Unbelievable use of space that creates a masterpiece of disc golf course layout.
Shots are all fair. Greens are all fair.
2 sets of tees, two sets of pins, making 4 layouts for most skill levels.
Superb blend of just about every shots in the game.
Lots of water with opportunities to lay up or go for it.
Tee boxes are dirt/stones but played beautifully.
Baskets played wonderful, in great shape.
Tee signs on every hole with distance, par and maps.
Easy to navigate.
Just a gorgeous setting in the mountains of VT for a DG course.

Seating could be a little more abundant.
Course is in a pretty remote area (but well worth the travel).
No bathrooms or port a pot.

I think I have a new favorite course here.
Place is MINT! Absolutely MINT!
Black Falls will challenge your distance, placement, and patience.
Visually, you will be amazed at where you are playing.
Physically, you will be challenged navigating your shots at this course.
Mentally, you will toss between being peacefully at ease in the mountains and agitated at the difficulty of the course.
I can't say enough about this course, and my words will never do this gem justice. You have to see it. You need to play it.
If a friend asks you to travel to Black Falls and play your only answer should be " LET'S GO!!!"

Adaptable layout
Well maintained
Doesn't hey much more beatiful than this course.

Out of the way, or is that a pro?

Black Falls is what disc golf is all about. You and your friends out inn nature having a great time. If you want to take it easy and enjoy the scenery, perfect. If you want to be challenged, you can get that here also.

Wear good shoes

Tremendous design. Challenging but achievable lines utilizing the wonderful landscape. Uphills, downhills, straight fairways, left turns, right turns and even a water carry; this course has it all. None of the holes are repetitive, each one has its place on the course. Just the right amount of trees were cut providing challenge yet fairways are very fair. Bad shots are punished, good ones are rewarded. Multiple teepad and baskets add additional layers of variety to the course. The crushed gravel (and sometimes brick) teepads work well. The Gold baskets are standard Discatchers while the Silver are Discatcher Sports, both caught well. Navigation is easy, lots of directional signs and informative teesigns. Heck, they even have a outhouse on course if you need a bathroom break.

This is nitpicky. The only teepad/basket combo without a clean line is the Gold tee to Silver basket on 12. It could use some clearing as it's a little flukey. That's it, really. Tremendous design.

This course is the best combination of excellent design and great land/landscape I've played (in the 100+ courses I've been lucky enough to play).

Two tees and pins per hole

Great diversity in hole lengths, elevation and tree density.
Challenge for pro's and easy for beginners.

Very well taken care of. Always mowed and tees are kept flat and solid.

Outhouse, and water available on course.

Good tee signs for easy navigation.

Parking can get tight if it is crowded. This is usually not an issue as you are more than likely to have the course to yourself

A true destination course especially paired with sister course "Cherry Hill" next door. You could play here for a week and not get tired of the golf.

A disc golf experience to remember for a lifetime. This is a hidden gem. On private property, with an awesome, super friendly owner. Played gold tees. Perfect distance to tees, with just tight enough fairways to challenge. great signage. Can see most baskets from tees. Innova baskets, on all 18, which I love. Throw over water on 1 and 18. Best time I might have had playing disc golf, ever. 20 years.

none. zero.

If you can play this course in the fall season, it is a heavenly experience....the colors and views are out of this world.

- Very balanced for RHBH & forehand players
- Excellent balance of wooded holes & open holes
- 4 different ways to play
- Extremely well thought out
- Very specific signs @ tee-boxes
- Several long tee-boxes
- Jonny will sell you discs at a reasonable price in the garage (Innova & Discraft)
- Hole 10 is a dream
- New outhouse in the middle of the course
- Silver to silver is great for beginners
- $5 gets you in all day

- Easy to lose a disc if you have wild throws
- Wild throws on 17 & 18 could end up in the pond
- Very limited parking

This course is challenging, but incredibly fun to play. Since I've played there this year, Jonny has switched up some of the tee locations (#4) which makes things pretty interesting. Totally worth your $5 and long drive. Bring a beer and a lunch and play all day!

This is a true destination course.
Variety is the key, you had better bring your entire arsenal because you will need it.
Johnny is most hospitable, we were lucky enough to play Gold to gold and silver to silver with him.
I have spent the better part of my life vacationing in VT but I have not spent much time in the Northeast Kingdom, the ride up is long, beautiful and well worth the trip. This is a true destination course that is not to be missed. The option to camp cheap includes round fees.

UH...............gimme a mintue to think this one over.

I read about this course in an article ranking it as top in North America. We drove 6 hours just to see if that was accurate information. I wouldn't change a thing, the woods seem like something out of a fairy tale, the course maintenance is unmatched. We played gold to gold in the morning, then took a break went fishing and grabbed lunch, came back and played silver to silver. We even got Johnny to join us next door at Cherry Hill for the front nine. The day worked out to be 45 of the best holes that I have had the pleasure to play...........


I'm still trying to come up with at least one CON and can't! Keep up the dedication to the sport Johnny you certainly have a gem way up there. Many thanks for your hospitality hope to see you in July!

-SCENERY is possibly the best part of this course (even though the golf is also great). The holes that play along the creek reminded me off a forest that would have been fun to play in as a kid. A dark glen under giant pines with ferns on the banks of a magical creek (that happened to have disc golf baskets too). As much fun as I was having golfing, just walking this beautiful forest was worth the $5.
-FUN GOLF is the best way I can explain it. Of course Black Falls has all the obvious features you hear all the time "great mix of wooded and open", "favors righties and lefties equally", "great use of elevation and water", all the aspects that make for a top notch course. I think what made it really fun was the perfect density of trees on the edge of the wooded fairways. The narrower fairways were so rewarding when the shot was executed properly, however the shots that drifted off the fairway made for really exciting aproach shots, with enough trees that you were punished but enough open pockets to
tempt risky up shots to the pin. To me that is fun golf.
-CHARACTER. It was more than the just following a designers checklist that went into this course. The property has a great mix of different sections of different species trees and the designer placed many holes within these tree pockets so that many of the walks from basket to next hole was a transition into a different type of forest, giving a different flavor to each hole, like turning the page to a new chapter in a book. The huge downhill bomb on hole 10, the dark wooded tunnel on hole 5 and the ball golf like ponds on hole 18 show the great variety of this course.
-TEE PADS. I loved the crushed stone pads. Cement pads would look out of place on the side of this mountain. Johnny keeps the pads flat and smooth and they just feel and look more natural. If Johnny puts in cement pads I'll knock down this rating!
-LAYOUT was easy to follow. I played it after the slight redesign to a couple holes on the back 9 that previously had less obvious flow. Although we played with Johnny the owner i dont think we would have needed a map.
-DOUBLE TEES/DOUBLE BASKETS is the perfect way to fit four layouts on this property. Silver to Silver=Red, Silver to Gold=White, Gold to Silver=Blue. Gold to Gold=Gold (duh). We played only one one round and really wanted to play a 2nd round to try a different layout but forced ourselves to play Cherry Hill (the sister course up the road) instead.
-CHERRY HILL up the road is on Johnny's sisters land and makes this into a 36 fairway/54 basket/72 tee/108 "hole" disc golf destination.
-PRO SHOP with a good selection.
-CAMPING available.

None of these cons are real bad but just enough to keep the course from being a 5 (perfect in every way)...
-TEE SIGNS. They work, but a beauty of a course deserves nicer looking signs. Rustic burned wood signs would be perfect.
-WHITE & BLUE TOO CLOSE IN LENGTH. The silver-to-gold and gold-to-silver layouts are only 90 feet different. The gold tees add challenge other than sheer length so the blue layout is harder than white but it seems like some different basket placements could make the blue play even longer and harder than white.
-HOUSE AND CARS. The course would feel even more like a magical forest if Johnnys house wasnt right on top of it. One of his cars was parked near hole 9 and my wife joked about having to call Progressive Insurance if she gripped locked her drive. It doesnt take away from the golf and it certainly is a beautiful house but just took a little away from that middle-of-nowhere feeling. (This was one of the things that i liked better about Cherry Hill, all the holes were away from the house.)

-THE PICS ON THIS SITE ARE OLD. Some of the holes are a little different now and the course is landscaped nicer now than pics show.
-ONE DAY WAS NOT ENOUGH. I would have loved to play a hard layout here and the easy tees at Cherry Hill one day and then easy at BF and hard at CH the next.
-To me BF was a mix of beauty and pure fun, while CH was a mix of beauty and pure challenge.
- I have always wanted to buy property in Montgomery for the epic snow and skiing at Jay, now I NEED to get a cabin there so I can play these courses more!

Two pads and two baskets for every hole (silver / gold). Is the only course I have ever played that rivals Flip City. I played Idle Wild and it didnt even come close (dog poop everywhere at Idle wild, airplanes flying over your head.... how is that rated #2?). The owner (Johnny I believe his name was) came and played a few holes with us.

It has been over a year since I played it so I can't give a detailed review. It is incredible though.

none

In my opinion this is the only course I have ever played that rivals Flip City. Kensington is #2 ? IdleWild? No way! This course is the second best course in the world. We played when it was pouring rain out and still managed to have a great time even though we were drenched. There are two tees and two baskets for each hole making for a variety of 72 different shots! I lived in the NEK of Vermont for the summer and was lucky enough to make quite a few discing friends. I played at four different private courses (not listed on this site) that were all fantastic and easily A rated courses. This course was about 1.5 hours from where I was living and it was well worth the drive. I guess the owners sister has another course not to far from this one. I plan on going back to vermont in the fall to play on my friends courses, this course and his sisters course. If you are in Vermont you HAVE to play this course!

And all you butthurt bitches can downvote me i dont care

This course has been a work in progress for over 8 years. All my free time is spent working to maintain and improve the course. Input from players is crucial for the development and maintenence of the course. . I have basically taken all the best attributes from the amazing courses I have played and put them into building Black Falls and Cherry Hill. Thank you to all who have built these beautiful courses.
This course is always evolving. There is always room for improvement. I am giving this course a " biased" 5 rating because I have played a few of the top ten courses rated on this site and feel that this course provides a 5 star experience.
It is our goal to make this place enjoyable for all levels and ages of Disc Golfers. So far we have been successful in this endevour. Our beginner layout "Silver/Silver is the most played layout which is great for first timers and challenging enough for advanced players. Gold/Gold is a completely different beast. I am a 980-1000 rated player and can shoot a 50 or a 60 on any given day. There is a strong emphasis on shot placement and disc selection. These change all time with wind conditions and elevation changes that make up over half the holes.

With the new "Cherry Hill" up the road, we now have a destination DG facility. You can play here for days without playing the same hole twice. You will be guranteed to use every disc in your bag. Camping options are available at both Courses with fresh spring drinking water, bathing ponds, brooks, clean outhouses and soon to be outdoor shower. The next time you decide to plan a DG getaway give us a try.

There are many ammenities within 2 miles of the course. A full supermarket, 5 bars/resturants and plenty of affordable lodging.

If Norman Rockwell were alive today and available to be commissioned for a disc course painting, I'd send him to Black Falls. An idyllic setting; serene, secluded and post-card scenic.
Course designer and installer, Johnny Betts is a super nice guy and pro level player, but what sets him apart from most private course owners is his attention to detail.
He has meticulously designed, tweaked and revised a layout which now starts off with 6 epic holes in a row, along with #8 for one of the best nine holes anywhere in the east.
The back nine starts of strong with three more epic holes 10,11,13 before dropping of a bit 14-17 and finishing with another epic hole on 18.
All remaining holes grade out as excellent (4) except for #17 which was an average (3 rated hole) for a total score of 82.
That puts Black Falls in the upper level 5 rating range, but wait, there's more. Each hole has two baskets and two pads (ala Brakewell), so you can pick a configuration that suits your style or change things up on a second round.
But wait, there's more...another 5 rated 18 hole course with Johnny's fingerprints on it is 1/2 mile down the road at Matt's place (Cherry HIll).
So here you are in the middle of nowhere, nearly in Canada,with more disc options than you can shake a stick at.
Signage is top notch and the grounds were perfectly manicured. The fern-laden layout features a Hemlock/Hardwood forest mixed with verdant, narrow grassy lanes and rock walls for unique looks and off-the-charts aesthetics.
Terrain is gently sloping for the most part which makes for easy walking and level footing for shot shaping.

There are natural tee pads on many private courses that are installed and seemingly forgotten, definitely a con. Not here.
These pads are periodically tamped, refilled and smoothed over, providing excellent footing.

As a private course owner, playing Black Falls was a euphoric trip to disc nirvana.
Awed, amazed and totally humbled. It's the kind of place that inpires you to do more.

By far the best day of disc golf I have ever enjoyed. The course was dynamic, challenging and varied. It offers two different boxes/ baskets which allow for 4 different ways to play. It was obviously designed by someone who knew what they were doing. Fairways were clearly established, long and not easy. It was so well manicured by the owner (who is an awesome guy), a player gets a sense of gratitude and appreciation for all the hard work and passion that has been put in. It felt a little bit like Kevin Costner's ballpark in Field of Dreams. The land lay-out ensures that lanes will still be open even during the blossoming season, and appears to be protected enough for windier days. Clearly marked terrain makes navigation simple. A conviently located deli/ Mobil station makes it easy to make a day out of it (we were there from 12-8).

I don't live close enough to play everyday.

Thank you to Jonny.

Amazing diversity, long woods holes, short woods holes, open holes, up, down side hill, water, basically everything you could want in a course. Unbelievably groomed. Hole # 10 is the coolest hole I have ever played!. I just got back to play after the expansion and there are now 72 possible holes on this course to play and all of them require a precise golf shot off the tee. Do yourself a favor and make time to play one of the best courses in the world. They even sell Discraft!

Thanks to Johnny for making this place a haven for Disc Golfers.

no restrooms,private residence

Check out the course tour on the my space page. Go to the pdga course directory and hit black falls disc club