First half of course works its way along a line of steep drop offs and trees. With skill, both can be avoided.
The second half of the course is a nice change of pace with longer open holes.
After one round, it makes since how to get around the course, even though not marked.

Definitely not in the best part of town.
No signs at the tee pad to tell you distance or where the basket is.
A few too many long open holes.

This is a very pleasing park to the eye and has a good combination of technical and long bomb holes. If you are willing to take Prospect until it ends, and then more, to play a very good disc golf course, you should make your way out to Kessler Park.

Great Mix of holes
Woods not too woodedOpen not too long (sometimes)
CHALLENGING

Some of the holes are repetitive (holes 14-18)
I got some of the least lucky bounces off of trees ever
Not very easy to find your way around first time
Terrible signage
NO TEE SIGNS.
Very difficult to judge distance on many holes
Crossing of roads way too much

This course is really much beter than I thought. Blue Valley-esqe holes for the back 5, so you get the whole Blue Valley experience with none of the insane frustration and losing of discs in maddening rough. I had a good time even with a terrible round.

Wooded holes are very fun. Distance was fair, but hole 13 was ridiculously long for a par 3. Baskets were good...one was a hanging basket right next to a rock wall. Tee pads were big and allowed plenty of run-up. Water fountain at a hole (17?) Nice rolling hills in open section and steep inclines in wooded section

No tee signs, benches, or trash cans, but there are bag holders at most tees. Navigation is rough. On one hole You have to walk about 75 yd. to the next tee. Empty reservoir makes it extremely easy to lose a disc. (two holes play right next to it.) Open holes get very repetitive and some wooded holes barely even have a fairway. Wooded holes seemed like a dump. Hole 7 had tons of water in it. I walked in what seemed like a small stream that came out of nowhere and got my feet soaked. Bad neighborhood (P.M. me if you want to hear a funny story about that). Seemed like they set up the holes and then numbered them because the "parking lot" was right next to hole 14.

If this course got rid of the reservoir (which I know is impossible) cleared (and cleaned) some of the wooded fairways it would be a 4.5 course, but I rated it 3 (on the drop-down it says that 3 would be a course that is good) mostly because of the terrible neighborhood it's in.

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This is by far my favorite course in KCMO. Easily one of my favorite courses in the US. I won't get into the break down of holes and such, but I enjoyed the technical and long aspects of this course a great deal. The holes were laid out in an amazing fashion. There were a few holes that were easily in the most visually apealing and also best usage of natural terrain that I have seen. Designed very well and alot of work has been done there to build better steps on the hills and nicer tee pads. There are alot of letfy friendly holes that are pretty technical for a righty backhander.
The only course in KC that I have to play everytime I am here.

The usual comments ring true here.
The only con on the course is, No maps, No signs. Used my phone to find a map and distances.
Parking was pretty shaky. I understood what one reviewer spoke about in trying to find a spot out of the way. It was a little muddy and can be pretty slick not that it is a con, just a consideration .

You definately do not want to go into the reservoir!
Thank you to the KCFDC and the KC municipalities for this gem of a course.

What a great course.

The first half of the course is moderately to heavily wooded, and uses the natural changes of elevation to create a technical front 9 that is, to date, the most challenging I have played.

The back 9 of this course is wide open and long. There are a few very old, and large trees on a few of the holes, and alot of the fairways run along the OB roads.

Overall, a great, great course.

This course is very steep, and rocky in some places, footing can be very tricky, and one slip while searching for an errant disc could send you tumbling down a steep, rocky dropoff.

It also sits just on the outskirts of what isn't the best part of KC. Probably not a place you want to play by yourself at dusk.

There are no restrooms anywhere on the course, and not really any trashcans to speak of. Broken bottles, and other trash are pretty abundant in some areas.

There are no sign markers to point the way to the next tee box, or distance from tee to pin. On a few holes, backtracking is neccesary to find your way to the next tee.

My only "complaint" about this course is that it is clearly 2 halves, the first half being wooded and techincal, the second half is wide open and long. I would have loved for these holes to have been mixed together.

*Tight wooded Holes on most of Front 9
*Great teepads
*Nice Tee Signs
*Huge Cliffs that can hurt you in many ways.
*Open up on Back 9 so very good mix of diff shot types.

*trash and couple homeless camp sites.
*Not the best neighborhood
*More open shots on the back 9 and all front 9 are most heavily wooded.
*Not easy to find the parking lot.

Good tuff course. Would love to try it again.

Very well thoughtout course.

Playing right next to a huge old water resevor for the city.

We

Very challenging. Has an excellent wooded/open balance to it, and flows very logically, with some of the best technical holes in KC. Brand new teepads which were poured for 2009 Worlds have made navigation issues, particularly in the wooded section much easier. Good new signage too, although I don't know how long its going to last. Players rave mostly about the wooded section, but even the open section has some clever challenges, particuarly when the wind is blowing fiercely as Cliff Drive's open holes are at one of the highest points in the city. You're often challenged to park your disc between OB trouble on both sides. The old city "reservoir" (a long abandoned pill shaped structure with no actual water in it atop the hill) can be a formiddable obstacle on a couple of holes for some. I've never found this course to be terribly crowded.

The park is in a sketchy neighboorhood (one of the tee sign/bag hangers was destroyed and another teepad was graffiti ridden). Parking is not abundant, and knowing where to park your car if you're not familiar with the course can be a dilemnia, as you want to be near Tee 1, but not in the line of fire. Depending on when you get here, it may not be mowed very well (just my luck two holes into playing the Parks Dept. shows up with the mowers). Climbing up and down the wooded sections may not be very suitable for folks with bad knees on them. Rec players may find it a bit overwhelming as there are plently of places to lose a disc. Trash abound in the deeper sections of the woods, (hint: try not to get your disc in there, as I did twice), as well as the reservoir.

Water Works has been my longtime KC favorite, and I think with more play at CD (for some reason, I'm always in a hurry to get somewhere afterwards any time I get to play here) this could possibly top that. A few more trees in the open section to tighten things up, and some better parking, would make this magnificient. Want the cool wooded holes last? Park in the same area for hole 1, but climb the hill up towards the reservoir to Hole 11s tee and start there.

First 6 holes were technical and heavily wooded. Loved em. Probably the coolest set of 6 holes in the city in my opinion. There is a Par 3 hole that is over 700ft. Bombs away.

As previously stated, Needs a marquee/sign showing you were to begin and displaying a course map. Better "next hole" signage would have made this course "The Ultimate" for me.

I'd highly suggest playing this course in the morning/early afternoon as there are some homeless "camp sites" throughout the woods.

Good mix of 6-6-6 design, though many will say 9 wooded, 9 open, it is actually;
6-heavily wooded
6-techinical in light wood
6-more open

The new pads are very nice, as are the tee pads.

Need benches, and restrooms factilities, a marquee, and better trash receptacles. Parking is as it gets in the park.

Coming along nicely, more work continues to get done here, please come and play, let me know if you ahve any questions.

Good use of elevation changes to add difficulty. Woods are pretty tight on the front 9, demanding a little strategy to post a good score. Open back 9, but OB roads, along with well placed trees, add some challenge. Never crowded. I threw every disc in my bag, good mix of length, hyzer, anhyzer, elevation changes made for a very fun round of golf. Navigating the course was pretty easy if you follow the paths.

No bathrooms or parking area. Not the best neighborhood. No benches. Long, uphill walk from 10 to 11.

Overall, a very good course. Teepads have been finished since the first time I played here, just in time for Worlds, and it makes the course much nicer to play. I'm quite surprised this course isn't more crowded, as several holes were very memorable. Favorites include #1, 4, 5, 8, 12, 17. Definitely play this course if you're in the area, or couple it with WaterWorks or Wyandotte for a great day trip.

The front 9 has some of the coolest terrain I've seen so far. They're getting ready to pour t-pads for the Worlds.

Parking. Sketchy people in the hood, although a local police officer was very friendly and parked near our vehicle while we played the front 9. He looked happy to see a shiny new out-of-state vehicle there.

I wish #3 tee box was still at the top of the hill; that is a Sick shot! #1 has a cool new tee. Lastly, don't bring a knife to gun fight...

Cliff Drive is an appropriate name for this course as the front 9 plays amongst a very scenic cliff.
~ Great views of the City
~ Has both tight wooded holes and open holes
~ Nice shot variety - Makes you throw tight technical lines as well as allowing you to air it out.
~ Hole 2 is a great hole that makes you throw a very technical drive off a cliff through a corkscrewing wooded corridor to a nice green. Hole 17 is the best open hole as you bomb down a hill to a reachable pin 500+ ft away.

~ Natural tees
~ No Parking lot or facilities of any kind
~ Difficult Navigation
~ Very dirty course in a very sketchy neighborhood. The wooded holes looked more like a trash dump than a disc golf course.
~ Lack of layout balance - the course has a balance of wooded and open holes, but it lacks course balance with all the wooded holes stringed together followed by all the open holes stringed together.
~ The back 9 is wide open with sparse trees and all long bomber holes that tend to be tweeners

The course is worth a play. It could be championship quality with the addition of proper signage, concrete tees, and a slight modification to the back 9 to limit repetitiveness.

Course Level = Blue (most suitable for Advanced players rated 925-975)

Very good terrain variety- very well balanced mixture of terrain. 5 Woods/ 5 Grass/ 8 Mixed. The front 9 has all of the woods holes and the mixed terrain holes have thicker foliage. The back 9 is much more open and even the holes with foliage have more sparsely spaced trees and bushes. I liked the wooded holes the best, but the great grass with scattered large old growth trees were nice too. Big arms can air it out on the wide open grassy back 9 holes as well.
Scenic Cliffs- On some holes, like #2, if you go too far off the fairway you're off a steep cliff with a big drop off so that you're toast trying get back up through the trees. On other holes the cliffs are a beautiful natural background.
Great Elevation variety- A perfect split of 9 Up and 9 Down. There's change on every hole, and 4 holes have big elev changes of 21 to 27 ft..
There's a very active local club with a very good website and an active discussion board.
Some holes have bag hangers.
There are a few views of the city
I played in the early afternoon and there were some deer grazing in the grass on hole 13.

Navigation- When I played the course in Oct 08 the KCFDC website "Course Map" link took me to a very old map so it was very confusing and very hard to find my way around the new layout and to even figure out what hole I was on. At the KCFDC website for Cliff Drive, if you scroll down the page to the April 11, 2006 update and then click on the small map it will bring up a larger more up to date version (but tees 1 and 7 are in different places now.)
Tee signs- Most tee signs need to be updated to reflect the new layout. The front nine has some very basic laminated signs that could be upgraded.
Tee pads- A few concrete but mostly grass and dirt framed with railroad ties.
It would be helpful if the current basket position was marked on the holes that have several positions.

My favorite hole: 2. A downhill drive with a big drop of -27 ft, then there's steep drop off a cliff if you go too far right, and it ends with a cool green.

This is another very good KC course that's well worth playing.