You gotta love a course that plays through giant trees! Although most holes are a bit on the short side for longer arms, it's still a place I will eagerly come back to as an experienced player. The course is quiet and serene. There are a good variety of required shots and the course encourages you to go for it. It would be pretty hard to lose a disc here.

The course is naturally well kept and it looks like somebody keeps after those areas that require maintenance. If you're in the Seattle area and you're looking for another course to bag, Gaffney's needs to make the shortlist.

Some may disagree, but I am not a big fan of artificial OB. If you want to make a player pay for a mistake, plant a tree or three. It's not like they have ropes all over but I always feel like there are more natural ways to handle it if the hole plays too far under par.

For experienced players, Gaffney's makes for a phenomenal mids and putters course. I found it a good place to work on my mid range forehand as well. I'm not the longest player but I could blow past the pin on all but a hole or two. Of those that I would struggle to make it pin high, it wasn't a matter of distance, it was a complicated shape. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

*Great layout, next tee close to hole out
*Variety of shots, most require tunnels shots, some slight elevations, many dog legs
*Fairly short course, will not take long to play
*In the beauty of the forest
*Near Lake Wilderness activities for the rest of the family (if they're not disc golfing)

*Signage kind of confusing

Really a fun course! Not many over 300', but the short ones will eat you alive if you hit a tree and get a bad ricochet. This course will force you to hone in on accurate drives. If you hit trees, it may force you to hone in on get out of jail shots.

There are a few elevation shots, mostly gradual elevations. Lots of dog legs. One island hole. About every tee will be a tunnel shot. Not sure what is considered OB, but on a few there are yellow ropes showing what OB is. Several mandos, which are designated with extra signage and tell you if there is a drop zone or bring back to the tee for the penalty.

I think this course would still be fun for the novice and would be an easy course for advanced players.

Nice layout. Tee #1 is right off of the parking lot and #18 brings you back to the parking lot.

I'm not sure how helpful the signage is. Kind of confusing to read and interpret. I played behind a threesome of locals that made it easy to see where the basket is. Even seeing where the basket is, however, sometimes didn't make sense looking at the signage.

These are DGA Mach 5 baskets. All the tees are concrete. Most have benches. A few have protective netting as a slice or a shank drive from the tee before has potential to fly towards the tee.

UDisc is accurate for the full 18. I wanted to play the back 9 after I was finished, but had to use the map for the 18 because the back 9 wasn't mapped out on UDisc.

No water fountains that I could see, but it does have a porta potty at the parking lot.

It doesn't take a lot of time to do a round. If the family wanted to accompany you but not play, Lake Wilderness is adjacent which has a path around it and many hiking trails across the street to the north of the course. There's also an arboretum, a museum. pickle ball courts, a playground, and a park. For those of you who want to make a mini vacation out of it, there is the Lake Wilderness Lodge and two bed and breakfasts there as well as a boat launch.

I highly recommend this course.

A course designed with the player in mind. Fun and unique on every hole. Plays through some tight woods but with smart pad design, nothing too daunting. Novice-friendly but not without its challenges.

Too short for my liking, plenty of cheap ace runs. Small course with some hole overlap. No real elevation change and a couple of the holes down the stretch seem oddly placed. Pin visibility isn't great.

Bird on hole 15, first try beginning of course not clearly marked.

For a first time player this was a great course to try out. Not too long, but still 18 holes. Plenty of challenges with all the trees but if you have bright discs you'll find them. Trails are well marked and well maintained, we even had someone in a power wheelchair that only needed an occasional push up a steeper slope. Course is nicely laid out and you can find the next tee easily.

There is some broken glass here and there, it's unreasonable to think they could ever get all of it. But it's something to watch out for and good footwear is advised. (I saw someone playing in flip flops today at another course, smh) It would be nice to have more garbage cans around but I didn't see litter so at least people are respecting the area.

This was my first time playing so I don't have much to compare it to. But it was difficult enough that I don't see becoming bored with this course soon and it was a great place for my son and I to play for our first outing. Having trails wide enough and mostly flat enough for a power wheelchair made it a bonus for us since my wife is in a chair and it means she can come with. It's also only a few miles from my home so that's a major bonus!

Gaffneys grove is a super technical small 18 hole course located in maple valley. There's lots of ace runs to be had, however the course keeps it fun with couple island holes, and tight lines. Players can shoot well with lots of birdie chances, but don't let those short holes fool you if you hit tree early recovery isn't always easy. Navigation is fairly easy and the layout flows pretty well. Tee signs and baskets were in good shape, as well as good tee pads. Overall really fun course that also has a weekly doubles league their. Good for beginners but advanced players can work on their accuracy shots. Good mix of left and right holes. Good mando signs and friendly locals

Only 1 hole that plays over 300 feet, and lets you throw a true drive. If you get off fairway could spend little time looking for discs but with most holes short shouldn't be much of issue

I really enjoyed this course if it had couple more holes over 300 it would be even better. However with the space they had they did a great job with it! awesome course to take new players or go for some aces.

Ignore other reviews about this course not being finished. Tee boxes are all in and the course is well worn in, losing discs should be no problem.

-Easy to navigate
-Great beginner to intermediate course
-Great place to work on technical throws
-Friendly locals
-Beautiful surrounding
-Decent amount of garbage cans

The few cons are mostly due to the parks former squatter resident. There is quite a bit of broken glass in the area so be careful with your pets and thin shoes.

-Not many benches
-Only one hole to really air it out on for big arms (hole 9)
-Ants if youre not into them

This course is a great place to both introduce somebody to the game and improve your mid range and approach games. It is technical enough to give a challenge but unfortunately lacks any distance game besides one hole. If youre looking to air it out there are better courses around. Overall a really great addition to the area. Also be warned there are huge ant hills in the area. They are harmless thatcher ants, however my girlfriend was not a fan at all.

Holes are a good length, challenging enough to be fun but not too hard. Paths are well marked as are the fairways. Holes are easy to find and course as a whole is easy to navigate. The location is perfect, large mossy trees mixed with more open fairways. A variety of shots/ discs can be used well. Some fairways are tight, and you have to use one shot, but others open up and allow you to be creative. This course lends itself well as a day trip destination because of the surrounding area. The course begins and ends in almost the same exact spot which is nice.

Lots of brush on the sides, easy to lose a disc if you shank a drive. Hole 2's fairway is so cluttered with trees it is a little to hard.

There is a league that plays there on sundays.

New course which is always a pro. Good parking area. Designed as a 'par' type course...two good throws and you should be putting. Course is designed for all types of shots from the tee boxes. One of the locals who played with us for awhile was using a Roc for his drives...straight on narrow course. Then Roc into basket for a putter to get his par. I think it worked very well for him.

Cons are it's not finished yet (but it is playable). Only hole 1 has a cement pad the other holes are just dirt. Signs are missing but the poles are at each pad. Expect signs to follow. We were lucky that two locals came along or we might have missed a hole or two. You have to back track on a few too many holes to get to the next holes tee box. If course is crowded this could be a little trouble. Piles of sticks and junk are all over the place. Had to climb into or over alot of them. Footing is not good when throwing from them.

I think this course will be great fun when the club finishes there upgrades. We came from Kitsap county which made it a very long drive. Next time we will play here then go back and play White River or Riverside or Lake Fenwick...hey maybe SeaTac.

• Creative holes
• Very technical with tight windows
• Terrain is raw and untouched
• Updated often
• Very friendly community
• Great Parking
• Very PNW Course
• Constantly improving holes

• No signage
• Tees aren't poured yet
• Few garbage cans

• The Disc Golf community is growing there and it would be great to see someone selling discs in the parking lot.
• Confused by the low rating on this course compared to others in the area.
• Front 9 is a lot more difficult than the back 9. Not a bad thing just something to be aware of.

Gaffney's Grove is the latest and greatest of Washington's disc golf courses. The course sits in Lake Wilderness State Park that features the lovely lake which the park is named after. It would be perfect for a refreshing dip after that hot, sweaty round. The course is found on the very first left turn as you are entering the park. The smallish parking lot has space for maybe 20 cars. Actually, now most locals are parking in the larger parking lot by the community center which has more room. This would be your first left turn after the roundabout. This has you starting on hole # 4 (or is it # 5?) which now has a kiosk marking the start.

There is also a kiosk here by hole # 1 which has a small course map and other disc golf info. The first hole is just about 50 feet to the left of the kiosk. There are now 18 concrete pads which are decently long and level. The signs are the old school fiberglass type with two panels. The second panel shows hole sponsors.

The terrain here is a fairly flat forest of Fir and Cedar trees. There is still quite a bit of brush just off the fairways. Some has been cut and stacked there. I'm sure it will be soon hauled away. Being a new course, the areas just off the fairways are currently very thick in places. Towards the middle of the course, things open up some.

Navigation is mostly intuitive. The baskets are DGA models with the always hard to read (at least for my tired old eyes) red numbers. The course is definitely technical but there is usually a fair line to the basket, although some of these lines are very miniscule. The distances are recreational length with only three holes measuring out at more than 250'. The back nine is shorter and I felt, more interesting. There are some really fun and creative ACE runs although each has some aspect to it that adds to the challenge. It might be a low ceiling, heavily guarded basket, narrow line or the one elevated basket.

The course is very clean and litter free with no vandalism. It was wonderful to see families out enjoying the course on a lovely spring Sunday morning.

One slight safety hazard where the # 8 pad (I believe) is vulnerable from the players throwing from the next tee. However, this has been addressed with a safety type net being installed.

Recreational lengths so no place to really let loose on your drives. Also basically recreational challenge.

Be aware that many tee signs are facing the wrong way. It's obvious on most of these holes which way the basket is but your first time through the course, one or two might confuse you. I'm not convinced that these fiberglass signs will hold up to any future vandalism as they just seem like such perfect targets for rock throwing teens. So far, there has been no such problems and I sincerely hope they are still in pristine condition five years from now.

I would like to see someone put together an on-line course map to help players through their first time.

I really liked this course. It appears as though the course designers are doing everything the right way. There is a definite sense of community pride from the locals. I wish that I lived closer. The ACE runs are really fun and challenging. The course was packed with people on Sunday morning.

It will be an above average course when completed. I would love to give it a 3 star rating now and update that to a 3.5 when the signs and concrete pads are completed but......it will still be a short recreational then so I will score it 2.5 and upgrade it to 3.0 when completed.

UPDATE: March 2018. I've upped my original score to 3.0 with recent improvements, signs, etc.

• Only course in the area
• There are a handful of fun shots
• 80% of the course layout is pretty intuitive
• Course loops back to parking lot
• Good course for rec players looking to play a rec round and to do their thing

• Mosquito central
• Many fairways are not well designed :
Several fairways have obstacles requiring flex in spots that dont make sense for birdie runs, which means there arent good risk/reward choices from many tees.

Your options are lay up for pars, or poke and pray for ace/birdie runs that will often leave you searching for your disc in the...
• Heavy underbrush. Narrow fairways dont help the fact that the edges are uncleared pine debris and brush.

This course will be a little better with the 'crete pads that were not poured when I played.

If you want to beat par, take your opportunities on the fairways that make sense, and dont try to force the wtf holes. Just hit your gaps and lay up like a boss.

Many technical shots
A few very nice ace runs
Well thought out shots for the space available
Good variety of throws on most holes (see cons)

-The layout in areas gets a little congested, so if a few groups are playing there is some danger in throwing at folks on the other greens
-Some holes on the back 9 get a little repetitive and don't have much as far as distance or obstacles

-The elevated Basket on 16 and the shot across the small chasm/rough area on 17 make for -some awesome shots
-Once they add in the tee pads and some signs this will be a very polished course
-Decent parking lot in a beautiful park
-I will update my review after I have played through on permanent pads... I could see giving it a bump once it is a fully finished course
-Overall this course is pretty short... it doesn't quite have some of the distance or elevation shots that Lake Fenwick has, but it appear that it will remain playable year round as the drainage seems good... overall it is a very strong addition to this area as it gives a good option if you don't feel like tackling longer courses or want to have some ace runs

- Free and close to home.
- City fully committed to maintenance and improvement.
- Well marked and easy to navigate.
- Many tempting ace runs, which provide great risk/reward ratio for better players. Hit your line perfectly and 80% of the baskets are ace worthy, miss by a thin margin and you might struggle for par.
- Ample parking with multiple access points allows custom play, based on how much time you have to play.
- RH/LH equally represented.
- Novice and kid friendly (see cons)
- Drains great, few puddles.

- Incredibly short, no par 4's only one long par 3.

This is a great Rec course, which will get better with seasoning. Anyone can shoot near par with conservative play. Challenging enough to promote constant improvement for those learning to throw. Quiet times provide endless safari opportunities.