Overall Borderland is an excellent, challenging, and charming course with beautiful boulders and rock outcroppings and the Ames Mansion.

Two rubber tees and two baskets on every hole providing a bevy of playing options from really long pro length to intermediately short. Mix of technical mostly tight wooded lanes where landing your disc in the fairway is primo, and some open spaces to throw some bombs although still requiring control to setup the next shot.

Navigation was more intuitive after hole 5. Lots of bridging between holes to traverse over the rocks and muck.

Restrooms and drinking water by the visitor center.

Basically one big loop of 18 holes back to parking lot. Took me awhile to find hole 1 blue tee, literally right behind the visitor center. I found hole 4 before I found 3, didn't think you would have to backtrack halfway down the fairway from the long basket. It was also a very long and confusing walk from hole 4 to 5 for me, but probably isn't that bad if you just follow the path straight across the field.

Busy park with some interference from other park users. Rocky and muddy terrain in places. Some of the rough is nasty thorns and poison ivy, not hard to end up in there with tight wooded lanes kicking discs off the fairway. Thirsty mosquitoes.

I really enjoyed Borderland even with some of the navigation issues I had. IMO the current rating is spot on at about 4.20 and would rate it that if was possible. Maybe if there was more elevation I would rate it higher with more fun factor. I highly recommend anyone play here, although it might be a little tough on rank beginners.

Two rubber teepadss and two baskets on every hole makes for multiple layouts for each hole. All teepads and baskets are in good condition.
Fair gaps and fairways in the woods; typically more than one legitimate route from the teepad to the basket. Some wide open shots make for a great mix during a round.

A lot of rocks throughout the woods can really beat up discs quickly.

Great course, looking forward to playing it more!

-18 hole layout
-36 baskets, each hole has a white and blue tee and basket (some share the same tee), providing a shorter, easier course and a longer, harder course
-The signature hole, #17, is absolutely beautiful, with the mansion in the background.
-Provides paper scorecards
-Variety of uphill, downhill, open, and wooded holes
-Sign says there are discs for loan for beginners
-Visitors center has lost and found kiosk for discs
-Has a website: http://www.borderlanddiscgolf.com

-Fee is only $5 for parking or $6 for out of state

-Small fee for parking
-Hole 2 and 17 can sometimes have pedestrians in the field, which is warned about on the welcome sign, but it wasn't a problem
-Lots of poison ivy in the area, but only if your throws go errant
-Hole 3, 5, and 18 were a little tricky to find the teepad, but not a huge problem. (For hole 5 we had to go across the big field, through the left side of a parking area, onto a small trail on the left, and then we got there. (There is a map at the start, I recommend getting it online too for better quality.)

For us it was definitely worth the 50 or so minute drive. We're relative beginners; this was the third course we've been too, and it was a blast. A great park, with some great history. Seems to be a very active disc golf community here Awesome time.

(Also only 50 minutes south from Medford, where the Boston Whitecaps play.)

Two very well kept, level, rubber pads on each hole.
Two excellent condition baskets on each hole.
4 available layouts to challenge all skill levels.
Excellent layout, flow, and design of course.
Good blend of shots needed to score well here.
Fair lines and basket placement on each hole.
Course favors placement and approach much more than distance.
Practice basket and open field next to parking lot.
Clean, beautiful park, clean beautiful course.
Upkeep is very good here.
Plenty of parking, only $2 to park. (This has changed, $5 Mass. residents, $10 Out of State)
Drinking fountains available in season, bottle water for purchase outside bathrooms.
Bathrooms at hole one (ranger station).

Course takes on and retains water. Things can get muddy after rains.
No set par for alternate course layouts.
No water holes.
High volume of traffic at peak times.
High volume of rec players lacking etiquette.

Great course. I would pay $5 to $10 a day to play this gem.( Me and my big mouth!) The 45min drive from my home is well worth the pleasure and peace I get from playing here. There really isn't a standout signature hole (Blue 2 maybe?) but that doesn't seem to matter. Each hole presents a different challenge in a very even and consistent manner. This is a solid 4 star course that will have you comparing the other coursers you play to it. If you are thinking about playing this one, stop thinking, pack your bag, and hit the tee.

Full disclosure: I am a beginner player and this is my home course. Consider this an addendum to the reviews written by more experienced players.

The setting is beautiful. You could spend a whole day hiking, biking, golfing, napping, and learning the history of the Ames family. (The owners of the original estate.) The disc golf course takes you through only a small part of it.

The course is challenging, without being daunting. You'll need to make a wide variety of throws to have a good game, but there are safe landing zones for short distance throwers. Some undergrowth can be prickly or cause rashes. It is well-managed on the fairways, but grows like crazy in out-of-bounds areas. Tees and baskets are well maintained. See other reviews for details.

The white and blue fairways overlap. This gives players the options of playing pure white or true blue, along with blight and whue if you mix them.

Technically, there is a yellow course. However, there are no permanent tees for it. It is marked with painted wood blocks in the fairways. It is suitable for first-timers, young children, or that girlfriend who is curious about what you're doing with your Sunday mornings.

Lots of skilled players to learn from.

There's a practice basket near the parking lot. If you get there before the day campers, you can warm up your arm with long throws over a wide-open field.

Trash. Trash is becoming an issue. I'm the guy with the labrador pup. (Apologies if the mouthy little brat has nibbled your throwing hand.) He has chewed about a hundred coffee cups and three glass beer bottles. It is not fun trying to get shards of broken glass out of a frisky puppy's maw. There are barrels in the picnic areas. A short detour after holes 1, 4, 7, and 18 will bring you to them.

While there are brooms (and snow shovels) at most every hole, many need replacing. The rain and weather has rotted the bristles or the joints connecting the head to the handle.

**Edit** Several of the brooms have been replaced. Many of the tees have been rebuilt with crushed stone under the rubber matts. A few holes have new plank walkways over the swampy bits. This course just keeps getting better and better.

There are 2 quality rubber tees and 2 permanent baskets on every hole, so there is plenty of variety in distance, as well as hole shape, as the baskets and tees are often in very different places. The setup is almost like 4 different courses if you wanted to play each combination. There are both open and wooded shots, requiring a variety of shots. Nice tee signs at each set of tees, but they only provide information for white-white or blue-blue. Set in a scenic, well-maintained park with nice amenities at the parking lot. Some fun rock formations near the baskets on a couple of the holes. Nice boardwalks across the wetlands between holes. The more open holes had nice mowed-grass fairways.

Pace of play is a little slow due to crowds. Course navigation was a little tricky for a first timer, especially the walk from #4 to #5 and also between #17 and #18, but if you pay attention to the tee signs, there are next tee indicators there, and usually additional indicators near the baskets, but when you forget to look at the tee sign for where the next tee is, you sometimes need to pause to look for the next tee. There was also a fair amount of poison ivy.

I only played white-white, and really enjoyed the course layout. There was plenty of variety in the holes, and felt the course was a lot of fun. Having looked at the teeshots from some of the blue tees, it looked to be very challenging. A couple of the teeshots I almost laughed at, but if you want a challenge, it looked like the blue tees would be great for that. There are a couple of very long as well as very technical holes in the blue layout. The white-white layout was great for a quick round, as I did not have a lot of time, and I don't really enjoy punishing myself on disc golf courses. For an amateur, white-white is still plenty challenging and requires decent execution for scoring opportunities. The 17th was a fun hole to look at, with the mansion straight in front of the hole.

The pros of Borderland: everything between the tees and the greens. This course is incredibly well-designed. It's hard to point out the great parts of the course because it's all great. It's hard to single out notable holes, because they're almost all notable.

Borderland features outstanding rubber tees and signs that give all the information that is needed.

Borderland features my favorite terrain: Wooded, with plenty of trees, and barely any brush. No pinball here. Every fairway features multiple lines that reward accurate throws but will punish misthrows with knockdowns and kickouts.

The quality is recognizable almost immediately. From the second hole, it becomes obvious that it's going to be at least 4 stars. It's that apparent that this course was designed with expertise.

Ok, I'll mention a few favorite holes since I can use it as an example of the brilliance that is featured throughout the course . 2 looks like a wide open bomb, and it is from the white tee to the white basket. From the blue tee, its a bomb after an early, narrow gap. Shoot the white tee to the blue basket and be prepared to send that bomb to a precise location if you want a decent look down the second part of the fairway towards the green. Shoot blue to blue? That's a damn hard hole. Four completely different looks at just one hole. And that's just one for example.

The other hole that has to be mentioned is 17. You emerge from the woods to fun yourself in the backyard of the 1910 stone mansion that the park is built around. From the blue tee the throw is straight towards the estate but fades to the right before climbing the hill to the structure. It would be an outstanding final hole. I wouldn't mind so much a longer walk to the parking lot from there, especially with so much course behind you to sink in.

The only reason, and really the only reason, that this course isn't a 4.5, is the stuff that happens from the basket to the tee. The issues are in large part due to the distances between the white and blue baskets, but that doesn't mean that there aren't many times where the navigation is not intuitive. Many times there are arrows that point towards the next tee. These completely fix most of the tricky situations, but there are a few times out there where a few more arrows along the longer routes would be helpful.

It doesn't completely help that there are a couple paths that cross each other, and it definitely does not help that there are two very long walks. The last one is particularly bad, as it leads from an incredible 17, a long way to a more forgettable 18. It's very anti-climactic, and I hate that you lose the chance to bask in 17 because you're entirely confuse about where 18.

The flow here, where it's broken isn't the biggest deal. It doesn't affect the enjoyment of the holes too much. To me it takes a 4.6/4.7 course, based on holes alone, down to around a 4.2.

Still, I feel that this is one course that would get better as it was played more. After taking advantage of all four possible layouts, I'm pretty sure I would not be able to deny granting it a 4.5. Amazing course, that I would make sure I played every time I was in the area.

Course is beautifully upkept. Most holes have some seating, and there are trashcans spaced out periodically. In regards to actually playing, this course caters to all experience levels. White layout is a pretty straight forward layout of par 3s that is a great starter course for beginners. Blue layout is a long, tricky layout that will challenge even experience players. Then you can mix it up with the White to Blues or Blue to Whites. Works wonders for keeping trips to the park from feeling stagnant or repetative.

I wish there were pars listed for the Blue to White and White to Blue layouts. Only info available is for the White to White and Blue to Blue.

Lot of wetlands, so mosquitos are pretty nasty during the summer. Also, this is a VERY popular park. Aside from errant hikers, you also need to contend with vast herds of newcomers. It is wonderful seeing how popular the sport is becoming, but there are some days where they make the park almost unplayable. It is not uncommon to find yourself stuck behind a group of 10 who won't let you play through because they were there first. When I played this past Sunday, I saw 3 seperate groups of 9+.

Unfortunately if it is remotely nice out and its a weekend, I would really advise against playing here. Dacey Fields right up 495.

I can't even try to count the number of rounds I've played here. One of the courses I learned on, and keep coming back because it is just that good. The layouts are challenging, the surroundings are beautiful. One of my favorite courses to visit in less than great weather, or playing hooky from work.

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!

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.

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!

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.

really liked this one. great layout. blue and white course. i thought it had a good balance between woods and openess. Still a technical course but u feel like you can still throw long shots. My wife and a friend came and really liked the layout from wemons tee's. Well maintained.

very very flat. Almost zero elevation.
walk from 4 to 5. one other hole didnt have a sign and took awhile to find.

First off this is a very well designed course. I enjoyed playing this very much. Not much of a chance at losing a disc. Which is always a plus. Every hole pretty much has two tee boxes and two baskets giving you almost 4 courses in one! If you are DG who likes view you will get some picturesque (sp?) views (especially 17). I played white tees because I was with my sister and cousin. I would have like to play blues. Some monster wholes. Almost a 476 average for a mostly wooded course!

Shots can be technical. Really dont need a variety. Backhand can sustain you. I did throw 2 thumbers and maybe 3 flicks off the drive.

Kudos for the brooms on all the tee boxes!!!

Limited trash cans. Maybe due to the whole state park feel.

Long walk from 4 to 5. Be sure to look at the map at the entrance. Take a picture if you have too.

Bring bug spray.
Can be muddy.
Watch for footing on the rocks. I swear they will jump up at you.
Be ready for a long spread out course.

WORTH THE TRIP!!!

Unique setting for disc golf playing around the grounds of a historic mansion/estate. Great amenities, multiple tees and baskets, brooms on the flypad tees and rakes on the crushed gravel holes. Perfect signs and places to sit and hang bags on most holes. Plenty of distance here. Long wooded holes combined with a few semi-open holes. I really appreciated how the shorter baskets on many of the holes were tucked off to the side or played a different route so that you were rarely confused as to which basket to play for. Designers maximized the potential of the property. Enjoyed how the open holes utilized danger early, danger late, or danger midway to add some thought to the more open holes often shooting through a gap or out of/into woods. Enjoyed the boulder placement of rolling hole #2 and the big Anny out of woods into field of 910 ft #2. Never did any of those super long wooded fairways seem unfair....If I scored poorly it was my fault. Makes for an addictive course as you always feel you can do better the next time but requires you to really throw on point to score well. A really solid course that will challenge the pro in you to shoot well and provides the novice a chance to play a premium course as well utilizing shorter tees and baskets.

$2 to park ( I snuck in on foot at 6AM ala the fugitive) Not much can be done about the cons that has already been done...so I am afraid the course really can't improve much. It's really wet....not in a good way either. Essentially it's a floodplain wetlands area throughout half the course. This causes mushy to soaked fairways and often you are required to traverse boardwalks to get from tee to landing area. If you hit a tree early you gonna be muddy and pickered a bit as it's not easy to clear a wetlands area. For this reason I am sure newcomers won't enjoy the course much. Kind of have to hardcore to not be bothered by marshy swamp footing. There also is not much elevation outside of the boulders and 5 foot rise drop here or there that is barely noticeable over the great distances of these holes. I had some difficulty finding discs in shule but I can be honest...those were awful throws on my part. That walk from hole 4-5 was really long and not easy to figure out. (basically just head towards the park entrance after holing out on hole 4)

This course is worth a play. If there is a drought or the ground is frozen I would think the enjoyability of this course increases dramatically. 1st hole is directly behind the Park office building not near the Kiosk and shoots down into the woods.

Lots of awesome views from the T's, lots of challenging shots. Quite a bit of elevation changes, and lots and lots of Dog Legs. This course might be the best maintained I've ever played on, and the duplicate baskets and T's make it ridiculously fresh and fun. Great lay out, tough shots, a great course.

I went 2 days after a big storm....and half the holes had areas underwater. Hole 5 was an absolute swamp, I almost lost my shoe in the muck. Half the holes were dry, the others insanely wet. The walk from 4 to 5 is tough on some one unfamiliar with the course, even with a map.

Other reviews have said the course has a mix of open and wooded holes...I disagree. The "open" holes tended to have large trees in/around the fair way, not really giving the course any grip n rip holes besides 3. Not exactly a con, but slightly disappointing.

Highly recommended, but bring a spare pair of shoes.

This course has character. Throwing over rock fences that used to delineate the different properties, random old plowing equipment along the fairway, wooden plank bridges over streambeds, and an ivy-covered mansion...just a beautiful place. And basket positions take advantage of the topography, like the blue basket on #4 on the rock ledge, the blue #8 on the hill beyond a little swamp, both baskets beyond the "gate" of trees on 13.

The signage is very good. There are two tee pads and two baskets per hole, so there are a lot of ways to play the course and add some variety. The white tees now have all rubber tee pads rather than the former natural tee pads that were a pain after rain. Although it is fairly wooded, there is not much undergrowth, so it's not a pain to play in the summer. The amount of trees feels just right. You need to be accurate, but you won't necessarily be punished for every bad shot (just most). There is a lost and found closet in the lodge, and I've gotten several discs back.

Can be a little rough on true newbies, but I've still brought several people here for their first round and they enjoyed it. There are other functions at the park, so you'll sometimes get people walking through the fairway, but not on most holes. There is not a lot of elevation here. One time a third of the holes were closed due to camping, which was annoying after making the 40-minute trip from Boston. Holes 5 and 10 can get pretty swampy after rainfall, and drainage in general here is not great.

The blue tees play very long and are pretty difficult. They have tighter windows, more distance, and you need to think about where you are landing your drive to have a good second shot. Every time I get my confidence up on the whites, the blues shoot me down. The pars on both tees seem fair, and it's nice to play at a place that isn't all par 3s (the whites are all par 3, but not the blues). I'm really happy I discovered this course.