(1.194 Rating) A nine basket course that plays around a college campus.
- NAVIGATION AND SIGNAGE - That's right, I'm beginning this review with the cons. There are a lot of them, and they are substantial. Carson-Newman's game-play is at least 1.75 rating worthy, but the navigation and signage aspect is so bad right now, it'll be hard for many reviewers to justify that high of rating. Are there tee signs here? Nope. How about a course map? Nope and I'll add that the one on DGCR is incorrect. So how does one navigate this course? I have no idea. I relied on a navigational app to follow a supposed layout, but tomorrow someone could post an alternate layout as there are no markings on this course other than the numbers on the baskets. I constantly looked for markings flush with the ground and for tape residue along a paved areas. Nothing.
- SAFETY HAZARDS - Players will have ample opportunities to hit people on this layout. I played during summer break and I had to pause a few times. Buildings, sidewalks and/or roads are in play on every hole. Players need to be smart to play this one safely.
- AMENITIES AND EXTRAS - No other amenities other than numbered baskets.
- HOLE VARIETY - I didn't think the play variety here was above average or anywhere close. All straight park style shots. There is some modest length, but nothing over 400 feet long. Probably all par 3s (no tee signage), only modest elevation and no water elements.
- SIGNATURE HOLE - In my opinion, hole (4) is the best hole and also the worst hole on the course. First off, this was the first time a tee shot ever required me to throw through a college building. Very unique indeed. On the flipside however, I was throwing through (pause) A Building! I found it strangely exhilarating to play this hole. For those that are able to find the alt tees, they'll be able to run it through twice.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - Nice looking campus buildings, but I far prefer natural landscapes over bricks and mortar any day. I scored this aspect about 25 percentile.
- PARKING - Street parking only.
- NOT 18 - I don't see how this can be labeled as an 18 hole course. As noted, 9 baskets and zero tee markings. Someone could just as easily claim its 99 holes and be no less right than the 18 hole figure claim.


Pros: It's playable
- MODEST GAMEPLAY CHALLENGES - I really struggled to come up with pros for this one. Carson-Newman is one of those courses where a review could have done just fine without a section of pros, but I feel obligated to note something. I did like the fact that most of the shots required a bit of skill, namely the ability to chuck 275 feet to rack up birds. A couple trees and light-posts have to be avoided here and there and there is some slight elevation on a couple shots.
- CHAINS - 24 chain DISCatchers. Not as good as the 28s, but still a decent older model. A couple were in bad shape.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - Perhaps too long for many new players but it'll be hard for them to get into trouble. Carson-Newman is like many college campus courses where the layout plays around buildings. The grass will likely always be mowed and there's little chance to throw it into a hard to reach area, unless it ends up on top of a building. New players won't be scared away here.

Weird course. Part of it felt like disc golf, but the frustration on not observing one frigg'n tee marking left a lot to be desired. I could not recommend this course to anyone other than to those that attend the school and to hardcore course baggers. It reminded me of other university courses that play in the heart of a campus like Saint Leo University, the old Kennesaw State University course and Athens State University. As is, I'm going with a 1.0 with potential to make a 1.5 if they marked tees and installed tee signs.
- TIME PLAY - I tried to run this one super fast and it still took me thirty minutes to complete this one. The poor navigation is mostly to blame.

Carson Newman is a pleasant small-town college. You can take a nice stroll through campus. And if you're lucky, you may even find some of the holes.
- There are nine baskets. Each one is in pretty good shape.
- You get to walk by many nice campus buildings. Six to be exact. You also cross two streets and walk under one walkway.
- The course can be alright if you settle for a general area for your tee pads and/or just create your own tee pads. The baskets are spread out that one can create some excellent safari golf layouts. If you're more about exacts and structure, you'll be frustrated.
- I'm not sure whether it's genius or idiocy. Hole #5's tunnel fairway is either a great layout, or an extreme gimmick. I nearly aced it after having my tee shot skip off the wall and land three feet from the basket.
- Hole #3 was also a fun layout, teeing off next to one building, crossing several paths and an open area, and past another building. At 367 feet, it's one of the longer layouts.

Navigation is a disaster. Even with the course map, trying to find tee markers was a fruitless challenge. I only spotted two my entire round and one of those wasn't close to where it's located on the map.
- Dual tee locations for each basket. Why make it twice as frustrating? I ended up saving time and frustration by throwing from each location at the same time.
- Without a map, you're not going to be able to play here. With the map, you're at least on the right track. Consider the map more of a passive suggestion.
- The hole numbers on the map and the distances listed on this site don't match. It seems every listing is one hole off. For example, hole #3 on this site is listed at 290 feet. I could tell by throwing it was closer to 350 - 375 feet. Quickly discovered the hole listings were off.
- Course really isn't fun. Even if navigation were a breeze, the layout is too simple. Some of the layouts are also dangerous. #10 has you throwing a dogleg right around the entire front of a building. One hit student or one smashed window would probably be most people's first awareness there's a course on the campus.
- The course would virtually be unplayable when school is in session. During the summer, the campus was virtually a ghost town. During the year, good luck trying to play.

This course leaves a lot to be desired. There are glimpses of hope to turn around Carson Newman's course. That said, the reviews since day one highlighted the problems, so I'm not expecting anyone to step up.
- The argument can be made this course should just be yanked. Use the nine baskets at one of the local courses. Or find another park and drop them there. This layout just leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
- At least #9 & 18 were pleasant layouts. This was one of the few layouts that gave you two different looks for each tee location. Contrast that to #2/11, which were seemingly only a couple steps apart on the map. And yet, neither tee marker was located.
- I probably spent as much time searching for tee markers as I did playing. Both tasks were a waste of time.
- It wouldn't take much time for some local disc golfers (local club or intermural players) to team up and get the tee marker situation squared away. Even the simple blue disc markers in the ground would be enough to solve the problem.
- If you're looking for disc golf, you're 15 minutes from an elite course, Panther Creek Park. Play there.

Best part about the course is holes #4 and #2. Reason I say this is because of the obsticles in place. On hole #2 there are some kind of concrete structures (columns) to the right side of your drive. Just kind of neat to throw along outside of the norm obsticles I think. On hole #4 there is a tunnel/bridge that you can choose to throw either through or over the top. Of course the funnest way to do it is to throw through! Check it out in the pictures its actually pretty neat! Besides that the only other pro I can think of is that it would be a fun way for college students to get some outdoors activity after class. And it is also great to put courses on college courses to get people who have never heard of disc golf to gain interest! The more courses on college grounds the more people will hear about it and more interest means more courses! So you gotta commend this course for that at the least!

No tee pads and no signs! Markers are VERY hard to find... even with the "course map" located on here. They are basically just a brick with a mailbox number. My suggestion is to print the map out so you can at least have a basic idea where to throw from. Definitely could be a saftey hazard of a course as the holes weave their ways in and out of the different buildings on campus.

When we played this course, we had the map and ended up pulling out a sharpee and marking on it with the propper driving paths that lined up with the markers/baskets in case we ever played this course again. It is about 25 minutes from my house and I haven't went back... it has been close to a year. Hope this gives you an idea of my desire to play this course again. Although I am sure I will evently give it another try it's not a desire. We spent most of our time looking for the tee markers than we did playing disc golf. We looked for the marker for hole #10 for about 15 minutes and never found it so we left and didn't finish the course. I had put pictures of holes 1-9 from down on the ground where the tee markers were looking up towards the baskets to try and help better chances of people finding the markers but DGCR took them off. The addition of above ground level markers would be a huge plus. Tee pads and signs are not 100% necessary on a course but you gotta know where to tee of or there is no use in even trying it out. Until they make some changes to make the markers easier to find I wouldnt waste your time on this course. I'm sure it's fun for college students who frequent it and know exactly where each tee position is but its a nightmare for first time players. Oh and it's been close to a year since I have played it so i'm not 100% sure but I think the whole #2 marker is in a completely different position than what the map shows.

The only pro i found is that it would be hard to loose a disc.

Tees are hard to find i had a map that i found online and it did not help at all. Even when i did finally find a tee spot i walked over it because its one little brick in the ground with a number on it. Could not finsh just got tired of walking around aimlessly.

Maybe find a student that might help. They could just out a pole in the ground with a number that would help alot.

What I personally like and how this course stacks up in my list of 9 hole courses:

1) Holes with good risk/reward. Fair, but harsh punishment for bad decisions or execution. == C-
(There is really not too much punishment anywhere for bad shots that will add an extra stroke to you score for a bad throw.)

2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities for me. I throw 300' accurately, 360' max. == B-
(Actually, this course with the lengths and obstacles is actually pretty good for my skill level. Deuces are rewarding on this course when throwing DG discs. I think it is designed for students throwing frisbees, so most holes turn into legitimately good Par-4's for that.)

3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography == B-
(Given the space available, the designer did a good job of creating holes with a good variety of shot shapes, low ceilings and good use of terrain.)

4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion. == C
(The campus is picturesque, but it falls short in its ability to recharge my batteries by getting away from it all.)

5) Bonus points for multi-throw holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them. == N/A

It is marked very poorly. I found most of the tees (but not many of the alt tees) but spent a lot of time doing so. Keep in mind this course is for people who live there, so once they figure out the course, this drawback becomes MUCH smaller. But, for first timers, it is a royal pain.

Transitions from basket to next tee are not intuitive and many require a pretty long walk.

It's all about feeding the addiction, so I ranked this course subjectively based on my own "personal addiction factor". The grades above tell how well the course will draw me back to itself again and again and again. Since I have played a decent number of courses (149 18-hole, 91 9-hole as of late 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar addiction tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they choose courses to play and explore.

I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me....that's the fun of things here. See my profile for my rating philosophy.

This course is set on the main block of Carson-Newman's campus. The campus is nice and well-kept. The grass is well-maintained with isolated, mature trees as obstacles as well as campus buildings, light posts, etc. There are 9 nice Innova Discatchers, I physically saw them all.

There are no tee/hole signs. The tees are brick markers and there are supposedly 2 sets of them per hole, but the problem is you can't find them. The bricks are flush with the ground, but even with freshly mowed grass, the thick grass still covers them up. Unless you knew exactly where the tee markers were it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. You end up just making up tees. It is essentially 9 baskets spread around campus.

#4 and #9 baskets were hard to find because they were outside the main block of where all the other baskets are (see below), and we did not actually find them until we were leaving and then we happened to spy them from the car.

There was no course map available, and the courteous worker at the main building knew the disc golf course existed, but did not know of any maps of the course.

If you do decide to play, be prepared to make up your own tees, or somehow find somebody who knows where they are to guide you (and good luck with that!)

Most of the baskets are visible.
#1 and #8 are by the admissions building and library.
#2 plays between two buildings down to the street corner to the right of #1, walk around the building until you see it.
#3,5,6,7 are all behind this large building in the middle of the block
#4 is across the road past #3, you can't see it as it is hidden behind the hill, almost in a hole.
#9 is across the road in front of the admissions building.

Unless you like making up your own course, this is one you should skip. If someone could make a map of the tees this could be a pretty enjoyable, leisurely college course.