The holes in the middle could be okay if you have never thrown before.

Holes are short, but most of the holes around the edge are not beginner friendly as there are so many disc eaters. To short for a intermediate player.

Though it's not on my list of disc golf courses Ill play again, its always nice to see them around.

Beauty/Peaceful (4/6) - Garden Lake Park is a quite pretty city park, with a mix of Oak stands, and Ash and Willows near the banks of Garden Lake itself. Although the traffic noise from I5 is moderate, the park itself seems very calm.

Signs (4/4) - Sturdy, highly visible metal tee signs provide the hole distance and par, and there are also numerous walkout direction signs at key points in the course to help players navigate some of the longer and less intuitive walkouts.

Maintenance (4/4) - The park is extremely well maintained, with evidence of recent mowing, bark mulching, and blackberry removal.

Water (4/6) - Garden Lake itself is in play on hole 3, and the presence of the lake may also influence drive decisions on holes 4 and 5 as well. The banks of the lake are mostly blocked by a dense mix of scrub trees and blackberry brambles, so actually throwing into the water is unlikely, but on hole 3 in particular it may cause some anxiety.

Shot Length Variety (4/6) - With hole distances from 84 ft. all the way up to 486 ft., Garden Lake Park includes an eclectic mix of shot lengths.

Tee Pads (2/4) - The tee pads are simply leveled areas of large gravel. Traction wasn't much of a difficulty even in the wet conditions I played the course in, however I imagine that the tees will need regular maintenance in order to stay usable.

Shot Shape Variety (2/6) - There is only one hole (hole 5) where the basket is not straight out from the tee, and a right-to-left throw is required. Many of the other holes are short enough that a straight throw with a putter is all that is needed.

Elevation (2/6) - The course terrain is extremely flat, and elevation does not particularly play a factor on any hole (with the possible exception of hole 3).

Risk VS Reward / Punishment (3/6) - With the exception of hole 3, which really needs its own discussion entirely, there are very few areas on the course with risky greens, thick rough, or defined OB. The hole 9 basket is very near the propery line fence, however, and as mentioned above Garden Lake itself may come into play on a few holes.

Garden Lake Park is one of the most unusual courses I have ever played, and providing an objective overall rating for the course was difficult. For a start, due to the hole lengths listed in yards, the unusual par assignments for the holes, and a few specific design choices, I suspect that the course was designed and installed by non-disc-golfers. Visiting the course for the first time, I had anticipated a short, recreational (Red) level course, and the 186 ft. hole 1 (labeled as a par 2) perfectly fit this profile. Hole 2, however, at a 279 ft. (again listed as a par 2) seemed to potentially bring the I5 freeway off-ramp into play a bit more than a recreational course probably should. And then I got to hole 3.. 486 ft. in length (listed as a par 3), with an extremely narrow fairway, the lake in play all the way down the right side, and the I5 off-ramp potentially in play all the the way down the left side! I honestly don't know what to make of this hole, beyond the fact it induced quite a lot of anxiety. I ultimately selected to throw a LHBH spike hyzer, which meant throwing a drive right toward the freeway off-ramp. After this (in my opinion) questionable design choice, holes 4-9 were more typical of a recreational course, although holes 4-6 were each still over 300 ft. Some of the fairways were a touch closer to each other than I would like, but otherwise the second half of the course felt much more like the recreational city park course that I had been expecting. The 84 ft. hole 8 (listed as a par 1), however, really seemed too short even for a rec level course. As mentioned above, the hole 9 basket is also very close to the property line and a low metal mesh fence. The fence is bent in one spot where it is clear that many players have climbed over to retrieve discs, and I do hope the neighbor doesn't object to this! One aspect of the course that I was not able to observe is how crowded it may get with other park users during nice weather (I played the course in December). There are a number of bark walking trails along some of the fairways, and if the park gets a lot of pedestrian traffic I could imagine this being potentially dangerous.

Finally, as I'm sure the assigned par values for this course will be a talking point, I'll just leave by noting that I threw the highest-rated-while-still-over-par (using DGCR's rating system) round I've ever thrown. I suspect some players will complain about the use of par 1's (especially) and some of the par 2's as well. Par may be just a number, but Garden Lake Park presents a very unorthodox view of it.