In Sanford, so there are lots of places to eat along with shopping just minutes from the course. It's very easy to find once in Sanford. Look for the old stone Gazebo beside the park entrance. Porta-Jons on site along with other park amenities... tennis courts, ponds, walking trails, ball fields, etc. Ample parking.

Hole #1 tee and hole #9 basket are about 50' apart, right next to the parking lot. The course signs are very nice, where they haven't been vandalized. (See Cons.) They show the distance and general layout of the holes, along with directions to the next tee. The navigation is pretty simple anyway... just follow the most traveled foot paths from most baskets to the next tees. The map available here on DGCR is also useful!

Single chain Lightning baskets might not be the "high end" baskets that some people require, but in any case, I feel that they do an excellent job of catching discs. The tees are a mix of sandy gravel, as is typical of Maine soil. I found the tees OK when dry. I had to "rake" them a bit to smooth them out, but didn't have any real trouble with footing, even on holes that required a run-up. They did hold water for a while after a hard rain.

The course could cater to beginners and experienced players. Some of the wooded holes could be frustrating for a new player, but learning the skills to navigate such holes is a lot of fun. The course isn't very long, but the lines made it fun for me to play.

For a relatively short 9 hole course, there's an excellent variety of hole types... There are uphill, level, and downhill shots. There are right turners, left turners, straight shots and possible S-Shaped shots required from the tees. There are moderately and heavily wooded holes, along with open holes. There are wide open greens and some fast greens. The fast greens definitely tested my confidence on some long putts (meaning I laid up a bit, even on short holes). Depending on the time that you play the course, water could come into play as a wet weather stream runs through the course that would affect at least two holes.

There was only one hole that I couldn't reach from the tee (#7). (For comparison, I throw my drivers about 325' consistently on level ground.) But I wasn't put off by the hole length, as I still used drivers off of three other tees and really enjoyed the variety of shots required off of the tee. (I threw 4 drivers, 2 mids and 3 putters for my tee shots.)

I didn't find any issues with "unfair" fairways at all and feel that all of the wooded holes did have clearly defined fairways. Yes, #5 is very tight, but I played the course 8 times and hit the anhyzer (RHBH) line cleanly 7 out of 8 times, with even my errant 8th shot still making it over half way down the fairway.

Unfortunately vandalism is the biggest issue for me on the course. The tee sign post for #4 was knocked over and laying on the ground. The tee signs were ripped off of the poles on holes #4-6. A couple baskets, #4 & #5, had obviously been planted and then pulled out of the ground. The original poles, with the concrete still on them, were laying on the ground next to the re-planted baskets.

There are walking trails throughout the course and you just have to be careful of other park users. Not really a con, just something to be aware of.

The grass doesn't appear to be cut very often on holes #1, #3 & #9. It's not really a big deal as it isn't a thick, lose your disc, type grass. It's just a little annoying. (The other holes with grass, #6-8, were all nicely mowed.) The "island of weeds and stickers" on hole #1 is also annoying. This area is right in the fairway for the hole and should be cleaned up.

If throwing to the right of the big tree off of the tee on hole #1 isn't considered a mandatory (and it's not marked on the sign or map as such), it totally brings the parking lot into play. Plus the hole #9 fairway plays very close to the parking lot and poorly thrown (RHBH) hyzers could easily end up hitting a car.

***Updated 7-14-14. Baskets on #4 and #5 were listed as missing on the home page for a while. I just played the course and the baskets have been replaced with nice home-made baskets. The #4 basket is now down the hill from where it used to be, probably 30' from where it used to be. This makes the hole play a good bit differently. Instead of having a dangerous putt to a basket on the edge of the bank, you're approaching the basket down the same hill instead. The #5 basket is just a few feet longer than the original. The signs that were vandalized before have not been replaced or repaired. The tees are still rutty.***

***Updated 7-22-13 after playing several more times last week. Vandalism and lack of maintenance continue to be the main drawbacks to this fun 9 holer. Basket #4 is just leaning against a bush since pole got broken off. Tee signs are missing for #4-5 and #6 sign is defaced. Tees are rutty holes with sand/gravel in them. Grass still not mowed on #1,3,9. Based upon these issues, and more experience in general, I moved my rating down from 3 to 2.5.*** I don't have any public courses close to my home and I would be thrilled to have Gowen only 10 minutes away. It's not a destination course, but I had a great time there. I had the option several mornings of driving 20-30 minutes farther to play different courses in the area, but enjoyed Gowen so much that I played it 4 of 5 days that I was in Maine.

Misc, info. Hole #2 has distinct hyzer and anhyzer lines to play off of the tee, although this isn't very clear from the course picture. I hit solid chain off of tee #3 with a skip from my hyzered Predator. Thought that I had an ace but had to settle for the drop in deuce. The drop-off beyond basket #4 had me so spooked that I only made two birdies. It the shortest hole on the course at just 192' but I found myself laying up to ensure that I didn't blow 50' over the hill past the basket. Par 4 on #6 might be a bit generous for experienced players, but I'll still take the 3 Eagles that I got. It's just a classic looking DG hole to me. #7 is the longest hole, by far, on the course at 410', playing probably 20' or more uphill. I still scored a 3 each time I played it. I could basically drive to the bottom of the steep grade approaching the basket, and then have a simple upshot and putt to follow. Oddly, even though #6 & #7 are the longest holes on the course, based upon them being par 4s and my avg. scores, they were the easiest holes on the course for me. And I really enjoyed the S-Line route in to the #8 basket off of the tee. Watch out for the tennis courts, though.

What can I say. I love disc golf. And I loved the variety of this fun little 9 hole course. Enjoy!