One of my personal favorites
3 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: Very easy to find, and the course is very well maintained. There are a few restrooms, and trashcans available throughout the course.
The course is very well maintained, and plays excellently with the change of elevation, and natural surroundings. The course is in a very nice area of the city, with plenty of parking. It is not usually too crowded, and you won't find yourself waiting to play many holes, or feeling pressed to hurry up and finish.
Holes 3, 6, 12, and 16 are some of my favorites and all play on some of the different strengths of this course.
Cons: There isn't alot of variance in alot of the way these holes play. Holes 7-10 are all relatively straight, on flat land, with a few trees that come into play.
Holes 12-16 all play up and down the same elevations, but are of varying lengths, and some with more trees coming into play than others.
I've played this course a number of times, and I have yet to see any alternate pin placements.
Other Thoughts: This course remains one of my favorites, as it is really where I "learned" to play. It's a great challenging course, although it can get a bit repetitive, especially through 7-10 and 12-15. It still ranks as a "must play" course, and will have you coming back to play again, and again.
This is a great intermediate-advanced course, that will offer even more experienced players enough challenges to keep this course in their regular rotation.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.
My home
1 Helpful / 1 Not
Pros: The course now has multiple pins, making some of the holes quite a bit more challenging of a par for advanced am players. Before these pins went in, the hole were almost all or played between 300'and 400'. Now there are options for holes as short as 200' and as long as 500+'. None of the shots on this course are extremely technical unless you get off the fairway and into the woods on holes 1-7 and 16-18, but even then the trees have a strange tendency to kick you back into a relatively safe spot. There are many different lines you can take on most holes, which can be seen as either a good thing or bad. I personally like that I can work on different shots on the same course and same hole. This is a great course to come to alone and try some line shaping practice, and it usually is not so crowded that this cannot be done, however it is beginning to draw bigger and bigger crowds. The facilities on the course are good enough with a bathroom and water fountain to the right of hole 8 across the street. The course flows decently well, ending where it begins, and it also provides an opportunity to cut it short due to time, weather, etc. if you must and play 1-9 then hop over to 16 and finish from there. The fairways are usually well mowed and the rough provides enough of an inconvenience to give an incentive to stay in the fairway.
Cons: I really wish there were more scenic holes. The Shawnee Mission park property has ample opportunity for beautiful shots, and it seems to me the parks and rec department set aside the worst bit of land in the park for disc golf. Its still a fine bit of land, but there is so much potential on the property that its a bit of shame disc golf got stuck on land that could be used for ball golf. The elevation is usually a bit underwhelming at this course, and the trees do not provide enough of a challenge in the short pins for the experienced player. Holes 8-12 can be disproportionally more windy than the rest of the course due to their location on the top of a hill.
Other Thoughts: The front 9 are definitely the best 9 on this course, so if you are running low on time, be sure to play those. Holes 10-15 have long been complained about because they zig zag up and down a hill and a lot of people, however I still maintain that each hole on this course is fairly unique. I did acknowledge there are multiple lines for many holes, but each hole also has a very established preferred line. The preferred lines are really split down the middle-50% LHBH 50% RHBH, giving the better played the advantage instead of the played who happens to be right or left handed. As my home course for 3 years, I played it almost twice a week and it really never got tiring. If you're in the area, go ahead and hit up this course. Its not the ver best or very hardest in KC, but you will like this course all the same.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
I could like it more if it weren't so redundant
9 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: Not hard to find just inside the park entrance. Plenty of land and with lots of potential. Tee pads have recently been poured in time for 2009 Worlds. For its length, still friendly for recreational players as it is not terribly overwhelming. Elevation on holes 3-5 is used very well. These are the best holes on the course. Also some cool open holes where you can really rip some bomb drives. Rarely crowded and except for a couple of spots, flows really well.
Cons: Once you get past hole 10, the holes start to look all the same, and play all the same. About the only difference is whether you're going uphill or downhill. As of my last visit, they weren't mowing it terribly well either and you might be looking for your disc in 8" grass on several occasions. There are also some flow issues between holes 5-6, and again between 7-8. Hopefully, the introduction of teepads will solve this. SMP is infested with deer so watch out driving to/from the parking lot. Ticks and poison ivy are abundant in the wooded areas. Aggresive enforcement by park police (some of course might consider that a pro).
Other Thoughts: An oasis of repose in the middle of an urban area. SMP is located in a huge park that also serves as a nature preserve. If you enjoy having an adult beverage during your round, DON'T do it here. SMP has its own park police and players have been known to be confronted by park rangers to open their bags to check for alcohol. If you're caught, there is a stiff fine, as there is for being in the park after curfew or having your dog without a leash. OTOH, if you prefer a more family friendly environment where you can take your kids, this course will be up your alley. Efforts are being discussed to help curb the deer problem, in the meantime be careful.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.
Nice natural area in a huge multi-use park
9 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: -The land is really nice. The park is so huge that you forget you're in a KC suburb and feel like you're way out in nature, away from civilization. The first three holes border a woodland area, and I saw deer walking around in the early morning. The rest of the holes are my favorite type of terrain-- trees interspersed among grass. The well mowed fairways had a traditional golf feel.
-There are lots of elevation changes with 11 Down/ 6 Up/ 1 Flat. The back 9 is hillier than the front.
-There's an excellent map; it's one of the best I've ever seen.
-On the back 9 there were many mowed paths to lead the way to the next tee, so that made it easy to find your way.
-In the park office there are maps, a couple of discs for sale, and restrooms.
Cons: -Tee Signs: There are no tee signs. This is a big need that I hope they will address soon. This would make course navigation much easier.
-Tees: there really aren't any tee boxes. The tees only have bar in the front with the hole number on it. The tees are dirt, but they're level and adequate.
-Fairway shape variety is low. They're mostly straight and that gets a bit repetitive. There are 14 Straight/ only 1 Right to left / 3 Left to right.
-Length variety is somewhat low; the majority are in the 300-399 ft range. 3 of 231-299/ 11 of 300-399/ 3 of 400-441.
Other Thoughts: Course Level: Blue (most suited for Advanced players rated 925-975)
You be the judge-
My favorite hole: 14. It has a wide grass fairway with large scenic trees scattered all down both sides and an 18 ft elevation drop
With a length of about 6200 ft. shorter throwers, such as myself, won't be carding many deuces.
Navigation- with no tee signs or tee pads there's potential for the course to be hard to navigate. Don't even think about going there for the first time without taking the excellent map with you.
This is a good course on nice land, and I had fun playing it. Most holes are above average. There are no lame holes, but on the other hand, there are no holes that knock your socks off either. If there were tee signs and tee pads I'd bump my rating up to a 7. It's somewhat more wooded than other KC courses, so it's a nice addition to the area. I'd definitely go back again.
NOTE: Look in the "Links/Files" section for my files with Hole-by-hole evaluations, and a more detailed Overall review. You can also read more of my reviews at the Yahoo Group, DG Course Reviews,
http://sports.groups.yahoo.co...ourseReviews/
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.
Lots of potential. Needs a little work.
6 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: New Mach 3 baskets. Ample parking. Good topography. Practice basket. A beautiful, huge park.
Cons: Grass (ie: dirt) tees. An abundance of straight holes. Little distance variation. No course signage.
Other Thoughts: My first thought when I arrived at the course was "Where is it?" The directions were a little confusing for a first-time visitor and the absence of a course welcome sign made it a little tough to figure out where the course started.
Tees are marked by boards buried flush with the ground, so it was a bit difficult in some places to immediately find the next tee.
The first 6 or so holes were a good start. Good variety of shot shapes and trees are plentiful. Unfortunately, the rest of the course seemed to be dominated by the "wide open drive to a protected basket" type of hole. I also found that most of the holes seemed to play to about the same distance. With the available land, it seemed that the course could have used a few multi-shot holes (par 4s) and a few shorter finesse holes to make things a bit more interesting.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
review by jace
5 Helpful / 1 Not
Pros: Restrooms are located at baseball fields which are near the parking area for hole #1 and holes #12, #14, #16. There is also a restroom located along hole #8.
There is a great warm-up putting area with trees at th start
There are a good variety of hole types with great topography changes on almost every hole.
The real beauty of SMPark course is its tree lined fairways on most of the holes. There are several tightly lined tee shots that also require a low level toss. This did not factor in too much during the winter months, but as the trees bloom the course becomes more challenging. Current maintenance crews have let the prairie grass take hold and now mow the fairways regularly. This is a class 'A' groomed course!
The basket placement is done on most holes to create a decent challenge on your approach shots. A couple of the holes are easily reachable on the drive if the winds are calm enough. Duece opportunities exist throughout.
Hole variety coupled with the topography make for a fantastic challenge for long throwers as well as finese players.
Holes #5 is by far my favorite - The tee is nestled into the woods with about an 12' wide area to crawl out of. If your drive is straight enough to get out, it is possible to birdie the hole.
I have play this couse regularly and have never had to wait on a group yet. This is a really nice course with minimal player activity it appears.
Fantastic updated course map is available in the links section.
Concrete tee pads have been installed thanks to the World's in KC this year. great length!
Course navigation is now a breeze with the addition of new signage that is easy to spot from the previous basket. Hole signage is truly magnificant - again an addition due to the Worlds in KC this year.
Cons: trash cans are now installed so now we just need the players to use them in order to alleviate the trash/beer cans.
Other Thoughts: Wear a pair of hiking boots or similar when it's wet.
Lots of poison Ivy in the brush so beware!
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.
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3 / 337ft.
Par / Distance:
5+ 
8/10/2010 
7/29/2009
Review By: kcplease 
This review was updated on 9/2/2012
Hole #2 (Taken 9/2009) 
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