Being so close to other courses (right across the street in some cases), this is a great warmup for other courses, but it also stands out on it's own as one of the best 9-hole courses out there.

A 9-hole course with a practice basket?  Yes.  And it has a nice amount of elevation and trees on the practice green.  You can practice realistic straddle putts within the circle... at a 9'er.

The holes are all warmup length (the only one over 300ft is a downhill), but the obstacles sure aren't.  The course kicks off with a very thin fairway with an OB rock ditch three quarters of the way there.  Getting off the tee on hole 4 is a difficult prospect, while holes 5, 7, and 8 have some very difficult trees on the fairway.  And of course the famous McMahon roller ace hole to finish things off.

Most holes have more than one line to get to the basket.  The only ones without it are holes 1 and 5, and those are enough challenge on their own.

The elevation that exists (and that isn't much) is used well.  3 and 4 are slight downhill shots, 7 and 8 are more extreme downhill, and 5 is a very difficult uphill between the trees.

Most of the time, once you've accessed the green, there isn't a lot of challenge besides the OB near the pin on 1 and the very scary green of 9.

Four road crossings, and hole 6 has you throw across the road.  A small gripe, but something to be careful of.

Hole 2 is a flat, open 150' ace run, and is one of the main things holding this course back from a better rating.

Hammond is up there with the best 9-hole courses I've played.  Sure it has it's flaws, but with the land given, they used it perfectly.

When coming to Emporia, hopefully you're planning on playing more than one course (if you aren't, what's wrong with you?).  Make Hammond your first stop.  It's a quick course to warm up on, it's right next to Country Club, and it definitely isn't going to be forgiving or too easy.  Except hole 2, that one's easy.

Baskets/Tees 10/10 - Baskets are DD Patriots, tees are concrete and size isn't a problem.

Course Maintenance 10/10 - The course is very clean and has always been well mowed and in great condition when I've been.

Navigation on holes 10/10 - Tee signs are great, they have the same style as the big Emporia courses.

Disc Finding 10/10 - There is no hole where you should have a danger of losing or disc, or really of needing to spend much time at all looking.

Use of Obstacles 10/10 - For how small of a park this is, the designer did a great job of using all the obstacles available to make this course a fun and interesting play.

Decisionmaking required 9/10 - Outside of holes 1 and 5, the rest of the holes all present multiple paths you could take to the basket. Some are more interesting than others, but they're still there.

Comfort 8/10 - There is running water near the tennis courts, bathrooms in the middle of the park, along with a couple benches here and there. Well mowed and rough is non-existent. A couple of holes where you might have to worry about non-dgers either on the playground or cars on the roads.

Navigation between holes 7/10 - The course has a pretty good flow and you can generally see the numbers on the tee signs from a distance. There is no course map or next tee pointers, and there are multiple road crossings that could add a little confusion (After 1, 3, and 8).

Elevation 6/10 - There isn't a ton of elevation change here, but there is pretty good variety. Holes 1 and 5 are uphill, while 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 are downhill, a few have side-slopes as well.

Variety of Openness 6/10 - While there aren't any shots I would call "very technical", this course has a good mix of open (2, 5, 6, 9) and "moderately technical" (1, 3, 4, 7, 8) holes.

No alternate Pins 0/10 - (It's understandable with how little room there is though)

Variety of shot paths 3/10 - Most of the holes are fairly straight, there aren't any with doglegs that force you to throw one direction or the other. A couple have low ceilings.

Variety of distances 4/10 - Most holes are on the shorter side, with the longest hole being #3 at 311', but there is an okay mix at least. Most holes play around 275-300', with Hole 2 at a 140' ace run, and 8 and 9 in between.

Challenging all Levels 4/10 - This would be a great course for beginners, but while it wouldn't be totally boring for advanced players it doesn't provide much of a challenge for them.

Overall Challenge 3/10
More Precise Rating 3.064

It's right across the street from Emporia Country Club, and the fact that the course is pretty short makes it a great warm-up if you're planning to play the lengthy Country Club course. This course didn't have a lot of land to work with, and is a great example of a park where a 9-hole course turned out much better than any 18 hole course could have. This would be a great spot to take someone for their first time playing, it presents some obstacles to avoid without to much length and is very forgiving of errant shots.