Central Park in Oakbrook, Illinois hosts one of the better nine hole layouts that I've encountered. This is the 2nd layout in this park. The redesign was necessitated by the park district's plans to build a field turf soccer field, maintenance garage, and a wilderness area (which is now inexplicably a foot golf course) using most of the foot print of the old course. Additional, wooded land was allocated to disc golf and after what looks like a ton of work, Oakbrook had a disc golf course again. I believe only one old fairway was partially repurposed (old 7/new 1), but it's hard to tell due to the amount of tree/brush clearing in that part of the park. The old course required you to hit a fairly tight gap on 2, maybe 3 holes. The new layout asks you to do that on at least 5 (consecutive) holes.

The course opens up with 2 fairly open holes with enough mature trees to keep you honest. Then you walk. Then you play 5 challenging, tightly wooded holes. These holes are no joke, featuring tight lines with rough that's not conducive to heroic saves. Hole 8 is mostly open, but the basket is on a slope that is made for rollaways. Hole 9 give big arms a chance to gain a stroke by clearing the water off the tee. Pretty wild finishing hole for a 9er.

Equipment is solid. There's a nice course map by the practice basket (original basket location for old hole 6). Most holes have at least 2 tees and some feature 3. Longest tees are large, level paver tees. All other tees are similarly sized, but use a nice artificial turf. Detailed signs are located at the longest tee. Baskets are Mach Vs with the numberplate.

There are a ton of different looks off the tee here. More than half of the holes really change the look between the tees. Some of the wooded holes feature totally different fairways for half the hole. A few holes also have a 2nd pin placement. With that said, you need to throw a lot of straight shots, either with slight turn or fade.

What elevation change there exists is well used. Hole 5 is a fun, tight downhill through the woods to a green on a tall mound. Hole 6 plays back up the same hill. Hole 8 tees from the flat, but the basket is on the side of a man made sled hill.

Due to the patchwork nature of the land left over for the disc golf course, routing is a little janky. After the first two holes, you walk 500+ feet down a service road to get to hole 3. Hole 9 finishes close to hole 2s tee and hole 1s green. Depending on where you parked, you either walk around the soccer field or across the 1 to 2 transition to get back to your car. The closest, most obvious, parking to hole 1's tee is apparently not the intended lot because you'll never encounter the practice basket or course sign if you park there. They mean for you to park in the lot by the fitness center, but if you drive in for the first time looking for baskets or tees, that's likely not where you'll end up. Not something that would affect my rating, but I found it weird enough to mention.

In some areas the course equipment leaves something to be desired. While the tees are all amply sized, for some reason they were all framed with wood that sticks up at least 2" above the tee surface. It shouldn't mess with your runup unless you're a Conrad disciple, but be careful not to trip while admiring/bemoaning your shot. While the tee signs are nice, they are only at the long tees and this isn't the sort of course where you're always walking by the longs to get to the shorts. I can't tell if these are the original baskets, but they look it. Still catch fine though.

Although this redesign is now 10+ years old, in some ways it still feels like a work in progress. I had assumed, given the amount of money the park district has to work with that all tees would eventually have nice signs like the ones at the longs. No dice. There are a few trees on 5's mound green that were marked for removal when the course went in but are still there with spray paint x's. The huge brush pile (from the fairway clearing) in the woods between 5 and 6 is mostly still there. It doesn't affect hole 5, but it's adjacent to 6's green and gives the hole an unfinished look. A couple of the holes (especially 7, but also 3) feel a bit too tight. Early on, I thought a tree or two would eventually get removed after play testing, but no dice.

I've complained a lot about what is, in reality, a really good 9er. It's hard for me to be objective though. I played my 2nd ever round of disc golf at the original Oakbrook course and probably 95% of my rounds over the next year or so were played there. Old hole 9, at 360', was out of my realistic range at the time but circumstances lined up a handful of times. I missed all those long putts. Lots of great memories and some unfinished business.

So, anyway, I'm biased and in many ways, the (not so) new Oakbrook is exactly what the Chicago suburbs need. A tight, wooded antidote to all those loose, grassy fields.

Central Park is a wonderful 9 hole course set in a gorgeous park that it shares with multiple ball fields, basketball courts, a recreation center, etc. The course features Mach 5 baskets on each hole, as well as an additional practice basket. The course has three slightly altered layouts, making it a great place for players of all skill levels. The White layout has tees made out of pavers, the tees for the Red and Green layouts are made of astro turf. There are tee signs at all of the White tees, with information for all three layouts.

The course seems to be extremely well kept. The grass was cut uniformly all around the course and wood chips/mulch had been placed anywhere where mud may be a potential issue. This gave the tee boxes a professional feel, as they were all surrounded by wood chips.

The Green layout is short enough that beginners will be able to learn the game here, but technical enough that they aren't subjected to 9 holes of straight and open shots. All of the layouts are technical in nature, and are a lot of fun. Many of the holes require specific shot shapes in order to have a good birdie look, especially with the low ceiling that can be found on most holes.

While there wasn't much elevation for the course to utilize, the little amount of elevation available to the designers was utilized very well. Hole 5's green was perched on a tall mound in the middle of the woods which brought an element of risk/reward into play. Hole 8 plays around and on the side of a steep hill, so again roll-aways will likely be common. Hole 9 is slightly downhill, and Hole 6 slightly uphill.

It would be nice if every tee had its own sign, because the tee signs are only at the white tees, and they were sometimes in a very different place than the red tees or green tees.

The white layout offered enough differences between itself and the red layout, but the green layout shared seven tees with the red layout. I think the course would benefit from a couple more green specific tees.

A few of the fairways would benefit from a bit of light maintenance around the edges. While the fairways overall seemed fair to me, especially with the Par listed for each hole, they would likely feel oppressive to beginners because of the technical nature of the fairways, tight gaps with low ceilings. Though, I doubt this is as big an issue in winter.

Hole 7 has two trees in the dead center of the fairway, blind from the tee. The first of which is a dead, spindly tree. This tree should be removed because it is already dead, ruins the beauty of the hole, and the second tree which is bigger serves the same purpose. The fact that the second tree is bigger means there would be less variance for how far your drive kicked off line too.

While the long transition between Hole 2 and Hole 3 is well marked, it is worth noting. Largely due to the fact that the signage seemed to stop just short of when I needed to turn to get to Hole 3's tee.

There is some disc loss potential on Hole 6 on the side of the berm, but the biggest issue would be large debris dump to the right of the fairway. I imagine in the summer time it likely becomes a snake pit too.

All of the tees were nice, but it would have been nice to see some uniformity between them and have them all be made out of pavers.

As I write this review, Central Park is probably among the top five 9 hole courses that I have played. I really enjoyed playing here, and it was a nice addition to my weekend in the Chicago area. My only regret is that I only had a midrange and a putter, both of which were expendable discs, instead of my full bag. For now I am going to give it a 2.5 rating. If you are in the Chicago area, and looking for a quick, quality round of technical golf, in a pretty setting - this is a great place to check out.

Favorite Holes: 5, 8, 9

Central Park DGC is a very technical tests of your skills. I think six of the holes are very tight, narrow and usually have low canopies.

The course has a nice, clear course map at the beginning, along with a practice basket. The tee pads are excellent. They are paver stones with a frame built around them with wood chips. They were a little slippery today with last night's storm and lots of these little berries falling from the trees above. The alternate tees are indoor/outdoor carpet on a raised platform. The new signs are greet giving you all the information you need.

For many players, like myself, this course can be brutal. There are awfully tight lines to hit and missing your line can put you in a world of hurt. And # 9 is an excellent finishing hole. Most players can lay up and then have a relatively easy approach over the water.

# 5 is a 300' throw down a tight fairway and then the basket is set up on a small hill, maybe 8 foot high. It's a very cool hole but extremely treacherous.

Beside the fact that this course totally handed me my lunch today, I really wasn't thrilled with # 6 ?? Isn't that the hole that plays uphill and then the basket is set in the Parks Department storage and dumping area. It's pretty ugly with piles of brush, old building supplies, pallets and other discards lying about.
The tee pads were covered with these little black berries of some sort making them a little slippery.

Overall, if you're a fan of technical courses and like the challenge they offer, then this is the course for you. I like technical courses, I just happen to really suck on them. I think those tight lines cause my eyes to cross thus throwing off my equilibrium and therefore raising havoc with my already pathetic game.

Variety of holes
Replayability
Some remarkably solid holes, especially for a 9 hole course
Well isolated from rest of park
Hole #9 is an incredibly fun hole to play from the top of the sled hill.
Nice material for both sets of tee pads.

Course is still rough around the edges, no distances/tee signs, construction debris evident on a few holes.
Long walk between 2 and 3
A few of the holes are gimmicky, especially 7.
Since it is a 9 hole course, it can get a bit crowded. Benches would be a welcome improvement.
Difficult to see when people are on the alternate tees on holes 3 and 4.

I get the feeling from reading the other reviews that they have reviewed this course based more on its potential than its current state. The course in its current condition is not a 3.5 - 4 disc course. The good news is that this course could easily reach that rating with just a few improvements.

1.) Hole #6 is a bit messy from construction still, with piles of dirt and brush in a few places. The rough on the right side can slow down play a lot when new players lose their discs in it. It could be cleared out a bit without affecting play.

2.) Hole 7 could be vastly improved just by removing one tree, which is currently restricting play to 2 narrow gaps on either side of it. This tree will probably end up dead in short order due to its position and slender nature though.

3.) If the brush were cleared out on 3-4 to improve routing on the course and to allow groups on one tee to see groups on the other tee play could be sped up and the chance of accidentally throwing on other groups could be decreased.

A few other thoughts: The grassy tees are actually more comfortable to throw from in wet conditions than the pavers, but I don't know how well they will hold up to use as a pad. It is probably a good thing they only used this material for the short tees.

Overall, a 4+ rating is going to be out of reach due to being a 9 hole course, but with a few minor improvements this course will probably mature to be rated a solid 3.5.