- 2 permanent baskets and 2 teepads at every hole, and some holes have up to 3 potential basket locations. This allows multiple ways to play the course and widens the appeal to all levels, from beginner to pro
- Shot variety: nice mix of long and short holes, technical wooded, open with obstacles.
- Beautiful and secluded. Plays through some gorgeous old growth trees, winds up around a slight hill. Apparently this is a mixed use park - you won't know it. The disc golf area is pretty much exclusively disc golf.
- Concrete teepads
- Great tee signage - shows all basket positions and the distances to each of those positions from each teepad. Perfect.
- Players of all skill levels will enjoy this course but it's challenging enough that when you birdie you'll feel like you earned it.
- Clean and well maintained. They put work and attention into this course and it shows.
- Two practices baskets and a huge wide open field next to hole 1 for fieldwork. Really nice touch (I don't know if it was designed for that intentionally but it certainly functions that way).
- Top of the world shot on 3

- Can get crowded during peak times. It's a popular course (for good reason).
- Some of the red/blue baskets are pretty close together (not a huge deal but on some holes it could be spaced a bit more).
- Navigation in a few spots may give new players pause, as occasionally you can see another set of baskets from the fairway of one hole, but they have some signage and the layout is intuitive. There's no weird double back or anything so if you think you're going the right way you probably are.
- No water holes if that's your thing (except the creek behind 3 but that really doesn't come into play).

Full disclosure, Hiestand will always have a special place in my heart. It's where I learned and fell in love with the game, and it's the course I've played the most often. Today was my first time playing it in 7 years and I was interested to see if it still held up. I'm happy to say it did and then some. There have been numerous improvements (the second set of baskets, new tee signs, the updated steps and retaining wall on 5 just to name a few) made to what was already a great course. In years past I would've mentioned graffiti and beer bottles in the Cons - that's changed to a pro, as I saw almost none (they may have taken the benches out due to Covid but still, it's obvious the course is well maintained). To me, it just doesn't really get much better than this. The course has pretty much everything in terms of shots and challenge, it's well laid out, there are some gorgeous holes and most of all they are just fun to play! The cons are so minor. Outside of destination courses or dedicated complexes, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better course. Will always be one of my favorites and a must play if you're in the Madison area!

Variety of shots, I used every one of my "go to" discs in my bag. The course in right near downtown Madison so you can eat or shop just about anywhere you'd like after the course. It's also worth mentioning that there is a Disc store right across the street, the owner is pleasant and informative. He even let my gf borrow a 2 discs to take and throw a few times to see which one she liked! He also voluntarily serves as a lost and found. Definite plus for us.

Pay to play, $5.00 a day per person or $40.00 for a season pass.

We drove an hour and a half to hit a few courses in the Madison area and this is easily the funnest course we played today. Well worth the drive if your looking for something new and challenging.

Only course in Madison that is open during most of the winter months. When it snows, the short tee pads are shoveled by the players. There is a random draw doubles Saturday league during the winter months.
There are a wide variety of shots that make this course great. Some long pins are more for RHBH throwers while the short pins are more for LHBH throwers. This does create variety and a whole different shot when the pins are changed. Examples are holes 1, 2, 4, 7, 16.
The long tees are very challenging. On a few holes, the long tees create a whole different shot. Examples are holes 7 and 9.

Not much wrong here. My biggest issue would be that it is too overcrowded. Madison needs more disc golf courses to help alleviate traffic from Hiestand. Pay to play should also help with overcrowding.

Overall, Hiestand is a great course that will be fun for all levels of play. Madison is a great place to be if you are a disc golfer. There are four outstanding courses in the area and more will be on the way soon. The Madison courses are going to be pay-to-play in 2013, but that will only help make the courses better. MADC has done a great job with course maintenance and course upkeep. Thanks for all your hard work!

brilliant dg course! multiple pin placements. multiple tees. excellent elevation change. tons of trees. a mixture of short and long holes. happy grassy fairways.
really encompasses almost everything i look for in a dg course!

yes, it was crowded. we got there in the afternoon, and we were not alone. which is a small price to pay for an awesome free course.

2nd of 9 dg courses played on road trip that week. this was def one of the highlights

This course is great fun for all players. Plenty of challenging shots, pro and am tees, signs, great variety of holes. This is my home course and the course that I first ever played on. It's what made me fall in love with the sport. Multiple pin positions make it so you're not playing the same course every time. A great free course with a disc golf pro shop right across the street.

This course is almost always packed with people. Parking can be quite difficult to find and it's very easy to end up sitting and waiting at a hole. The trees can be a little heavy on the sides at times so for a beginner who doesn't land on the fairway discs can be lost. However they are often found and if you put your number on it most people will call.

When I lived back in madison I played this course just about everyday. I never got bored and always had fun. This course got me and many of my friends started. It really is great for everyone beginners to pros.

Hiestand is my favorite Madison area course to play. If it was maintained as well as Token Creek this would be Madison's signature course. Make it pay to play!

This course has great variety. There are 2 cement tees on every hole but #3. The short tees are very beginner friendly playing at 4,700ft. while the long tees play at 6,450ft. SSA played 52.46 from the long tees during the 2009 Mad City Open. To shoot a 1000 rated round you needed to shoot 52 -2. This course offers a layout for all skill level players.

The course flow is great. It's not hard to navigate. Adequate tee signs.

There is some great elevation. It plays up, down, on, and across a large hill. The design is very good offering every type of shot selection.

There is a good mix of open and wooded holes. The wooded holes are very fair golf shots with some heavy rough to penalize bad shots.

Erosion and garbage. It's unfortunate the local player base cannot throw their garbage away. It really takes away from the great course they have.

This course gets heavy play. Erosion is an issue in several areas.

Make is pay to play! This will fix these problems.

This course is very popular and gets tons of use. Be prepared to be patient during prime time hours.

Make sure to visit Mike and buy a disc at his
Glide Disc Golf Store right across the street. He's a great guy. http://www.glidediscgolf.com

This course is a must play if you are in Madison.

Currently my favorite course in the Madison area. It's based on a big hill in the park which adds a lot of fun topography. It has a decent variety of holes favoring different throwing styles. Hole 3 is fun just for a nice bomber, if you're new make sure to take a right at the end of hole 2 or you'll be skipping 3 holes. This is something nice about the course though, as there are about 4 skipping points I can think of. So if you're running late or have a large group that won't let you shoot through, then you can just skip a couple holes. Glide being right across the street is great and Mike is just awesome!

It can get very crowded and sadly people don't always understand how to let people shoot through or break up a group of 6-8 into two groups. It can be confusing sometimes to navigate unless you go there a few times. Sadly many people like to litter even though there's a trash can at EVERY HOLE! The course is now pay to play, which I hope brings some good improvements, and might tone down the traffic a little bit. I personally feel it may not have ended up that way if people had been more respectful when it came to littering and graffiti, but there's nothing that can be done now. It's also too bad since now basically every course in Madison that's worth playing is pay to play.

Sorry about the above littering comment, but it just bothers me when people disrespect nature like that.