Lake Amador South is considered the middle child of the three Lake Amador courses. The longer North Course is considered a little more challenging and the Campground course might be a hair easier.

The Lake Amador Resort complex centers around the 400 acre lake offering fishing, camping, boating, swimming pools, rentals and three challenging disc golf courses. The charge is $10 for the day. And with this $10, you'll receive a professional looking scorecard, just like at the regular golf courses. Play all three in one day and you can call yourself a man or perhaps a woman. The cafe is full-service on weekends and sandwiches during the week. There is a nice selection of discs and bags in the cafe. Pay for your plastic with your plastic and it'll will set you back. I thought the prices were pretty steep.

The South course has a nice large course map, excellent long concrete tees, a kiosk with some information, DGA baskets with an round attachment on top showing the hole # and lots of white next tee arrows. Some of the signs have weathered and are hard to read. There is a washer system in place showing current basket position. I don't think they all were correct, though.

The course starts out pretty innocently with a series of birdieable holes with not much elevation. Starting on # 5, you'll start to see what all the elevation talk is about. # 5 is a hyser around this big tree with the basket stuck down in the trees in a clever placement. Oh yeah, this course might be the king of the rollaway, what with the extreme, steep hillsides and some nasty basket placements. Hole after hole have you either throwing down steep hills or have baskets are on steep hillsides.

The lake is currently (January) low. The folks at the resort are praying for some rain. Californians are obviously drinking too much water! Either that or wasting too much water showering or watering crops.

# 9 is just a short little, 160' but if the lake is up, the basket sits right on the edge. # 10 plays across the lake and then up a good sized hill. I liked # 12 in it's current position. It's just 225' but the basket sits on a steep, sloping hillside and the basket is protected by a cluster of about 15 small trees. I liked # 14 a lot. It plays only 234' but has you teeing off through the fork of this tree. Also a prime hole for ugly rollaways.

# 15 basket was in a seriously, nasty position, stuck at the far end of the fairway which gets progressively more narrow with an OB fence close by on the left and a drop-off on the right.

And # 18 is an especially great hole to end a tournament. It's somewhere between 330' and 525', big downhill but not exactly open. There is a serious drop on your left and not much room on your right. The basket sits in kind of a natural stadium bowl, perfect for spectators.

Signs could be improved.

Treacherous hillsides and basket positions.

Would be sweltering in summer. Bring lots of water.

Big time endurance needed for all the steep ups and downs.

Expect some horrific rollaways.

The North Course is longer and the Playground Course has some nastier holes but the South delivers on it's promise to challenge you both physically and mentally. There are so many places and ways to get into trouble here. It's no wonder there is a huge supply of lost discs in the cafe.

This course was very fun to play, with lots of challenging holes. The first few holes were open and easy to attack. Once you get past these holes I found the course to be much more tricky. With all of the trees it takes some precision throws even on the short holes. Those good throws can be rewarded, but also be punished as I had a great throw that should have been 15 feet away but my roc flipped up and rolled all the way down into the lake. I love the design of throwing over the coves of the lake.

This was a difficult walk going up and down the hills and had me winded more than any other course that I have played. Bring lots of water and some snacks to keep up energy.

I really liked this course, the staff were very friendly and helpful. I will be going back there for sure!

The variety of shot types (not necessarily distances - see cons) off the tee is currently pretty awesome and with several pin placements per hole will only improve over time.

Multiple fairway holes! My current favorite type of hole to play. There are several of them out here where me and my partner debated the merits of taking different lines off the tee. Many of these holes currently are a bit deceptive at first look; appearing to be straightforward at first, but richer upon further inspection. Usually, sidehills or OB areas contribute to the complexity, but it appears after longer pins are added, one will have to consider par 4 landing zones on several holes as well.

Right now, many of the distances that we played (the A positions) were very similar and got a little repetitive after a while, BUT, this is clearly to be remedied soon as alternate pin placements (Red, Silver, and Blue) are planned and many are already poured!

Also, we played in winter so the course was empty except for one other group of golfers, but it seems possible that conflicts with other park users could become a problem if the resort is busy as several holes play near picnic and camping areas.

I'm curious to see how the designers implement OB at this course as there are several roads running near or through fairways. With a little planning and consultation with other golfers, well-planned OB areas could make this course even better than it currently is shaping up to be!

Well done Lake Amador, can't wait to revisit this course and see what you all have cooked up!

Holes 6-18 are technical and fun. Good shots are rewarded! Get off line and pay the price. Big tee pads and nice baskets are a huge plus. Met one of the course designers and heard of the future plans to improve the course with new placements and potentially water between 1 and 4.

1 - 5 are wide open putter shots. $10 fee.

Great new course. I look forward to hitting up the Sat. dubs and learning the local routes.

The course plays in the hilly area around the campsites. Many of the holes have nice elevation changes, including a few with steep tough uphills and a couple fun downhill shots. A handful of holes have some rollaway potential around the pin to add interest to the short game.

Several of the holes offer some level of technical shots, with enough trees to define a line you have to hit. Some of the holes have multiple pin placements to add a little extra variety. There are a couple longer holes to stretch out your arm a little. The tees are great, and the signs are adequate. Navigation is pretty easy.

The course gets pretty repetitive. There are too many wide open shots with no trouble off the tee or around the green, and several of these play along or over a road. The wooded holes don't offer enough punishment to really hurt you on errant drives, and most of the tighter holes just make you throw a straight putter or mid shot. All the length seems to be on the more open holes.

There are a ton of potential safety issues. Many of the holes play over, through or next to picnic and camping areas. On a busy weekend that could cause some conflicts. The road seems lightly used, but it comes into play on several holes as well.

Beginners will find the elevation changes a bit daunting, but otherwise it's reasonably approachable without a ton of length or punishment. More experienced players will enjoy the chances to throw up and down the hills, but won't find it too much of a challenge.

Nice people in restaurant. Excellent concrete t-pads.
Indestructible signs. A few nice benches, and good baskets.

First 5 holes are in a dirt parking lot with a road going through it. Couldn't even use 4th tee because a car was parked in front of pad. Trash was everywhere. Plastic bottles broken glass and old concrete were over top of land that had been abused for decades. Hole 6 went over a road and a site where people were camping . Finally at hole 7 the course got more interesting and only needed poison oak removal, trash clean-up and trails to make them fun. $10 to play is outrageous!

Maybe, with extensive cleanup, trail construction, and re-designing the parking lot / first 5 holes, this course could be considered worthy of a "4" rating. When I was there it had only been open a week. I will go back in a year or so and and see what changes have been made to improve the course.

5' x 12' cement tees. Brand new Mach 5 baskets. Great terrain with plenty of hills and elevation change. Good mix of hole types and shots required. A few holes are fairly open but most are pretty technical. Well groomed and clean. Beautiful course with great views throughout. In fact the entire property is very beautiful. New benches and garbage cans on some holes. Restaurant on site open Fri-Sun. Basic tee signs with hole layout and distance to pin. Multiple pins on some holes, more to come. 2 restrooms on the course with clean drinking water in sinks. Additional water spigots with clean water by hole 1/18 and 13/14. Camping on site ($30/site/night). Course is still developing and improvements are constantly being made.

Pay to play: $10 per car up to 4, $1 for each additional. Course currently lacks some amenities, but it is still very new and the amenities are coming quickly. Restaurant is only open Fri-Sun and the closest place to get supplies is in Ione, so grab what you need before you get to the course.

Random doubles every Saturday at 10AM. $10 per player, but you do not have to pay the $10 per car fee like normal. $6 or your $10 goes to the payout: 2nd place gets their $6 each back and the winners take the rest. $1 goes to the ace pot, and $3 goes to the resort/property. There is talk of putting in a large 1' deep pond with an island green on hole 4, but they are waiting for approval from the county/state. 1' deep water will make for easy disc retrieval, making the risk/reward factor a bit less risky and will tempt players to go for it. They also plan to add a pro shop in the future. This course is brand new and is still a work in progress, but everything is being done to top notch standards and this is already a fabulous course. They also plan to continue to expand the course over the coming years, adding 9 to 18 new holes each year. This will be one of the premier courses in nor Cal in a few years.

Excellent use of terrain and mix of technical and long holes, mostly weighted towards the technical end. Good course for all levels and ages. Well marked; look for the green arrows. Nice concrete tee pads and hole markers with diagrams of pin placements.

None.

This course is only a few weeks old (at the time of this review). I gave it an excellent rating (4) because in time it will be a 5. It has shades of Golden Gate with Shark Tooth Mountain; trees and hills. Great place for a disc golf camping getaway for families or avid players.

The layout of this course is well thought out, super technical, and very fun. I have shot under one day and 8 over the next. The course is new but professionally built, tee pads are beautiful and roomy, signs are super classy, and the whole course is completely mowed and groomed. Along the course there are 2 restrooms with flush toilets, one at Tee #6 and one at pin #14. To top it off your parking permit covers you for all the facility offers, DG, swimming in the lake or swim pond where the waterslide is, horseshoes, etc., even fishing for an extra 8 bucks. It's a great place to visit but you may never want to leave!

Needs trash cans.

The course is located in the campground so there are sites available in and around the course for extended play. There are hot showers that are free of charge as well so future 2-3 day tournaments here are going to be such a nice change. I also hear that by next year a huge pond with an island and a basket on it is going to be put between hole 1 and hole 4 on the big flat area, SOOOOWEEEEET!