Reviews: 105
Avg. Rating:
Picture Perfect and Plenty of Challenge
20 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros:
+ It's common to rave about the natural beauty of this park, with its forest of towering Douglas Fir trees creating high canopies - but many of the holes themselves should also be praised. The deeply forested portion of the course runs from #3 - #15, and there are a half-dozen holes that deserve "picture postcards." They're beautiful holes to look at - in this beautiful park.
+ You will be tested by this 6000' par 54: great mix of right-to-left and left-to-right shots, along with some incredibly tight lines to hit between trees packed on fairways. Most of the holes are pretty flat, but the design takes full advantage of available elevation change on a handful of holes (two significant uphills and a few really dramatic downhills)
+ Poured concrete tees (the front 9 have numbers embedded in them). Excellent signage and navigation. Benches at every tee. The signs appear to have replaced the ones that earlier reviews found lacking. There's some stray graffiti on a few, but for the most part, they're intact. One mando to protect players on an opposing hole.
+ There's no rough to speak of. You can almost always scramble, although your line might be blocked by 200 year old Douglas Firs
Cons:
- Seven of the par 3's exceed 400', making pars tough for rec players Nothing is unfair, but unless you have the ideal combination of length, accuracy and course management skills, you might find your birdie attempts are from Circle 2 or farther out. This course demands a lot of you. - the layout has more than a few "tweener" holes. #14 and #15 are a pair of brutes with narrow gaps way down the fairway
-. The signs illustrate the alternate basket positions and lengths but they weren't using the drilled holes to indicate basket in play. This is a minor "con" because most baskets are visible from the teepad or nearby. You might do a little bit of walking up to spot a basket hidden by elevation change or some trees
Other Thoughts:
~ Course is well worn in, with concrete-like packed dirt around tees and baskets. Paths to the next tees are very easy to spot. The Mach X baskets are old and covered with stickers, but the catch well
~ The course switches to a "winter layout" to eliminate a few of the muddier holes, and it actually turns around the direction of several holes in order to make a loop (notice the odd "extra" teepads here and there)
~ As almost all reviewers have mentioned, beware of heavy playing traffic, and keep you eyes open for dog walkers and hikers. 10:00am on an October Monday was ideal though, with just a handful of other players on the course, and plenty of time to take in the amazing natural scenery
20 of 20 people found this review helpful.
Classic PARk Course
11 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: Personal Background:
#55620, current pdga rating 923, 10 years playing. Age 35.
Designed 2 permanent courses, and 2 temporary courses.
At least 80 courses played now in I think 16 states.
--‐-----------------------------------------------------------------
Course rating prior to this review 4.3
Design- 3.5
Baskets/Tees- 4
Signage- 4
Replayability- 4
Beauty- 5
20.5/5 = 4.1 ... round down to 4.0.
_____________________________________________________
Design- This is a beautiful course playing through a mature forest of old growth evergreens. I got the pleasure of pairing up with a couple of very welcoming locals that were obviously familiar with the course and active in the local club. The club and park take great care of this place. Almost zero trash throughout the course, wood chips everywhere, no significant undergrowth. In regards to design itself, every hole felt unique in both design and appearance. My personal favorite was hole 4 which was RHBH dominant but required a slight hill crest to reach the basket. Most holes were very easy to par, but fairly difficult to reach. I think the course is Blue rated, and likely lots of tweeners. Would be very curious to look at hole averages for 950 rated players during a tournament. I personally shot even 54 with 1 birdie and 1 bogey... blind.
___________________________________________________________
Baskets/tees- Baskets are incredible. Perfect catching Mach X. Never been a fan of them before, but these are well broken in. Loved them. Teepads are concrete 5×10 or possibly smaller. They are worn and will likely need replaced in the next 5 years.
____________________________________________________________
Signage- Very nice tee signs on every hole and very good next tees signs nailed into the tree on almost every hole. No serious issues getting to the next tee on any of the routes.
____________________________________________________________
Replayability- As the only real course in town, this place gets a ton of play. Obviously people want to play it over and over. It is a great track! The multiple tweener holes take away from the fun factor somewhat. Would love to have this one in the backyard!
_______________________________________^_^___________________
Beauty- Did I mention the trees??? They are incredible. It felt like a storytale. Had to remind myself a couple times that I was there to throw and not Tree-gaze. This coupled with the great maintenance is really something special.
Cons: As noted above. Only major cons are tweener holes. However I assume that there are multiple pins and that possibly they are cured by moving the basket. Update the tee areas and tees and this score likely goes to 4.5.
Other Thoughts: Would just like to thank the Parks department, local club, and the Pacific NorthWest for being such a great host to me and my family this past week. Life changing experiences! Will definitely be back in the future!
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.
Disc Golf Nirvana
9 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: -Beautiful setting for being in the city, feels like you're playing through a forest
-Lots of variety in shots, some tunnel shots through the trees with a few opportunities to air out a big drive
-Great use of elevation changes
-Well-maintained course, thank you Stumptown Disc Golf for all of your hard work
Cons: -Can get extremely crowded on the weekend
-Could use a couple more bathrooms / porta-potties (especially on back 9)
Other Thoughts: Pier Park is the course that I learned to play on. It is easily one of best courses I've ever played. Playing through the giant trees lets you completely forget that you're in the city. Hitting the line you wanted and watching your disc flex through the woods is one of the most satisfying feelings in all of disc golf.
Be sure to check out the dream-catcher high up in the trees on hole 15.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.
busy but very fun course
1 Helpful / 5 Not
Pros: A lot of fun holes great hike
Cons: Super busy I would give it 5 stars if it weren’t for how many people
Other Thoughts: Best bet would be to show up early
1 of 6 people found this review helpful.
Awesome course
1 Helpful / 4 Not
Pros: Awesome course and very pretty. Not to crowded in the middle of a summer weekday but I know it can get more crowded. I did terrible on this course but it was still fun. Its pretty challenging but nothing that a decent player cant handle. Would recommend for sure.
Cons: If i have to say something bad its gotta be the tee signs. Alot of them are vandalized and hard to read. Other than that theres nothing bad.
Other Thoughts: Great course that I would highly recommend.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.
LONG on Fun
4 Helpful / 3 Not
Pros: Great tee pads. Decent signage. Excellent baskets. Helpful next tee signs.
It's a beautiful park that accommodates the disc golf course very well. It's surprising how the designers were able to coax such long holes out of a relatively compact and shared facility. Well done!
Cons: It was tough to know which position the hole was in. The signs didn't say what pat was. Some of the bag holders on the posts were broken or missing. Some sign vandalism.
Even though there were "Next Tee"ť signs, we still accidentally skipped two holes!
Other Thoughts: Very impressive city park course in a cool classic Portland neighborhood.
4 of 7 people found this review helpful.
Not to miss if in area
3 Helpful / 4 Not
Pros: Disc golf under the canopy of enormous pacific northwest evergreen. Nice baskets and tee pads. Well thought-out layout. I fair degree of elevation changes and variety of shot requirements.
Cons: crowded, slow rounds on weekends. Large groups. Could use a few longer holes (par 4) but size of park limits distance.
Other Thoughts: Some very tight fairways on a few of the holes requiring precision drives though corridor of fir trees. Great disc golf course for a densely populated city park.
3 of 7 people found this review helpful.
Very crowded, and for good reason
19 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros:
-This course has some really solid amenities, great signs (with multiple basket placements), bag holders for when it gets muddy, and concrete pads that have held up impressively to the wear this course gets.
-Baskets are Mach X's, which are one of my favorite types. They are also yellow, which is super visible, especially in the trees. I'm sure that they used to be neon yellow, but these baskets look pretty worn down. Not that they don't function well, because they do, but because the rim and other parts are super worn.
-The fairway and rough are super nice out here. There isn't any underbrush that would hide your disc, which is great because hitting trees out at Pier Park is pretty much required. The other great thing is that what this course lacks in underbrush rough, is made up for with sheer quantity of trees.
-Elevation is a key component of this course. There are some great uphill/downhill shots, some downhill death putts, I mean, all the classic examples of great elevation.
-Another hallmark of this course is the trees. This densely wooded park is one tops those places where you could plop down a basket and have a great hole without any work. That being said, this course is designed effectively with both cool holes, and flow in mind.
-Navigation is a no brained on this course, as I just said, flow is great at Pier Park. Signs are clear, and it is almost guaranteed that you will find someone to follow.
-Once you dive into the woods, like for real, you will be amazed. It is a total wow factor. There are so many trees, but, the amazing part is, you aren't playing disc golf into a wall, there are different routes to take, that is amazing to me.
-One innovative feature on the course is the tree protection. Now that I think about it, innovative might be the wrong word because it is actually pretty simple. They have put wood sticks on certain trees to protect the trees from the constant onslaught of plastic. Super nice touch in my opinion.
Cons:
-This is a very well played course. Tons and tons of people come here to play, I played on a Tuesday afternoon, and there was still a line to get to the first hole. People have good reason to come play this course, because it really is a great course.
-Because of how crowded this course is, both with disc golfers and normal park goers, there is a rather high "garbage quotient" as my dad put it. Definitely not the biggest problem out here, especially compared to some other courses of have played. But nonetheless, there's some garbage laying around.
- I feel bad bashing this course for the amount of people that play it, but it is legitimately a little annoying to wait on every hole. This course is worth waiting for, but I would much rather not wait.
-This course also doesn't have much opportunity for those "hero birdies" a lot of times, to really park a hole you have to get lucky. It is one of those places where you can miss your line by a three feet and end up in the circle, but miss by an inch and end up 50 feet in front of the tee pad.
Other Thoughts: Great course, swing by if you are in Portland, try to play on a less busy time, like early morning on a week day if possible. This course gets crowded.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.
Worth the trip
11 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: - The baskets, pads, and signs are all nice and for the most part maintained
- There is little to no underbrush so it's pretty tough to lose a disc
- This is a good course for players of all skill levels. There are a handful of tight drives from the pad, and for the most part the course allows for open shots.
- The course wasn't too crowded and the people on the course were helpful and friendly
- There is some elevation which makes the round an enjoyable hike through some terrifically large cedar trees
Cons: - There are conflicting signs on the course that need to be updated. E.g. there's not a sign for hole 7, then there are two signs for hole 14. I felt like i was going crazy trying to keep track of where i was after hole 6.
- The numbers embedded into the concrete pads aren't always right. E.g. i think hole 10 has a "9" embedded. Further adding to me feeling like i was taking crazy pills.
- It'd be useful if the tops of the baskets had one of the metal chain holders painted to indicate which direction one should travel to the next pad. it's a clever way to provide some help to new players in the area and it's fairly common.
Other Thoughts: - The course is located in a remote part of the city next to a skate park, and a bunch of apartments and homes. It's a neat little park that feels like its own island.
- Overall i wanted to love this course and i don't understand the excessively high average rating. This course is a lot of rinse and repeat for the holes. It's not a terribly challenging course, and the Mach X baskets are just okay. The chains added to the baskets as a second layer still allow some spit outs, which is annoying.
- Perhaps my East Coast bias is showing, but i expected the course to offer some variety, and it came up short. It was a fun course, i probably would go back, it just doesn't meet the expectations set by the average it has earned. The course design could have been thought out a little better, the baskets are in simple positions.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.
7 Helpful / 1 Not
Pros: Pier is a fantastic course set in big redwood trees. Hole 15 being a signature hole that is a tight tunnel shot around 350 feet. The course is fairly long with great use of elevation change, and variety of backhand/forehand holes. It's a very clean course with almost zero chance of losing discs. No underbrush and great tee signs. Has a winter and summer layout for a little more variety, also beautiful lime green Mach x baskets.
Cons: Very few cons
-Some times player traffic is bad being in main part of Portland. Have to wait for multiple groups and people just jump on whatever holes they can
-having a summer and winter layout sometimes you can get turned around, or skip hole going on wrong trail.. just make sure to look at the t signs to make sure you're in right area.
Other Thoughts: This is a must play course in Oregon and if you get up early play this without question. It's not an easy course to par and will test your game but not overly frustrating at same time
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.
Join Disc Golf Course Review for free to add your review. Have an account already?
Sign In to add a review.
3 / 294ft. 
Hole #12 (Taken 10/2022) 
1 
10/17/2022 
10/18/2022
Report this Review
