Catawba College is a beautiful, albeit small college campus in the middle of Rowan County. It sports a disc golf course of the same name that weaves its way through the middle of the small campus and has nine holes with DISCatcher baskets. The tees are natural, with little stone pavers on the ground to indicate the suggested tee location. I had to use a map to find these, but they were all there.

The course is a great beginners course, and would be a good place for college students who have never played the game to try it out and spend some time between classes. More experienced players will likely be able to create their own safari layouts.

There really isn't much elevation around the course to be used, but Hole 4 was a fun downhill touch shot that was an absolute treat to throw.

The course is a birdie/ace run paradise. Hole 5, in particular, is a short hole with a major backstop behind it - so it is a great place to get aggressive and run that ace.

While it features navigational woes, and is a relatively tame layout (both of which I could likely look past), the biggest problem with Catawba College's disc golf are the numerous safety concerns. The course is packed into a pretty small campus, and there is likely to be a lot of foot traffic around the course on any given day. I can't imagine rounds wouldn't last a while as players wait for students to walk by. Many of the holes are also on lawns that I am sure are fairly popular for students to lay a blanket down and study/read on.

I played this course on what apparently was move-in day for the new Fall Semester, so while there wasn't a lot of traffic on the holes, there were a lot of cars parked around the course. Many of the holes play near campus roads and parking lots, so cars are going to be around - an errant shot could hit a car. Hole 6 even plays across the road. Hole 4 throws downhill, with a parking lot shortly behind the basket.

Hole 9 plays right in a packed-in area around one of the residential halls. Multiple sidewalks around the basket and fairway.

Hole 8, at least based on the day I played it, needs to be redesigned or removed. Directly between the tee and the basket is a basketball court with a tall fence. You can't throw around the right side of the basketball court because the volleyball pits are there. You don't want to throw around the left side of the basketball court because there is a parking lot there. When I played, large athletic buses were parked in the spots right beside the court. The play then is to throw a shot over the basketball courts, and then if you have an errant shot, short and to the right is a gazebo, where people were having a nice chat when I played.

I think it is telling that of all the safety concerns this course has, the fact that Holes 4 &5 have crossing fairways is the least noteworthy, says something.

Catawba College is a beautiful campus, and I do think this course is probably a great fun way for students to kill some time between classes. Overall the course was nice to play, and the campus was well kept. But due to the number of safety concerns I have about the course, I don't think I could give it higher than a 1.0 rating. A beginner playing with a cheap store bought frisbee probably isn't much of a concern and honestly, that is probably who the course is designed to accommodate. For most other players though, I'd probably advise only coming out during college breaks when the campus is likely to be mostly empty.

Favorite Holes: 4 & 5

Catawba College is a very pretty campus in Salisbury, NC and the disc golf course traverses central parts of the campus.

+ Very nice campus, pretty surroundings; manicured grass (park style golf)

+ Nice new baskets

+ Friendly students to point you to the next hole, which is nice because you will likely need help with navigation (see cons)

+ No rough to speak of; no risk of disc loss

+ Ace runs

+ Great course to introduce brand new players to the game

I don't want to bash this course because I did have an enjoyable time here, but I want readers to have a clear picture of the course so they can decide if and when to play it.

- While the campus (and hence the course) is very pretty, it's the heart of an active college campus! I played on a school day and there were students and professors walking around everywhere. You have to be aware and wait to throw when no one is in the way.

- Hole 2's basket is right by a parking lot. When I played, a maintenance truck was literally parked 5 feet from the basket. I didn't make a run at the basket because it wasn't worth the risk.

- Hole 3 had to be pulled because (shocker!) it was smack dab the middle of a busy college quad! It looked like the student union (or at least a popular student hang out) is there. A student walking by told me it was pulled and was very helpful with directions.

- Hole 9 is also one that seems somewhat dangerous because of people walking and not being able to see them because of buildings and trees bordering the fairway.

- Navigation is not easy here. Tees are marked with bricks in the grass. There are no next tee signs, so you have to rely on the UDisc map to get you to the approximate area where you can then look for the marked brick.

- This is a very short course and won't be much of a challenge to golfers who have played more than a few times.

If you're in Salisbury, this is an easy course to bag. Just remember that pedestrians have the right of way and be careful throwing here!

Brand New baskets.

Some interesting lines and attractive landscaping.

Great place to practice putting or for a weekend round if you live near by.

Navigational and safety nightmare:
Tee markers are flat on the grown and hidden by the grass making them very hard to find. I never found 2 of them.
Flow is not very good. You must have the map to find the tee areas. Hole 3 you walk back to hole 1, after 7 you walk the length of the hole plus another 100 feet back past the tee to get to 8.
Throws over roads, walkways, at buildings and parking lots.
Hole 3's basket is between benches and a parking area, both only 20 feet away. 5 throws at parking lot and sidewalk, 6 throws across road at stadium, 7's tee is just 20 feet from basket 6, 9 is the are you F'ing serious hole, it throws over the walkway and stairs to Ketner Hall towards giant glass windows and doors.

Colored bricks or something sticking up from the grass at the tee areas is 100% necessary. Safety is an issue, hopefully no one gets hit by a disc and gets the course closed down.
I agree with New013, 5 is the best hole and the layout jumps around. The only difference is I found tee 6, but I did not find tee's 1 and 3.

Layout - The course is built right on a small congested campus, i'm talking right next to buildings, roads and sidewalks. So for a course that is weaving through all of it it's done pretty well.

There's actually two or three decent disc golf shots that will require you to hit a gap, get close and avoid pavement.

The greens were designed quite well for what they had to work with; several are right next to OB and one with a drop off behind it, which will force you to be accurate on your 200' shot.

I don't know if it was on purpose but there was a couple holes where on the tee you don't feel the wind because buildings are blocking it; then when your disc gets close to the hole it gets hit with a gust.. made me not birdie one hole.

It's a cool course to be right on campus in that space, not sure how it works out when there's people in the way. It's good for beginners or just killing some time between classes for the students there.

Equipment - The baskets are new.

Atmosphere - It's a beautiful small campus, very quaint. The grass is lush and the grounds are very well landscaped. I played this course on a Sunday during the summer. I literally only saw one other person on campus and he was playing tennis with himself. It was kind of weird in a ghost town sort of way but great because nobody was in my way.

Layout - There's maybe two holes over 200'. It's a pitch and putt. It's not like they could of made it any grander. It literally is right through campus next to sidewalks, buildings and roads. Yeah I'm making that a pro and a con. Those boundaries create OB but also tons of danger. I'm not sure what the deal is when school is in session but even with short holes I could see some issues arising. Best to play on the weekend.

Over half of the holes have hardly anything in the way, just wide open short distances. I threw a hyzer on most of the holes.

The layout kind of jumps around a bit as it goes through campus, several times I had to kinda use intuition to find the next hole and then search for the teesign. I never found 6's tee so I made my own from the basketball court.

Equipment - No teepads but they're not needed and would just look ridiculous.. maybe it's a pro?

There are signs to mark where the tee is but they're black with dark red lettering sitting in lush grass and a bit hard to find just walking around, so bring a map... oh wait there isn't one.

Atmosphere - Again, I played with nobody on campus. It could be a pain to play this when there's people moving about but I have no idea how much traffic is on campus.

It's a neat little addition to the college I'm sure. If I was a student there I'd enjoy it but there's not much reason to go out of your way to play there.

After throwing most of shots off the tee I went and found a much longer and harder shot and played it. That's definitely not possible unless the campus is dead, but when it is that was a lot of fun.

I gave the course a 1 just because it was fun and a nice campus to have it on. I'd like to be able to justify a higher rating but there's just not much to it and it's great for what it is. I'm sure if somebody shows up to play this with commotion about their rating will be lower.

Best Holes -

#5 - It's a short downhiller with some guardian trees, fun and great looking hole.

#7 - Probably the hardest shot you'll encounter, you'll actually need to be accurate to deuce.

I'm going to make a crude map using Google Earth to help the rest of you out.