Disc Golf Course Review

+ Tees are flat, long and sturdy concrete.
+/- Baskets are numbered but on the old side.
+ Colorful and effective tee signs attached to bag stands at every link (except the first one).
+ The venue is spacious and pretty, but...

- ...It is too open and flat for my taste.
- No lost disc box, but maybe that's not much of an issue at this course.
-/+ The guiding signage is hit or miss. There are some places where nav signs are direly needed.

As I was passing through Arkansas in late 2023, I regretted that I didn't have more time to play more courses. I had to stick to courses close to the Interstates, and Lower DeGrey was in the right place at the right time. But while Lower DeGrey Lake isn't so bad of a choice, I don't think I'm wrong to suspect that there are better courses out there.

For starters, I must say that Lower DeGrey has a nice feel to it. Everything is spread out. There is a river as a permanent backdrop that you can admire. There are plenty of pines and sunny fields. Disc golfers can come here to relax and unwind. Link7 illustrates that idea perfectly. From the tee you face a peppering of trees, which slightly block your view of the Caddo River. Once you finally reach the basket and stand on the shore, the other side of the river displays more lush greenery. The setting is an important factor for a disc golf course. This one has no problems with setting.

The actual disc golfing, however, is a different story. It is on the short side with below average challenges. Most of the fairways are shorter than 300 feet, and the tree cover is mostly that park-style configuration, which is to say that there are definitely trees in the way, but there is usually so much space between them, that it doesn't feel like it. Sometimes, there are no trees at all. Links 5, 6, 9 and 10 are the clearest examples, and 10 is by far the most boring. Power players who can consistently air out their throws may enjoy this place more than I did. Credit where it's due: link9 might be completely wide open, but it features a literal protected basket with wooden structures surrouding it on three sides. That was cool to see.

I prefer wooded disc golf, and some of the links here did resonate with me. The final four or five were nice challenges of woods management. My personal favorite was link15 because of its choice of fairway tunnel to reach the basket. It couldn't make up for the dull nature of the majority of the others, though. This course is flat with just a few exceptions. I honestly don't mind a little bit of ankle risk in my disc golf, yet this course has virtually none. On the plus side, that means this course is very cart and kid friendly.

It could be tough to find your way. Nav signage (as of late October 2023) is spotty and especially needed after links 4 and 10. And since I'm talking about the course's infrastructure, tees 8, 9 & 14 were damaged, and basket17 needs a quick fix.

All in all, Lower DeGrey is neither awful nor wonderful. It gets a slight recommendation for its nice setting and consistent presentation, which frames a competent if bland circuit of 18. I can't promise you'll be blown away by this one, but I also can't imagine anybody walking away unhappy.

-It's a disc golf course...
-The baskets are adequate.
-Enough variety to make it entertaining
-The first few holes play through a unique landscape weird mounds and pot holes.

First and foremost, I rated this a 1.5 bc they made the most irreconcilable blunder one can make, they didn't use the water...
90% of discgolf courses don't have any sort of water and would kill to have a stream or river or lake to add excitement and scenery. This plot has a nice little creek that runs along most of the course but doesn't once come into play. I'm not saying you need a shot over the creek or even a hole that plays next to it the whole time, but the fact that not a single basket placement brings the creek into play even once is insane to me.

Rubber pads: not a pro bc they're rubber, not a con bc at least there's something.

The course isn't a loop, instead it's a linear path requiring you to walk back to the start when finished.

The trash... my Gods. I thought these cute little country towns were supposed to clean and respectable but this place is worse than down town. It seems like there's a few locals that use this as a garbage dump to save 20 bucks months.

Seviren Lang is a classic course near the Louisville area. Though technically in Indiana, it's only a short drive across the river to play it. The course is a mixture of wooded and open and features subtle elevation changes throughout. The course starts out with the first 5 holes in the woods before opening up, literally, with the 1000'+ hole 6. From there on it's what I'd consider mostly open over moderately wooded.

The baskets are beautiful bright red Chainstar Pros. These look really new so I'm assuming this is only the second, maybe third year they've been here. No complaints with these. In fact, these are some of my personal favorite baskets. One basket but multiple pin placements per hole.

Nice large concrete tee pads on every hole. Most, but not all, have two tees per hole. This is always nice to see since it caters to a wider range of skill levels. The pads themselves are all nicely sized, level and have good traction to them. Nicely done with these.

There's a decent mixture of shot shapes off the tee here, though it seemed slightly more RHBH friendly. I liked how even on some of the more open holes they'd tuck the pin along the tree line or in a tricky area to approach. The design is pretty solid for what's honestly not a huge amount of space. They did a great job fitting 18 holes in here without it feeling crammed.

The flow is pretty intuitive to follow. There's signs guiding you to hole 1 from the kiosk in the parking lot and from there it's a piece of cake getting around.

The tee signs must be updated from the last review too. No longer laminated pieces of paper. They're now permanent and pretty nicely done. They feature a basic hole map showing both pin positions and any OB. They also have the par, distance and any elevation gain or loss for each basket position. Nice looking signs, and it sounds like a major update from prior years.

The 1000' hole feels forced. It's feels like filler to get you to the other side of the park. It doesn't really fit with the vibe of the rest of the course. Not a fan. There are restrooms near it though I guess. The wife appreciated that.

A few of the holes play pretty close to the park roads. Nothing overly egregious but also less than ideal. If playing to the long pin on 14 you're blind to the tee and some people may end up backtracking up the fairway to get to 15's tee.

You have to walk between 18's basket and the right side of hole 3's fairway to get to hole 1. Basically there's just a few slightly sketchy spots out here. While these wouldn't be an issue at 90% of the courses out there, this is one of those 10% courses where it could.

Lots of erosion here. Very unpredictable ground play due to this as well as tripping hazards. The rough wasn't too terrible when we played in mid April, it does look like there will be some gnarly areas come summer.

I can see why this course is rated so highly on here. Back in 2008 this would've been a top of the line course. Honestly, now it's just kind of another above average city park course. Definitely worth a spin if you're near or travelling through here. But don't be mislead by it's lofty rating. Still fun, but currently overrated in my opinion.

Buffalo Trace Park is home to all sorts of different activities. An 18 hole disc golf course is one of them. The course starts on the east side of the lake, wraps through the woods and open along the north side and loops back finishing near hole 1. The course is on the longer side. Not really beginner friendly.

The baskets are Innova Discatchers. These are on the older side but still catch fine. There's a cool hanging basket on the par 5, hole 12. This is extra tricky if the wind is coming off the lake. There's steps on the backside of it to get your disc out of the basket too.

Concrete tees. They seem to vary in size and texture, which was kind of odd. All are concrete though and they get the job done. One tee pad per hole.

The course is a mixture of wooded and open, though it skews slightly more to the wooded side. Just barely though. The lake comes into play in a few spots. Holes 5, 12, 13, 17 and 18. It would take a very errant shot on most of those but it is still possible. There's some minor elevation in play too.

The tee signs are serviceable. Not special but get the job done. Hole #, par, distance and a basic hole map which shows any OB and has a next tee arrow. These are posted on yellow wooden posts which helps with locating the next tee too.

The walking trail comes into play too often for my liking. I understand that there's limited space on the north side of the lake, but they could've easily shortened a few holes, notably 12 and 13 and squeezed a few shorter holes in there.

No short tees. If you're going to have all these long holes why not put in at least a few short pads? There's camping and all kinds of other family activities here. With the length of the course it's not good for beginners or kids. Hell, it was like my 975th course and I get wrecked.

Chance to lose discs is very real. Both in the lake and in the neighboring field to the north if the crops are high. The wind can cause havoc coming off the lake too.

Entry fee to access the park. Apparently it's $6 a vehicle to get into the park. There was nobody in the both on a mid April morning so we played it for free. Don't expect that to always be the case though.

This was a solid course. I'd play it for sure if it was near me, but definitely not as much as some others in the area. That said, it's worth a visit if you're nearby but it's not worth a trip out of your way to play it. Good course, just not a great one.

Foxlands is Jeff Fox's private course. He's the designer and caretaker of the whole thing and you can tell the love he puts into it. There's all kinds of unique little details throughout the course. It's hard not to admire the work put into this course while playing it.

The baskets are a mix of different portable models. Innova, Axiom and MVP are all used here if I remember correctly. These all caught well enough and are all mounted nicely. There's one pin placement on all the holes. Though there's always the option to switch things around if wanted. There's a few elevated baskets too which adds a little bit more challenge.

Natural tees. All are pretty large and framed in by downed branches that were cleaned up from the surrounding woods. These are level and a few even had nice wooden frames on the front end of them. There's also stumps and benches behind the tee on almost every hole.

Really nice design here. Especially for a first time designer. The course plays on the shorter side for sure, but the lines are tight and require accuracy to shoot well. Missing your line can get you into some tough spots. Most of the holes have a couple different options possible off the tee.

There's some minor elevation in play here, though it's nothing crazy, it's utilized well. There's a creek that meanders through the course, a small pond and a few holes where the ravine can come into play.

There's tee signs on almost all of the holes. It appeared like holes 11 and 12 may have recently been redesigned, therefore they didn't have signs yet. 15 was the only other that didn't I believe. Those holes all just had a small 4x4 post with some large address numbers attached. The signs at the other holes are well done. Basic hole map, rec. and adv. par, distance, next tee arrow as well as a description of the hole and any hazards present. On top of that every hole has a unique name.

You need to set up an appointment to play here. Jeff doesn't charge to play, but you should throw him $5 at least to help with course upkeep. That being the case, the course should never be too busy if there's even anyone else out there.

If you're not a fan of natural tees you'll not like what's set up here. I personally don't care one way or the other, but some people do. It's a backyard course though.

Some of the tee signs didn't quite match up to where the basket actually was. This was mildly annoying. I ended up throwing it all the way down a ravine on the left where I thought the basket would be. Turns out it was on the right. There were a few others that didn't quite match up.

You'll want to have a map to navigate the course. Most of it's pretty easy, but there are a few longer transitions here that are NOT intuitive.

Awesome backyard course. I loved this one. You can tell how much Jeff cares about this course and that kind of rubs off on you as you play it. Definitely worth a stop if you find yourself nearby. Bonus points for being literally 5 minutes from Boylan Acres.

The artificial turf tees are well built. They are flat and dry although some have been cut open, maybe to fix drainage. Didn't affect play though. The photos on here appear to show cement tees and some decent signs, maybe those were there when the course was first put in. It's definitely not cement tees and decent signs now.

If you're an older guy, the hills and slopes are very gentle.

Almost every basket is strategically placed to have something in the way, even though the place looks like it's an open cornfield.

It doesn't look like much on the card, or when you pull into the parking lot near the first tee, yet every hole gives you something to think about, and the design forces you to work the disc in both directions.

Whoever set up this place clearly did it with very little money, but they like disc golf and disc golfers because I think it's pretty equal for both left and right handers and forces you to do more than you think you have to.

The signs are a little white piece of wood on a stake, with the hole number and distance written on it in black sharpie. So you don't get a lot of info. Then again, every hole is a par 3 other than 18, and it's right there for you to look at. It's a good thing the signs are there though, because otherwise it'd be tough to find the next hole. The turf tees blend right into the ground.

It's not the prettiest course in the world. It's flat, not very many trees so it's surely sweltering in the summer, and the design winds in and out of cornfields, maintenance sheds, athletic facilities and drainage ditches. Then again, the college doesn't ask you for money, not even a donation. Just go have fun!

While there are a few pretty cool holes, there are a few bland ones too, no more so than the last hole, which is the only par 4. It's a flat, open field for all 630 feet. There is a stone path near the basket you could play as OB if you want although there is no mention of OB anywhere on the signs or UDisc. I imagine a tournament there would play the cornfields, ditches and vehicle paths as OB.

Your first time around you'll need UDisc to find the next tee on most of the holes. There aren't a lot of long walks between holes, it's just tough to see where the next tee is or where the next hole goes when you're in an open field most of the time.

I've been here twice now and while it looks really bland from the parking lot, with no amenities and hardly any shade or elevation, the course always gives you a little something to do on each tee. Hole 1 seems like a nothing hole, until you stand on the tee and realize you have to squeeze through an early gap, down a little hill, across a ditch and keep it straight for 275 feet to get to a basket on the far side of a retention basin. Then you turn around and play right back up the same hill, with a basket on a fairly steep slope.

The course continues on this path, giving you a series of par 3s mostly in the 275-300 neighborhood, although there is one over 400 and a couple of short ones here and there. #1-3 are all pretty similar, 275 feet or so with some scattered tree problems.

The first shorty is #4 which gets your attention right away with the big M painted on a tree. "I have to go through that gap?!?!" You do if you want to go straight at the basket...but is there maybe another way? Look around.

The weakest section of the course starts with #5 where you play several par 3s in a row that are pretty long and pretty bland, although if you play the drainage ditches, and corn as OB, now you have some problems to deal with.

The course starts to perk up again with number #10. The 403 foot distance gets your attention, plus the fact the basket looks like it's on the front steps of an old farmhouse. Don't worry, it's all part of the college. And it's not 400 feet if you go directly at the basket, although there is a lot of pretend OB to carry. Again, there is no OB mentioned, but pretending it's there adds some drama.

#11-#13 are also fun. #11 is pretty much smack in the middle of the maintenance area, and is a left to right dogleg around a shed. Clearly the shed has been hit a few times. #12 is another one with the basket on a pretty severe slope, and #13 is another very fun little hole, less than 200 feet, but you have to navigate between the cornfield and a hillside, with a shot that curves to the right, and crashes through a little grove of trees

#14 is clearly the signature hole, a very short par 3 but filled with obstacles, to a basket hanging from the roof of an old shed. This is about the only time you're in the shade. It seems like nothing on the card, but getting through the row of trees halfway to the basket is no gimme, and now there's construction going on right in front of the tee that a shorter person is going to have a tough time avoiding. Moving a few feet to the side is probably a good alternative.

After the peak of #14, the course gives you one more enjoyable throw, #15 is in the prettiest part of the routing, and sets the basket in another little grove of trees, across the drainage ditch. It's OB if you want it to be.

After that, #16-#18 return you to your car. I was getting worried the course would end miles from nowhere, but no, you do finish right back where you started. Much appreciated!

As for difficulty, the course doesn't seem difficult, you can make tons of pars, but it isn't as easy as it looks to get decent short birdie chances. The second time I played, UDisc had ratings, and +1 was rated 191. I was surprised it was that high, because this seems like a place where you can make 13 birdies on a good day. Yet it's just long enough and just technical enough that you have a lot of 60-footers for birdie.

I looked on PDGA and it doesn't look like there's been any rated events there yet. There is a Red Rose Roundup scheduled there for June 1. The corn might present some real problems by then, and not just because it'll probably be OB.

It's a great course for beginners who have a little distance, and it's challenging enough so that we intermediate people have the occasional problem. Especially if you impose a bunch of OB. It's a decent course and thanks for putting it in.

Pros:
1. Solid mix of lightly wooded, mostly open, water (ponds and creeks), elevation, and some natural OB.
2. Intermediate/Recreational level challenging with the opportunity for big arms and more skilled players to score low.
3. Beautiful public park that is well maintained on a large amount of land. Rough in most places is cleared out and very small amounts of actual underbrush in places you'd expect a disc to land on poor shots.
4. Good hole signage and excellent tee pads.
5. Practice basket and Pavilion adjacent to the parking lot.
6. Two nine hole loops that return to the parking area.
7. Some very aesthetically pleasing holes (holes 3, 7, 13 come to mind) and some fun elevation tee shots (1, 10, and 16)
8. Mostly wide open course that really rewards big arms with very little punishment if you spray your shot off the tee.
9. Couple very tricky pin locations with slopes and water/OB nearby.

Cons:
1. There's a several long walks between holes (1 to 2, 4 to 5, and 13 to 14) and now as of 4/13/2024 holes 14 to 15 as a new spillway has been built near 15's green which widened the pond, removed the ideal landing zone on hole #15, took away the layup off the tee, and has caused the water level of the entire pond to rise several feet. This resulted in losing about 25-30 feet of space left of Hole #14's basket leaving the water line around 5 feet from the pin location, and the water level eliminated the walking area between the pond and the electric fenced in fruit tree orchard behind it. This forces players to walk several hundred yards around the orchard to get to the next tee. And there is no signage to help navigate you to the next tee.
2. Multiple fairways on the Hole 1 side of the course are very close to each other with nothing defining their separation. It can also be difficult to know which basket to throw to. (Holes 1, 10, 17, and 18 can all be seen from #1 tee and all could see errant shots impede on other hole's players. Hopefully trees could be planted to define fairways and hole direction in the future.
3. Some odd choice in par on a few holes. Some very easy Par 4's that could be considered challenging par 3's (Holes 1, 13, 18) All in that 400-435 FT range and some difficult angle/shape long Par 3's that could be considered Par 4's (Holes 8 and possibly 15) This is nit picking as par is relative, but it feels like some holes are meant to be easy for newer players while some holes are extremely difficult for them (par wise).
4. As alluded to above, needs more trees to separate fairways; some signage or arrows to point players to the next tee pad; and needs bathroom facilities.
5. The course is quite a bit open, and relies mostly on throwing from a semi wooded tee area to an open basket, or vice versa. It does make a few of the holes feel like longer/shorter copies of each other (Holes 5, 7, 17 and Holes 1, 4, 11 and 18) Not a major knock, just an observation. Again as mentioned earlier, If trees are ever planted on the outside of holes 1, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18, it would be a huge improvement.
6) This course is quite long to play for its difficulty, not extremely cart friendly with multiple trips up and down stairs required to get over the old railroads tracks/walking trail, and the hole order requires several switchbacks that could be avoided.
7) Hole #4 tee area and early fairway are the low drainage spots for the course and hold water. No good way to get around this area except walk through it.
8) Holes #3, #7 and #8 all play and have pins along a deep creek that is prone to flash flooding. Erosion issues, lost discs, debris picked up and dropped by the rushing water are all cautions on these holes.

All in all a very fun and challenging course in my hometown. Most people point to hole 3 as their favorite when visiting, and if you play here you will either love it or hate it. My personal favorite is Hole 7B (which is always in position and able to be played) So I suggest throwing both 7A and 7B while here. Having played this course often for the better part of the past 4 years, it's easy to pick on the negative, because we remember our frustrations. That said, this course is what got me excited about disc golf. It could use a little love here and there, and a few minor improvements to upgrade itself, so I give it a solid/good rating of 3. It is a good course as is, but have so much property unused and so much potential to be GREAT.

- Good layout.
- Nice sized concrete pads.
- Plenty of room for potential.
- Most holes felt like there were multiple angles of approach.

- Due to the location it can get swampy if it has rained in last few days.
- Tee signs are just a piece of paper tacked to a piece of wood.
- Trash (tires)

It is a wonderful addition to the local course rotation. The course itself is a lot of fun. Never really felt like there was a possibility to lose my disc unless I threw way off. UDisc definitely helps with getting around. If they get some tee signs and get the trash picked up this is an easy 4 star if not better.

The Constitution or Fun course at Boylan Acres is a great little compliment to the other two courses on site. This course serves as a great warm up or cool down cool. There's plans to eventually have this one lit up for night golf at some point to and I'd be awesome for that if you were camping out here. It gets it's name for it's total length. 1787 feet.

The course has Spiderweb 3 baskets that I'd only ever seen the day before at Camp Cullom. These are pretty nice baskets though. I didn't have any issues with them at either course. Red powdercoated cages make them pop out nicely in the shade. One pin placement and basket per hole.

The tees are just some kind of outdoor carpet or something. They're only about 3'x4' but that's all you even need for holes of these types of length. There's only a couple holes over 100' so you don't need a run up.

Solid tee signs on each hole. Very generic hole map, hole #. par and distance. Again, you can see pretty much every basket from the tee so these aren't really necessary, just a nice little touch.

The flow of the course is simple. You won't need a map and it will take under an hour for most to play all 18 here. I wouldn't call it beginner friendly per se, but it's definitely going to be beginner fun.

Three total courses onsite and $10 for a full day per person. Great value for what you're getting here.

The holes play right next to each other. Borderline on top of each other. Not really a huge deal since this isn't the reason people are coming out here.

There's a fence along the western side that you could end up over with a poor shot. It's also right on the back or side of a couple tees which is mildly annoying.

There's a small pond that could also come into play behind hole 18's basket. Shouldn't normally come into play but if you're ace running it it's very possible.

Great little ace run/putting course for most players. Just a cool idea for what little bit of space was used for this course. I'd absolutely play some glow rounds on it if I was ever camping out here. Not a must place or anything, but certainly worth bagging if you're here for the other courses.

Boylan Acres - Extreme is the big boy of the three here. Major elevation changes throughout the whole course. It does ease back a bit for the last few holes but they did their damage by that point. That said, I loved it. Driving up to this place you'll be thinking, How "Extreme" can it really be? Even pulling up to the pro shop you'll be doubting it. You will be wrong.

The course starts out innocent enough, except for the pond in front of the basket and the double mando trees before that. Well, maybe not hole 1 but from 2 to 4 you'll think it's all hype. Hole 5 starts to ramp up the action with a cross valley shot over a ravine with OB short and right and disaster lurking if you fade too far left. It's on from there. Just a superbly designed course that will test even the best players out there, especially from longs to longs, which is what we played today.

Great amenities all throughout the course. Bridges, log or concrete block steps, benches, next tee signs. You name it and it's out here. There's even little wood boxes with bottled water in them at various points around the course. All these things make the round more manageable and are much appreciated. This was in mid April too.

The concrete tees are unique. I'd never seen anything like these before. They have 12 slots cut into them in two rows of 6. Not entirely sure of the purpose of this but they were all dry and worked great. Plenty big enough and gripped great. Two tee pads per hole on nearly every hole. I believe there was only one that had a single pads.

Big colorful tee signs with all the information you could possibly need on them. Great hole map, hole #, par, distances, next tee arrows and any applicable OB/hazards. The best part is that they have these signs by each tee, not just one or the other. There's also lots of next tee signs scattered throughout the course. I didn't have to use the map a single time.

Brand new Discatcher Pro 28's on every hole. These are your standard yellow banded models which stand out and catch great. One basket and two pin positions per hole. Between the two tees and pin locations there's lots of variety to had out here.

The location is way out in the middle of nowhere it seems, even though it's just a little bit off the expressway. You'll have a very quiet and peaceful round out here most of the time. Just a perfect piece of property for a disc golf course.

There's restrooms and a pro shop by the parking lot too. The pro shop wasn't open when we got there but was when we were leaving. I did peak in the window and it looked like they had a solid selection of discs. There's also camping onsite with showers in the pro shop building.

The course loops back near the parking lot after hole 10 which is nice. Not right next to it but close enough to refill on liquids.

Exhausting. Not a con per se, but just know that this course IS extreme. Especially by IN standards. You need to be in pretty good shape to tackle this one. Even then expect it to take a couple hours at least depending on your speed of play and group size.

Lots of blind pin placements that require some extra walking the fairway to spot them, especially the long positions. By the latter half I was just throwing first and looking second.

Hole 7 plays very close to the road and is almost a little TOO precise. I'd bet most pro players would have a hell of a time on this hole. I was over the moon with my 6 on the hole.

This course far exceeded my expectations. I was expecting it to be good from what I've heard, but WOW! This course is phenomenal. The whole Boylan Acres complex is a must visit experience. Three courses on site, all with a different feel to them. I'd recommend this place to any serious disc golfers. Just seeing the amount of work that's gone into this place in crazy. Steve was out there doing work for the whole time we were out there. I can't wait to come back and see how it looks next time I'm over this way.