Creekside's Beginner Loop is 6 holes that is meant to offer beginner's a place to learn the game of Disc Golf. It features concrete tee pads, nice tee signs, and nice DISCatcher baskets. With an average hole length of 197 feet, you don't need a big arm to score well here. Experienced players probably won't need anything other than a putter, outside of maybe a midrange on the first two holes.

While the holes are mostly straight & flat shots, the course does feature one slightly downhill shot, and one slightly uphill shot. This would be a good course for kids to test the waters of the game on. The park is very nice and features picnic areas, a rec center, a playground, etc. The Beginner Loop could be incorporated into a family day at the park.

This course and the main course share the first two holes. While navigation towards the beginner loop seems straightforward to me, I know of at least one person who was confused as to where to go because the signage technical points in a different direction.

Other than completely green beginners, this course doesn't offer much. I'm not sure if I really would consider it an adequate warm up for the Main Loop, unless you're playing the Red Tees on the main loop. And if that is the case, that means you'll be playing the exact same Holes 1 & 2 twice. Even if you're playing the Blue tees, it's the same Hole 2.

Hole 4 needs a designated mando. Every time I play I see the shot that it planned for the tee shot, but you can tell everyone pretty much just throws straight at the tee, cutting off the entire fairway.

I think this course serves a purpose, albeit an fairly niche one. For that I will give it a 1.0, because I can't really see any reason anyone outside of a complete beginner would drive to come play it. Better beginner courses exist, and new ones seem to be popping up within driving distance of this park. However, if you're already at Creekside Park (since the Main Loop is still among my favorites), here are a few uses I could think of for this course:

- Introducing someone new to the sport
- A place for kids to enjoy
- Hunting for an ace
- Playoffs for when you and your buddies tie
- Warming up for/cooling down from your round
- Transition from Hole 16 of the Main Loop to Hole 5 of the Beginner Loop, then from Hole 4 of the Beginner Loop, to Hole 17 of the Main Loop to make for a 24 Hole Round

Favorite Holes: 2 & 6

A short, quick course that plays around back of the Community Center building.
DISCatcher baskets, in pretty good shape. Good tee signs.
Good use of elevation and foliage variety for this small # of holes, #2 is downhill and left, #4 a little uphill and #5 is uphill, through a tunnel out to the open grass, then #6 is slightly uphill and open, with the basket on the edge of the trees.
Good little warmup loop for the much longer, and tougher, 18 course.

Not a lot of hole direction variety, they are either straight or turning left.
Some rust on the chains.

This is a 6 hole loop at the start of the larger 18 hole course. #1 and 2 are the same hole for both courses, with a shorter Red tee for this course. You can play this as a warmup for the longer course (#6 finishes pointed right back to #1), as a cool down from that course, OR as it is probably intended, as a short, kid and family friendly beginner course.

For this purpose, this course really fits the bill. Only one hole over 225', and that's downhill. The lines could be a little larger, but they are not too tight. After playing 4 holes in the woods, and your tee shot on #5, #5 basket and #6 are in the open, on nice grass. Right about the time the kids, or wife, are tired of the trees and wanting something different.

The 18 hole course is a very good, 3.5 rated course that covers large parts of the park, many elevation changes, namesake creekside holes and a variety of holes. That course is not for everyone, nor does everyone have the time to play that course. This course could easily be played after a family picnic, when the kids are in sports practice at the other facilities in the park, or by kids at the park for an outing or camp. This is just the type of course that can probably get a lot of kids interested in the game.

Archdale P&R seems to take good care of their facilities including the ballfields, tennis courts, playground and community center at this park. They even take pride in the DG courses at this park, as evidenced by the Park logo (see my post in the "Post a Cool Disc Golf Pic" thread, #4192). There's a separate tournament layout in one of the cooler months of the year in the parts of the park you drive through on your way in.
No, this is not the Championship level course, its much better than a practice facility, and it's a good course to expose new players to the game.

It's short
close to where I work (really close to where I used to work)
It is disc golf
It's more fun if you throw lids or lid-like discs
Secluded feel (albeit brief)

admittedly weird layout
familiarity breeds contempt
Hole 4

When I worked in Archdale, I played this course almost every day at lunch. The main course is too long to play on a lunch hour but this little slice of pachinko dinker hell will scratch that itch with a quickness.

I can still make it down here from where I currently work and play this loop twice and make it back before the hour is up.

This is a simple little warm-up loop -- 6 holes, including 2 that are shared with the main course (so, 4 unique holes, 1 short tee on a shared hole, and 1 shared tee). I didn't have any complaints about the course: it's a nice loop of holes for beginners or to warm-up for the real course.

+ Good for beginners or for practice.

+ Good baskets.

+ Some elevation: one downhill, 2 slightly uphill

+ Mix of hyzer, anhyzer, and straight tee shots

- Other than the first 2 holes (shared with the main course), you probably don't need anything other than putters. Very short.

- Relatively long walk from the 6th hole back to the 1st tee to play the main course.

- Not a big challenge for non-beginners.

- Only 6 holes...and only 4 unique holes. I'd consider this a practice course.

Worth playing as a warm-up for the main course.

There's nothing I can really add to this that heelboycraig hasn't covered. Skip to Other Thoughts for my super secret tip involving this course though.

It doesn't really loop back to anything. It basically loops back to the middle of itself. If you want to play the standard 18 and work these holes into it, there isn't really a way to do that with backtracking or playing holes over that I can tell.

Okay so the walk to the first hole of this and the standard, actual course from the parking lot is quite a trek, especially since the 18 hole course ends on the opposite end of the parking lot. Because I enjoy throwing as I walk instead of just walking and because I don't like walking far to my car after a tiresome round here's what I do:

Park as close to hole 18's basket as you can, this is the far left corner of the lot in front of the Rec. Center. Then walk past the playground towards beginner loop hole 5's basket. Improvise a tee if you don't feel like walking all the way to 5's tee and play hole 5 and then play hole 6. Now, instead of a long, uphill walk to the first hole of the actual course that is mostly in the sun, you now have a level, slightly shorter walk that is mostly in the shade and you've had a couple of warm-up holes. And after you finish your actual round you have a much shorter walk to the car. Don't tell too many people this amazing course hack, please. *wink wink*

Creekside's 6 hole loop isn't as much a beginner/kid friendly course as it is a bonus 4-hole loop for the pro course. After you play the pro course, you wind down with a couple of pitch-n-putt layouts.
- First two holes of this loop are the same as the pro's first two holes. From there, #3 & 4 are pitch-n-putt, wooded layouts. #5 & 6 play slightly longer, making them more than beginners/kids can aim for.
- Navigation of these 6 holes is easy. After #2, pros go to the right; beginner loopers go to the left. Hole #3 - 6 play in a counter-clockwise loop back towards the parking lot.
- The biggest, and most obvious, positive about this course is that there's a legitimate, fun, and challenging course right there. Even if you don't want to tackle the full 18, just play several of those holes, throw in the beginning loop 6-pack, and you can play a mish-mash 10 or 12-hole loop.
- If you do opt to come here to only play this loop, you can easily do it with a putter and mid-range. Longest hole is #2 at 243 feet, and that's slightly downhill. All told, the six holes average just under 200 feet.
- Park has plenty of great amenities. The six-hole layout is probably the least appealing of everything here, so it's all a positive.

I don't understand why this six-hole layout even exists. It's not a short, easy, kid-friendly loop. It's not appealing to more experienced players. It's essentially part of a 22-hole course except you can skip the 4 extra holes.
- The 4 holes that are different from the pro course - #3 - 6 - don't offer much challenge or creativity. If you needed to do something with the extra 4 baskets, incorporate them into the pro course as practice baskets or longer/alternative layouts.
- The walk from pro #18 to the beginning of the beginner's loop takes about as long as it does to play the actual beginner loop.

It's nice that Creekside made a quick loop that plays close to the rec center. I'm waiting to find anybody who comes here only to play the beginner loop and not the actual, 18-hole layout.
- If you play holes #1 & 2 as part of the pro course, do you have to start back over at #1 for the 6-hole course, or do you start at #3?
- #3 could have been an enjoyable hole if it were longer. #4 & 5 were simple. And #6 has a basket that edges up to the woods. That's your beginner loop in a nutshell.
- Sure. Play the extra 4 holes the first time you play Creekside. It will only be an extra 10 - 15 minutes of time. After that, you'll forget the beginner loop is even there. I only played the loop because I had a little time to kill after playing the pro course. And that's pretty much sums up this course.