A rugged and petite church course with a mix of cool and questionable fairways.

-Beauty: The woods holes here are really nice, with rugged rock fairways and elevation.

-Flow: The flow of the course is intuitive and pretty easy without a map. (1)-(2) are mostly open, then the rest of the course plays in the woods.

-Gameplay: An interesting mix of holes. The open holes are so-so, with (1) providing the only distance challenge over 300 feet. The woods holes are short but have small and tricky gaps. Both shaping and elevation factor into decision-making. Technical players may have a blast here. I found (4) and especially (8) to be exceptionally fun, somewhat challenging, hilly, short woods holes that could easily belong on a 4.0 course or better.

-Challenge: The woods are tight enough that this course could pose a challenge up to intermediate level.

-Length: The length of the holes doesn't live up to the precision required. Even when I didn't hit my line I was able to scramble consistently. Thus, Common Ground is too hard for beginners and too easy for advanced players.

-Amenities: Good DISCatchers and turf tee pads. Nothing else. That includes tee signage--I recommend UDisc if you want to know distances.

-Overgrowth: There are lots of undesirable plants near the fairway here.

-Tightness: I think some of these holes push the tightness too far. (3) comes to mind especially as a hole without much of a believable line to get all the way to the basket.

-Variety: (3)-(9) have little diversity of distance or environment, although some of the elevation and shot shaping choices are good. (1)-(2), though open, aren't interesting enough to really enhance the thrill of throwing something new during a round.

CGDGC is a neat little 9-holer, but nothing special. There were a couple of woods holes that were great birdie challenges in a rugged setting. However, only a limited skill swath of very technical players will prefer this over other courses within 30 minutes.

Common Ground is a 9 hole disc golf course that sits on Fellowship Bible Church , near I-24 . It is part of a triad of courses in Murfreesboro . The Church looks very nice from the outside , and there is plenty of parking here . When you pull in ,drive all the way to the end of the parking lot and park close to the highway . I am not sure the church will be open for you to use the bathrooms .
The Equipment : There is no kiosk here and no online map . There is a small wood obscure bench up near the road near the corner of the woods , with what looks like some worn dirt or carpet . That is the tee for Hole #1 . I am not sure where the signage went here , but I didn't pick up any until Hole #5 . I was hoping vandals weren't at work . The tee pads are an old small carpet . Some of the surfaces below them were not level , so be careful when teeing off . Whatsurprised me was that there were 9 yellow banded Discatcher baskets present . They are easy to spot and are the best option for any woods holes . Those wood benches appear in a couple of other places on the course .
The Landscape . The first hole is the longest ( someone lengthened some of the holes ) , an elevated tee drive down a fairway with the woods on the right and open on the left .The basket is in the shade of some smaller trees . Important to remember . There was no signage , but the next tee is not far from the back of the #1 basket , and it plays to the end of the property ( still teeing off in the same direction as #1 ) with the #2 basket tucked into the right of the woods . This part of the property was mowed and manicured well . The rest of this course is in the woods . The woods is scenic , quiet and full of nature for being in a residential area . There is some elevation here , notably on 6 & 7 , and rock formations typical of this part of Tennessee . It always adds to the landscape , IMO .There is a small gully in the fairway of #8 . The abundant trees making up the fairway and also lining it make for tight lines .
The Highlights . Once I found where to tee off from #2 , The basket placement to the right in part of the woods was nice . The course goes back and forth for a couple of holes , #4 being a tight fairway shot with a small drop in elevation on the left . #6 is a downhill putter/midrange throw to an elevated basket at the end . Overthrow and you have an uphill putt AND the elvated basket to contend with . #7 is an uphill drive ( I thought it was longer than 195' ) over a rock formed fairway , through the trees to the basket on the right on level ground . #8 would have been my signature hole . A lengthened narrow fairway shot . Midway through , there is a small gully , and after the gully , the fairway shifts to the left and down a bit to the basket tucked into a small green . More of that on cons .
Time : The course is a fast play . I was done in 30 minutes without knowing where I was going . This course is an excellent team building exercise for the church , and also a fun type of course that the group can participate in .
Despite some things lacking , there is some fun factor present .
The church property is very clean . There are no trash cans on the course , so carry out what you carry in .

#1 Navigation . As I said before , there was no kiosk , no map , no signage until #5 . It is frustrating for a first time player here , or out of town player to have to feel around for direction . After #2 , you get a better feel for the next holes .
#2 Equipment . I still praise the church for the yellow Discatcher baskets ( even Barfield Crescent lacks those ) , but if carpet is used or rubber or whatever , the ground underneath has to be level , or someone will trip or turn an ankle . The carpet was is bad shape when I played . I am positive that someone would donate carpet strips to this fine church . The signage was kind of paper encased in plastic . I am guessing that the signage may have blown off in a storm or were discarded . Signs were only present on 5, 7,8 & 9 .
Speaking of equipment . Not really a con , but the elevated basket was a mismatch for hole #6 . I think it would have been a better play for the uphill #7 , or #2 or #4 . Just sayin'
#3 Safety : Since the course is short simple and designed for the casual player , a couple of the fairways ( 3 & 4 ) run close by . A ricochet off a tree could wind up with someone being " baptized by disc " . Also , the downhill run at 6 is dangerously close to the #9 basket to the left . A right to left fade at the end could ruin #9's day . Careful coming down off those rocks in the fairway on #6. They might be slick in adverse weather .
#4 The big disappointment . The most challenging hole on the course and what would have been my favorite , #8 , was overgrown and no fairway really existed . I walked it and putted at the basket , but if I had thrown my driver ( it looked like it had been lengthened to almost 300' ) , I would have been looking at belt-high weeds for my disc .
#5 Challenge . No doglegs or real obstacles except some tight lines and fairway trees . Most baskets are just a little off center , either right or left , of the tee pad . An okay player will eat this course up . I don't think good players are necessarily what Common Ground is preferring , anyway .

I always guess what a church's mission is , when building a disc golf course . There are costs involved to start one , time and effort to upkeep and a good amount of church property to use .
It can be for church fun or inclusion for all the members to laugh and exercise together . It can also be giving something back to the community . Just like colleges , it is a way of advertising by coming here , maybe asking questions , and who knows ? Being a member .There is a reason that the Course is called Common Ground , instead of Fellowship Bible Church . When I played here on June 28 , I came onto the property a little after 9 . They had outside speakers hooked up , and I heard a whole sermon during my round and thoroughly enjoyed it . There were some people scattered on the lawn listening , though . Thank You , Fellowship Bible Church , for allowing me to play on your grounds , especially on a Sunday morning ( sorry about rattling some chains ) .
If anything , it is still a nice walk though beautiful woods .
My Recommendation : Unless living close by , intermediates on up will not find this course to their liking . This is a good fast play for the locals , Great for church members ( I wish my church had a course ) , good for newbies and 1 disc players looking to shore up the technical aspects of the short game , excellent leg stretcher for the traveler if near I-24 in Murfreesboro's vicinity , and ultimate for the Course Collector . 30 minutes here and on to the other area courses . Don't go out of your way to play here , but if you do and have the chance , say hi and thanks to the church personnel here .

Common Ground DGC, situated on the campus of a small upscale church, hosts a surprisingly fun layout. Overall, it's a short course with only hole one asking you to break the 300' mark. The eight remaining holes averaged out in the 225' with a couple of them in the sub-200' mark. The course itself topped out at 2074'. It's a compact layout with holes fitting together like a puzzle with little wasted space. While shoehorned onto the side of the wooded hill, the designers did an impressive job maximizing the landscape with some varied elevation changes, tight gaps, and the course certainly asks for some accurate shot shaping. Overall, left and right turning shots were reasonably represented.

The landscape is quite nice. A mix of mature hardwoods and thicker smaller scrub trees, which are very familiar to this part of Tennessee, decorated the backdrop and defined the routes. Rock features with small outcrops and steps dot the landscape and are incorporated a time or two. Hole one's relative wide open anhyzer shot, punching into a wooded pocket, is a nice start. Hole two creeps into the woods with a little tighter fairway and then it's a steady dose of tightly wooded shots. I happened to like the way it tip-toes you into the woods. Hole six's elevated basket, mounted on a rocky face, was a nice touch and visually appealing from the tee. Hole nine was decent finishing hole with its rustic barn in the background of this picturesque shot.

For a church course, where funds are generally earmarked for more important requirements, it had everything it needed. Sure, some will scoff at the carpeted tees, especially with some in better shape than others. But really, with the short holes, there's no need for anything more. And besides, this gives them the freedom to adjust the layout in the future as needed. There are decent tee signs with the all the pertinent info. They're printed and attached to large white corrugated plastic yard signs, which also serve the purpose in identifying the next tee from the basket. This made navigation a breeze, especially when coupled with the random orange flags that hashed out the trails from hole to hole. Full size yellow banded DISCatchers were nice and a plus for a church course where cheaper baskets are usually found. Benches were a nice touch at a few of the pads rounding out the amenities.

Repetitiveness or lack of diversity is the biggest ding on the course. This is coming from a wooded course loving player too. There's just not a whole lot of character separating the holes in terms of design or length. If somehow you could have expanded the footprint of the course to about twice the size, you would have had a lot more freedom to get creative and add some needed length.

I generally don't like elevated baskets as a rule. There are times when a natural feature or circumstance calls for them when they have a "cool" factor. I do think this course has room for one to break up the monotony of hole types, but I think they picked the worst hole to put it on (#6). The hole is a nice downhill shot to a rocky faced green. It is arguably one of the more scenic and fun shots. But the rocky feature stands on its own and a normal basket placement would have been fine, reserving the use of the elevated basket elsewhere on one of the weaker holes. Let me explain. The downhill shot is a short ace run. It's one that temps you to take multiple shots. But if you are playing for score, you'd never make a hard run at it as a blow-by means in almost all cases you will lose a stroke. Instead, a jump putt lay-up off the tee is the safe shot with a disappointing and mostly easy putt to the elevated basket, which deflates the excitement. Maybe it's just me, but an uphill elevated basket placement would make more sense here. Perhaps number seven would be a good hole as it has a unique walk up rocky ledges to a tucked and guarded basket placement.

Some won't like the natural and deteriorating carpet pads.
With the packed in design, if multiple groups get on the course, look out for others. Baskets and tee pads are close to one another. On the above-mentioned hole six, a missed ace run could wind up giving players in nine's fairway some plastic shampoo.

Although I played after record rain in the area, the course drained well. However, the wet rocks are slick. More of a word of caution than a ding on the course.

While playing in late winter, I had no issue with underbrush. It's easy to see from the landscape and images on DGCR how lost discs or at least spending time looking for errant shots can take away from the overall enjoyment of the course in the growing season.

This course is less than 10 minutes off I-24. It's a perfect leg stretcher if you are traveling through. Playing solo, you could be off and back on the interstate in less than an hour. If you are not pressed for time and looking for a well-rounded 18-hole course, then the nearby Barfield Crescent will be the better option. For the course bagger though, this one is well worth the effort and has a great fun factor.

I could have saved the key stokes on the elevated basket thing in the cons as it really is a personal issue. But it doesn't change my rating of the course with it in mind. This really is a fun little course and the property is really nice. But for the typical disc golfer, especially one with any meaningful experience under their belt, I'll have to give it a 2 out 5 as a reasonable 9-hole church course.

(1.949 Rating) A heavily wooded 9 holer with moderate elevation usage.
- RAW BEAUTY - The beauty I think this is the best aspect of this course. Normally when I think of church courses, I imagine open multi-use fields, a spattering of trees and baskets laid out along the fringe areas. Not at all with Common Ground as this one is almost entirely set in the woods. There are lots of rock features too, which apparently is common for the Nashville area. In all, I'd say this course is around 60 percentile in my course beauty ranking spreadsheet. No water features and too many small downed branches in the fairways and fringes are holding it back from a slightly better score.
- CHAINS - Yeah DISCatchers. It made spotting the target down fairway in these heavy woods that much easier.
- ACEABILITY - With nice solid baskets, it's going make chain smashing all that more common. Most of lines require a little movement, but seven shots are under 235 feet.
- QUICK PLAY - Once finding the start of the layout, running the course is fairly quick. Figure 35 minutes for a solo and 70 minutes for a group of four.

Those that like manicured open layouts should go elsewhere.
- TEES - They are carpet and are slowly being returned to nature as I write this. This course is not that old, perhaps 2 years on my play. So to know that carpet will only last maybe a year or two makes installing them pretty much a waste of time. In addition, they were laid directly on the ground with no surface leveling consideration. I personally teed to the side twice.
- NAVIGATION - There is no map for this course on DGCR, but once finding (1), It's not too difficult. First off, players should park at the southern end of the parking lot. To find tee (1), head southwest towards the road and tree line intersection. There along the road sidewalk is a bench, a deteriorating carpet pad and a vinyl sign becoming engulfed in overgrowth. After this adventure, most next tee signs can be spotted from the prior basket or there's a intuitive pathway. Tee signage quality is poor.
- CHARACTER - Only the crude basics of tees and navigation, however as noted above, great DISCatcher baskets. There are a few benches spaced evenly along the layout. All other amenities and extras are absent.
- MAINTENANCE - Common ground is maintained just enough to make it passable. As stated above, the tees are in rough shape. Fairway edges are very raw with small fallen branches everywhere. Anyone with walking impairments probably should avoid this course. The signage is on flimsy white vinyl and they are fading a touch. I doubt they will make it through the winter. On the flipside, I spotted very little trash and pathways between holes are wide enough to keep the machete in the car.
- OVERGROWTH - Not epic bad, but straying off fairway even a little bit, will get interesting. I pinged a tree on (7) and it cut into 30 feet of dense foliage. I constantly found myself searching for spider web destroying sticks so as not to become entangled in a silky wrap. Hole (8s) foliage is extra evil as the fairway line gets a little sun, thus the edges are even more diabolical. I wasn't paying to great deal of attention for poison ivy, but I think it's here. I was more worried about the terrifying harmless spiders.
- UNIQUENESS - About average for a niner but lacking overall. Hole is (1) is the only longer shot and lightly wooded shot. Hole (2) is moderately wooded. The remaining holes are all heavily wooded. Sure a couple are up and a couple are down, but the surrounding elements felt the same. Basket (6) is a raised placement to punish those running at the basket on the downhill line.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - I wouldn't take a beginner here. Take them to nearby Barfield Crescent instead and play the open 9 hole layout.

I liked it for a church course. I went over my past notes and it appears that this was my 13th church course and its currently my second highest rated even at a mid 2 rating. Far behind my favorite, Austin Ridge Bible Church which I have at a solid 4. I think this set-up will work well for members of the church and for those within a couple miles. The lines a pleasing enough and there's enough obstacles in the short layout to keep players working for it. Obviously this type of course won't please everyone. I could see those that enjoy bombing shots not enjoying this one as the driver may have to stay in the bag the entire time. I personally only used mine once on tee (1) where I think the hole is much longer than the stated 302 feet. It's more like 330 to 340 according to satellite imagery. Regardless, this is a nice church course and an effective use of unusable land. I'd play here routinely if I lived in the neighborhood.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - About average or a touch below. Yes this is a heavily wooded course, but it's too short for skilled players. I could see myself as an Intermediate level player averaging 2 down with for 4 birds and 2 bogeys. The main key for a majority of the holes is to throw a putter or mid on a subtle moving line in hopes to miss a pinch point. A hit means easy bird, while a big miss means a dire scramble for par.

Decent short technical 9-hole woods course. Well-designed in that even though it is short, it is tight enough to make it more challenging than it looked on the internet.

9 numbered Discatchers look great.

Navigation was easy without a map. Tees are near the previous basket, with clear paths in the woods, and there was even spray-painted arrows on the ground helping to point the way.

I appreciated the effort on the [narrow] fairways on the 7 woods holes that appeared to be regularly maintained, however, off the fairways is typical woods undergrowth that just gets tall and thick in the summer. Any errant throw, bad kick off a tree, or just a fade/skip into it will likely lead to a search.

Hole 8 was lined with some weed that will surely swallow discs forever.

Carpet/natural tees. Tee signs were helpful, but are of a quality that will not endure the elements for very long.

Overall I actually was impressed with what is here- hole design is logical and the flow makes sense. Great place to bring mids and work on accuracy. Nothing more than a fairway driver will be needed, besides in the woods you won't want anything with much speed or fade as it might get lost.

This course is probably best played between November-April before the woods undergrowth gets thick. (in other words it would be more fun not having to look for discs)

Not a destination course, probably not going to be played by many people except the church members and people who live/work nearby. I have it rated around a 1.75- somewhere between passable and reasonable.

Playing up a rocky wooded hill reminded me of some of the holes of nearby Barfield, just in a scaled-down version.