees have been planted on the property. I believe they're mostly Cedar (they're extremely grabby) and as they mature, they'll greatly add to the course's over-all challenge.
To add some challenge, Houck often has you teeing off through an initial tight opening. I think six of the first nine holes feature this aspect. Frankly, I found it a little tedious.
The course is fairly long, Par 63 from the Blues, but not overly difficult. Even from the longer Blues, it doesn't compare in difficulty to Sea Tac, Shelton or Steilacoom.
# 13 with it's it's 909' length, right dogleg, Mandos and trees was a challenging hole for a old duffer such as myself.

I followed a group ahead of me so didn't have to concern myself with about navigation issues but there are a few. The long walkout from 9 to the red barn for # 10.
Blue # 6 is confusing. looking out from the tee box, you see three baskets including one straight ahead just past the big fir tree. Wrong, You're throwing to the basket to the right!
Walking up to hole ? while players were throwing down # 10, I almost got drilled. Keep your eyes open here guys.
Some benches would be great and I'm sure they're forthcoming.
A sani-can would be nice over by the red building. I kept looking for a place to go and almost everywhere is visible from the surrounding houses.

What a great addition to Washington's stable of courses. Thank you John Houck for your design and to Paul Clark for making this happen. My only selfish thought is, I wish they could have built it in Pierce County somewhere.

It took well over a year of rumors and false start dates for it to happen, but the rumors turned out to be true. John Houck was designing a pay to play course in Monroe, and it was going to be a doozy. I chose to avoid the crowds of opening weekend and instead sat in fair traffic on a Monday to get my rounds in. I've gotta say: I'm impressed.

Houck clearly knows what he's doing. To those uneducated in the world of disc golf course design, the man is a legend. This was the first Houck course that I've played (to my knowledge), but if it's any indication of what he does? I definitely want to play some others. So about those pros:

Equipment - The baskets are fresh out of the box, so no complaints here. It seems that the DisCatcher has gotten deeper, but it catches just as well. Putting tall flags on top of each one was great as well. A friend of mine had his high putts stopped by those flag poles at least three times today, but that isn't why they're great. They just make the baskets easier to spot on those longer holes.

Teepads - The teepads on the blue tees are impeccable. They start out wide in the back and taper to a normal width at the front, so the player has a multitude of options for how to approach their drive. The red tees were okay, but clearly weren't the prime focus when everything was being installed. All of the pads were textured, with the exception of the two rubber pads on the course (both red tees). You won't have to worry about grip even on the rainiest of days.

Signage - The signs are beautiful and offer a good idea of where you're throwing. I would have almost preferred satellite images, but these are beautiful. Every sign also gives credit to John Houck as the course designer.

Variation - Houck used every inch of the land here, and it never gets repetitive. You have your longer holes like 1 and 18, your uber long holes like 13, and some stupidly short holes like 4. The easy holes that are randomly thrown into the round allow you to either drive your score down or get your feet back under you after a bad hole or two. I like the variation. We don't need another SeaTac (original 18). He also brings the elevation into play whenever possible, places baskets on sloped greens, and even places one right beside the pond. Hole 15 might be my favorite one on the course just because of the risk/reward ratio. It's an easy ace run, but with the pond right behind it and downhill it's just plain fun. You also get to throw across the pond on the blue 16, but it isn't really a challenging throw. Think hole 1 at Lakewood. Of course there are shots for all types as well. Right and left turning, long S-curves, big hyzer lines, short hyzer lines, etc. There's also a decent amount of variety between the red and blue tees. Even the ones that are only a few feet apart offer different looks around trees or bushes.

Design - I've pretty well covered the design already. I do have to say that I like the inclusion of so many mandos and OB though. Otherwise it would be a fairly open course and would get boring. Having these also makes shot placement much more important than it otherwise would be. It's obvious that the designers had a big budget here. A lot of the fairways that would have just been stupidly open have trees freshly planted in them. Once these trees grow in it will really add complexity to this course.

Amenities - The pro shop lacks variety in discs. If you don't throw Prodiscus or Westside you're out of luck. But it's there, it sells beverages and some snacks, and even has a "loaner box" which I've never seen before. He also has tester discs if you want to try before you buy. The course has bathrooms and three practice baskets (two are hidden over by the 13 teepad). My favorite feature on the course was probably the kids selling water, granola bars, and Gatorade out of their backyard by 14. They saw a need and filled it. I fully endorse supporting them even if they have nothing to do with the course at all.

You probably didn't think I'd ever get to the cons, did you? Well I have. And they're here. It's a new course, so I'm sure that many of these will be fixed in time. But they must be pointed out anyway. Keep in mind that I don't allow some of these "cons" to affect my rating (cost, lack of certain amenities, etc), but I still include them because I try to review this for any reader... Not just hardcore discers. So I'll start with those that don't affect the rating:

Cost - Tall Firs is absolutely worth $5 a day. You can pay, play, leave, and come back without being charged again. The grounds are in great shape, and as long as they stay that way I won't have a problem with paying. It's only when you're charged to play and upkeep suffers that I have a problem with it. Being charged is not a con. If you think it is, go somewhere else.

Amenities - Being a pay to play course, I would expect some basic services to be provided, like trash cans and benches. I'm sure that this will be fixed in time, but as of right now the course is trash can free (not trash free sadly) and bench free. The bathrooms are by the pro shop, but we didn't notice that until we'd complained about peeing on a tree or five. So remember that they're there.

Now on to the real cons (many of which are included in "pros" too):

Equipment - The course is three days old and a few of the baskets are already askew. I don't know who's been climbing on them, but knock it off! Whoever runs the place should do equipment checks at least weekly to make sure that everything is still pristine. I hope that they do.

Teepads - I have no complaints about the blue tees. The red ones really do seem like an afterthought though, and many of them are too short. Take hole 13 for example: It's "short" at 700+'. We still need a decent runup for a shot like that, so why not provide a full length teepad?

Navigation - While all of the signs are lovely and there are maps available at the pro shop, navigation was a chore at times. None of the baskets are marked with anything other than the Innova logo, and none of them have tape to guide you to the next hole either. It's relatively easy to find your way around, but tape and numbers would go a long way. Throwing a disc in the general direction of three unmarked baskets can be a bit maddening for a first timer. It would also help if the rough, mandos, and OB were more clearly marked. I'm sure that over time the rough will grow in more and be more obvious, but right now it's hard to tell where you aren't supposed to throw without walking the full hole in advance.

Flow - The course flows really well overall. There are a few unnecessarily long walkouts though. While these walkouts lead to some fun holes, they still have to be noted. The walk from 9 to 10 is the most confusing. See my "Other Thoughts" for tips on that.

Just a few tips:

-There's a red metal box by the pro shop for you to pay if nobody is there. It's on the honor system, but do it. We want to keep this course. So bring cash just in case there's nobody there.

-The walkout from 9 to 10: If you're at the 9 basket, look to your left along the fence and then follow that asphalt path. You'll see that red building by the 3 fairway. The 10 tee is right there (red and blue combined).

-The walkout from 12 to 13: If you're playing the blue, cut through the parking lot toward those random baskets over there. You'll see the teepad just on the other side of the parking lot. If you're playing the red, just walk straight past the basket that's just past 12. That's 18. You can see the teepad ahead of you and slightly to your left.

-The walkout from 15 to 16: Go counterclockwise around the pond to the blue, and clockwise to the red. Blue is way more fun.

This course is great for the area. It offers something for every level of player except complete beginners. Being in Monroe (a haul from just about anywhere) and being pay to play means that it won't get overcrowded by those players who have no regard for anything. You know who I'm talking about: The people who take over the course, carry two discs in a shopping bag, throw their trash on the ground, and refuse to acknowledge that anyone else is there. Those people won't frequent this course, and I love that. Is it the best course I've ever played? Not by a long shot. But it finally gives us people up north somewhere to play and improve our overall game (short, long, open, technical, etc) without having to drive all the way to Sedro Wooley, Lakewood, or Stilly. I'll definitely be back.

*They sell beer in the pro shop. The course is considered a golf course, so beer is allowed in the pro shop and on the course. No beer in the parking lot or at the picnic benches.
*Night disc golf. They sell the little LED lights for your disc. The first 9 holes are playable, with lighted baskets and tee pads. Quarter moon last night, so it was tough to navigate. I'd suggest playing in the daylight first so you know the course. It is really nice having a night disc golf place already set up and ready to play. It's surprisingly easier to find your discs at night.
*Brand new Innova baskets with flags
*3 practice baskets. Two near the pro shop. One other by the blue 13th tee box on the other side of the pro shop building.
*Driving practice net. You can huck your discs and not have to chase them!
*Great signage and concrete tees (some rubber mats).

*Blue hole six is confusing. It looks like you're shooting at the basket under the big tree, but its the basket to the right of that big tree (there is a red maple 100-150' in front of it)14
*No benches. Opening weekend, there was some waiting time when teeing off. I might need to invest in a chair. Some shade can be found near most tees.
*It can be dangerous when walking from hole 9 to 10 on the cart path. Blue tee #1 drives across that cart path. *New route from 9 takes you to the parking lot and proshop. Then you can take a safe route to 10.

*$5 green fees per day. You can come and go as you please and you can play as many rounds as you want.
*Night DG on Saturday nights.
*Weekly random doubles at 10:15 on Saturday mornings. $12 entry fee (includes the greens fees)
*Facebook page for updates.
*Has a "Links" course feel. Fairways are in full view of each other.
The course has a feel of Lakewood (West Seattle) old golf course with rolling fairways, water hazards and sandtraps. Short open and wooded holes like Howling Coyote and Silver Lake. Great course, it will get tougher as the trees grow up.

I had a great time! I only played the red tees and scored pretty well. Blue tees are next!

Tall Firs has something for everyone. Red Tees for beginners and rec players. Blue Tees for the intermediate and up. It's got length which is unique compared to surrounding courses. Tight tree lines, winding open Par 4's, an epic Par 5. I was expecting it to be longer to be honest, but John Houck has designed a course that rewards great shots and punishes bad ones. Every new course should subscribe to acheive that goal. Love the slopey pin locations too. Played 4 rounds and never got bored

Other Pros:
- $5 admission lets you play all day!
- Great Signage
- Flow of the course is easy to follow and doesn't put the surrounding homes in danger (Except a tiny bit on the Par 5 13, so be aware, don't be a hero and try to throw over homes or retrieve your disc from peoples yards)

- DISCatcher Baskets (Personal Favorite) with flags
- Outstanding Variety of Holes
- Pro Shop and Bistro under construction, looking forward to that!

- The tight alleyway with Holes 2,3, and 10. Gets congested especially when it's crowded. Gotta keep your head on a swivel in these areas and be aware of other golfers.

- There's a walking path that cuts across about 4 fairways that goes from Hole 9 to 10. I'm sure they'll find a way to remedy this.

- Red tee Pars are a bit generous, but I love the fact these are designed to get beginners involved.

It's a beautiful, challenging, and picturesque course, well worth the $5. The par 5 Hole 13 and par 4 16 over the pond are my personal favs.

Please be courteous to surrounding residents that border the course, to grow the sport we gotta show these people this is a legit sport.

Happy Huckin'

It has a good mix of technical and long wide shots with really no 'boring routine holes'.
The flow to the play works well, with the holes all tying together well and a short walk from the front 9 to the back 9.
The blues are, in my opinion, fairly dramatically different from the reds (with a few obvious exceptions). Some of the red and blue pads are very near each other, but bring into play some obstacles for the blues that the reds don't have to contend with.
Whether you play red or blue, the flow works very well for 'dive in and start throwing' with the first hole really setting a fairly casual tone, and the second hole warming into some obstacles, then BAM!... trees and turns. Then air it out and make the turns just a little... uncomfortable.
There are, no doubt, some long holes where you get to stretch your arm out (i.e. 13 - blue 909', red 699' - both par 5) and some where you gotta find the path, but it is there.
One thing that I found to be fabulous about John Houck's design is that the baskets are nearly all placed in such a manner that you have to approach them well or you can turn a birdie to a bogey or worse in a hurry. If you want "here's a flat circle with basket in the middle", look elsewhere. Most of the baskets are on hillsides or perched atop a small hill that will punish you with a long run-away drop if you miss. Hole 15, in particular has the basket on a moderate hillside that runs near directly away from the teepad... and into the water. It's not a long hole, but if you address the basket directly on the teeshot, your options are pretty much hit the ace or lose the disc - not a lot of grey area. This doesn't mean you have to be absolutely pinpoint accurate with every shot, it means you have to "approach the basket" - not just "throw at it".

One place that will clearly get some adjustment and maturing over the fairly near-term is that there are some areas where the fairways are very tight next to each other - for instance, the fairways for 2, 3, and 10 all share a very tight space, and 11 comes into play as it throws back in the direction of the 10 fairway and trees. This doesn't hurt the play so much, but keep your eyes open and, as they say, "your head on a swivel" - discs are coming in, and if you miss your line by even a little, you can 'unwittingly' find yourself standing in the middle of the next fairway over with discs coming off the teepad.
Another place there are sure to be adjustments is in placing some 'guardian trees' around a few of the teepads. In some places, you can walk up to a teepad, particularly the red teepads but its true for a couple of blues as well, and you don't know there are people throwing nearly across you until a saucer whizzes past your ear. Some of this will be mitigated by maturing trees, and some will probably have trees or other obstacles put in place to improve safety.
The third place there will be tweaking is in 'walking traffic directional and pathing'. Like having a drive that hits a tree and bounces, in some cases even a little, landing you unwittingly in another fairway, you have the opportunity to finish out your hole and start walking to the next without realizing you have just walked yourself into the flight-plan of some 'cannon-armed gorilla standing on the 3 tee (or the 1 tee) who you didn't even know was there and who has just let go of a 50mph saw blade aimed at your throat. No kidding people, when you are walking around, pay attention to where you are standing and what you are crossing. A particularly jammy area in this regard is in walking around the sand trap behind the second basket - if you go the wrong way around, here comes gorilla man and he's aimed at your head, and he just may have had a beer or two.

The reds are pretty generous with the pars - probably should cut back a stroke and make some reds par 3 while the blues are 4.
I am sure this is where I will play most often, and certainly that has some to do with its proximity to my home, but it is also because it is a great place to play and it seems to offer some of everything. I expect that the air traffic control (and 'foot traffic control' for that matter) functions will get worked out - these are fairly small glitches, but glitches for sure, and can be adjusted whether it be with trees, man-made obstacles, walking paths, signs, or arrows, it can be adjusted - for now, keep your eyes open (a good idea when walking around a DG course anyway). - Update - Having played a couple rounds on the day 'after' opening day, it was quite a bit less crowded and the areas that seemed like 'big concerns' (2, 3, 10) were not as scary. They are still pretty tight together, but I think the issues can be solved with a little signage and a walking path (a cool little wooden bridge would be super neat, over the sand trap behind the #2 basket).