I got in a morning round at Grandview while in town for 80-35 music festival, and I'm glad I finally made it out there. It's a good park for disc golf. Grassy hills with a fair amount of mature trees and some rough patches to keep it interesting. The tees are concrete and have ok signage. The red DISCatcher baskets did what they're supposed to.

Only 1 par 4, but some of the par 3 holes can be on the long side. The elevation changes can be big, but leans toward moderate with a hole or two that is relatively flat. It is a fun layout, offering a good mix of birdie shots and still provides some challenge of skills.

3 really nice downhill drives, one with a tough Mando on 18 to send you home smiling. That last one was my favorite hole. 1 is no slouch either. A 500'ish par 3 (according to the sign, maybe I played the short pin) with several tall trees to navigate. I flexed a great shot off the tee and avoided them all somehow. It felt great, but I missed the 40 footer for birdie. 13 is another drop off the tee, but short enough to reach with a putter. Just avoid the trees and brush to the right side. Hole 6 is a kind of cool tunnel shot.

Layout crossed over the street multiple times, and is a bit tough to follow. Having a map will make life easier for first time visitors. Luckily I caught up to a local at hole 6 and he guided me around.

I can see why this is a popular course. Fun but not as tough as Walnut Ridge or Ewing. It isn't my top of the list in the Des Moines area, but it's worth a visit for sure.

First time out I was 1 over par. 3 bogies 2 birdies and even on the rest. Will likely return to try again.

Condition of Baskets/Tees 10/10. Concrete tee pads for long and short tees, baskets are disccatchers in good condition

Use of Obstacles 10/10. This is a great park for disc golf with lots of mature trees and a wooded area surrounding the park, which are used well in conjunction with each other. The course is pretty compact but does not feel cramped, it's a great use of space.

Decisionmaking 10/10. Many holes have multiple possible routes to the basket and it really makes you think about what shot to throw and which gap to go for.

Course Maintenance 10/10. This course has been in great shape both times I've played it. Well mowed, restrooms, running water, trash cans, benches etc.

Disc findability 9/10. You shouldn't have a problem finding discs here unless you really shank one into the woods

Comfort while playing 9/10. In addition to what I have under course maintenance, there is a lot of shade. My one nitpick is there were tons of mosquitoes the second time I played it, but that was with recent rains and I don't remember it being a problem when I played before

Variety of distances 9/10. This course has a great variety of distances from each set of tee pads. Could maybe benefit from having one more bomber hole.

Elevation 9/10. Course plays mostly through large rolling hills. There aren't a lot of severe changes but there is good variety.

Challenging all levels 8/10. The short tees are great for beginners, and the long tees are great for everyone else. My second round here I played with a first timer and he had a blast. Advanced players may find the middle section a tad on the easy side and it certainly won't present the same challenge as some of the other courses in the Des Moines area.

Navigation 8/10. Very helpful map at the first tee. There are a couple long walks between holes that could be tricky. Tee signs are okay and there are only a few blind shots so you can usually see the basket from the tee. Would help to have an indicator of which position the basket is in for the blind holes at least.

Variety of openness 4/10. Most holes have a moderate amount of trees and a few others are more open. This course is lacking a couple holes on the more technical side.

Quality of Alternate Basket positions 4/10. Most holes have one alternate position and a couple don't have any. A few of the alternates don't seem to change the holes a whole lot.

Variety of shot paths 5/10. Decent, but there are significantly more holes that are right to left than there are left to right, and with the exception of 18 and 3 short there aren't many sharp doglegs.

Challenge 7/10
A couple years ago I made a trip up from KC to Des Moines primarily to play disc golf and played here, ewing, walnut ridge, and Big Creek (arm was too dead to play Pickard after those 4), and personally this was the course I enjoyed the most of those. Last week I was back in the area for work and I had a chance to play it again and it was just as enjoyable. There are no major negatives here and I would definitely recommend it to anyone passing through the area.

+ Stately park setting, plenty of huge, old-growth trees.
+ Good signage, decent tee pads.
+ Felt like a perfect mix of long and short holes, BH and FH friendly holes.

- Very popular course, so wait times are common.
- Plenty of pedestrians around
- A couple holes get a bit tight to play areas, so probably best to play conservatively on those (put that spike hyzer away on those shots or risk winging a kid, I guess!).

Played this as the 4th course of the day, so arms and shoulders were a bit tired and frankly didn't notice until the end - the course was that much fun to play. Good round, not terribly slow, nice layout - KUDOS to Des Moines for maintaining a nice course with an urban area and encouraging more people to play disc golf.

-Beautiful city park especially in the fall months with the changing leaves
-Good mix of hole types (backhand and forehand shots)
-Great tee signs and multiple pin locations on each hole
-Good use of the elevation that the park has to offer
-Mix of short holes and longer holes that are not to challenging for the average disc golfer.
-Short tee's on almost every hole for beginners or rec players
-Other things to do at this park besides disc golf
-Hole 13 is a throw every disc in your bag kind of hole
-Hole 1 and hole 9 start and end at the parking lot if you want to play a quick 9 holes.
-Nice concrete tee pads with places to sit
-Each hole is different and has its own distinct features.
-Enough trees and elevation to make this course a sweet challenge
-Fun and entertaining course for all ages!

-This is the most populated course in DM and you might have a wait on some holes
-Not many trash cans around the course, so you do see some beer cans laying around here and there.
-Arrows on the tee signs pointing to the next hole would be helpful

This is a must play course if you are in the DM area! I would say that this is my favorite course, with Big Creek State Park coming in at a close 2nd.

Good pads, baskets; great signs.
There's some garbage cans (but not enough, apparently).
Really nice course map at Tee one.
Multiple pin placements keep it fresh.
Improvements! Many of the teepads have been extensively repaired as of late. Some anti-erosion measures are also being taken this year (2015) to try to regrow some grass in high traffic areas and around some pin placements and in chronically soggy areas.

Traffic. Sometimes you wait.
Empties. Sometimes there's garbage.
There's a couple treks between holes/parking lot.

Grandview fills a very important niche for the disc golf community of central Iowa:
A high quality, centrally located and accessible disc golf experience.
Grandview serves the masses.
Its fun for intermediate players and won't leave beginners wishing they had stayed home instead.
Grandview is the teacher.
Grandview is where you play while Pickard and Ewing are a bit out of reach for you.
Its Grandview's welcoming promise of a good time and alluring challenge to try to shoot just one stroke better than last time that keeps me coming back.

It reminded me somewhat of my home course in that the course isn't carved out of forest but there sure are a lot of trees!!

could use some.......next tee ===> ......in one or two locations although having the course map photo on my phone helped with that.

Even here in the Quad Cities where we have many awesome courses I would still make this course a regular part of my rounds.

This was the first course I have ever played on, but not the first I have ever seen. It is very nice and I have been comparing all the other courses I have played since to this one. It has a good use of the elevations and the layout is pretty good. It has good baskets, and was freshly mowed.

There is a road going straight through it. probably not a problem if you are using a decent disc made of good plastic. at some times the next tee was hard to find. it is a long walk back to your vehicle from 18 if you park by 1. there was no scorecards by the map.

Really a very nice course, all things considered. I will play this again as i have a son in college down there!
I actually can't wait to play this one again!

Great use of the park. You dont see this good of use of a park very often. Long and short placements go very well together. Making a lot of good short and long holes.

Could be some more technical holes through trees. The trees that are there are pretty easy to get around. Kind of sucks when there is a lot of people at the park. But you will have that with a public park.

This is one of the best courses in the des moines it's a good mix of short and long holes open shots and some trees it's also very good for forehand and backhand shots very well kept n clean

Inconsistent tee pad summershore and summer long some have mud in front and behind so can kind of get slick Hilly

Great signs, baskets and tee pads, layout is about as good as courses get around here, nice mix of shot types, decent chance for birds but also some longer challenging shots, mostly shaded, well maintained, hard to lose a disc here b/c even the wooded areas are pretty clear and not a wall of underbrush like you sometimes find

Pretty popular so can be crowded, they recently moved a couple of the longer shots back even further taking the hole from challenging to frustrating in my opinion

My favorite 18 hole in the metro, I love pretty much everything about it

Great holes, lots of up and down hills, left and right turns. Good trees.

Nice tees and baskets. Great signs. Des Moines disc golf club does a good job with this.

Lots of different distance, everything from the huge uphill to the little shorty downhills.

Layout isn't great. There are a couple spots where you have to cast around a bit to find the next hole. Signs show multiple basket placements, but don't say which basket it is in, which makes things a bit more difficult, as you have to cast around a bit to find the hole sometimes.

No water hazards, there appears to be a small swamp that doesn't really come into play, would have been nice to have that be something you had to clear once instead of just something to shoot near.

I really enjoyed this course, I played like absolute crap, and the course bent me over, but I felt good at the end of it. I would play this course again in a heartbeat, and if I were anywhere near Des Moines I would make a point to get here for another go round. At least the second time I'd remember to bring lube.

Serene and shady park tucked on the back side of a municipal golf course in one of Des Moines hillier neighborhoods (whomever says Iowa is flat hasn't been there). Due to its moderate length this course is very popular. Dual tees on most holes (some of the shorter holes have just one) give users the ability to tailor the length of it to their abilities. The "back seven" holes to the south of the entrance feature the coolest elevation changes as well as the challenging monster on #12 (essp. when the pin is long). Minis every Monday night.

The downside of popular of course is crowded, and not just with disc golfers. Towards the middle of the course is where you're going to run into the most trouble. I've never had the misfortune of hitting here on a weekend thankfully. There are some erosion issues, and you'll likely encounter a few muddy spots towards the lower areas.

Best advice I would give folks is get here either early or on a weekday before the crowds hit. Also if you have a camera handy, take your picture with the carved basket made out of a tree trunk near #10's tee. The popularity of this course begs a question as to why Des Moines doesn't plan another course like this. Many of the other courses in the area seem to be set for advanced players and I've never really seen a crowding problem at those.

All 18 holes have large mature trees to contend with. Some are a little more open and others get relatively tight. Gently rolling hills provide a slight additional challenge. The course has a nice flow to it and for the most part is easy to follow. About halfway through the course the holes move to the other side of the entrance. Majority of the holes are short to medium length with a variety in shot types.

Non-disc golfers are a nuisance. Careful where you park as discs may hit your car.

Always a joy to play.

Well groomed, many different shots required, low chance for losing a disc, nice shelter, parking and bathrooms.

Gets really busy, can be on the easy side for skilled golfers.

Perfect for a fun outing that can be enjoyed by many skill levels.