Engler Park hosts a recreational 18-hole disc golf course that has a mix of wide-open shots as well as others that bring water, wood lines, and other obstacles into the mix. This course plays on the easier side for the most part, but has enough variety or challenging moments to be both accessible and fun for a variety of skill levels.

LOCATION of Engler Park is on the south side of Farmington, off Highway 67. A turn onto New Perrine Road and a right onto Airpark Drive will get you to the entrance, where you can swing right and park in the second parking lot to find the big course map and sign. There are food and gas options aplenty in town, but you'll want to stop a couple exits before this one on the highway if you're coming from the north. As for nearby courses, the two 18 hole courses in Park Hills made for a nice day of disc golf for me and my friends, where we managed 3 18 hole courses between 8:30am and 2:30pm; all three come with a collectively nice variety of styles as well.

AMENITIES fill Engler Park; other than disc golf, this park hosts two lakes that are apparently used frequently for fishing, a baseball field, tennis courts, trails, soccer fields, and four pavilions. There are also two nice playgrounds as well as a nature sanctuary. You'll see plenty of these as you walk the course, and will also get some time to take these in while walking back to your car from hole 18. Bathrooms look to be seasonal, but there was a port-o-john after hole 18 when we played.

COURSE EQUIPMENT is pretty nice at Engler Park. The baskets are Gateway Titans thanks to the Dave McCormack design, and they catch great. The baskets are in great shape; I'm not sure if they're the originals from the course opening 12 years ago or if they've been replaced, but all Gateway baskets tend to look like they could survive an atomic bomb. Each hole has two concrete tees that are nice and grippy as well. The tee signs also have just about all of the info you could ask for: Pin locations, distances from each tee to each pin, which pin is in use, par, and a hole layout. There are also plenty of trash cans throughout the course, so don't be a litterbug.

COURSE DESIGN at Engler is primarily more open and spacious with the fairways, with occasional wooded holes and other obstacles coming into play. Between the two tees and what variety of obstacles and elevation are incorporated into the design, a round here should be fun for a wide variety of players.

ELEVATION isn't a huge factor on this course but comes into play a little bit. Hole 4's fairway has a sneaky amount of downhill play to it, which can lead to overthrowing the green a bit. Hole 7 is a fun downhill shot are well with a couple trees to navigate. Hole 9 plays uphill, hiding the lake that can eat up shots that go long. 13's primary pin location is on an elevated hill, which will make any putt nervy.

SHOT-SHAPING is something you won't always need to full consider, but some holes will ask for some specific. Holes 5, 7, and 14 are left turning shots, each with varying challenges such as a lake on the left on hole 14 and a downhill drive on 7. Holes 10, 12, 13, and the long pins of 17 and 18 are all right turning shots. The rest of the holes are pretty open and can handle a variety of shots with some exceptions. Hole 3 is tight and wooded which will require a straight, slightly right ending shot. Hole 6's pin is around an island of trees and cabbage, requiring a left or right ending shot around to the pin.

DISTANCES are pretty accessible as a whole, with total distance being between 4,600 and 7,200 feet give or take a few, depending on which tees you throw from and the pins in use. There's a lot of short A pins on the course; as of this review's posting, UDisc has four holes under 200 feet in the A positions from the short tees. When longer pins are in place, holes like 9, 13, 16, and 17 will make for genuine two drive holes. The pars on site are pretty forgiving, with birdie or at least a par being pretty easy to achieve with decent accuracy and a little power in your throw.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL is on the easy side at Engler, with this being a rec-intermediate course for the most part. That being said, some holes do have some risk/reward factors or obstacles that could give newer players a hard time. Holes 9, 14, and the long pin in 17 can bring water into play with a poorly thrown shot. Hole 16's short pin is also tucked really tightly into a tree line in a way that makes it a very hard birdie.

COURSE LAYOUT AND NAVIGATION – I haven't given Dave as much crap as others for his layouts that sometimes have weird and/or long confusing transitions, but the walk from 18 back to the parking lot is a bit much here. That lot isn't in view from the pin at all, and you could easily walk to the wrong lot if you don't have a good sense of direction. I'm not saying I know more than Dave when it comes to disc golf course design – I totally don't. But looking at the overhead map of this course, even if the holes stay mostly the same, there's got to be a better option here. I felt like a hobbit with jewelry I didn't want walking from hole 18 to the car, minus the whole volcano and Smeagol thing.

SIGNAGE is nice, including the large map at the parking lot. That being said, some of the transitions are wonky, such as holes 4 to 5, 13 to 14, 14 to 15, and 17 to 18. Some of these are tricky without UDisc, and I didn't notice any directional info to the next tee. Some additional directions would make for a smoother playing experience here, as I don't UDisc to be necessary to find my way around in a timely manner.

OPEN HOLES aren't a problem on their own, but the amount of purely open shots gets a little old on this course. The land provided for the course means there wasn't really much of an alternate option, but the lack of obstacles does take away from some of the fun factor of the course. Multiple holes have sand bunkers as the main thing to look out for in an otherwise wide-open shot, which isn't really what I want to see in a park as opposed to if I was playing on a ball golf course. Overall, this is a course where you may find yourself picking the same disc up to throw off the tee for the majority of the holes.

PROXIMITY TO OTHER PARK USES is a factor on a few holes. Some fairways or pins play close to or borderline over pathways, so please look before you throw. Hole 16 could be a sketchy hole when leaves are fully on the trees, as you're throwing over a tree line that a path also comes through, with a green that is blind from the tees. Hole 17 also plays close to some soccer fields, and the layout of the hole seems to encourage hyzers to the long pin that would likely go over a bit of that land. It's OB on the sign, but if that part of the fields are getting used for other sports, it could get awkward and lead to the disc golfer needing to throw some weird shots over the tree line.

Overall, Engler Park is a fun course that has enough variety to keep things interesting and fun, and would be a fine course for new players to learn the game at. While many of the holes are wide open drives, there are some fun moments on the course, especially 13 with that tall pin placement. This isn't a bucket list course or one I'll find myself driving an hour out to play annually, but I would not be upset to have this as a home course.

If you're driving south of St. Louis, give Engler a look. When combined with Park Hills and other courses along 67, course baggers might find it fun to take a detour off I-55.

Gateway Titan baskets!
Good use of large section of park
concrete trapezoidal pads on both red and blue tees
Well maintained and ongoing improvements apparent
Never crowded
benches and trash cans at most holes

Faded signage - some unintelligible
Confusing pin positions - baskets out of place
Not much elevation change
many similar open field distance drives for RHBH

overall a sweet 18 but a bit out of the way for St. Louis players

Scenic, Well Maintained, Multiple Pins, Multiple Pads, Easy Navigation, Unique Obstacles, Descriptive Tee Signs & Directional Arrows, Trash Cans and Restrooms

Engler Park is a nice, scenic park for a disc golf course. The layout is well designed and makes use the the limited natural obstacles available from the land. Though the mainly wide open format of the course can get a bit redundant, the multiple tee pads and pin placements offer a nice change for those who play the course regularly. It also appears as though they've planted some young trees, which will continue to add character to this course in time. The tee pads are narrow at the back and wide up front to indicate the direction of the hole, which I thought was a nice touch. There are bunkers carved out of the fairways and filled with mulch which play as a hazard (take an OB stroke, but play from your lie) that add an extra challenge to the mostly wide open holes. A lot of the holes play near the park's lakes and creek, which adds to the aesthetic value of the course, but the water rarely comes into play. The course is obviously well maintained and the local club has added nice benches on many of the holes. The tee signs, while slightly faded are nice as they provide the hole description and distances for both tee pads and both pin placements on each hole. Unfortunately, some have chosen this as a good place to record their aces, which I really do not like.

Wide Open, Redundant, Long Walk Back from 18

Though they did do a lot with the land that was given for this course, it is not a technical course as there are only a few holes that have more than a couple trees as obstacles. Again, the designer did well to make use of the obstacles that he were available, but overall, the course is not very challenging. I found myself throwing the same disc the same way a number of times, so you really do not need to be great to score well or enjoy yourself at this course. Lastly, hole 18 leaves you a good way away from the parking lot, so you have somewhat of a long walk back to the car/hole 1. Its not really that big of a deal, but I prefer to start and end at the parking lot.

Overall, this is not a championship caliber course, but it is still a lot of fun to play and worth checking out. High marks go to the local club and volunteers that maintain the course as it was pristine when I played it - not one spec of trash anywhere to be found. In the future, I think it would add a lot to the overall challenge is they allowed the grass to overgrow in some areas, thus creating tougher fairways, but even if they keep it as is, its a lot of fun to play.
Traveler's Tip: There isn't a whole lot around the course/park in the way of food, gas stations, etc. So, if you need drinks, food, snacks, etc. make sure to bring them with you.