I enjoy the more dificult courses that force me to enhance my accuracy on my drives. the wooded areas are no joke, full of trees and large rocks. So don't count on a skip or roll at the end of your drives. If your into rock climing as well, bring your shoes and crash pad. lots of good rock to go bouldering on. a few of the baskets are on top of them too....

the park dosn't allow beer....

I told a friend, and Borderland regular, that I was going to play here for the first time. His eyes lit up and he said "you are in for a treat." He was right.

Borderland is hands down the most well designed course I have ever played. With two tees and two pins on each hole, the course features four unique layouts each designed to present a different set of challenges.

The White-to-White layout is the shortest. It provides a par-3 layout with tee shots that aren't overly challenging and pin locations that are fairly easily accessible. This layout is perfect for beginners or more experienced players looking for a quick round.

The blue layout is where Borderland really shines. The designers were very creative in creating a layout that didn't just add length, but added another element of difficulty. The blue tees are positioned to require much more precise line shaping. Most blue tee shots are blind and require shots with lateral movement. The ones that are more straight-on feature tighter gaps than the white tees. The blue tees offer a number of nice risk/reward opportunities. Playing Blue-to-White really emphasizes getting off the tee. Executing a good tee shot will generally result in an easy look at the basket.

The blue baskets are positioned to create challenging upshots with clever use of vegetation, elevation and well-placed OB. Shot placement is key in getting a good look at the basket. Playing the White-to-Blue layout really emphasizes shot placement and course management.

Putting the two together for the Blue-to-Blue layout creates the best collection of par-4s that I have ever seen. Course par for this layout is 68 using 13 par-4s, one par-5 and just 4 par-3s. Generally I'm not a fan of par 4 and 5 holes and this would be a huge red flag for me. This is because on most courses, higher par holes are not well done and almost always simply reward distance. That is not the case at Borderland. The par 4s here require a tough tee shot to a landing zone that still presents a challenging long approach. Execute these two shots well and players are rewarded with a drop-in birdie.

Clearly the layout is what has me enamored with Borderland, but the amenities are all there as well. The tee signs are excellent and rubber tees are in great shape. The course is kept clean and mowed by park rangers who actually play the course and take great pride in it.

There is a practice basket and a nice open field perfect for warming up right by the parking area.

There are big gaps going from hole 4 to 5 and 17 to 18. This creates opportunities to get lost and breaks up the flow of a round. However, I'll take the walk over the alternative (boring filler holes).

For an even more rewarding experience on this course, learn the history of the park. It is a circa 1900 estate that was purchased by the state in the 1970s. The old stone mansion that the Ames family lived in is the key fixture of the park. The estate was built by buying up old farming land. The stone walls that you see throughout the course used to border farming fields as far back as the 1700s!

At the parking area there is a large info board with a map and scorecards. The scorecards have a small map on them. I grabbed one before my first round here and had no issues with navigating the course, even the long walks. Be prepared and you will not get lost.

This place is well worth the prices of admission ($2 all day). It is a must-play for anyone in New England.

As far as I can tell, the course is almost a perfect course in so many ways. The white to white tee to pin offers a challenging amateur course to play with the option of playing white tees to blue pins for a slightly longer more challenging layout.

Now you have pro pads which are the blue pads. You can play a very challenging Blue to white or the hardest blue to blue.

Holes are clearly marked with signs to the next hole and nice rubber tee pads with good signage.

Course can get a little backed up on a crowded day with the multiple tee pads / pins.

It is a state park so you have a lot of families walking, however, mostly off the course or behind a tee pad.

The layouts only offer information on white to white or blue to blue. With measurements to all 4 tees, however, no par 3/4 on the sign when one is marked a par 4 and the other is clearly a par 3; or vice versa. Tee 2 from white to white is is 430 and wide open, however Tee 2 from white to blue is 900ft with a narrowing point in the middle of 2 fields. There are many par 4's on the blue tees and would be nice if they added correct par information for each pin combination on each tee's sign making a total of four playable five star courses.

Because the park does not run a trash program on the course but does have trash cans near the start of the disc golf course, it would be nice if patrons of the disc golf course would carry a trash bag with them once in a while since the course is littered with bottles and cans at times. This just calls for a little community effort of not playing the blame game but just picking up your own course. Love the course and hope to see the small improvements it needs to be the best course in New england.

2 totally different pads and baskets. Shorts were still tough and technical. Longs were long and technical. 2 totally different courses. Played with a local and said they play the opposite tees to the different baskets. 4 courses in 1. Lots of diversity and cant really remember a bad shot. Had lots of fun and it was a awesome walk thru some cool scenery. A cool place to take your family. It had lots of stuff to do. You could easily spend the day out here playing the courses. $2 bucks per carload not a bad deal at all.

Though to navigate but ran into local and he played along.

The northeast disc golf community was very awesome. I played 2 courses on my vacation. All the people we ran into on the course was very helpful. What i learned about the Boston area disc golf is that it takes forever to get to the park. Not a place to go play 2 different parks. This course would make that trip happen.

Multiple tee positions. Long tees make a significant difference. They don't just add a few feet like at some courses. Course is in a large park with lots of trails, fields and activities. You could do a cookout and make a day out of a trip here.

Course plays mostly as a wooded technical course. There are some open shots, but the trees come into play most of the time. Lots of shade on a hot summer day is always nice.

Good variety of straight, left and right turning shots. I used all of my discs here. That kind of variety usually adds up to a nice round, and it did for me.

Good mix of challenging holes and holes where you have a real nice shot at the birdie. It wasn't an all day beat down.

No real elevation to speak of. There are a couple minor ups and downs, but nothing that will really impact your game.

Navigation was challenging. Luckily I caught up to a local guy after about 7 holes and he guided me the rest of the way. Bring a map if it's your first time, or you could do some wandering.

While this is a good, solid course, there probably only a few above average holes here. Not really any wow, that is cool or challenging looks from the teepad.

When I started playing #1 I thought I was at Nockamixon in PA. This course has the same rock strewn fairways I remember there. Several of these fairways will chew up your discs and beat up your feet. Wear good shoes and bring primo plastic. Woods and rocks. Everywhere.

I enjoyed my round here, and would recommend this course to anyone. It is just an all around solid course. The rubber tee pads were in great shape, and everything seemed very well maintained. Just don't show up expecting memorable shots or funky hole designs.

Borderland is a nice well maintained course with a variety of holes from technical, wooded ones to some more wide open ones. For the most part the course is flat however there is some minor elevation to deal with. The course has very nice tee signs with all the useful information. The teepads are mostly rubber and there is usually a broom for sweeping them available at each hole. Having two baskets and two pads for each hole is a major positve when you're familiar with the course but it was a little confusing the first time out. The course and park itself is very scenic with the rock fences, the mansion, the rocky grounds in general, all in all, it's very New England like. It probably felt the most "New England" of the ten NE courses I played on this trip. The challenge would definitely be there playing from the blues to the blues.

# 1 gets my vote as the signature hole on this course. Although it has it's flaws (see cons) it's pretty and I always enjoy a good downhill toss.
You can see that a tremendous amount of time and effort has gone into the building of this course. All the pathways and boardwalks across the wetlands areas. The multiples pads, brooms, practice basket, etc. all contribute to the course enjoyment factor.

Despite all it's pros, Borderland is not without it's flaws. It's like the foxy blonde with the heavy makeup. She's hiding something underneath. Borderland's cons are numerous and everyone seems to mentions one or two and gloss the rest over. Well, I think they add up.

So here goes. First of all, I'd be very concerned about the wetlands here. All the boardwalks are here for a reason. This course would be very wet and soggy during much of the year.
Wet and soggy adds up to misquitos and lots of them!
The course is flat for the most part. It's missing the "Wow" factor. It doesn't have that EPIC hole. # 1 is a nice little downhill throw. I loved it but the Blues and the Whites are crossing fairways. That's never good!
The two long walkouts that have been mentioned by almost all of the reviews, going from 4 to 5 and later from 17 to 18. Even with the on-line map, I stumbled around on both of them for a while. Hole to hole navigation is general could be improved here.
Lots of Poison Ivy doesn't excite me much.

Don't despair Borderland fans. This is a fun little course. Plus you still have the Red Sox and the Pats. I'm from the Seattle area and I'm stuck with the Mariners and the Seahawks and Oklahoma City stole our basketball team.
The two pads/two baskets system gives you much variety. You've got a good thing going here. Nice enjoyable course. Enjoy it as it there aren't many other choices in the area other than that $12 a day fun campground course at Normandy Farms.

But you might want to play a few other courses nationally before you give Borderland a 4.5 or 5 score. Those ratings are few and far between and the courses that receive them are usually pretty spectacular.

Beautiful course with white and blue tees AND baskets. The holes all have great design, and there is a great variety. The holes range from short to long, open to wooded, etc. Almost impossible to get tired of the course, and if you do, you can do white to blue, blue to white, or blue to blue. Every combination offers new challenges and seems like an entirely different course.

Holes 1-4 are isolated and the walk from 4-5 can be confusing for a new golfer.

The course does get very busy on weekends and nice days. Also, check the website before you go to find out there is an all-day tourney taking up the entire course.

I recently traveled to Boston for the holidays and played three courses: here, Pyramids, and Newton. This course was by far my favorite of the three.

I played blue tees to blue baskets, which is probably out of my skill range, but I didn't want to play par 3's. I was very happy with the mix of par 3's and 4's. Some of the holes were quite challenging and it was heavily wooded compared to what I'm used to in Western Pennsylvania.

I loved the rocky terrain. I tend to enjoy a course more if there's a significant amount of walking needed, and this course delivered that very well.

It is obvious that there is a lot of love going into this course. There was a bench at every hole and the course was maintained very nicely. In response to another commenter below, it rained the night and day before I went and the ground was not very soggy.

The only significant thing that bothered me was that in certain places, navigation was quite difficult. The first few holes were great. But when I got to the middle of the course, holes 7-10 specifically, things got a little hairy.

A very simple fix would be to label the baskets with their hole number. I was not able to figure out which baskets were for 8 vs 9. I played one of those holes wrong, because I think I ended up at the same baskets for both. Another simple enhancement would be to write the number of the tee on the back of the tee sign, so that if you're walking towards a tee from far away, you can tell if you're going to the right one.

I feel somewhat bad complaining about this, because it's obvious that the course maintainers have put a lot of work into trying to provide adequate navigation. They have a good map on the back of the scorecard, be sure to get one and use it. The tee signs are great...except that they don't show the location of the alternate tee. I didn't realize there was anything but a blue tee until I had played several holes.

I wish I had had more time to play a second round, this course was just great.

It's a great course with 18 holes and 2 levels. Course is well mapped out and very fun to play.

I go 1 or 2 times a week easily. If i didn't have a job i'd go everyday.

free , restrooms

it can be very busy. really easy to lose a disc

hole 4 to hole 5 is about a 5 minutes walk away.

Great park , lots of things to do other than disc golf.

Mountain biking , hiking trails, fishing.

Make sure you know what poisen ivy, oak, and sumac look like!

OVERALL FUN FACTOR (16% weight) - 5 - This is a very fun course - even the hike around the course itself is fun if you take away the disc part alltogether.
COURSE DESIGN (14% weight) - 4.5 - One of the strongest points for borderland. The course layout is excellent with 2 tee and 2 basket placements for each hole helps keep the course interesting if you play it over and over again. Only downside is the distance between holes 4 and 5.
SIGNS/MAPS/MARKERS (11% weight) - 5 - All tees well marked and "next tee" signs make navigating the course easy.
TEE PADS (8% weight) - 5 - great rubber teepads with shovels and brooms to keep them cleaned off.
ELEVATION (8% weight) - 5 - Lots of great elevation changes.
SCENIC BEAUTY (8% weight) - 5 - On the grounds of a beautiful state park with pond, stone walls, gardens and a stone mansion. Lots of weddings held on the grounds in the summertime.
BASKETS (5% weight) - 5 - Nice baskets in good condition and excellent placements make for interesting and fun putting.
EPIC HOLES (5% weight) - 5 - I love holes 3, 4 and 12 - keep me coming back!
DISTANCE VARIETY (5% weight) - 5 - Excellent mix of short and long holes and even more variety from whites to blues.
SHOT VARIETY (5% weight) - 5 - Layout requires shots to turn left, right and weave through trees.
FOLIAGE MAINTENANCE (3% weight) - 3 - Generally well kept, but there's lots of poison ivy so keep an eye out in the summer.
BENCHES / TRASH BINS (3% weight) - 4 - Benches and sitting logs on a few holes. Trash cans all along the way.
MIX OF TIGHT AND OPEN (3% weight) - 5 - a few long open holes to air it out as well as technical woodsy holes
OVERALL CHALLENGE (3% weight) - 5 - Blue to Blue is especially challenging for any skill level.

CROWDED (3% weight) - 2 - The downside of Borderland is the crowds, lots of large groups playing on Saturdays and Sundays makes play slow, especially in nice weather. Plenty of non-disc golfers out in the park also but they generally stay clear of the throwing areas.

Yes, this is my home course, but i'm rating it objectively against the other courses I have played around the country and I am very lucky to have such a gem so close to my home. The more I play other courses the more I appreaciate this one!

Water Fountains
Clean Tee Boxes
Clean Course
Beautiful scenery
Great open field shots
Great elevation change
Scenic trails
Historical Mansion
Longest course in New England

None I can think of at this time except, some of the pins can be confusing at times as far as location goes. I would find myself from second or third shot aiming for the wrong pin/ wrong fairway. This was only on maybe 1 or 2 holes. No more than three.

I have played disc golf here many of times mixing it up blue to blue, white to white, blue to white. It has especially been a real treat playing here during my college years to get off campus. Blue tees to Blue pins is challenging to make par or birdie but not impossible. The more times you play this course there are the risks/rewards that you run into especially on the front nine.

I try to play here as often as I can since I am 50 minutes from the Cape. Great place to bring the family and kids. If you want to improve your game, then play this course. White to white can be challenging. Blue to blue may seem intimidating, but it's not all that bad. This is an excellent course.

Borderland State Park is an 18 hole course with multiple options depending upon your level of play and also a time constraint (when possible-see cons). There are beginner friendly "yellow" tees about halfway down a number of fairways with options to both white and blue baskets, and then there are the traditional layouts.
The white/white layout is the nod to par 3 disc golf, with no overwhelming holes and a layout just under one mile in length. Good for everyone. The blue/white layout adds some distance, often challenges with different lines and a few par fours. The white/blue layout is quite difficult, requiring a full bag to score well, and then the blue/blue. It is one of the longest layouts in all of New England, a pro par 68, and will test your mental game as well as your bag. Water and restrooms available at the ranger station as you enter the course, lost and found with scorecards at bulletin board not far from practice basket. When not in use by others, huge practice field is by practice basket. Nominal $5 fee to park. Yearly parking passes available for $60 (MA resident prices, check for out of state on both daily fee and yearly pass). Other amenities include hiking trails, fishing at the nearby pond, and the historic Ames Mansion, located not far from the 17th white basket.

Being in an area relatively devoid of solid disc golf courses, the place gets crowded early and often on weekends, and can turn a quick casual round into a tournament length round, especially if you desire to play the longer layouts. Although the majority of the course drains well, some areas will be longer to drain and result in soft ground or some casual standing water. Off the fairways are punished (which they should be) and some areas you're definitely better off with jeans rather than shorts in the summer. You most definitely need bug spray beginning mid April and well into October, if not even into early November. Although the yellow tees I mentioned are easy, not many holes have them. Some have orange flags in place, but again on many holes they are missing. You may just be better off with one of the traditional layouts.

With multiple layouts, multiple baskets, and challenges from tee to basket, Borderland offers a whole lot for your money's worth. Definitely a must play if you're in the area, as it is almost halfway between Boston and Providence.

Decent variety of holes.
Great variety
LONG front nine holes
shorter back nine holes
Sometimes fun to play in woods

We used a hole bottle of bug spray because the deer flies wouldn't leave us alone. There is poison ivy EVERYWHERE. The holes in the woods are a little overgrown in spots, but not the worst. I think that the tee placements are in the wrong spot and often don't show any practical way through the trees. Some holes have too narrow fairways and deep crap on the outside.

I am giving it a 3 instead of a 2.5 because I bet this course would be great in the fall or winter.

-Clean
-Realistic windows through trees
-Blue tees really give your arm a work out
-Plenty of variety with 2 tee and 2 pin options

-Gets real busy on weekends because it's the one of the better courses serving BOTH Boston and Providence
-Intersection of blue and white tees/pins can cause big back-ups on occasion, nothing a little courtesy and patience can smooth over though
-holes can get a little repetitive

This is the course I learned the sport on. Play blue to blue and you've played the longest course in New England.

All of the vets I talked with out on the course consider it a strong course for a public park; with it's good conditionyou're able to see where your 2 dollar park entrance fee is going, which is nice. It's a heavily wooded course that's all about threading it through windows (very few true fairways), so that might be a deterrent to some. Bottom line though is that this place kicks butt (even if it kicks your butt).

Challenges your arm, and has enough variety to let you practice all your shots. Length of course and distance between holes give make it a good hike. Well maintained, but I have gotten some poison ivy in the past. Likely to keep all your discs, with a little hunting. Have met some really cool people here; many coming from cape area.

Popular course means waiting at times, and although there is availability of playing white to blue and blue to white, it is often a challenge at peak times due to traffic.

First four holes are not so private, so taking a break can be tricky. Recommended break points are before 3, before 5, before 8, before 14, and before 16.

A great course thats seen some PDGA official tournaments as well as being the site of some Hollywood filming.
Its got a good variety of short, tight, technical holes and some BIG, long, open fairways. Elevation changes are minimal except on a couple holes. The combination of two tee's and two pins per hole makes for a lot of variety. The course is always in good shape (i.e. mowed grass, trimmed undergrowth along the fairway edges, etc) and very enjoyable to play. There's a nice open practice field and putting basket right by the parking lot for pre-round warm up. The course is open for play year round if you happen to be into playing in the snow.
There's usually loaner discs in the Ranger Station as well as a Lost & Found. Score cards are in the kiosk at the end of the parking lot nearest the Ranger station.

The walk from #4 to #5 and #17 to #18 are my only real complaints as far as the layout goes.
The fact that its in a Wetlands area means well, a lot of wet land and in Spring, some standing water. This is especially true off the fairway on #2 and sometimes ON the fairway on holes #5 through #9.
All this wetness also means LOTS of mosquitos so bring your favorite industrial strength repellant.

One more important note; there's also a TON of poison ivy throughout the course, so if you are alergic you might want to invest in some Ivy Wipes for your discs if you happen to stray into the underbrush off-fairway and applying Ivy Block (its just like applying sun block if you're not familiar with it) ahead of time will help reduce your danger from almost certain exposure.

You will undoubtedly encounter joggers, bikers, dog-walkers, and other random folks along the course as this is primarily a public park.
On one occasion, my teammate hit a guy who was basking unseen in the grass on the fairway on #18. He was a BIG guy and none too happy about being hit by a nice hard-edged Champion Beast. Explaining to him that he was on a fairway didn't seem to mollify him one bit either.
Keep an eye out for Non Playing Characters!

I play here a couple times a week. Its about 45 minutes from Boston, where I live. The course is well designed, well maintained, and offerers tremendous diversity. White to white is a standard disc golf course, while blue to blue is a fun, long adventure. Mixing it up adds plenty of new looks to the holes. Signs are well posted. Why would you pay 10 bucks to play normandy with this gem 10 minutes away?

Gets crowded on the weekends.

If you havent played it before, start white to white.

It has a wide range of holes. Beautiful looking course from the first to the last hole. A great hike!

The gravel tees where my least favorite part of the course. You also better bring a tight game because if you stray to far off you will be digging and climbing though prickers and I meen alot!

I would requimend this course just for the sceniory. Well and all the cute girls hiking.

Multiple tees offer challenges for all players and great variety. Very well maintained course on a great location. Signs are extremely helpful. Holes a great mix of long holes to let it rip, and shorter, tighter holes with challenging trees.

Nothing major... holes 5 and 18 are a ways away from 4 and 17 respectively. The park is very popular so you'll run into people not playing DG, but this rarely happens.

The best course I have played yet! Beautiful location on the grounds of an old mansion just a half hour from Boston. The course has the best variety of holes that I've every played, with some holes extremely long (like the 910 ft hole 2) and some very challenging winding between trees.

The only real downside to this course is that the park is so popular that you might see a lot of other DGers or hikers around the park. I played on a Friday afternoon and there were several people, but it was never problem, and we never had to wait to tee off.

This truly is a must play for any DGer, at any skill level.

Fantastic piece of land that reminds me of the old aristocrat estate of Wickham, CT. Truly a peaceful experience of birds chirping and discs occasionally hitting lumber. Great signs, four layouts with dual tees and pins (like Warwick NY). The layout is magnificent, challenging and fair - White to white is the easiest layout, with many ace runs that are also challenging. The mixes of white to blue & blue to white are even tougher, and the blue to blue is a long and tough challenge mixing in several par 4's. it would be hard to get bored with all the variety here.

Locals were friendly and seemed to know how lucky they were. There are not a lot of options in the greater Boston area, so this is just what the doctor ordered. Ample parking and facilities and not much to want

Very slight elevation changes , but this is minor.
One very long walk to #5 but the sign on #4 did lead me the right direction.
Drainage is an issue after a big rainfall - I experienced this on one occasion - where hole 5 in particular caused us to leap frog from rock to rock to avoid getting our feet wet!

The locals were very cool - I joined up with a couple of guys on a crowded Saturday who really enhanced the experience and helped me learn the course!