WHAT TO EXPECT: Well maintained muti-use city park course, within 10 minutes or so of I-74. Definitely a great beginner up to intermediate challenge level course consisting of short to medium length hole distances, lightly wooded to very open shot shapes, and mostly what you would expect from Park style golf.

AMENITIES/COURSE FEATURES: Situated next to Bradley University, there isn't much in the way of course dedicated infrastructure. There was a couple port o johns and a handwashing station on the lower 9, several park benches and a couple trash cans spread out through the course, a few pavilions on the upper 9, and the course features a wide but shallow creek that bisects most of the lower 9. There is a paved walking path that circles through the park and multiple sports fields on the upper 9.

TEES/SIGNAGE/BASKETS: Medium sized textured concrete tee pads that were level with the ground allowing you to run up from behind or off to the sides, Signage was ok, not great, not bad. Tee signs were simple and basic but provided all the information needed. Baskets were Chainstars, that caught softer putts fine. (Firmer putts on the pole from close range seemed to risk spit outs, but not horribly bad). Multiple pin locations possible on most holes.

DESIGN: For the most part, typical multi-use park style holes that use roads, paths, and fields as hole shaping borders. Almost entirely a birdie or die course for those with advanced skill, and maybe even down to the recreational level as most holes are under 350 feet. Course uses the property to the best extent they can (on the lower 9 especially) utilizing the creek as much as absolutely possible. Definitely favors the RHBH player as there are no less than 6 holes that force long guarded right to left shots, and many of the shorter holes shape right to left. The lower 9 holes also plays counter-clockwise around the creek making every LHBH hyzer shot have to fly over OB. The upper 9 takes a few liberties with rather short distances by making them extreme angles from tee to green, again, favoring the RHBH with tight OB. Nothing that stands out as an amazing hole, also nothing that screams terrible hole. Just your average park style design that is limited by space and existing structures.

EXTRAS: This course is divided into two very different 9's (an upper and a lower) The lower 9 is flat, plays around a creek, and mainly guards itself with roads, walking trails and the creek with the few trees that exist. The upper 9 is much more drastic in elevation change (though not daunting or anything), and focuses much more on shot shaping and desired line of the disc.

SAFETY: This is an extremely busy park, even during Ledgestone. You are near Bradley University, there are roads, walking trails, soccer fields, people having picnics, just a really busy park to play in. There are tons of blind tee shots that will require you to walk forward almost all the way down the fairway to ensure the coast is clear.

PACKED COURSE: Due to the skill level intended by this design, this course is always full of casual players. Each time I have been here it has always been long waits between holes.

NAVIGATION: Unless you have played here knowing where to go is very difficult in several places. The course map sort of helped point in the right vicinity but overall didn't get the job done. Even U-Disc didn't keep us from overshooting a tee pad by 100 yards by pointing us down the wrong walking path. The layout is not intuitive and doubles back on itself several times. There are no navigational aides that help, signposts have a blue and white dot, maybe for the alternate pin locations.

UNINTERESTING: I can see why casual players would enjoy this course, especially the right handed ones. But more skilled players will eat this course alive and probably not come back. None of the holes are memorable, and the park isn't really aesthetically beautiful to the point it is memorable. I have played this course multiple times and less than 3 weeks ago, and most of the holes are already unmemorable.

Bradley is hard to rate. It is an OK park course that neither moves the needle towards greatness or blandness. It does well what it is intended to do and succeeds in targeting the casual player with a well maintained and somewhat fun to play layout. Courses like this are necessary to get more people into the sport. If I was in the area and could only play one course, it would be a tough decision between Meggido and McNaughton but this wouldn't crack my top 5. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this course, it's just not my idea of fun at my current level of my disc golf journey. I will rate this course as a 3.0 because it is good at what it does, but isn't close to a top tier championship course, and rightfully it doesn't try to be.

1) interesting park, especially for one in the middle of the city. There's an upper shelf that contains most of the front nine, a lower level 50 feet below that with the back 9, and a creek that runs 20 feet below the lower level. It makes the layout a little wonky, but unique.
2) reasonably challenging
3) The holes along the creek are fun. 12, 14, and 16 were probably my favorites
4) The course is in a popular park and is well-maintained. I would expect that even in mid-summer it would be fine.

1) I didn't find the parking lot, which is on the lower level. Were it not for a course map on this site, I can say with absolute certainty I would not have found hole 1 and probably would not have played.
2)There are also virtually no navigational aids to speak of. Signposts have two distances alongside a white and a blue dot. I'm presuming those are alternate pin placements, but as I was playing I didn't know if there were multiple pins, multiple tees, or what. The signposts did not indicate which placement the pin was in, or in which direction to throw (forward of course, but forward and left? Forward and right?) and besides a sign pointing to hole 2, there were no directional indicators. I saw two separate groups (besides me) having to ask where hole 1 was within a ten minute period.
3) I felt the front 9 was relatively uninteresting
4) I feel that this course will overwhelmingly favor RHBH players with bigger arms. Holes 1, 7, 9, 12, and 16 all seem to fit this mold.

It's a decent course overall, and I enjoyed playing it. Especially the unique nature of the course itself. However with all the other quality courses in the Peoria area, this would not be my first choice.

Well maintained city park. Good tee pads. Multiple pin placements.
Easy access to town or I-74 (5-8 min maybe), Most pads are easy to find from the previous Pin. Not much rough to worry about loosing a disc.
Good beginner to intermediate course that has a lot of open throws with multiple flight path choices available.
Although there are only a couple of holes that are strikingly interesting there are in fact many that are well thought out and present challenges to the two seeker.

Only a couple 'long' holes. Some risk and reward involved as the creek and steep creek banks come into play at times.
Only #14 is a true risk of loosing your disc usually unless the creek is up after a rain or in early spring then a few others are risky.
# 12, #10.

You might get wet feet getting your disc back but in my experience only #14 is usually the only real danger of loosing a disc if you go in the creek in the sometimes muddy deep pool there.

All in all this is a fairly good course, no amazing holes, nothing too bad.

My favorites are # 9, #5 and #4 long tee and #7.

Very busy course and subsequently often has a slow pace of play.
This is the course beginners frequent in town so you can often be stuck behind slow groups.

For someone who doesn't know the course confusion is possible at several points as far as knowing where the next tee pad is. Most pins have a brick with painted arrow pointing to next pad.

Only one longish hole really #7 which is a nice hole in my opinion.by
... No blatantly bad holes but nothing that great either.

Bradley is an OK course.
It serves the purpose of being a good intro to disc golf.
We need courses like this for the new people to the game.
I am not slamming it, just telling it as I see it.
If I was driving through town and only had a chance to play one or two courses I would not choose this one.
Megiddo, McNaughton Park or Lake Eureka These 3 are not quick easy courses but they are all very good courses and they would be the more advanced level courses in the area.

If time is short and you want a quick, low energy use course then, Northwoods (In Morton, 20 min away from Peoria) or ICC.(In East Peoria,15min away from Peoria) Northwoods being the better and a good course in fact.
Neither of these is strenuous like the 3 previously mentioned could be considered by some.

I see other reviews here that give this course more praise than I am giving and that is the cool thing about this forum people have different opinions and that makes the world go round.
People can see how we rate other courses that perhaps they know and get an idea if they agree with a reviewers sensibilities or not based on that.

I could perhaps be misunderstood here and people could think I don't like Bradley. I do like it ok, it's fine. It just isn't my idea of a really good course.

I have a great reluctance to rate any course a 5. I have played a lot of courses and very few deserve the top score of 5 in my opinion.
A 4 rating is a very good course in my book,
Three a Good course and I have a problem giving Bradley a Good rating 2.75 might be my score if I could use that. I think there should be a 1-10 scale and a different score for fun levels. Then I would rate it a 6 overall and a 5 on the fun scale.

Bradley Park is the course that most people know when they think of the original Peoria, Illinois course. It is just down the road from disc golf legends Mom and Old Man Wallis and was redesigned a handful of years ago to add some more length. Here are the pros:

1) The course really is manicured very well. It is truly the pride and joy of the Peoria Frisbee Club. If there is a work day scheduled here many people show up. A lot of the greens are well manicured and the concrete tees are immaculate. The club has worked really well in combating erosion and have really done a lot of work on the greens. Not only are some of the greens mulched but some have been built in tiers (like hole 4) to really add some interesting features to those holes.

2) Navigation at the course is actually very easy. Hole 1 is a bit hard to find as you have to walk up the hill next to the parking lot but once you get there its pretty self explanatory. You can see hole 10 in the area where you park so you know you will come back there after hole 9.

3) The redesign of the course made great usage of the creek on the back nine. Holes 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 17 bring the creek into play. The last few years there has been enough water in the creek to actually make it a legitimate water hazard. Even though the course is fairly easy the creek adds some nice variety to the course.

4) The course is a very easy play. Its a beginner friendly course, built in a park with very mature oak trees. It has some tough lines to hit but the rough is not bad at all. It would be okay to bring a new player here even if Washington Park is the better choice. You wouldn't want to bring a brand new player to McNaughton or one of the Morton courses so this is a good fit.

5) Most importantly, this course is fun. Hole 4 is a tricky little downhill putter shot with a neat green. Hole 8 is a fun little hole with the road as an obstacle to the left. Hole 9 is a tough but fun hole with a tight fairway to hit with a green that falls off to a cliff. The back nine offers some really fun shots around the creek. You won't be wowed by this course but you will have fun!

Here are the cons for Bradley Park:

1) Anytime you have alternate pins you run the risk of confusing people. The issue here is that you don't necessarily know what course you will get on any given day. In addition, the signs indicate the distances for both pins but without walking ahead you won't know which ones you are playing. Its not a big deal for locals because once you play it a few times you can figure out which is which but a few holes will force you to walk ahead.

2) The course is not super challenging. In the short pins its not uncommon for an advanced rated player to shoot in the mid 40's. Its a nice, fun course but does not have a lot of challenge.

3) The course is very righty friendly. In particular, holes 1, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 18 only favor righties while only holes 5 and 15 really favor lefties.

4) The signs are standard Central Illinois signs and do not include anything but the distances and the hole number.

This is essentially the original Peoria, Illinois area course that has propelled the rest of the courses in the area into existence. Its a classic course that has been around for a long time. Its a fun course that is highly recommended!

NOTE: The course is VERY busy. It is near the campus of Bradley University and the course is often filled with many casual players. In addition, the casual players have no problem starting on a random hole and cutting right in front of you.

High Fun Factor
Relaxing Atmosphere
Not too long, not too short
Multiple basket locations.
Wide variety of lines to hit.
Good tees and baskets.

Navigation can be tricky at times. I parked by the tee for 10 and walked up the hill to get to 1. Lots of concrete present (OB) to potentially tear up your discs.

Overall Bradley Park was a lot of fun to play. Finding the next tee can be tricky at times. There are a lot of trees present, but lines are still available to reach the basket. This is an older style course and has a nice laid back feel. One thing to note is to keep an eye for your discs in the fall because there are lots of leaves present to cover them up. I highly recommend this course if you are in the area, along with Washington, Morton, Eureka and McNaughton for some other excellent courses.

The course plays through a large multi-use park, but the disc golf course really doesn't conflict with other park users. There is a nice stream running through the back nine, and some steep dropoffs near pins and along fairways making for some great risk/reward shots. There is a nice mix of left and right turning shots, so you'll need to hit lots of different lines to score well here. There are lots of birdies if you are accurate, and some punishment on a few holes that can easily turn a bad drive into a bogey. There are a couple longer holes to mix things up length wise.

There are basic hole signs with the distance to the pin, and good concrete tees. The baskets show some wear, but still catch well and are in good shape. Once you find the course, it's easy to follow through the park, and it loops back to the parking lot in the middle.

The park is very hilly, and I was excited about the potential elevation changes as I drove in, but nearly all of the holes are pretty flat. A little more use of the hills to add some challenge and variety would go a long way here. There are some erosion issues in spots, especially around tees and pins. Hole layout on the signs would be really helpful, there are some blind holes.

It's really difficult to figure out where to park and how to get to hole one. I ended up parking in the lower lot by hole 10s tee and following some locals up the hill to hole 1, not sure if that's what most people do but it worked ok to pass by the car in the middle, and end up back at the parking lot at 18. Several holes play pretty close to roads, could be an issue on a busy day with lots of cars going in and out of the park.

This is a great park course, with an old school feel. There's not a whole lot of length, but there is a nic variety of lines to hit that keeps it interesting. Beginners will find the course pretty approachable, though the creek can be a disc eater. More experienced players won't be really challenged, but will enjoy a fun round in a nice park racking up the birdies.