Flat parkland course stuck in between other park amenities.
New updated baskets.

Tee pads are very small and not aligned with direction of most holes. Holes are very close to each other, so keep an eye out for way ward shots from other players.

Solid beginner course to learn on.

DISCLAIMER: This course was redesigned in late December 2020 around Christmas. Older reviews that have not been updated are for the previous double 9-hole layout. Also, this course is still in the process of being redone; this review is of the current state of the course, and will be updated as work continues.

Creve Coeur - Lakeside is a recreational 18-hole course across the street from the popular Creve Coeur Lake. I believe this is the second oldest course in the St. Louis region, and it has gone through multiple designs over the years. What we have now is an open 18-hole course that provides some nostalgia for longtime players in the area, as well as a good course to learn to throw drives on if you're newer to the sport. Its location is pretty easily accessible too, being just off of MO-141 and being easily accessed from I-70 and I-270.

Creve Coeur Lake Park itself is 2,145 acres, making it the largest park in the St. Louis County park system. Across the street from the Lakeside course, you will see countless folks walking or biking along the lakeside path, along with boats, kayaks, and other activities taking place on the lake during warmer months. Throughout the park, you can also find shelters, playgrounds, tennis courts, ballfields, additional trails, and year-round bathrooms. There's also Go Ape! Zipline and Adventure Park on the upper section of the park, which provides high ropes activities. The nearest bathroom to Lakeside is across the street to the north, along the trail. Other than a shelter, trail, and swing set, most of the non-water amenities in the park are away from the Lakeside disc golf course. Overall, this park provides a beautiful setting for some disc golf.

Course Equipment has been worked on over the last year. The DISCatcher baskets are only a year old as of my last update and are in great shape and ready to deny your birdies with their bright yellow bands. A good portion of the front 9 also uses the old tee locations, meaning 6 holes have concrete tees. The rest of the holes now have turf tees installed. The current tee signs provide pin placement, distances and pars, and inform you that the full layout is on the UDisc app. Other than a couple spots, the course isn't too hard to navigate the first time around.

The new Lakeside layout uses aspects of the original front 9 from earlier designs while adjusting the overall layout to fit within the land that hasn't been cleared for previous and failed development plans. The results are a layout that sits just over 7,000 feet, shorter than the original layout that ranged from 8,700 to 10,200 feet long. The new layout of primarily 300 to 500-foot holes makes the course more manageable for new and intermediate players that don't have as much power behind their drives. The two longest holes, 1 and 5, are among the few holes that keep previous designs.

The land this course sits on has far fewer trees that it has had in the past, and the current design uses what trees are left to provide some shot variety. Holes 1, 5, and 15 use a combination of tree lines and tee directions to both provide hyzer or anhyzer shots while keeping drives away from the street. Holes 7, 8, and 12 require you to avoid a fence line to avoid your disc landing on land owned by a ball gold course; there's an entrance to that side of the fence along the disc golf course, but that area can have some rough brush.

A lot of the other holes on this course play pretty straight, but still have obstacles to navigate. Hole 8, for example, has a pin placement that sits between two trees, making short putts from certain angles troublesome. Hole 2 also uses tree to hide the A pin in a small patch of trees and brush. While options are limited on this patch of land, a lot of the holes use the existing trees and brush well to provide some fairways that require certain lines off the tee. The course layout also brings 9's pin and 10's tee close enough to the parking lot to provide two 9-hole loops in case you want to only play 9 or need to stop by your car.

Course Equipment has come a long way on this course, with the addition of a full set of tees and updated signage. The distances and pars on the signs are nice, but I was under the impression that the signs were going to include graphics of each hole given previous posts by the local club. This course is open and pretty easy to make out from each tee, but having a graphic of the layout of each hole rather than leading folks to an app might make the course more accessible to brand new players of the sport. Maybe enhanced signage is coming down the road, as the local club is still working on installation of multiple newer courses in the area.

Creve Coeur Lake Park's lower section is classified as a flood plain, and it's prone to having standing water after heavier rains. The course drains better than you would expect, but sogginess after a decent downpour is something to be ready for. The land here actually used to be heavily wooded, but floods from the 90's and land clearing for a failed hockey arena plan has resulted in a tree count that is a small fraction of what used to be here. The outcome is a disc golf course that's pretty straightforward with little variety. All of your shots are going to be on flat ground and around a number of trees. That's not the fault of the designers of this course; it's what they have to work with.

The location of this course and its openness make it prone to strong winds frequently, so make sure you have some stable discs handy.

The design of this course makes is accessible than some of the previous designs, but its difficulty level may make it too easy or too hard for different levels of players. Half of the holes are near or over 400 feet, so players new to the game might be in for a long round at this course. At the same time, the distances and overall par makes an even round very gettable for a large portion of players, with many players likely being able to get quite a few birdies on this course if they're throwing well. That being said, I think this design fixes some previous issues with the older monster layout, but players on the extremes of the skill level spectrum will likely not find this to be a great course for them.

Creve Coeur's disc golf course has been through a lot of redesigns and threats to its existence. The original course from 1989 was a result of multiple years of lobbying; Someone even shared old documents from the lobbying process, including a letter from Anheuser-Busch declining to help. The original course was heavily wooded and championship level, but flooding in the early 90's, including the 93' flood, resulted in many of the trees being destroyed and the land being considered a flood plain. After spending some time as a 9 hole and not getting much help from the parks department, a monster 18-hole layout sat on the land for a while until an attempt to build a large hockey complex resulted in the back 9 being pulled, and a significant portion of the park land being cleared of trees. This clearing was later declared unauthorized and the complex was cancelled, but the damage was done. The front 9 remained, with a makeshift back 9 being briefly added down the road. Finally, we're to present day, with an 18-hole course that makes the most out of what is left on the land. If you look at the map on this site, you can see hints of the old course in the lower corner under the green section. Remnants of the old course still remain too; older benches and tees can be found throughout the course, including a tee or two in the cleared land by 16 and 17, a hint at what once was.

Despite its long history of ups and downs, the course still stands, and the local disc golf club is working to improve it. In addition to adding newer equipment, they are also working on adding OB areas to help get more natural foliage back into the land. The club will also be adding additional signage to warn golfers of the path that runs through the back 9, which is a nice touch that should help the course maintain a good relationship with other park goers.

While it's far from the most technical course you will find, Creve Coeur Lakeside is settling into a recreational 18-hole that can make for a fairly stress-free round for those wanting a break from nearby technical courses. Despite the flat land, the lake makes this one of the most picturesque courses in the area, far enough from highways and subdivisions to provide a peaceful setting to play in. Creve Coeur Lake Park is also now the 3rd park in St. Louis to receive a second 18-hole course, with the Hillside course in place and also being worked on. It's a long walk from the Lakeside course, but the drive only takes a couple of minutes. The Hillside course is also be close to a lot of the playgrounds and other amenities in the park, a huge plus if you're here with family.

Despite everything, Creve Coeur Lake(side) is still here, and still provides some decent golf. If you're a local and haven't played there yet, go check out a piece of St. Louis disc golf history.

- Newly redesigned 18 hole layout
-Brand New Innova baskets
- Located in an area with many things to do, and soon to be a second course
- three pin positions per hole
- good mix of distances
- great place to bring your drivers and practice
- 9 hole loops

-VERY FLAT
-only obstacles are trees
- Always windy
- Course update still in progress, need tee signs and pads for every hole
- no elevated baskets
- way to many "tweener" holes
- easy, hard to bogey

Creve Coeur probably has more history behind it than any other course in Saint Louis, so I am glad its legacy will continue to live on. The new layout is a significant improvement of the previous 2 9 hole course thing it had going on. It incorporates a lot of the old "front 9" and adds in some new fun holes, while also reclaiming some land to the left side of the parking lot. The brand new discatchers are gorgeous, and blend in with the scenary well.

Although the course is redesigned and it is exciting, that doesn't mean it doesn't have flaws. Lets be clear, the land still isn't that great. Its probably the flattest disc golf course you will ever play, with the only obstacles being trees, making it so you have to screw your drive up pretty bad or three putt to bogey. Considering the flat terrain, it would've made sense to add an elevated basket to spice things up, but I guess its an STL thing to not have them. Of course, I'll cut the course some slack because it's not totally redone. Tee signs are still in the process, and there are only 9 concrete tee pads, and a couple of turf pads. In addition, I here they are going to create some artificial out of bounds bunkers t The last thing I have to knock on the course is the amount of "tweener" holes. There are around 5 holes that range from 420- 490 foot holes that are considered par 4's. Now, you'd have to be a pro to get 2's on a lot of them, but they are also wayyy to easy 3's. I felt like I had a 375 drive that I could sprayed anywhere and still had a very short approach for birdie. I do understand that this course is upposed to be a rec course though, I just think either some pars need to be adjusted or some distances to be extended.

The last thing I'll note about the course is how many people I saw out there. There were SO MANY. Most of them were clearly rec and were travelling in bigger groups with only a couple of discs, but the world needs courses like this. I mean I can see the appeal: its an easy walk, you cant lose your disc and the course is relatively easy. So maybe the course is doing it exactly what it needs to. If you are a pro or advanced player, you might enjoy this course a couple times, but it will probably get boring quick. However, if you are newer to the sport, or want to show a friend around, this is the course to do it

I have always liked playing the older courses . Not because my drives now only go around 300' , but because of their history . I'm not sure how to treat Creve Croeur Lake , though . One of the oldest courses in the St Louis area , I was expecting decent tee signs , good tee pads and baskets and medium length . Instead , you have what look like back to back 9 hole courses . The original 9 plays flat and long and the tee signs are visible enough to keep you on the right track . There seemed to be a fair amount of people playing on the Sunday that I was there . Plenty of parking at both the original 9 and also the back 9 . Baskets in good shape and the park was taken care of okay . The first hole is a long drive with a tree line on the right . After #1 , the front line never lets up , 400' to 800' ( #4 ) . Some good placements for the baskets , especially the original 9 , make it interesting for you . Not a lot of being too technical . These are perfect courses for the early season when you need to get you arm in shape for long drives . #9 ends you up with about a 450 to 500' throw with 1 obstruction , a tree on your right . Not many trees on the whole course . From reading a previous comment before I played , I found out that the parks had to clear a bunch of trees for a failed rink and also because of a flood . Being an out of towner , I had to watch a player in the holes in front of me assault the course . The front 9 flows pretty easy . I am glad that they changed this 9 hole to a 18 hole course . The disc golfers along with the park personnel seemed very nice . The course , as long as it is , was not too strenuous because of the lack of elevation . If you can find your way around on this course , you will have a worry free round . You almost can't lost a disc on the course , unless you throw over the fence on your right on a few of the holes in the back .

There are some sad cons for this course . A tale of 2 9 holes . The front 9 is solid enough . The back 9 sits a little under .4 miles away from the start of the front or original 9 . You want to drive there just in case you need to refill your water or need to be pulled away from the course . There is NO elevation her , and although the lake is close enough to where you can turn your body sideways and throw your disc into it , there is no water on this course ,,,,, unless it rains hard . The original back 9 was probably decent . The new back 9 is Not . A local had to point out the flow and the changes to the new 9 to me , mainly because the course changes over and over . The tee pads ? natural . The signage ? some wood on the ground with a hole number on it . The baskets are the same as the original 9 . The back 9 are much shorter .You have to be careful on the back 9 , #8 tee is just in back of #9 tee , but you have to throw in different directions . There ARE 18 holes on this course . You just have to find them all . The park looks to have the potential to be crowded , especially with kids in the park . Be careful . You may have to shot shape or skip the hole completely . Bugs . Lots of them during the warmer months . I was accosted by them in bunches during my round . Bring spray ,,,, and lots of it . It can get windy because of being near an open lake . Just an FYI

Creve Coeur Lake Park is by no means a disaster . Evidently , it has long passed it's heyday . If you are a local and you want a nice flat course to air out long drives , or want to work on your short game and putting with wind being a handicap , then this might be a place for you . I was staying at the Drury about 10 minuts down the road , so I felt I had to play a course this close . I am not disappointed with this course , just not excited about any aspect of it .There are a lot of alternatives to just playing disc golf here . My recommendation : play it only if it's CONVENIENT or wanting to couple it with another perk of the park .

EDIT: This course had a complete overhaul on 12/26/20. This review is now obsolete; I will update once I have the chance to play the new layout.

I had a houseplant once that I would forget to water and never put in the sunlight, so when I would notice it sitting there it would appear to be dead. There would be a little green so I would try to water it and after a bit it would come back. Not as full and looking kinda sad, but alive and kicking to see another day. Creve Coeur Disc Golf Course is like that plant. I'm not sure how it's still there, and I'm not sure it's a good thing that it's still there. It's still there, though. The County tore the bejeezus out of it, but they couldn't kill it.

So what is left after the County bulldozed the back nine? The old bomber layout front nine is still there intact. The 800' hole 4 with the OB trap by the basket? It's there. The 500'-600' holes 7-8 down the fence line daring you to flip your drive OB? Still there. The 700' hole 9 back to the parking lot? Still there. I think the parking lot was expanded some and the tee for hole 3 was moved up, but otherwise the front 9 is still there. It's a 4,600'-5,300' par 35 nine holes. If you liked Creve Coeur before, that part of it is still there.

The new back nine is south of the Heldman Picnic Shelter, which was the boundary of the old course. To get to those baskets you have to walk over 700 yards from hole 9 across the entire front nine and past the picnic shelter to the baskets. Or drive your car, which I did because 700 yards is insane. Once you are there, there are nine baskets scattered around. There are no tee signs. I found one marking in the ground which said "hole 2" which I assume was a tee. There were some flags around, but they didn't seem to obviously be marking anything. A few of them were marking unused pin placements. After a bit I just gave up figuring out the layout and safaried.

Even when (and I'll assume this will happen) the tees are marked, this area is a lot smaller than the area the old front 9 is on. The shots are going to be a lot shorter. It really creates two 9-hole courses; one really long and one short.

UPDATE: They installed some short posts to mark the tees, so now you can follow the layout. Which is not a good thing, because the layout is horrible. It starts in an odd place, there are long walks between holes for no good reason, all of the shots are short and unremarkable, and the flow is bad. Hole 4 you have to walk all the way down the fairway to get to the tee and shoot back across the path you just walked. There are two open holes in front of hole 6's basket that go down to an old sewer that you can throw your disc in or step in. It's just bad disc golf. I liked this part of the course better when I couldn't find the tees and safaried it.

The problem with the short nine is that the only thing that made the course interesting after the flood was that it was looonnnggg. The course is flat as a board and lightly wooded. The shots are repetitive because really what can you do? The challenge was the length. Take away the length, and it's flat, fairly open boring golf. Add in the old beat-up baskets and long-standing issue of negligent maintenance by the County Parks and it's a whole bunch of not good. I could actually see myself coming back to play the front 9 and then just skipping the other holes.

The old holes have the wrong baskets in the placements. Hole one's basket had "11" on it. Hole two's basket had "14" on it. If you have never been there before, it would be confusing. There is a sidewalk running across hole 9 now; as long as the hole is it seems like it could be shortened so that it didn't play across the sidewalk.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Creve Coeur was the third or fourth disc golf course I played. At the time it was a pretty heavily wooded course that was really challenging for me. That course is a nostalgic memory, though. The great flood of '93 killed over 100 trees on the course, and a flood the following year brought the chainsaws out again. The St. Louis disc golf community responded by getting Sioux Passage and Jefferson Barracks installed, and Creve Coeur languished as a weedy 9-hole for a few years before it was revived as a super-long 8,724'-10,224' par 69 "bombs away" course. The tall grass was still a problem; the County reclassified the land as flood plain after the floods and it was on the "we will mow it if nothing else needs to be mowed" rotation. Eventually the solution was to pull the course in the summer and use it as a "winter only" course. Odd, but the course was still there. Finally a political play for a hockey arena caused the back nine to be pulled and the land cleared, only to have the clearing declared unauthorized and the hockey arena plan to go away. Too late for the disc golf course, though. The land was already cleared. Given everything that Mother Nature and the County Park System have done to ruin this course, I cut it a whole bunch of slack for being as bad as it is. If you don't have the history/attachment to the place that I do, you might think I've overrated it.

The new nine holes are very new, so with some work on the tees there might be a bit to work with here. My thoughts actually are that these holes are too far away from the other baskets. You could make the course start with 8 of the new holes, then walk over to hole seven to start the old holes. Then you would finish the old holes at hole six and walk back to finish on a new hole. That would still be two 600'-700'ish golfless hikes back and forth between the new and old holes. It's probably best just to drive back and forth to the sections and just consider them like two 9-hole courses.

There is a bit of the old back nine land still there, probably room for a couple of holes. Add to that the fact that there is 5,300' of golf in the front nine; it seems obvious that you could totally redo the whole layout on the section that is left from the old course and have room for a decent 18-hole park-style course there. Given that it will be overgrown all summer, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to do that. What is there Is not good, but given the reality of the situation it might be the best option. What actually might have been best would have been to leave it the longest 9-hole course around. I think I would have rated it higher if it was just the old front nine.

So Creve Coeur Disc Golf Course is still there. As somebody who remembers when it was THE St. Louis course, that is somewhat comforting. You can't kill it, it's still there. You can go visit it like an old friend. An old friend that was horribly disfigured in an accident and has a questionable quality of life, but that's better than a dead friend. Right?

Not really a review but more of an update. They have installed baskets on a new section of this course making it 18 holes again. There are no tee pads yet (marked with red flags) or signage, but it looks like they are working on it.

This course is an invasive plant that will not die.. much like the honeysuckle bush that lines it's northern border.

It began as a super flat, bomber course. It wasn't particularly exciting but a good place to work on distance driving.

Maryland Heights did in half of the course, installing a walking path and conducting illegal re-grading for an ice rink that did not happen and got themselves in a whole lot of trouble with the federal government. So if there's a pro to the course, it's Maryland Heights lost a ton of money for nothing - which makes me smile daily. Talk about a corupt government entity.

This course is pancake flat. Its rarely ever mowed. It's soggy after it rains. It's northern border is thick Honeysuckle and Poison Ivy.

This was briefly my home course and I'd throw it when I needed driving practice. There are so many great courses in the area... don't waste your time. They should just eliminate this course, pull the baskets, and try to open a second course at Carrollton.

This is the old front 9 of Creve Coeur Lake Park, but they added a second basket on each hole resulting in 2 of the 3 A-B-C former placements filled on each hole.
Concrete Tee pads and simple signage with hole # and the three A-B-C distances so you can tell how far you are throwing.
Great array of mature trees which line most fairways.

If you like long throws, this is the course for you...

Despite the two basket setup, 8 of the 9 holes play pretty much the same either basket placement.

That said, it's just a repeat of the long for the sake of long old Creve Coeur course.

The baskets were not aligned on each hole in proper order.... they are as follows: 1-11, 2-14, 3-12, 4-18, 5- 15, 6-13, 7-16, 8-10, 9-17.

"Missed opportunity" in the title is representative of the chance the park had to create a different look to the course. Seems as though they are using the existing basket options and going for the low budget fix rather than invest in some new placements.

Utilizing the mature trees, the park has the opportunity to create some fun shorter holes with those trees as basket protection.

For me its just a repeat of the course I didn't care for to begin with....

April 2021 Update.

This course is completely redesigned. These old reviews like mine are not valid. Course is now once again 18 holes and once again let you air it out.

October 28 2018 Update:
This is now an 18 hole course again. The hockey plan was stopped however the developers still destroyed acres of 100+ year old trees. The former back 9 is no more however there are reminders of what once was and hopefully some work can be done in the future to put a couple of the old holes back. The best thing to say about this course is that it is great for a Safari round. You can really make some an interesting course if you want.

October 2018 Update:

Well, sadly the 9 new holes that were added are beginners only. They are 150-250ft shots with no teepads, no tee signs, no direction arrows to the next hole. basically 9 baskets plopped down in a field. the sad part is that it still isn't beginner fiendly as the wind whips off the lakes and makes playing even the beginner holes difficult for a new player. An Intermediate player should be grabbing 2's on most/all of the holes.

Other cons:

-BUGS. Hey folks the city barely maintains the grass here. Tall grass means lots of bugs everywhere. Much better to play here in the fall/winter/spring. Forget the Summer.

-Navigation. Especially on the new holes. The course now follows a strange layout where you play the first few holes of the OG course, then play all of the new 9, then finish on the back half of the old front 9. There are multiple parking lots you have to walk over and through to find all the new holes.

-Family Friendly: Why is this a con..well because the new holes are in a spot in the park with Pavilions and play areas and in the spring/summer you will 100% run into people BBQ/running around the course.

-OB/Course Location. The course is actually in a very pretty park of town. It's is literally right across the street from the lake. This area is VERY BUSY in the spring/summer. People will be everywhere, cars will be everywhere. Errant throws can easily hit people, go across the road and get run over, or go OB on several holes where there is a fence making your disc difficult to retireve. It all just adds to reasons people don't/won't play here unless they are at the lake for other reasons.

Sadly I've had to low my previous rating form a 2.5 for the old 18 holes to a 2 for the new 18. That can easily go back up to a 2.5 just by cutting the grass and adding some direction arrows. I wouldn't waste parks money on teepads here. Just put down turf pads or rubber and save the money for improvements/upgrades to other courses in the area.

The new holes here are a nice beginner area for new players, just need to cut the grass!