-Large Concrete tee pads
-Decent baskets
-Good signage (although #3 and #5 missing)
-Interesting tractor tire protectors for baskets #4, #5, and #6
-Trees to work around for interest on most holes

-Hazard of being between parking lot and playground on #1 (kids running right through with a restroom to keep that blind)
-Hazard of the street on #4 and #7
-Hazard of the parking area on #5 and# 6
-Hazard of the pool on #9
-No elevation

Laurel Park DGC plays around Laurel Park and other amenities on the north end of Gowrie, IA. Holes #1-3 play through the park, #4-7 play along the incoming street, and #8-9 play around the local pool. The course has some of the largest tee pads I've seen with good signage (although #3 and #5 were missing at the time). Plenty of trees to work around for #1-4 and #8 add some interest. There are several hazards that keep the rating down, although I'm not sure how they could be rectified and still have 9 holes. #1 tees past the back of a restroom building to the left. There is a playground in front of that building. With the parking to the right of the #1 fairway, kids will run past, at times blindly, right through the fairway. #4 play with street on both sides and a mando to keep you left of the street on the right. #5 and #6 play through a parking area for the athletic fields just east of #6-#8. Nothing going on while I was here, but could be full with event going on and unplayable. #4, #5 and #6 baskets have had large tractor tires put around them as protectors (See pic in Media for #4). #7 tees along the athletic fields with a street to the left that is OB and you really need to clear (although not that hard with the distance). #9 tees near the back corner of the pool and a need to stay right to stay out of the pool area. With the tee pads and the signage, this would be an above average course. The hazards drop it down a notch for me. Very playable with no activities going on. I would play again, if in the area.

- Good mix of shot shapes and lengths
- Challenging
- Logical flow
- Simple, yet descriptive signage

- Some real safety issues
- grass tees (but looks like concrete might be coming?)

Let's get the safety issue out of the way first: This is a small municipal park that also features a picnic shelter, ball diamond, track and swimming pool, all of which will come into play on the course. Care should be taken when playing the course when either of these facilities is in use. Several of the holes have the very real danger of throwing into either the parking lot or the pool area itself. Hopefully, this doesn't become a problem as more people start playing the course.

Taking the safety issue out of the equation, the course provides a decent challenge for most levels of play. There is a good variety of hole distances and shot shapes available. The course flows logically from the main parking lot and it's easy to find the next hole from the previous one. Signage is small, but is sturdy and has descriptive graphics, although some of the distances shown are suspect.

It's a course that's still in development, as it appears that the tees are marked for adding concrete in the near future.

Great challenging course. Best 9 hole course I have played in a while. Good mix up of left and right handed shots. Variety of shots. More of a skill shot kind of course than distance.
Be careful on hole 9 and do not throw it into the pool.
Also has The Drill Barbershop in town that sells some good discs and Marvs Grill to eat at.

Can't play right after school gets let out, because of kids parking for football practice.