Citizens Park is an 18-hole recreational course with a double loop layout using 9 baskets. This short course provides shots that are accessible to newer players, while also providing fun ace runs that more experienced players will enjoy going for as well.

Location of Citizens Park is just off of N belt W, with easy access to Highway 15 and then to I-255; it's on the right after the drive-in theater. Citizens Park is a part of a tight collection of courses in Belleville and Swansea, making this an easy area to make a day out of between this course, Bicentennial, B.I.G., and Clinton Hills. Citizens is also not too far from restaurant and gas station options, as well as multiple disc golf shopping options including Van Man Discs in Swansea and Play-It-Again in Fairview Heights. Van Man's staff are especially helpful if you have any questions, and will even let you try discs out before buying them

Park Amenities, in addition to disc golf, include multiple shelters, 3 softball fields, 2 playgrounds, bathrooms, walking paths, and a small skate park. Park shelters can be reserved for events. Hole 1 is to the right at the park entrance along the left field foul line of the closest softball field. With other park uses including one of the playgrounds being close to the disc golf course, this is a good option for a round of golf if you're out with a family.

Course Equipment at Citizens is designed well and in good shape with some exceptions (see cons). The start of the course includes a large sign with a course map and rules. Each tee is concrete and has its own sign. To help differentiate between the front and back 9, the front 9 tee sign posts are yellow and the back 9 are red, helping with navigation. Each tee sign provides a hole layout, par, distance to pin, next tee direction, and other reference points that are nearby. The DISCatcher baskets are all in great shape and catch well.

Course Design at Citizens caters to throwers who don't have a lot of power yet or are still working on their accuracy, with most of the shots off the tees being open with minimal chance of a disc getting lost. The longest hole on course is hole 2 at 375 feet, but the incredibly generous pars cater to those who can't throw very far, with multiple par 5s and 4s on site for distances that would be par 3s on most other courses. The course makes the most out of land that circles the softball field as well as the land west and south of the parking lot closest to the course, navigating around walking paths and other park uses.

Variety at Citizens is most apparent when considering elevation and distance, with holes varying from ~150 feet to 375 feet. Most shots will be in the 200-300 range. While a lot of the beginning holes are level, elevation is also present on this course, with most shots involving elevation change being downhill. In the back part of the course, you'll find some slight uphill shots, particularly on holes 9 and 18. Most of the shot shapes required for this course off the tees are fairly straight or include slight turns to the right, though some hyzer lines are also present. Overall, folks with limited shot shaping capabilities will be able to get through this course without too much trouble.

Course Difficulty when it comes to obstacles and pars definitely swing towards newer and rec players. Most holes over 200 feet are listed as par 4s, with par 5's being over 300 feet. Are these reasonable compared to most other courses? Maybe not. Did I enjoy scoring a -22 round to start my Saturday? You bet.

Safety and Proximity To Other Park Uses is a real concern on this course. There are some instances on this course where you throw over walking trails, but in many of those instances, you can see if anyone is coming from either direction. These situations don't bother me as much. That being said, there are a lot of other holes that go close to or through other park uses. A few holes play really close to the softball field, where a shot could easily stray into the field. Holes 1 and 10 also bring private property into play as well. Holes 9 and 18 also play close to swings, benches, and a pavilion, close enough that it's really hard to throw around these things to get to the fairway without pushing close to the road on the right. Overall, this course plays close to other park amenities much more often that I'd prefer, especially considering the difficulty of this course is more geared towards players that may not have as much accuracy in their shots. Watch out for others in the park before you throw.

Course Equipment is nice except for some of the tee pads. A number of tee pads are not level, and play at weird angles. This makes for some tough tees to throw off of, to the point where some holes may be better off just throwing from another spot next to the tee.

Variety and Course Design just about make the most of the land available. That being said, the course is a very easy one, with minimal shot shaping requirements. The additional 9 tees make for some nice small alterations to the holes, whether they make some lines a little tighter, approach from a different angle, or just add or subtract some length to a shot. Even with those additions, the course feels more like a 9-hole with some extras than a genuine 18 hole course.

All in all, Citizens Park makes for a fun and chill round of golf if you are looking for a course with limited chances to lose a disc. As fun as some of the ace runs on this course are, the crooked tee pads and safety concerns can be limiting. I could see situations come up when a game is being played on the softball field or the pavilion around hole 9/18 is being used where some of the holes on this course are unplayable. My friend and I played this course first thing in the morning and had no issues, but I imagine this park can get a lot of traffic.

If you're in the area and like to bag new courses, add Citizens Park to your list. If you're looking for more challenging courses, Bicentennial and Clinton Hills are both close by. If you're visiting St. Louis, there are a number of courses in the area I'd recommend before Citizens. If you're nearby though and like ace runs, come give it a shot. Just look both ways before throwing.

Citizens Park is a fairly large suburban park that has three ball fields, three pavilions, a walking path, a bike ramp and a nine-hole disc golf course retrofit into the park. The course has two paved tees per hole and numbers them 1-9, 10-18 instead of 1A 1B etc. The course mostly winds around two softball fields and features park-style shots with O.B. from the ball fields, property line and walking paths. A creek runs past holes 5 and 7 to create some additional O.B. The baskets are DISCatchers that are in good condition.

There is good signage and the course flows fairly well. You can find your way around without a map. The two tees don't alter the shots much except on holes 6 & 7. A few of the shots have some distance; holes 3, 4 and 9 are over 300' and the added tees on 8 & 9 (numbered 17 & 18) are also over 300'. The rest are Roc/putter shots. There is some elevation to work with and the course has a few fun elevated tee Ace runs on shots 3,12 and 16. The park-style shots don't really force you to throw a variety of shots and the design is a decent recreational course; you can have some fun here.

Hole 1/10 runs between the property line and a ball field; from the "no trespassing" and "video monitored" signs on the back yards to the left I'd say that isn't working out so great. Hole 2 throws over a walking path and its Hole 11 tee is up against and outfield fence. Hole 4 shoots over the walking path. Hole 5/14 throws over a bike path. Hole 6/15 throws to a pin near a softball fence and the Hole 15 version throws along the fence line. The Hole 16 tee throws over a bike path/park road and Hole 8/17 throws back over it. Hole 9/18 throws toward a pavilion and a swing near the basket, and the Hole 9 tee has another swing that you essentially have to throw right at as it is in the middle of the route from that tee. That's a lot of safety concerns. Playing this course when the park is busy would be difficult.

The tees are concrete but were not leveled. Many of them slope up/down and some tilt from side to side. The 16 tee slopes down so dramatically that I'm not sure how you would actually use it with a run up.

The 10-14 tees for the most part just make the holes shorter. The 15-16 tees create a different shot, but then the 17-18 tees just make the shots longer. It's cool that the holes have two tees, it just doesn't alter the shots all that much. Tees 1/10 and 5/14 sit next to each other; any difference in those shots is subtle. The shot from the 16 tee doesn't have a way over the creek it shoots over, so it creates a long walk from the tee to your shot.

Citizens Park would be a very good recreational/beginner course, but those are exactly the types of players who would have problems navigating the safety conflicts the course design has. The safety concerns and the fact that the tees are not leveled knock down the rating of this course for me.

Belleville has two disc golf courses; Bicentennial Park is a very tough technical wooded course and Citizens Park is a recreational 9-hole. Somehow, Citizens Park at the time that I'm reviewing it is rated higher than Bicentennial Park. How or why that has happened is beyond me; anyone who plays disc golf semi-seriously would put Bicentennial Park far above Citizens Park. If you are in Belleville and looking for a challenging round, go play Bicentennial Park. Citizens Park is the cupcake course; it should be for those fun rounds where you have an hour and just want to get some throws in.