- 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.

- 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.

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.

Well laid out course thru/around natural areas and corn fields. Love the elevation changes on some of the holes. Pretty quite course. Interesting mix of rectangular and circle tee pads.

Couple of narrow fairways with obstacles which are challenging. Easily lose a disc in tall natural areas or corn fields.

Bring spotter to help find disc in tall natural areas. Challenging for beginners and/or casual players, but worth the trip and 18 holes.

Nice setting with very little non-golf activity to get in the way. Baskets catch well and visible. Tee pads grip well and the circular ones offer decent run up options. Rectangular ones are a little short. Navigation is aided by arrows on baskets and easy to follow. Holes offer variety of interesting shots: long bombs, tight tunnels and elevation changes. OB is present on many holes make the challenge greater.

Tall prairie grass that defines the fairways has the ability to make discs disappear. Cornfield OB the same. 3 of the longest holes(2-4) are consecutive which could be daunting way to start a round. Skips and rollers fare poorly on fairways.

I could rate the course higher if it weren't for the 3 consecutive 700+ holes. Each hole on its own is valid but rest of course doesn't have the challenge that these 3present. Definitely recommend playing it though!

Prairie grass is not a course feature that I look forward to and that's about all you see from the parking lot. After a quick warm up round on the short course and the first two holes of the long course, the prairie grass was still the defining feature. The only danger on the first hole is the long grass off of the fairway. Hole 2 is a tough par 5, but you only have to deal with trees on the first throw. After that, the only danger is losing your disc 10 feet off of the fairway. Hole 3 starts to get more interesting; this two shot hole has a gap to hit off of the tee followed by a grove of trees and shrubs splitting the second half of the fairway in two. Hole 4 is an interesting two shot hole with a nice approach finishing left to right under a giant oak with low hanging branches. The majority of the course from here on out is made up of moderately wooded par 3s that vary in length, shape and elevation change.
There are some holes dominated by prairie grass and soybean fields, but Walnut Hollow has enough variety to mitigate the monotony that can arise when building a course using Illinois terrain. There are a few really fun and challenging holes out here. I threw a wide variety of shots off of the tee and often had options (when the wind cooperated). For a course that looked like a wide open, bore-fest at the start, it really got better as it went along. There are 12 par 3s in a row, but the shot variety keeps things interesting.
The arched sign over the path to the first tees of the long and short courses is a nice touch. Tee signs are descriptive, tees are decently sized, level, concrete and baskets are new Discatchers. There is a course map at the start and another near hole 8's tee. The baskets have arrows mounted into the cages that point in the general direction of the next tee.

Long grass rough and vegetable field out of bounds are the main cons here. These design features present landing spot control challenges and not flight path control challenges. A terrible shot might yield a better result than I near ideal shot; it all depends on which one you can find if both finish in the long stuff. I've spent the vast majority of my life in northern Illinois, so I also understand that prairie and vegetable fields make up the majority of the landscape. These elements were used well to make a challenging course on the land available, but they are not my favorites.
While I think I can see why it was done this way, having the three longest holes on the course as holes 2, 3, and 4, and then not having another multi-throw hole until 17 isn't ideal. It would have been nice to distribute the multi-throw holes more evenly throughout the round.
Need to watch out for short course users crossing the fairway on hole 1. They cross the fairway on the way to their hole 2.
The fairways aren't exactly the grass you might be used to. They are just prairie grass cut really short. Skips are greatly minimized and rollers might not be the best idea.

Actual bathrooms by the parking lot. Port o john near the midpoint of the course. The course parking lot is shared with a fenced dog park. There's also a walking/biking trail winding through the park. It would take some serious doing to hit someone on the trails, but this isn't a secluded, dg only property.
I almost gave this course a 4, but I think it's closer to a 3.5. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.