My Three Pros:

1) Beautiful scenery and location. The course is situated just next to the Arkansas River that runs through Buena Vista and the adjacent rocky outcropping, though the river itself never comes into view. The Sawatch Range just to the west is always visible and is a fantastic mountain view of nearby 14000ft peaks that one would expect out in the Rockies.

2) The course has good tee signs, teepads, baskets and signage to guide you through the course without needing a map. Teepads are generally all pretty flat and smooth and made from pavers. There are two sets of tees with signage at each at every hole. There appear to be 2 pin positions possible, with the current position marked by a bolt on the signs.

3) In reaching to find a 3rd pro to list besides the nice scenery and nice amenities all I could think of is that its nice that the course was renamed in honor of avid disc golfer and Buena Vista Parks Department Supervisor Amy Lynch. I can only hope to leave an impact like Amy and maybe one day have a course dedicated in my memory.

My Three Cons:

1) This course is just a pain. The course is in an over grown desert environment that makes disc risk a factor on every hole. You will end up searching for even your best shots on just about every hole.

2) The baskets are all blind? Not only are you throwing into brushy undergrowth on every hole; you are throwing at blind pin positions that require you walk down the 'fairways' to find them and then hoping you land in a visible spot.

3) The holes all play the same. As others have mentioned the holes all generally require you throw over top of short trees in whichever line suits you best. As long as you can clear the short trees the course will play fairly wide open.

Unfortunately Buena Vista DG was kinda no bueno. This was a course that I found myself looking forward to the end of. I was pretty happy to come home with all my discs and there is zero water in play.
Its kind of like the nearby 14ers Mt Princeton - you gotta do it while youre in BV and it will have its good points, but its gonna be a rough outing.

This 18 hole course through Pinion Pines and low scrub offers excellent views of the Arkansas River Valley and surrounding mountains.

Hole lengths vary from 234' out to 420' with most playing in the 250' - 360' range. There were two pin locations shown on the back 9 signs, but I believe a single pin location for the front nine.

Since everything plays over the top of the short trees (see cons) this course is absolutely friendly to RH/ LH and BH/FH players. No bias at all.

Baskets were Innova Discatchers in excellent condition, and tee pads were built up out of individual patio/paver stones. They were flat and in good shape. Tees signs offered Hole #, Par, Distance, and Sponsor information. Many of the signs included an arrow pointing the direction to the "pro" tee, but we never found one.

There is modest elevation on some of the holes, but nothing extreme.

This is a one-dimensional course. There are no real fairways, and all drives are pretty much over the top of the 6' - 12' pines, hoping to land in an opening near the basket. If you land in a clear spot great (but watch out for the cactus). If you happen to land in one of the scrubby little pine trees you might have to scramble a bit.

So you may have a slight uphill/downhill shot, and the wind will play a role, but the basic approach to all of the holes is the same.

Some areas of the course are carpeted in ground-hugging cactus. Lots of little thorny things so watch where you put down your bag or stick your hands.

Given the terrain the course is designed and built well. But there isn't a lot of variety among the holes.

-Good use of the trees and other obstacles to provide challenge on many of the holes and distances range from about 250 to just over 400 feet (The longest hole is 402 feets)
-Hole 4 is the standout of the course and a lot of fun to play
-Really nice tee-signs that show the hole layout and the distance
-Course flow was pretty easy to follow (with the exception of one spot between hole 4 and 5) and most of the paths between the holes were rock lined and easy to follow.
-Nice brand new Innova Discatcher baskets
-Pro and am teepads on each hole. The pro teepads do give each hole a different look.
-Between hole two and three there is a spot for your dog to get water and some benches and trashcans throughout the course
-The am tee-pads are made of paver's stones that have now been set into the ground and they are pretty solid tee-pads.

-This course starts to feel repetitive after a while as many of the holes ending playing similar to each other.
-I would have liked a little more distance on the course as most of the holes are under 300 feet
-There are a lot of sharp plants like cactus and yucca throughout the course that can go right through your shoe if you step on them so watch where you step.
-The pro tees are still only carpet and the tee-signs don't do a good job of showing where the pro tees are and i had trouble finding a lot of them. I only ended up finding about 4 or 5 of the pro tee-pads. The tee-signs aren't any help in finding the pro tee-pads, and on a few holes I'm not sure the pro tee-pads existed even though the tee-sign said there was one.
-None of the holes really provide much of a challenge or punish you too much for a bad shot.

This course is a great stop to make if you are traveling in the area. It is a lot of fun but not the most challenging course ever. I feel that the new tee-pads detract a little from the overall feel of the course. I am also very excited to hear that there are another nine holes planned for the course and I will definitely be back to play when those holes are in.

Buena Vista is certainly a quality 9 hole courses. It is a quality mixture of technicality and distance as most holes are around 300 feet or more. Mixed in with these shots are an absurd amount of short (juniper?) trees. Most holes have a clearly defined fairway that you must hit in order to end up near the basket. Many of these fairways are good and tight with minimal room for error. However, if you do find yourself outside of the cut-out fairways, it is usually easy to find your way back to the basket for a par. This course also allows you to practice your tomahawk, as almost every basket can be accessed by going OVER the trees and landing in the proper position.

Most holes are straight shots with fairways cut out, lacking a bit of creativity. There is still creativity in incorporating the trees into the course, however most shots (1,2,5,6,7,8,9) are straight ahead off of the tee. My favorite hole was #4 which was also straight ahead off of the tee. However, this hole is elevated, and in a small clearing surrounded by trees. This means a great tee shot is an easy birdie, and a poor tee shot will leave you a very rough second shot.

I heard from a local that they are planning on putting in an additional 9 holes on the land. There is certainly room for it, and the land has a good amount of potential. They did a quality job using the land that was given to them to make this course. With all of the trees being so short, it is hard to make everything as technical as they did.

There are amateur and pro tees at every hole on this course. For me personally, the amateur tees were more fun and technical, while the pro tees seemed to just be huge bombs with less technicality. However, I did have some locals tell me that they only play the pro tees because they love the distance factor (the amateur tees usually add around 100 feet). The tees are also dirt areas with a rug laying on top. At first I thought this was "ghetto", and wouldn't work very well, however the rugs turned out to be very grippy and a wonderful surface to throw discs from.

There are signs at every hole, and paths bordered with rocks that lead you from tee to pin.

The general layout of the course was not the best. It was a bit confusing, and very hard to find my way around. While the signs at the previous hole point you towards the next tee, they are extremely vague. The map is also fairly accurate, but it does not allow you to pin-point where you are in relation to the next tee. You will need both!! The combination of the map as well as following signs is necessary for a first timer.

As mentioned before, I thought the design lacked creativity. I brought my entire bag and ended up throwing two drivers, one midrange, and one putter. Almost all holes allow you to throw your best throw (I throw RHFH), so teeing off with the same throw 9 times can get a bit boring. I threw one RHBH, seven RHFH throws, and one tomahawk.

This course is certainly unique and fun. It is possible to get 18 holes by playing the pro/amateur tees, however the "same-ness" may have you a bit bored by the end. While I did manage to dwell on the lack of creativity in this course, it is still a great 9 hole course. The plentiful trees and tight lines keep you on your toes for at least 9 holes.

- Excellently maintained when I was there. I loved the rock paths and the signage was absolutely excellent.
- Interesting terrain. The scrub-like terrain and lack of normal grass / dirt fairways made for some out of the ordinary play.
- Good variety of shots, including number 4, which was an excellently designed hole.

- Short play time.
- Aside from #4, no real standout holes.
- Despite the shot variety, after a while the holes started to blend together due to a lack of variety in the terrain.
- Could have used concrete tee pads, instead of carpet.

I heard from some locals that they were planning on adding another 9, but were having some problems with the local politics of it. If they can complete this, I would be very interested to play this again if the back nine were completed. With a full 18, I could easily see adding another half to full star to this review. It was a good nine hole course that does a good job with the spot it has to work with and I loved the scrub-like fairways. However, it just didn't stand out as a stellar disc golf course. Although I really wanted to give this a 3 star, I couldn't quite bring myself to, due to the lack of terrain variety and the lack of a back nine.