Heistand offers play up, down, and around, a huge ridge in a city park and excellently utilizes the woods and open areas of the park. The park offers some terraced greens and elevated tees. Variety here is excellent with uphill, downhill bombers, across hill, tight woods, and wide open bombers all balancing left and right. Some memorable holes are the #3 downhill bomber, #6 and 7 wooded tunnels under a massive canopy of old oaks and maples, and many of the longer open holes that add immense challenge and distnace when playing the long tees (long tees here are WAY more challenging). The rough here can also severely punish you. Although there is a creek behind #3, it really doesn't come into play (con of no true water hazard).

Tons of glass and bums out there who vandalize and litter. Signs are often broken and do not indicate the many redesigned holes. The overall course design suffers from oldschool mentality that does NOT include risky greens. Almost all greens are wide open, flat, and minimal chance of a bad putt actually hurting you.

4.5 is possible, but the amount of traffic, garbage, vandalism, litter etc really distracts from losing yourself here. The wooded holes are pretty tight and under a canopy but don't require extreme accuracy. Plus it is only 18 holes and there is no water hazard, so a 5 was not possible. Heistand is a great course, probably the best all around in Madison and the closest to receiving a 4.5 rating. It has amazing vareity and balance, lacks very little, and would be well worth your time to travel and play.

What I personally like and how this course stacks up in my list of 18 hole courses:

1) Holes with good risk/reward. Fair, but harsh punishment for bad decisions or execution. == A (From the longs there are plenty of holes were I need to decide to go for birdie or play for an easy par. On my go-for decisions there is plenty of danger that will turn a desired 2 into a 4 or even 5. Nice! From the short tees, it is not nearly as good in this aspect.)

2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities for me. I throw 300' accurately, 360' max. == B- (Half the holes on the longs are not realistic birdie opportunities, but too short to make par rewarding. On the shorts most holes are too short to be rewarding.)

3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography == A (Great balance of right, left, up, down....with good variety of shapes too. Hole 3 is my favorite since it is the most fun....a downhill wide open bomb - with danger lurking in the form of water not too far past the basket.)

4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion. == A- (Very beautiful and well maintained. If not for the city park feeling on 4-5 holes, I would be tempted to go A+ in this area - easily an A.)

5) Bonus points for multi-throw holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them. == N/A

It's all about feeding the addiction, so I ranked this course subjectively based on my own "personal addiction factor". The grades above tell how well the course will draw me back to itself again and again and again. Since I have played a decent number of courses (125 18-hole, 64 9-hole as of mid 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar addiction tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they choose courses to play and explore.

I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me....that's the fun of things here. See my profile for my rating philosophy.

-ELEVATION change used almost to perfection
-ripper holes, short holes, technical holes:variety
-pro/am tee pads that change the lines and the course
-beautiful
-right across the street from Glide disc Golf shop.
-super fun course
-cement tees in great condition
-trees, small and large. rough that is there to make you think about risk/reward.

-SIGNAGE-extremely poor and lacking: both hole info and directions to the next hole. MAJOR con here.
-restrooms

Once again, ANOTHER Wisconsin course that falls into the 3.5+ range that could easily be a 4+ or a 4.5 course, in this case. BUT this is a great challenging and fun course perfectly designed for the hill it is built around. LOVED IT!

First off this course is about elevation changes. It is built around and on a huge hill and uses it to the absolute best of it's ability. Long shots with the pro tees, shorter technical tees with the ams. Up hill shots, down hill shots, rippers, technical, lefty and righty shots. This course has it all, seriously.

My MAJOR complaint about this course is the absolute lack of signage. When we played (early May) there were absolutely no signs at any hole, only brown posts that indicated that there used to be signs, or maybe will be signs. No yardage, no numbers, no next hole locations. The latter played a part in trying to find some next locations. Some are just not that apparent. A lot of the baskets were in blind locations, especially on longer dog leg holes, so a walk up the fairway was a very common occurrence. Once in a while there would be a painted yardage on a tee, but this was inconsistent. If this place had signage it would EASILY be one of my favorite places to play. Maybe since it's a public course they have had issues in the past with vandalism but I didn't get a feel for that being the case here.

This is a MUST play course in the Madison/Wisconsin area. Be prepared for uphill walks, and downhill strolls...and for searching for waward discs in unforgiving brush and trees...but that's the risk/reward this course serves up.

battled between a 3.5 and a 4.0, but this course got rounded up in my book. Give me great signs and a 4.5 is right the corner.

UPDATE 11/09 SIGNAGE!!! some new signs with hole, number, pin locations, and next hole locations. A super solid 4 rating!

Man,I love when a course brings it ALL ON. This course does just that. Good variation on all holes and tees. Tight and technical to a few wide and open.

Tough. Some holes are challenging in a very annoying way. I'm not going to get into exactly why,but lets just say this course is not easy at all.

I would love to play this course again next time I'm i n the area. Over-all good.

This is a challenging course for either beginner or pro players. There is an interesting combination of hole placement and natural forest growth that create delightful obstacles. The terrain seems to change with every hole, so its not just a monatonus play.

Playing in mid July to late August can create a problem. Because it is in a wooded area, there is a certain amount of prairie grass growth that can swallow a disc for it never to be seen again.

Would recommend to any level player for a relaxing afternoon or for an intense head to head game.