This is almost literally where I grew up. I first played this course in, I believe 1997, so just a few years into its' life. Over the next decade I probably played 100 rounds a year or more on this course.

Maybe the first good thing we can say about this course is location. There are roughly 25 courses within a one hour drive of downtown Pittsburgh but this one is within a 30 min drive of town. It's also one of the courses in the most populous areas in town. That means it gets a lot of traffic and use and has introduced many of us to the sport.

I usually start any review with the natural aspects. This isn't one of those courses that plays deep into woods, but make no mistake there are trees aplenty. If my count is right, at least 10 of 18 holes are more woods than fairway. It's lacking breathtaking scenery but for those who love woods golf as much as I do, there's plenty of it here.

There are three sets of pads now with concrete on White and Blue. There are benches and garbage cans all over the place. There is an actual bathroom in the parking lot with running water, closed during the winter. The tee signs are excellent. I love this style of sign that has indicators for current pin position.

This is a course that will challenge you and definitely build up every part of your game. Some of these holes require lazer accuracy down a straight line. There are holes playing both left and right in fairly equal proportion. There is a good bit of elevation to be had as well, with holes playing both down and uphill, along with cross-grain holes. All of this sets you up to really need all the discs and tools at your disposal. My favorite stretch of this course is 13-15. This is where the course gets into probably its' most wooded area, with the most "nature popping" around you. They are also 3 very different holes that each plays to very different scoring range. The wide open holes that play from 6-8 are well placed in this course, also, as you just finished 5 harder woodsy holes and the course gives you a break to go unwind a little and chuck some discs in a fairway.

The upkeep is almost always top notch here. Now, I have seen 5 star Upkeep at private course, so anything public is never going to compare 100% but it's always well mowed, it's clean and the local group takes excellent care of this course.

The course traffic is probably the biggest con for me. That's a challenging statement because you could argue that the popularity of the course speaks to how great it is and you are not wrong. It doesn't mean I want to show up and have 2 cards in front of me waiting to tee, which is most afternoons and weekends. There are SO many courses to play in town, but for various reasons a ton of people show up here all the time, which means I mostly avoid it except for early morning rounds or tourneys. There is, also, quite a bit of bystander traffic on the course. Most any day there are neighbors walking the trails that run through the course. Fantastic that people are enjoying the park, but most seem to have no "disc golf awareness" so you need to watch for them because they definitely aren't watching for you.

The weather can create challenges here. The drainage has been worked on many times in the past, but it still leaves something to be desired. Those same woodsy holes I raved about earlier are pure mud pits on the wrong day.

There have been a few changes since my early days of playing this course. I don't like them but that could be me being old and grumpy. They extended the 4th hole from being a short uphill to being the kind of hole I dont like much. Let's put a basket in the woods, with no lanes, and expect people to par. I have seen this hole crush amateur souls in tournaments. There is no lane to the deep pins. It's just poke and hope golf. They replaced the old 11th Hole because it was causing issues with those aforementioned neighbors walking. The new 5th that replaces it is mostly filler. Its a downhill putter shot with a lot of trees. The newest change is on 16 and here again, trees need removed to make it fun. The A Pin is okay but there is no lane to birdie from White to C Pin.

This course is a classic. It's quite literally part of the fabric of disc golf in the tri-state area.

Classic, old-school (designed in 1994) city park-style disc golf. Three sets of cement pads (red, white and blue, in order of increasing difficulty) offer optimal challenge for nearly any player. As is the case with Deer Lakes Park, the major river valley hills in the area provide excellent disc golf topography, in addition to course diversity. The deeply-sloped, grassy terrain provides lots of entertaining drives, both uphill and downhill. The irregular steepness of some of the hills creates somewhat deceptive slopes that can surprise you on upshots, adding challenge and fun. The tree density of the middle portion of the course is near-perfect, rather than being completely open and prone to windy conditions. Holes 7 and 8 are the most wide-open holes, but are still somewhat shielded from high winds and have undulated fairways, keeping things from getting boring. Hole 9 is a thrilling downhill bomb shot with great tee and pin positions that put trees and shrubs in the way, but is still very fair. Hole 10 is a tough uphill drive that requires a huge RHBH spike hyzer, but won't kill you if you miss it. Holes 11 and 12 have the most steeply undulated fairways, as well as blind pin positions that keep the fun factor elevated. Holes 13 and 14 wind around creek ravines and are well-shielded by huge trees, but are not too tight and reward skillfully placed drives. A free course with newer, bright-green Prodigy baskets.

Course starts with heavily-wooded holes that underwhelm slightly, sometimes giving you a beating you might feel you didn't deserve. However, the course rapidly improves starting at Hole 5, continuing through most of the rest of the course. Holes 7 and 8 are a little too close together for comfort, with neighboring fairways in opposite directions. The parking lot is a bit inadequate for heavy disc golf traffic. Has a couple of holes that feel slightly like filler holes (4, 17), but are good enough not to ruin the experience. The out-of-bounds road bordering Hole 18 seems slightly forced, adding challenge but not adding to the fun factor.

Another solid hit in the greater Pittsburgh area, making the area a natural disc golf destination. Those used to driving in flatter-terrain areas might be slightly flustered by winding roads in the area, including the one leading to this course. A great course overall, perhaps not quite up to usual 4.5 rating standards but definitely better than the ~4.0 composite rating on this site.

- Prodigy Pro DG T1 baskets
- Multiple tees
- Multiple pin locations
- Beautiful park!!
- Great use of the terrain - I loved Hole 16 (throwing straight up a steep incline over the parking lot).
- Great variety of short/long and left/right doglegs.
- Tee signs on every hole.
- Every hole makes sense...there are no holes that make you feel like you have to get lucky to have a good shot.

- Lots of thorns in the rough...stick to the fairways as much as possible.

- We don't see too many courses like this in OK. I could play this course everyday - to have the chance to play this beautiful course everyday would be incredible. Thanks for building such a nice, well-though-out course.

This course will challenge you from start to finish. You will be required to throw every type of throw in your bag whether it be big Hyzer bombs or tight straight backhands or a long sidearm. The course has great variety between wide open holes where you can air out (7,8,18,) or tightly wooded holes (1-3,12-15), knob hill gives players with smaller arms more chances than a lot of other courses. Overall, knob is a great example of the great courses that the Pittsburgh area has to offer.

Most of the cons that will be listed are going to be quite nitpicky.
- The course can very easily become wet after even the slightest bit of rain so come prepared.
- The prodigy baskets are very unforgiving and require a large amount of precision.
- The course is usually crowded (Usually the people are nice enough to allow fast people through)
- Once you start you pretty much have to finish because there are no places to stop (There are very easily skippable holes though)

These are all very nitpicky and should not distract from the quality of the course.

If you are a Pittsburgh native or you are visiting the area, don't cross this one off your list. While you can very easily be distracted by other great courses in the area (Moraine, Deer Lakes, etc.) Knob is equally as great. Definitely a must visit.

- There was a good entrance after passing playgrounds, pavillions and large parking lot, you see a sign for the course, and there is a parking lot at the end of the road with a board and practice basket with yardage markings around the basket
- Playgrounds and pavilions show that it's a good place/park
- Large grassy areas looked maintained, while the wooded areas have pretty big fairways and pathways in between holes (actually saw people maintaining one of the later holes)
- 3 tees on each hole (flypad for longs/blues, concrete in good shape for mids/whites and natural for shorts/reds)
- 3 basket positions on each hole, some with lots of yardage between positions, giving completely different hole types
- Detailed tee sign at each white tee (probably the most commonly used tees) showing the par, nice hole map, location of all 3 tees and pin positions, flight paths, next tee arrow and distances from each tee to each basket
- Course flows good and there aren't really any long walks between holes, a walk from parking to tee #1, but not too bad
- Nice hole setting variety - some holes are open, some are heavily wooded, many are both, but you experience that most with blues
- Hole designs surprise you with a lot of shots
- There were plenty of just great disc golf holes - I really liked hole #6 - the downhill hole where you have to watch out for some trees close to the tee, then it opens up where your disc needs to settle near the pin put on the edge

- Nowhere near the parking lot until 16
- Seemed too easy for pros on certain holes, pros would completely rip up the course because the challenge factor isn't too hard
- 16 crosses over the road at the start, not good if a car comes
- White tees have good tee signs, but the reds are hard to find and laminated paper stapled to a wood post
- Hard to find the first tee without a local...need more help to find the first tee

Great course! I played all of the worlds courses but Slippery Rock and I liked this best. Unfortunately, the pros couldn't play this because it was too easy, but I would like to see someone good play Knob Hill. Great course!

Knob Hill is a superb disc golf course that flows exceptionally well, working its way first into (1-3) and then back out of (4-8) the woods before playing down (9) and then back up (10) a sizable hill, stretching out into some longer wooded holes (11-14) that abruptly end with one of the quirkiest par 3s (15) that I've ever seen before moving onto a mostly open hillside where rollaway opportunities abound (16-18) to finish out the round. The diverse mix of distances, woodedness, and elevation encountered along the way makes for an exceptionally varied round: from tight midrange shots (4) to big open drives (8, 18), huge hyzers (10) to long turnovers (11) to downhill bombs (9), and pins guarded by thickets of trees (3, 14), well-placed out of bounds (15), or precarious elevation (17, 18), this course has it all. It's one of the most diverse courses I've played, and the fact that it nevertheless flows and comes together so well is a testament to its thoughtful design.

Adding to this diversity is the course's three pin positions, which can dramatically reshape a hole. The C positions are infamous for their difficulty, while the As make for birdie opportunities galore. The locals mix and match these positions and change them often, giving Knob Hill an almost innumerable amount of possible incarnations. The course's challenge can vary greatly depending on the layout, but you'll never be bored regardless.

Tees are fantastic size and shape. Amenities are readily available. The park is easy to find and well-groomed. Gorgeous western Pennsylvania surroundings; play it in the fall if you can!

I don't mean to sound like a fanboy, but: not a lot. It's a very solid course.

I suppose the reason Knob Hill is a bit lower rated than its sister courses Moraine and Deer Lakes is that the wow factor isn't as high here. Whereas I have vivid images of specific shots seared into my mind's eye from these other two courses, my impression of Knob Hill is more of its overall consistency and enjoyment. This isn't to say there aren't unique, standout holes - 9 and 10 down and up the hill come to mind, and 15 is surely memorable, though not a signature hole by any means - but that Knob Hill's ceiling doesn't reach the heights of Moraine, Deer Lakes, and other world class courses. I tend to prefer overall consistency to intermittent oohs and ahs, so this characteristic doesn't bother me, but I can see it standing out to some.

Though the variety of pin positions make it tough to make a general statement on difficulty, I would say that Knob Hill on the whole isn't highly technical when compared to some comparably wooded courses: there's enough space and multiple routes on many holes to be more forgiving than they could be. Make no mistake, this is a very relative statement: this course can kick your butt. It's just not as tight or as long as par 4-focused game-testers. I happen to think Knob Hill's difficulty level sits in a perfect sweet spot, but I can see it potentially losing a bit of edge for some first rate players. This is more a neutral observation than a true con.

The more I play Knob Hill the more I love it. I tend to value variety and consistency, and that's Knob Hill's game to a T. Its holes flow well from one to the next, accumulating into what for me is a very satisfying overall experience. It's a must-play course in a must-visit area.

Ratings-wise, Knob Hill teeters between a 4.0 and a 4.5 for me. Its lower wow factor points to the former, its completeness and variety point to the latter. While not quite as spectacular as some other top level courses, it just comes together in excellent fashion. Play it as soon as you can!

Update June 10, 2014: It occurred to me today upon returning to Knob Hill that part of what makes it difficult to rate is that it's almost exclusively par 3, whereas many other what I consider top courses have significantly more par 4s and 5s. Knob Hill is certainly the best par 3 course I've played - it covers an astonishing amount of ground for that format. I still teeter between a 4.0 and a 4.5 but it's all semantics: this is a fantastic course.

A great layout. Very scenic. Challenging hills. Open, but a couple of tight holes. Great views. Good condition. Clean. Nice people.

Tees can have puddles. Rough can get real high, making it very hard to find discs. Not a huge diversity of holes.

This is my home course and I've played it many times. I love it. It's a shorter course with many birdies to be had.

Has great signs to tell you where the holes are. Has a nice mix of long and shorter holed. The shorter holes are not too easy either. Move the pins around a bunch to change up the course.

On some holes it is easy to lose your disc if you throw it in the woods, especially on hole #11. Other than some blind throws there are not many other cons.

Used to get super wet after rain but since they installed drains it has improved a lot. It is easy to get a decently quick hour hour and a half round in any night. It is a great 18 that will test every part of your game.

An extremely well-maintained course, Knob Hill is one of the few disc golf courses that could be considered mainstream. Holes are designed to be accessible to a variety of skill levels and also reward players with strong shots and strategy. Fairways are laid out very well, and construction from tee pads to signs is first rate.

Crowded. This course is the star of the immediate Pittsburgh area and attracts huge numbers of people, particularly on weekends. A lot of families can make play tedious for the speedier veterans.

Update: A lot of improvements have been made to this course in recent years, and they've vastly improved the quality of play. Added an extra .5 stars!

A great course all around, just difficult to play an entire round without having to wait a bit. Moraine's Lakeview course is further from Pittsburgh (another 20 minutes up Route 19), but is a superior course with far less crowding.

Lots of variety. Good use of multiple tees. Excellent challenging hole placement. The grassy areas were very well cut. Relatively easy walking for so many hills. I especially liked 5, and 12 - to the right side basket, 13, and 14 (even with the swampy tire tracks cutting through it). My 10-year-old daughter had a great time from the reds. The rest of us found it very tough using the whites - not too surprising at our skill level.

Some of the holes and tees were hard to find for a first visit. Red tee lines were hard to find on some holes. Area might get very messy after strong rains. Sign at Tee 16 is misleading, but it's kind of obvious to guess where it's going.

Not too long from whites - didn't wear out my arm before the end of 18. Water hole on 15 isn't much of a water hole any more. That suited my family just fine. 11 to the C basket was a monster uphill for us. My worst round of the summer score-wise, and I still had a good time. More clear signs to first tee would help, or maybe we missed something. The first visible tee is 18, so we parked before it. That was a mistake. We ended up walking about half the course backward, just to get our bearings and find #1. Next stop will be Deer Lakes.

Cement teepads, more of a open course, trees have sum corrugated piping on them incase of discs hitting wont really damage

When it rains or day after it is a mud pit, also everything is par 3 some should be par 4s but its a hard course very challenging