A solid course that plays around a pretty little park in a scenic area. Elevation and tight lanes make for a course that is more challenging than its length would suggest. A couple well-designed holes mixed in with a couple plain or weird ones but most have something to offer.

Plays over paths and towards the central field area in a couple spots. Could use some length, and a couple holes would make sense in a better order to reduce climbing. Lots of underbrush.

Plays up and down on some hills, prepare to do some climbing. There were no amenities when I was there but supposedly there are usually some there.

Dawson Park is a lovely multi-use park that sits in Suncadia Resorts just outside Cle Elum. The park is beautiful with many activities to choose from including basketball, tennis, playgrounds, ballfields, pickleball, horseshoes and a dog park. There are paved biking/walking paths and a hut in the center which loans out equipment including discs and course maps. The course scorecards and maps are golf course quality although you probably don't need the map. The course is well signed, has next tee arrows on the baskets and clearly marked paths leading you to the next tee. There are restrooms here and they are the cleanest, nicest restrooms on site I've encountered anywhere.

The course starts over near the restrooms and plays at a recreational level with only one hole (# 16) playing just over 300'. ½ of the holes are sub 200'. There is a course sign at the beginning with a map and distances for each hole. And then each tee sign has the distance for each hole as well as the next tee arrow.

Most tee pads are smallish rubber mats and a few are natural. I actually preferred the natural pads as the rubber pads are too small to hardly take a step one. The baskets are Discatchers with the yellow bands and #'s. They show up well in the woods here.

# 1 is listed as190,' just a simple hyser bomb into the woods and the basket. All holes are Par 3's. With all these short holes, there are quite a few Ace opportunities as well as a number of blind basket placements.

This course plays as a recreational level course but probably 95% of its clientele are beginners/novices who have borrowed discs from the hut. The course is probably somewhat over their heads.

There wasn't a hole here that really thrilled me. Lots of fun little throws but nothing epic. Playing on this mostly rugged hillside, I was hoping for a couple more, easy downhill Ace runs.

What out for the trippers which are everywhere. They are the small, one-inch stems of bushes which have been cut off just above ground level. They're everywhere on the paths so you need to watch your step, however, with my uncanny sense of balance, coupled with my cat-like agility, I managed not to do any face-plants today.

It tends to be windy up here in the mountains..

The park is beautiful and heavily used. The course has some wonderful things going for it, nice park, nice baskets, a couple fun throws but I just don't believe it really reaches its target audience. It's a little too technical and a bit too difficult for them. But they probably aren't writing reviews for DGCR, are they?

I played and reviewed this course six years ago in 2013 when it was just a little rec 9-holer. This review has been partially copied from that previous review. I awarded it a generous 2.5 at that time and I'm still inclined to call it a 2.5. It falls into the average class.

Before I begin, This is one of my all time favorite places to play disc golf, it isn't an especially amazing course, but I consider it to be my home course. With that, I will be trying to review this course as objectively as I can with as little bias as possible. On to the review!
-Excellent tee signs, these have good maps for every hole as well as distance (these are accurate! unlike the 9-holeversion).
-Baskets are nice, there are 9 DISCatchers from the old 9 and 9 brand new El Guapo baskets which don't catch quite a good, but they are still really nice. Also, the baskets all have yellow bands which make it easy to see where they are.
-Fairways are really nice, mostly clear, throughout the seasons, shrubbery grows and dies with a lot of variance, so the level of maintenance on this course is impressive.
-Rough is tricky, but not insane, but you may consider wearing jeans or long pants because there are some pokey plants.
-As with the 9 hole course, this course has awesome elevation use, there is essentially one hill that most hole play along, you must be very careful with your throws because even with all the plants, the hill is prime roll away real estate.
-This is a short recreational course, so the distance doesn't bring any challenge, so the trees have to, and on most hole they do, trees are used really well to create challenge on short hole like 1, 3, 4, 10, 17, to make it a tough birdie and a reasonable par.
-Paths are excellent, brand new wood chips lead from hole to hole, and down the fairways.
-Navigation is easy, no map required, just follow the paths.
-Several hole have mandos and they are mostly good, some are necessary for protecting bike paths or roads, others make a hole play a more interesting shape.
-This course is an excellent representation of the plant life of the Cle Elum area, which is a very beautiful area.
-Equal opportunity for forehand or backhand.

-The rubber tees are not the best, I understand that the terrain is super tricky and concrete would not work at all, but I would like to see some more run up space (although there aren't many hole that require a big run up).
-There is no OB on this course, per say. Only a re throw if you miss the mando, however there is easy unspoken OB with several bike paths or roads coming near play.
-No benches, this course has a sign at the beginning that says prepare for difficult terrain, this is true, and it is a bit of a workout. As someone who often plays disc golf with the audience of grandparents, I pay close attention to things like benches, there are none on this course, and that is a shame because it can be tiring, especially in the heat.
-I know this course is meant for beginners and resort guests, but is is way to easy, I shot -9 one round, granted I did hit an ace, but that is kind of ridiculous for a player of my skill (Trying to imply that I'm not that good at disc golf). I would love it if they moved the tees back a couple feet and pushed baskets back also.

-This course gets a 4/4 on the new shoe index, I literally played in new shoes and they held up great.