Pros:
- Challenging course with a good mix of more open and wooded fairways.
- Rolling elevation is used well with some fairways having significant drops, more downhill than uphill shots.
- Quality equipment with large concrete tees, great colorful tee signs, and the DISCatcher baskets catch well and are easy to see.
- Park is well maintained with the disc golf course secluded from other park users outside of the occasional walking path.
Cons:
- A couple head-scratcher holes on an otherwise great layout (4 and 15).
- Holes 2-4 combining for over 2300' is a rough way to start a round.
- Prairie grass, farm fields, and thick, buckthorn filled woods lining fairways can result in a lot of disc searching.
Other Thoughts:
The Walnut Hollow disc golf course is the main attraction at Hoffman Park that also houses a dog park and walking path. After walking from the parking lot that has nice permanent bathrooms you are met by a large sign/gateway that directs you to either the short or long course. There is a nice course map near the first tee that also has information about the sport and the park. You will play through a variety of terrains: prairie, along old farm fields, through tight woods and more sparsely spaced mature trees, uphill and downhill.
The long course starts you out relatively easily with an open, slightly downhill shot with tall grass defining the fairway. You better be ready and warmed up after that however, as the next three holes are all greater than 700 ft. Hole 2 is wide open after having to hit an initial gap about 100' off the tee, and Hole 3 has a split fairway with a large bunker of trees in the middle halfway up the fairway. Hole 4 is the first of two holes that I don't much care for. The fairway is very tight for a 700ft hole, with OB farm field on the left, and incredibly thick woods that play as natural OB on the right. The MA1 field on a recent tournament averaged 6.2 on the hole, with only 3 pars. My other disliked hole, 15, also scored almost a full stroke over par at that recent tournament, and is an incredibly tight fairway with thick woods on either side, but with a very odd tee placement that is slightly offset from the mouth of the fairway resulting in a very awkward shot shape being necessary off the tee for this 345ft hole.
There is a nice balance for the rest of the course, with the stretch from Holes 7 to 11 being my favorite, employing the best elevation the park has to offer with a mix of more open and slightly wooded fairways. Hole 17 is my favorite of the par 4s (and the only one after Hole 4) with an open drive on a generous fairway before entering the woods on your approach navigating between a handful of large, mature trees. The course is generally very pleasant to play through with little chance for interaction with other park users outside of a few locations where you encounter the walking path the meanders through the course, but the rough can be very frustrating when you inevitably find it. The prairie grass was not the thickest nor the longest I have encountered on a course, but it is still present on many holes and can make finding drives quite difficult. Similarly the corn or soybean fields can also cause problems. The woods are also incredibly thick off the fairways and entering more than a couple feet means you are lucky to get out, let alone make any progress up the fairways.
The equipment is in great shape and I had no complaints. I recall a few benches and trash cans sprinkled throughout. I don't recall much by way of navigational aids, but also didn't have much trouble finding my way around. There are a couple slightly longer walks and getting from 13-14 and 16-17 can give you a little pause your first time out, but grabbing a snapshot of the course map or using UDisc for a quick consultation should be all you need. You don't loop back to the parking lot before Hole 18 and this course plays long, so make sure to pack in whatever water and snacks you need.
This is a challenging course with even par being about 950 rated. There aren't many holes that will blow you away (Hole 10s downhill right turning shot to a basket protected by a few large trees is probably the closest to a signature hole) but there are a bunch of really solid holes on this track. The short course is nice to help you warm up for the long course or get a very quick round in. Playing this along with the nearby Fel-Pro makes for a great day of disc golf and is worth traveling some distance to check out if you are in the Chicago 'burbs.