Crestwood Park is a nice suburban green space that plays host to a short recreational 9-hole course. This course is pretty straightforward with an easy learning curve, making it a nice option for newer players as well as more seasoned folks looking for a quick low scoring round.

Location of Crestwood Park is in the heart of Crestwood, just a couple of minutes from both Watson Road and Lindbergh Blvd./Rt. 50/Rt. 61/Rt. 67 (jeez, what a road). I could type out directions, but let's be honest, you have GPS. Make sure your GPS takes you to the parking lot off Meadowfern, as that lot is close to holes 1 and 9. Hole 1 will be right next to the pavilion. If you want to do a day of golfing, there's plenty of other courses close by, especially Watson Trail just down the road. That course, along with Sunset Lakes and Unger make for a tight cluster, with others like Jefferson Barracks, Willmore, and Schroeder also not far. For food or gas, Watson and Lindbergh will both have you covered with plenty of options.

Amenities are nice at Crestwood Park. Next to the parking lot are bathrooms that are definitely among the nicest I have seen in a public park. There're also a few ball fields, as well as a nice playground just off the parking lot. Most notable though are the numerous walking paths you will see around the park during your round, which get plenty of use by locals.

Course Equipment is straightforward but provides everything you need right now. The baskets are fresh Black Hole Portals and catch great. The tee signs have hole numbers, pars (all 3s), and distances. No hole graphics here, but you can see each basket from the tee, so there's not really any surprises here. There're also some additional directional signs for what few awkward transitions do exist. There're also "flying disc" warning signs for the locals as well which is a nice touch. The tee pads are natural and marked by a couple pavers, though the tee areas are already getting worn in enough that you can see where the expected tee spot is.

Course Design snakes around the park to use just about every inch of real estate you can fit a disc golf hole into in the park. At just over 2,000 feet, this course is short, with elevation probably making the realistic distance shorter as a whole. I clocked in just over 1,800 steps on my round, which isn't much, but still more than Aaron Rodgers got this season with the Jets.

Elevation doesn't come into play too much here, but a couple of holes do have some added spice. Hole 1 is a very fun way to start a round, with a wide-open downhill shot that measures just under 300 feet but likely plays closer to 250-275. Holes 5 and 9 play slightly uphill, with the rest of the holes playing pretty flat with limited opportunities for rollaways.

Distances mostly play between 200 and 300 feet, with hole 6 coming in as the shortest at 165 feet. Everything will be reachable from the tee for experienced players, while newer players won't feel overwhelmed by any of the distances.

Obstacles aren't robust but give a little challenge here and there. Holes 3 and 4 have treelines that can punish a bad drive, while hole 4 has a creek behind the pin. Holes 7 and 8 each have some shrubs and/or trees that'll make you throw an intentional shot. Hole 5 has a ballfield backstop to contend with as well if you like your RHBH hyzers.

Difficulty is very much on the easy side. Newer players will find this to be a more forgiving 9-hole option than nearby Watson Trail, while experienced players will challenge for 9 under on their round.

Proximity To Other Park Uses and Neighbors is really the big potential issue with this course. As Three Putt has already said, this is a classic situation of cramming a disc golf course wherever there is a little extra green space. There are potential conflicts on most if not all of the holes. Hole 1's pin is about 30 feet in front of a walking path, which had me preferring to wait for some folks to walk by so they wouldn't be concerned about my accuracy. Holes 2 and 3 play towards backyards with hole 3 playing particularly close. Hole 4 plays alongside more backyards. Hole 5 has a path and more backyards to the left and a ballfield backstop to the right. Hole 6 has a walking path as well as backyards if you're really not feeling the accuracy. Hole 7 has a walking path if your shot goes off to the left. Hole 8 is behind a ballfield fence. Hole 9…..is alright. The course designers kept the playground out of the equation, which is great, but there are plenty of other opportunities to get on the nerves of locals, especially if you aren't throwing accurately or keeping other park goers in mind.

Course Design is very basic, which is clearly what the goal for the course was but isn't going to result in a high rating. The designers maximized the space they had to work with, but one thing missing from this course is any forced shot shaping. With some exception to holes 4, 7, and 8, it's very much a point and shoot course where whatever shot type you're most comfortable with will get the job done. Holes 4 and 7 sliiiightly favor a RHBH hyzer approach, but forehanders and lefties shouldn't really feel disadvantaged on those holes either. Hole 8 is backhand favorable just because of the fence. Other than that, everything plays similarly. Holes 2 and 3 are the same exact shot right next to each other, the most redundant moment of any course I have played.

Time will tell how much appreciation this course gets by the community. When the course was announced with a layout on the parks and rec facebook page, plenty of locals expressed concerns. While disgruntled folks are more likely to speak up on social media on posts like that, it's clear that the size of the park resulted in some concern about a full 9-hole disc golf course being added. I know 9 and 18 are magic numbers that course designers feel like they need to abide by, but this course is one case where less might have been more for both players and pedestrians.

With that being said, for all the initial negativity, the course clearly has fans as well, with a few groups playing while I was here. There was a family finishing hole 9 as I was prepping my bag in the parking lot, including a kid around 5 or 6. That's exactly the demographic this course is for, and I hope more families try this course out. There's only so many short open courses like this, and this is a welcome neighbor to the woody and technical Watson Trail, the other nearby 9 hole for this part of town.

Crestwood Park is a simple 9, but I think it's a nice addition to a robust collection of courses in the area that provides some more lower-difficulty level golf. If you're course bagging and coming to St. Louis, this course would be among the last ones I'd recommend to you. If you're local and have some free time, come get a quick round. You can easily play all 9 holes in under 30 minutes, just like Aaron Rodger's NY Jets Career.

This rating would likely go up a bit with some improved tees and signs. I hope the course get those upgrades, as it would be nice to see this course stick around for the long haul for the community in Crestwood to give a chance and enjoy.

Crestwood Park is a very nice community park that appears to get a lot of neighborhood traffic. The disc golf course has been recently installed with MVP Black Hole baskets. The tees currently are natural and the tee signs are plain stakes in the ground with paper listing the hole number and distance. The distances and difficulty levels of the shots make this a pure recreational design so the emphasis on evaluating has to keep in mind the "fun factor" and the course starts off with a fun downhill 300' shot to an open basket. Holes 2-4 are across a creek and hole 5 shoots back up the hill hole 1 shoots down. Hole 6 is a short double mando, while hole 8 is another fun slightly downhill shot. While the course is somewhat crammed into a small park, the designers did their homework kept the course away from the playground. There is a somewhat long walk from 6 to seven because of that.

The course has the usual "course retrofit into a small park" issues of conflicts with walking paths and other park amenities. Hole 5 has a ball field backstop off to the right, so there is a potential for conflict there. There is a "Warning Flying Discs" sign near there as well since there is a neighborhood access point by Hole 5. Holes 8-9 have you throwing toward a parking lot; it's not in play if you throw the holes correctly, but recreational disc golfers are likely to hit some cars.

Holes 2-3 are essentially the same shot right next to one another. The shots are open so there isn't really anything to keep you from throwing into the other fairway. It's a somewhat clunky and redundant design there.

The real wild card to me is backyards. Crestwood is a pretty decent suburb. Holes 2, 3, & 4 have a high likelihood of discs landing in back yards, and 5 & 6 also could have that issue depending on how badly someone throws. How the neighborhood reacts to disc golfers descending on their park seems like an open question to me.

So far as the golf goes, there really isn't much in the way of obstacles to force any sort of line shaping. It's really a "throw at the basket" putter course.

I might bump the rating up if there are permanent tee signs installed at some point.

Crestwood Park Disc Golf Course is a perfectly good recreational course with some very predictable issues that come when you retrofit disc golf courses into multi-use parks. If it ultimately serves as a nice community activity with local use, it will serve the niche that will be appropriate for this type of course and what the City of Crestwood is intending it to be. It's not a tournament course or a destination course. With the options you have in the St. Louis area, It should be toward the bottom of your "to play" list.