Kessler Park is large, with delicious hilly terrain coupled with a nice contrast of the wooded, hilly front nine and the more open but still hilly back nine. The front nine is much more technical and treacherous while the back nine plays much longer with some wonderful long downhills.

The tee pads are always extra long, the baskets are Mach II's with an extended PVC pipe with a red flag. This really helps spotting them, especially in the more densely wooded front nine. But the signs are cheesy temporary ones which gives only the hole #, no distance.

Navigation is tricky and sometimes totally confusing. After playing # 10, I walked across the park road and played, what I thought was # 11, which is what the tee sign says, only to discover I was throwing to the # 16 basket. The on-line map is much clearer here. But I still have no idea where or how to get to 17 and 18.

Signature hole? There are lots of possibles but I think I'll go with # 2. It plays across a gorge, then down and finally back up to the top of the hill again. I could really have loved it if was a prettier setting not just dirt, erosion and littered with garbage.

Serious erosion problems on the front nine. Steps would help in places but I think this course probably suffers from over playing. In other parts of the country (Minnesota) several of these holes would be shut down and given time to regenerate.

The litter problem is seriously bad on the wooded front nine. There are bags of people's trash dumped in places and the disc golfers are obviously throwing their cans where ever. This course needs the local club to step and do some serious cleanup. Maybe have a tournament where each player is given a small trash bag and you're allowed to deduct one stroke when you return your trash bag filled?

Temporary signs.

Navigation issues.

Kessler Park DGC is an enigmatic course. On one hand it sits in a wonderful park with great terrain for a course, the elevation is so perfect for a disc golf course. The course is long, challenging and well designed. Then on the other hand, you have some serious erosion issues coupled with an even more garbage and litter problem. It saddens me to see this lovely park used as a dumping ground for people's trash. After playing a few Kansas City area courses in this wet and damp weather, I've arrived at the determination that every exposed dirt patch in every park should be covered in wood chips. To accomplish this, park officials just need to cut down and chip every tree In the greater Kansas City metro area.

The front nine! Very interesting shots through wooded areas with a fair amount of elevation change. Nice and interesting pin placements that make for challenging shots that require a good amount of precision.

Just an excellent set of 9 holes well laid out in some great terrain.

The back nine! Pretty much wide open, except for some out of bounds areas that are more frustrating than fun. One shot goes right along a road, where if people are parked on the side of it are right in your flight path. You have to play it safe just so you don't hit someone's car. Another couple holes follow a fence line where if you are inaccurate, you're not going to retrieve the disc as there's a 6' fence with a 20' drop on the other side of it into what looks to be some sort of abandoned water detention area.

The back nine also is just plain uninteresting, consisting of nearly all pretty wide open long shots, most of which are flat. There are some cool giant trees, but that's about the only high point.

The course also suffers from vandalism/neglect, as there is garbage everywhere, and many of the tee signs are either missing or laying on the ground. It's a bit tough to find your way to the next tee some times (we never did find the tee to 11, and just played it from the 10 pin).

My rating is mostly about the fun of playing the course rather than the condition, as garbage can always be picked up and signage replaced, but the course layout is what I care about. Once you know a course, despite the signage (or lack of it), you can still have fun playing a well designed course.

It would actually be a great course if the front and back nines could have been mixed together. A wooded shot, an open shot, a wooded shot, an open shot, etc. However, as is, you play this really fun and interesting front nine, and then get dumped into this barren and bland back nine. I'd still go just to play the front nine though, as I really had fun on that portion of the course. If I could just rate the front nine, it would get a 4.5, but the back nine is closer to a 1.5 for me.

For those worried about the area, don't worry! No, that part of town isn't great, particularly after dark. But the park is fine in the daylight. I suppose if you're from a nice suburb, the drive in might intimidate you a little, but it's no big deal.

As a bonus, Pigwich is just north of the park, so do yourself a favor and grab yourself a sandwich afterward! It's a real hidden gem of the area.

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.

-------------------------
If you mark this review unhelpful or you find a mistake, please send me a personal message here on DGCR explaining what is wrong with it.