Canary Disc Golf Course plays through dense northwest foliage inside Al Borlin Park. Designed with the best of intentions, this course never truly had a chance due to poor planning and execution. Intending to be a challenging nine hole course, it unfortunately never saw past six due to an endless amount of clearing, upkeep, and what appears to be transients. However, of the holes that were finished, a few presented challenging and intricate lines both on and off the tee. Hole one is the course's only par 4 being that it's 486', with the rest of the holes ranging from 267-326'. Although the course was not long per say, the amount of obstacles increased the amount of skill and accuracy needed. There is definitely potential!

Memorable hole(s): #1,3, 6

As mentioned by the other trusted reviewers, I too agree that the course has way too many flaws from start to finish. I won't go into too much detail since the others have been quite thorough but to list a few...

*Safety: The amount of transients and drug paraphernalia throughout the course. Homeless camps are spread throughout parts of the course. Not family friendly. Or, anyone for that matter! Not until its cleaned up.
*Safety: Located on the other side of the train tracks in an isolated area at the edge of town
* Design: The course is unfinished, leaving players stranded in the middle of the dense forest with no clear way out. Players must backtrack.
*Equipment: Nice kiosk but VERY misleading. Also, the course has cheap baskets, poor unlevel tee pads, and missing signage.
*Maintenance: Garbage and dog poop everywhere! Some trees are spray painted, too. Why?!?

Least Favorite Hole(s): #2 - seemed to be a filler hole with little challenge

I truly believe Canary DGC could have been terrific if the money was better allocated and more manpower was available to assist with clearing of the remaining 3-12 holes. Hopefully, the course can be rejuvenated by the same people who support Tall Firs, allowing the brush to be cleared and the transient population relocated to Monroe's local shelters (wishful thinking). I hope to someday come back and play a full round in a thriving park but my gut tells me it may become extinct sooner than later. I hope I'm wrong and will be sure to fix my rating if I am.

Well, the main pro lasted for a very short time. Canary finally brought disc golf to the Monroe area. Snohomish County needs more courses, and this area sorely lacked one. Then Tall Firs appeared, and everyone forgot about this course... For good reason. I'm going to have a hard time finding pros for this place (it's marked as "unplayable" on this site for a reason).

Equipment: No pros to list.

Navigation: There's a nice map at the entrance to the park, and there are tee signs on every tee. (See cons please).

Design: The holes that are here do provide some interesting looks. Hole 1 plays between a river and some rough. Hole 5 forces you to hit a line that doesn't even seem to exist to most players. The fairways are wide enough to play placement golf, but it's still fairly technical.

Other pros: I don't know. It's not crowded? There are sponsors? There's a toilet on the side of the road as you leave the park? Yep. Just a toilet, sitting on the ground.

Okay, good. I don't have to struggle to think up pros anymore.

Equipment - The person who got this place set up got sponsors for every hole, but then they used that sponsorship money to buy cheap practice baskets. 2/3 of them are Westside baskets ($180 price tag up at Tall Firs), and the remaining baskets are cheap Innova ones. I'd almost rather bring a pop-up basket out into the woods somewhere and pretend it's a course than waste sponsors' money on these. The teepads aren't teepads either. They're just wheelbarrows of gravel dumped on the ground. At least there's that...

Navigation - The signs were all in terrible condition. They're just laminated pieces of paper, and they were water logged. They were also inaccurate (just like the map at the entrance that shows a full 18 hole layout). No way hole 2 was anywhere NEAR 300'. The one thing one might almost call a pro is that the trees are marked to guide new players, but they took a page from Lake Stevens and painted giant numbers and arrows on beautiful trees with hideous fluorescent paint. Gross.

Other cons - It's been stated by the other reviewers who had the misfortune of throwing discs here. It isn't done. For some reason they only cleared six holes and then stopped. After hole 6 you follow the tree that guides you to 7, and you walk directly into an impenetrable wall of thorns. That's it. You're done. But you have to walk back up most of the other fairways to get back to your car.

I do feel like there's potential here. It's an area of a park that nobody uses, and it could be built into a far more technical course than Tall Firs can ever be. But they just quit on us. Maybe it was because Tall Firs took everyone's attention and money, but I don't think so. I just think this was poorly done at every turn after they got the sponsors. The money was used on cheap equipment, the teepads were clearly an afterthought, and the paint on the trees was a horrendous idea. Add in the fact that it's a technical course in a park that makes you want to try heroin for the first time, and you can guarantee that no families or rec players will ever come here.

I hope this course becomes a cautionary tale to those who want to open a course. It started right. They talked to the city, secured sponsors, and started clearing fairways. But that was it. They used the funds poorly on cheap equipment and gravel. They "opened" the course after just installing 1/3 of the holes (2/3 of the baskets). Don't do that. Clear everything. Use your sponsors' money. If it's not enough, ask for more. Or get co-sponsors. Get local disc golfers involved with work parties and such. Finish the course. THEN open it to the public.

This is the second course I've played that will just fade into oblivion because somebody came at it with good intentions but not enough smarts... It's sad, really.