Spearfish, SD

Black Hills State University

Permanent course
2.95(based on 10 reviews)
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14 0
playrecords
Silver level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 17.9 years 770 played 27 reviews
2.50 star(s)

First course in SD?

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 27, 2022 Played the course:once

Pros:

20 hole college course impeccably maintained. Sign at hole one claims it to be the original 18 hole course in SD, established in 1995 with a redesign in 2015. Beautiful grass, nice concrete teepads and neat yellow powder coated DGA baskets. Course is park like, not much shot shaping required for the most part. Navigation was mostly straightforward except for a couple spots (see below). Hole 9 with the double mando was one of my favorites. Putter shot at 160' but the gap was maybe 10' wide?

Cons:

Couple long walks between holes. 7 to 8 is not intuitive (asked my new young friends and they pointed me the right direction). 8 to 9 is a hike (worth it though for the best hole). 9 to 10 basically reverses the previous hike. Holes 10-12 are very close to the football field. There were some students out there training for something so I skipped those holes.

Other Thoughts:

Played through a sixsome of college kids who were very polite. Even called me sir. I guess my beard getting grey makes me look older? Parking by hole one is a dorm parking lot. Didn't have any hassles but all the other cars had parking passes. Overall a fun play and nice contrast to Spearfish Canyon and Pageant Hill.
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6 1
mndiscg
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 15.9 years 483 played 478 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Beauty of the Black Hills 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 24, 2011 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

-The course is surrounded by the BHSU campus in the beautiful Black Hills making it very scenic, and also making it have great weather!
-Nice baskets
-Good signage and tee pads, there were a few benches near the tee pads which is good because you might need to sit and wait for people
-The course is mostly open but uses a decent amount of trees and a crystal clear creek that runs through campus. The creek is fast moving but you probably won't lose a disc in there.
-The holes are generally on the shorter side so there are many longer ace runs but the holes aren't extremely short or easy.
-This course is on a college campus in a fairly wealthy town so there won't be too many chuckers out there smoking, throwing trash everywhere, vandalising, etc. This course looks nice.
-This course is good for introducing the casual college player to more serious play.
-There were multiple pin positions for most holes.
-For being in SD you might be able to play during the winter. It often reaches the 50s and 60s in the Black Hills. That would very rarely happen in eastern SD.
-You can find and should find a map at the bulletin board near hole 1. The flow is good and you shouldn't have much trouble finding the next tee box except for a few. Hole 14 is painted on the sidewalk!
-The people here are genuinely nice and will help you find your way around the course
-Some decent risk/reward shots on some of the slight inclines.

Cons:

-It is on a college campus so you have to watch out for students, athletes, faculty, etc. The course winds through some pretty populated areas. 3 holes play next to the practice football field and other wind around dorms.
-It isn't overall a very challenging course.
-They fit 18 holes in a smaller part of campus and the tees are often not too far from the previous baskets or the fairways but very close together so you also have to watch out for fellow disc golfers.

Other Thoughts:

If you are making a Black Hills trip this is my order of courses to play:
1. Spearfish Canyon (Spearfish)
2. Pagent Hill (Custer)
3. Jackson Park (Rapid)
and then this one. The first two are true black hills courses and the other two are just nicer city park type courses. I think it's only a matter of time before somebody puts in a nice private course out in the Black Hills, it could be great! If you were to play this course, I think that June would be ideal but anytime in the summer would work best. You would be relatively free of pedestrians and the number of people on the course overall would be lower. I would recommend a stop here along with Spearfish Canyon.
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3 0
dosahl
Experience: 16.2 years 45 played 16 reviews
2.50 star(s)

campus course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 14, 2009 Played the course:once

Pros:

course is a fun play. There are holes with streams, trees and just about everything you would expect on a South Dakota camups.

Cons:

Course lacks hole variety. Holes seem to be a consistant length with no real challenging holes (except maybe the basket behind the ROTC training wall)

Other Thoughts:

overall a nice playable course. Map at the beginning is helpful. Course was played in the summer when no courses were offered so there were no real random interferences. Course is fun play.
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