A good course in a mostly-open park, with a layout that makes the best use of a creek cutting through the property.



+ As others have noted, the course makes great use of the water. There are five holes where you're throwing over water - but the extra challenge of this layout is that the placement of the water on the hole varies - sometimes it's on your teeshot, sometimes on your approach, and sometimes on your upshot. Sometimes you have to cross it with your disc going left, sometimes with your disc going right


+ Concrete tees, good signage and baskets. Clean park, and the course appears to be in its own dedicated area. I don't remember seeing more than a few walkers


+ A few holes have additional, long baskets. I didn't play to those, but I'm sure they make the course more attractive for regular play


+ Judging by reading through earlier reviews, this course is getting regular improvements (signs, tees, layout tweaks, etc.)


+ A special shout-out to Hole # 14 for it's devious challenges. It's a pretty tame looking 300ish hole with the water along the left hidden behind deep and thick foliage. There's a hard left turn at the end down to a basket in creekside trees. From the tee, the open fairway tilts increasingly down toward the creek, so anything that leaks will get lost, or will leave you with a very pinched second shot into the heavily-treed green. As I played the course, it seemed like somebody was always looking through the creekside brush for a disc that didn't make the green. Walking off that hole with a safe and simple par made me feel like a genius

- There are some really good holes here, but the middle third of the course is pretty dull, with a stretch of wide open park style holes.


- The hole-to-hole layout isn't always intuitive, and there's some extra walking to cross the creek. These are pretty minor complaints - but there is one spot of potential danger: getting to the 11th green, the only way across the creek is to walk on the very narrow shoulder of a busy road

~ The wide open nature of some holes might give the impression that it's a good place for beginners, but there's so much trouble on the other holes that I'd think twice before bringing anyone who has a tendency to spray their shots


~ This course is very manageable for an intermediate player. A few of the pars 3's are on the longish side for the distance-challenged, but a safe and well-placed tee shot will almost always result in an achievable up-and-down for par


~ Based on pictures I've seen on various sites, the challenges presented by this course vary with the seasons. When I played in June, the foliage around the creek was thick. The windows for throwing on #1, #12, #13 were pretty small, compared to pictures I see from early Spring and Winter


~ This course is open - but it will jump up and bite you at the edges. And that goes back to the design that uses this property so well. I guess you could design a course here with a more intuitive layout - but the holes wouldn't be as good, or as inviting for repeat plays. I think the designer did what makes the most sense: make the best holes possible, even if that means some extra walking.




RECOMMENDED COMBINATIONS:

Pay a small donation and warm up at the wooded, short Mt. Lebanon Camp Meeting course.Then put together a triangle with Jackson Recreational, South Hills and Lenni Lenape for an excellent day of varied disc golf.

Jackson Recreational Park DG is across the street from the more traditional park amenities and it plays around Tulpehocken Creek, which is split into 2 streams for a little more than length of the DG section. One going straight and the other curving about and rejoining. There's plenty of water holes, about eleven of them in total. Mostly playing alongside but also crossing the creek five times.

It's mostly open, flat and fairly RHBH/LHBH agnostic with a little shot shaping here and there. Distances are lengthy for a community park, all over 210ft, averaging 324' with the median being 273' There's enough opportunity to let it rip after #5.

It's a very good hometown course to have and while I wouldn't call this a destination course by itself, it's a mere 12 minutes away from South Hills, which I would drive an hour for, so a worthwhile addition to any DG daytrip in the area.

+Nice long concrete tees.
+Water adds an element to otherwise typical PA park terrain.
+I believe #1 had an extra-distance basket but all the others were single basket and single tee.

Water is a major factor here if you have aim or distance issues, like grip lock or early release. I probably wouldn't bring a newcomer here for that reason and I suggest bringing discs you don't mind losing otherwise. The terrain between #6-16 is a bit sparse and while the distances are longer, many of the holes aren't too memorable. You'll have to jump the guardrails and use the street to get to the next hole are fairly often.

-Be comfortable playing near to water a lot. I had to get all wet retrieving a disc from #5, which I overthrew miscalculating the tiny strip of land the basket was on. It looked shallow but then I sank in the mud another foot. If you don't mind getting soggy or have a retriever, everything but 11/12/17 seems retrievable.

-#17 goes over two seperate but parallel creeks next to each other and the distance just might be too much for new players to throw. The water in the second creek looked too stagnant to be healthy wading in.

-There were no tee signs and only some baskets had next tee arrows. Most navigating was straightforward, but #9 tee is a little backtrack and hidden, sunk beneath the grass. People might mistake the more visible #14 tee as #9.

-#10/13 share the same fairway in opposite directions.
-Out of all the courses I went this year, the insects here were the biggest nuisance. Bring repellent.

Terrain Potential: XXX - Good. Flat, some elevation, lots of water.
Actual Execution: XXX - Good. It's well thought out but needs tee signs and navigation.
Upkeep: XXX - Good. Basic mowing was well done issue linger.
Difficulty: XXX - Intermediate, given distances and water.
Fun Factor: XXX - Good. People who enjoy risk play should like it here.
Overall: XXX - Good. Solid course.

Starting Point: The parking lot narrows to shorter spaces and about the center of that section, by the billboard, is where the first tee. You throw over the creek back towards the street. 40.366563, -76.324903 on google maps.

Layout: Throw the first disc, and then walk backwards from the tee to get to a crossing over the creeks. #1-5 will almost loop. After #5's basket, you continue straight past to #6, which throws over the creek. #6-16 loop with very little zig-zagging around after 8. #17 throws over the two creeks and #18 gets you back to the lot.

- Nice super grippy rubber tees in nice boxes. The course was well-maintained with short grass and a manageable rough in case your discs end up there. A kiosk with disc golf into and a disc return box is by hole #1.

- A chance to air out some katanas, nukes, destroyers, and the like. Some holes exceed 300' and hole #16 is a monster 480 slight downhill bomb to the basket. Very memorable! Another memorable hole is #11, a 500' drive that crosses a creek at about the 420' mark. Thus, you have to think about the water on your first or second (in my case) drive.

- Holes #6 and 17 are both interesting tunnel shots through dense vegetation. Even more interesting is that both times, you must clear the tunnel or your disc goes into the stream. Moreover, the basket on each hole is 200' or so away once you clear the tunnel. The key here is throwing low enough to get through, but high enough so it flips back up to get enough distance to the chains.

- Overall, the course is very wide open, which can be good for airing out discs and making it hard to lose your plastic. Placement of pins by trees helps break the monotony of throwing in wide open fields.

- On the other hand, it's a little too wide-open. I know I spoke of #6 and 17 with the tunnel shots, but that's really the only wooded holes that can be spoken of here. Everything else is out in the open and dejà vu kicks in after while. Even now, shortly after playing, many of the holes run together.

- The water could mess with your head. It didn't for me really, but I did have to let off the gas on a few holes for fear of it going in the water. (Even if it doesn, you can easily wade in there; the water's only a foot or two deep)

- Not exactly a 950-rated round of disc golf, but an excellent one for a beginner or someone looking to add some distance to his/her drives.

- Slight chance of an errant drive hitting another disc golfer, since many of the holes stand by another. There isn't fairway crossing per se, but I can see the need to be cautious during a tournament, league round, or just a busy day.

At first glance, you look at the flat, wide-open holes in a recreational park and think "UGH. NOT AGAIN!." But then you play it and realize it has a lot to offer: multiple water hazards, long wide open bombs, controlled tunnel shots on #6 and 17, and a variety of hyzer and anhyzer shots. Is the water all a gimmick and lose its novelty after awhile? I'll let you decide when you play, but I found it to be a great asset. In general, this is a great course for learning to tame the water hazard boogie monster, throw long drives, and introduce new people to the sport.

This course will over time give you confidence to throw around water, over water, and through trees over water. This course is fantastic for beginners, and advanced alike. Beginners wont feel that the baskets are too far away, and advanced players will be delighted with the variety of holes. Most holes are wide open, but not too open where it feels like you've played the same hole twice.

I cant complain too much about this course. more bridges would be great! teesigns as well, but these things will come in time. Because most holes are wide open, you wont get to test your technical skills too many times. Although the water is mostly shallow, there are some very deep parts (Hole #1) And Remember, you WILL get wet.

The park is pupular for soccer tourneys, but i havent had it become an issue with wandering kids/adults. beware the local tween who claims to have mastered the course and can "throw an ace on every hole." Rumor has it he lives across the street - his boasting was grating.

Great course in Lebanon. Has lots of opportunity for challenging basket placement.
Water on many holes and retreivable!
Good distance.
Clean, quiet, parking on hole one. Course easy to follow

Golden Retreiver is very helpful for water. You can get your disc out with help of a stick. You can spend time getting disc out of out water with sticks.

Great course. Love the challenges and it's a course where I can practice my discs and get a good read on how they fly.

A lot of thought obviously went into this course. Great use of the available land. The aqueducts are unique. When I pulled in I was afraid of hole after hole of open birdie shots, but the pin placements make it tough. The shorter holes are well protected and close to the water. Mistakes will surely result in lots of OB. But don't worry! Every disc that got wet was easily retrieved with a stick. The downhill bomb off the tee of 16 was nice. I can't wait to see what it's like when the leaves fill the trees. Easy to navigate. Should be challenging to ams and interesting enough to keep the pros attention. Can't wait to attend a Dunkle tourney here.

Nowhere to cross the water except at the ends, on the road. Looks like a floodplain so there may be no way to build bridges or anything. How much mud will there be? That's the question that I'll be asking come spring.

I will be back regularly. Great addition to the Central PA dg scene.