• Course is on a hillside so plenty of up/down elevation changes
• Mainly wide open with varying hole lengths (some ace runs, long bombs, etc)
• Signage at most tees (I believe there were a couple missing)
• Minimal disc loss possibilities
• Large, well maintained park

• Natural tees are extremely worn - basically dirt/mud ditches in ground - and are in desperate need of improvement
• Some holes are too close together with high potential of discs straying onto fairways, putting areas, etc.
• No alt. tees or pin positions to add variety, challenge, diverse looks
• Crowded - not only DGers but also people walking through fairways to access dog park, walking paths, etc.

Upon first arriving at Ellison Park, I was initially struck at how much it reminded me in appearance to Little Lehigh Parkway in Allentown, PA - a large, public city park, nicely maintained with wide open, rolling fairways which double as sledding hills. But after playing the first couple holes, all similarities vanished. Being located in such a large park with so much potential, I was hoping for an exciting journey traversing through a substantial portion of it. This was not the case as the first 12 holes basically go back and forth/up and down a mostly open, limited area with holes side by side and back to back with one another and playing very similarly. Don't get me wrong though, there are some nice wide open downhill bombs, aces runs and tough uphill drives here which were fun to play. It's just that these holes are too close together and have little variety.

However I really enjoyed the sequence of holes 13-18 - there were more trees, brush and undergrowth on these holes forcing more thought, consideration and shot placement. Additionally, they moved away from the core area where the first twelve holes are located. So the sense was you were actually progressing through the course rather than meandering a limited area where you can see all of the holes and the players playing on them.

Ellison Park is a pleasing play overall and if the tee pad issues are resolved and some alt. pin placements added, my rating would increase by at least a half disc. Certainly worth a play if sampling Rochester area courses.

Beautifully manicured park course.

Clean, no trash

Good flow of course with great elevation changes

Nice mix of short and long bombs. Some nice technical lines on a few holes. Challenging pin placements makes you think on a few holes

Just a real nice course to play a casual round or two with friends

Bad tees. Once they put in concrete I will give this course 4 stars.

Poision ivy vines under the tee on hole 1 is pretty scary

Some areas of potential danger with pin placements and tees due to the openess of the course. Errant shots from players could be a problem.

I will play this course whenever I am in the area. Thanks to Will C for showing me around.

very well designed course with great utilization of a number of elements around the park.

awesome course if you like lots of elevation change! plenty of shots going up and down.

good varitety of holes, some very open, some with trees, right break, left break, up, down.

signs on every hole give you a basic idea of what you're in for.

sub shop down the street sells discs! definitely check sonny's out!

crowded! lots of people really like to play here. sometimes makes for slow play, noise, and potentially getting hit. be prepared to hear and shout "FORE!"

couple spots in the park are almost always wet. stay out of the roughs unless you want wet feet.

tees are gravel, some are really dug out and its hard to get your footing. club is working on them and they're getting better.

this course its always a joy to play! watching your discs fly on the downhill shots is a thing of beauty! better tee areas and i would rate this course a little higher.

Very easy course to navigate. Each hole is labeled along with a schematic with catcher location. I first started playing on this course and it was a great one to learn the game on. Very minimal chance of losing disc.

Too open for me. I'm beginning to prefer a more wooded/challenging course. Always packed.

If your looking for an easy going time then this is a perfect course.

- Very few areas to lose your discs in the brush.
- No water hazards (unless you count the holes that flood from springs).

- No cement tees, so they are continuing to erode more and more.
- Drainage problems on Holes 1 and 18 (they're always wet and muddy).

The course has some decent length and the elavation change is a big plus. There aren't any other people using this space (except for hole 18). Its open enough for new players to begin and enough challenge for advanced players to have fun.

Mach 3 baskets. The crowd in the beginning of the spring (it calms down over the summer). The teepads are craters BUT they will be replaced with concret soon and the course moves up the scale.

An old classic that gets boring eventually as players skill increases.

Wonderful course layout, fun elevation changes, and variety. Nice park overall.

It's in a park, and quite a busy one, at that. This means you'll have to play amongst picnickers, dog-walkers, hikers and cyclists. Watch your shots, and be accurate, lest you hit someone...

Although this course is in a busy park, it still should not be missed. It has a lot of fun holes, with unique challenges. You'll like playing here, just do it at off-peak times of day, when the park won't be as crowded.

I really enjoyed this course. Holes were mixed righty, lefty, tunnel, blind, open, up and down hills. The elevation on this course is well used. I emptied my bag on a few holes. Especially hole 7. It is very hard to lose a disc on this course but there are some places where trees can reach out and snag your disc. I appreciated the numerous longer ace runs where you could see the whole flight of the disk. The tee signs were pretty good and showed major obstacles and distance.

There is a major problem with tee pads here. Most of the pads are extremely eroded. They look like 1 to 2 foot deep/wide and 4 foot long ditches. I feel that the condition of a few of them could be dangerous. I would think that during a rain they would be all puddles. You could see that people were playing to the left right and front of these which will only erode them further. Something needs to be done before Worlds in 2011.
The layout of this course could have been planned a little better. There are numerous holes where you are throwing near the fairway, tee box, or green of bordering holes. While throwing on hole 7 you have the potential to hit people on 4 or 5 other holes. I got slightly confused on the location of hole 9 so maybe a few next tee signs would be good.

I created this review by comparing this course to numerous 2-5 level courses from Seattle, to San Antonio, to Charlotte and all along the North East. Framed in rubber or gravel tee pads would increase this course to a 3.5 and I think I would give it a 4 with concrete tee pads. I understand that concrete pads could be "thought" to be a challenge with sledders however, if properly set into the ground they would not be an obsicle. Just little 3" ramps off the backside which is smaller than any snow drift.

In my opinion the layout and openess of the course prevent it from being rated over a 4. This is the first course I would return to when I visit Rochester again.

Hill layout Thats all folks.....................................................................................................

Old design on back 9 was better. RUINERS. PITSSSSS!!! Sorry I wont play here anymore. Parks Dpt doesnt care. Dogs, jerks , garbage, etc....

Why did they change it.

Great variety of holes, excellent layout, competitive pars. Hole 7 is a REALLY long par 3 straight downhill. Best opportunity around to air out your discs.

Only one set of tees. Lots of uphill walking (about 4-5 holes play directly up hill) Some holes are missing the signs, so it can be hard to tell where to throw (its pretty straight forward though)

Wonderful use of the hillside, this old course is a classic. Nice open woodland holes, and big field holes. Great group of golfers here.

Too many lefty holes. Looks like it was designed by a righty who wanted to make the holes harder, or a lefty who wanted it easy for himself. Closed in the winter.

Ellison park makes wonderful use of one simple terrain element, a giant sled hill.

The front 9 play across, up, and down a large hill making even seemingly open and simple shots much more interesting.

The wonderful use of the few trees on the front 9 works really well.

The back 9 is where things start to get different. Holes 9,10, and 11 are all shot fun elevation change holes, followed by 12 which is a never ending right to left S turn (great for sidearm and lefties!) that goes DEEP into "woods".

Hole 7 is very much a Signature hole on this course with an Epic tee pad throw out 528' downhill...it's Awesome. You'll eventually just empty your bag on this hole, it's just that fun.

The back 9 has it's signature holes in hole 16 I would say. Elevated tee pad shooting towards a blind basket guarded by some bushes. Good spot to lose a disc in a tree if you don't pay attention.

People have said it before, and they're not misleading you. Ellison Park needs cement tee pads worse than any other course in the area...maybe anywhere.

These tees are well used, because it's such a fun course that's been around practically forever. Most tees are gouged into the ground a foot or more, and many have secondary tee lines working on becoming just as deep.

Because of the high use of the park by DGers and other folk alike, this park gets a lot of litter strewn about.

This course could be too open for some...but I'm not a big fan of open courses, and I love Ellison Park.

GRDGC is working on getting cement tee pads at Ellison right now, in preparation for the 2011 Am Worlds in Rochester, hopefully the few blemishes on this wonderful course can be remedied soon.

Please carry in and carry out your litter, we need to keep our sport on the up and up.

If we can keep the park clean, and get cement tee pads (and maybe the 2-4 signs we're missing) and perhaps different tee levels...

Then Ellison park could be a 4+ rated course.

I believe it can happen, let's make it so!

There are so many great things about this course. It's built to play on a large hill so there are constant elevation changes coming into play. Some holes play up (2, 9, 11) or down (3, 7, 10, 12) the hill while others play across (5, 6).

Great mix of longer and shorter holes. nice ace opportunities on 6, 10, 12. Number 7 is the signature hole here: 528' down a large hill to a basket about 20' in front of a line of trees. Empty your bag and let it rip!!! Number 16 is another signature hole, teeing off an elevated spot down to a multi-tiered area guarded by trees. Each tier is lower than the last and each is bordered with trees and brush. Great hole but lots of discs get lost here. Also, 9 is a huge uphill beast and 13 is a long one that hugs a tree line on the right and heads back into the woods.

The course is very effectively planned around the patches of trees that dot the hill. The back nine goes back into a more flat but more heavily wooded area (holes 13-17).

*Update* Fall 2011
New rubber fly pads installed for the Am Worlds this past summer. The tees here used to be horrendous but the have been filled, leveled and had fly pads laid. Makes this course much more playable and enjoyable!

Lack of trash cans on the course. There tends to be lots of trash, beer bottles, etc, especially at each tee. There is a little building up by the parking lot with bathrooms but they are frequently locked and no trash cans. They recently removed the water fountain there too. ???

The course gets closed in the winter. Baskets are removed since the hill the course is built on is also a sledding hill. (apparently the reason the city objects to concrete tees)

Tends to get crowded on the weekend too. Most people and slower groups are good about letting you play through though.

No alternate pins or tees.

Altogether a phenomenal course. So much variety and not a bad hole in the bunch. Most of the course is fairly open so it won't often force you to make certain kinds of shots but there is still plenty of variety. Aside from the tees, the course is usually in good condition with semi-regular maintenance and mowing.

There is also a shop (sonny's) up the street on landing rd. that sells discs. nice guys in there too.


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Well designed, grounds are mowed, beautiful course during the playing seasons. Disc golf supplies up the street at a deli, friendly players.

Tee pads, as it has been mentioned in every review are terrible. A tee sign is missing, buggy in late summer, dog landmines.

I love Ellison, I play there as much as 5 times a week. I averaged a +16 when first starting out playing. But because it's challenging it quickly made me a decent golfer and now average a +3 or +4. It is a workout, you go up and down the main hill a total of 8 times, so bring water.

Avoid after rain! The pads become a mess and holes 16-18 become marshy. Windy days make an already challenging course very difficult. The wind rolls down the hill at high speeds at times and can make any disc act strangely.

It is crowded some days, but it's not very slow playing as in the 3 months that I've played playing through hasn't really been an issue. However, some days (very few) are quite bad and it can be as long as a 5-10 minute wait per tee. Recommend playing after 3pm as it's usually lighter in load.

nice open course, easy to find and many people around playing... long holes to practice up on your drives...

over half the course is at a slant so bring your V8 with ya!! It can be awfull muddy there... tees turn to ponds when it rains...

Great use of hilly terrain. Really what adds the most difficulty to this course. Really fun to throw down the huge 500' long hill on #7. Mix of really open holes and well protected holes.

OVERCROWED !! With either lots of disc golfers who do not always let you play through or with people just walking their dog oblivious to disc golf.
Lots of similar shots playing back and forth from one hole to the next.
Tee boxes are in really rough shape as they are just gravel that has been washed away over the years.

Get there early if you want to be alone and bring water in the summer can get very hot. Course not open in winter due to use of hills for sledding. I believe that they are in the process of getting the funding to get concrete tees.

so close to where i live and pretty wide open, besides a hole or its hard to lose one here

stays a little wet and WAY TO CROWDED!!! i like to play when everyone else is still sleeping

eastern rochester needs another 1 but ellison is a blast, and the dog park kicks ass

Huge variation of holes involving lots of elevation shots.

They added teepads making this course much better!

I'm not sure what this guy movieguy84 is talking about, hole #4 is close to 400ft and I've never heard of anyone acing it. He must be thinking of hole #6 which gets aced like every other day.

Lots of open shots and there is no water on any hole so the chances for loosing a disk are very low there are some long uphill and beautiful down hill shots and four is a very ace-able hole.

When i said hill i meant hills the hills are atleast six holes that you just keep walking up and down.

This course has some big elevation changes which I always find fun. Holes 13-16 have a nice shady wooded feel. Course flows well.

Tee pads are strait-up bad, simple as that. Tees are a very uneven dirt surface that will only expand as people stand off to the side. A disc fading left on #7 tee could nail someone putting on #4. Walking from #8 basket to #9 tee is a back track right into people teeing off on #8.

The side of a very large hill dominates this course. Most of the holes throw across, up or down the side of this hill. If you have problems with your disc fading too much on elevation throws you will probably wind up in another fairway.

This is a pretty average course. Not great, not bad. The big hill gives some interesting throws. #7 in particular is a very long downhill. Much of the course is open and grassy with relatively few obstacles compared to other courses. If I lived in Rochester I would certainly play here. Although, there are enough courses in the region that you could mix it up easily.