Konarcik Park is located in Waterloo, IL which is just a short drive across the river from St. Louis. The park is full of multi-use amenities, but there is still plenty of room for 18 holes of disc golf around the edges.

Konarcik Park DGC will be appealing for rec to intermediate level players. The course plays over rolling terrain through several different environments. There are a couple of areas of tall pines to go along with the areas of thicker seasonal flora that are more normal for southern Illinois. The woods and elevation changes are used to create many different interesting technical holes. There is a lake on the right side of #7, and a creek (dried up when I visited) in play on several other holes. The distances are mostly between 175' and 350', but there are three holes in the 400'-500' range and #18's 700' challenge to finish.

My favorite hole was #8, which has you teeing off through a tight gap between two tree trunks then playing through a wide open field for 250', only to encounter another tight window leading into a separate thick area of woods and brush. The basket is another 75' into the woods and tucked to either the left or right depending on pin position.

The tee pads are concrete. The tee signs are great - they have all of the required info, including all tee and pin positions. There are two pin positions indicated per hole, and supposedly also two tee positions - more on this below. The baskets are Gateway Titan models - the St. Louis area special! These are nice, although they don't seem to be quite as forgiving as DISCatchers or Chainstars if your putts are not on the center pole.

Navigation is challenging. There is a nice sign at the park road pointing towards the disc golf parking lot and hole 1, which I drove right by when initially entering the park. Other than that, the only navigational aid is arrows on the previous tee signs. There are some long and awkward transitions between holes, so you'll definitely need UDisc to navigate this one if it's your first time (I thought the path from #6 to #7 was long, but then I got to #11-#12 and #17-#18!)

A couple of minor safety issues. The park drive could be in play on hole 2. Errant throws on hole 18 could find hole 4's fairway/tee area. Also, after finishing #18 you have to cross hole 1's fairway blind to get back to your car.

The tee signs show two tee positions per hole, but they only appear at the White tees. The Blue tees are somewhere between difficult and impossible to find. I think that there were blue painted blocks to mark the front of natural tee pad positions, but any actual pads or signs at these locations appear to have been lost to time. You may be able to find the blue blocks on all 18 holes if you study the tee signs at the White tees and really look for them, but I missed them on most holes and I'm usually pretty observant for that sort of thing.

The extras are a bit lacking. The practice basket is a bit close to the road for my liking. There is no kiosk, and while I think there is a restroom in the park it's not convenient to the beginning of the course. Benches and trash cans are relatively scarce.

A couple of the tee signs looked more temporary than the others. It looked like maybe a small course redesign had recently taken place. Just an FYI.

Konarcik Park is nothing destination worthy, but a solid course that I'd love to have on my regular circuit. I chose to play here mainly to get an Illinois course under my belt (my 16th state played overall). It was also a return to reality for me (after spending the previous day at Eagles Crossing), and a nice way of wrapping up the disc golf portion of my trip. If you're near the eastern side of St. Louis and looking for a fun round of disc golf, you could definitely do worse than Konarcik Park!

Konarcik Park DGC is located in beautiful multiuse park. The DG plays away from all other park activities going on, generally sticking to the edges of the park and many holes in the woods. There was one other group out there on our visit on a monday morning. I'd imagine it gets a little bit busier on weekends being such a nice course.

The course features some moderately hilly terrain throughout. Not enough to be real taxing but enough to add some challenge in spots. There's a mix of more open and tightly wooded holes here. The holes through the pines are pretty unique feeling for this part of the state. The majority of holes are under 300'. There's a few that are probably between 300' and 400' and then the last hole is a 700' shot. The mix of left and right bending shots in the woods is pretty even for the most part. The pine tree holes offer multiple routes, but there often only one "pure" gap.

There's concrete tees for the white positions. Not sure what they have for the blue positions. I think it's just the blue cinder blocks that seem to be kinda common around this area. The tee pads are serviceable. Not the longest or widest but definitely better than natural pads. So technically two pads per hole. Technically.

The baskets are Gateway Titans. These look to be an older version, though they do still have 3 layers of chains. No issues with these from me. One basket and two pin positions per hole.

The tee signs were very helpful for the most part. They're mounted on nice tall 4"x4"s and feature a basic hole map which has a next tee arrow and denotes any OB in play. It also shows any water that is present on a given hole. Along with that they have the hole #, par and distances to both pin positions from either tee. All the info you really need. Well done with these. They even had a bolt inserted by whatever basket was in place.

The course is permanent and free to play. I didn't see any trash laying around for the most part and the course was well mowed and maintained throughout.

A couple of the holes must have been redesigned recently, or at least had one of the pin positions moved. This is fine, the only problem was it wasn't reflected on the tee sign. This was only a couple holes so not a huge deal. Minorly annoying though.

There's a few spots where next tee signs would go a long way. Hole 10 to 11, hole 11 to 12 and hole 17 to 18 are the ones where a couple arrows would be nice. Hole 11 to 12 is quite the walk and is not intuitive whatsoever. It was even a little tricky using the Udisc map, which was really accurate.

While it says there are blue tees out here, I only recall seeing a blue block once. I kind of forgot that the blues were a thing to be honest. I think nature has reclaimed most of them. So basically just remember when looking at the sign that you're always playing from the white tee on the sign.

Hole 18 kind of feels like a filler hole. Basically just a way to make it a more entertaining walk back to the parking lot. Which is fine, just feels out of place after playing the first 17 holes.

This is a really fun course all around. I'm glad we made the hour drive from where we were staying in St. Peters to play this one. It's currently just outside the top ten ranked courses in IL. I haven't played all the top 25, but I have played quite a few and probably close to 100 overall in the state. This one is definitely in my IL top ten. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area. If I could give it a 3.75 that'd be my rating. So a very,very good course IMO.

Konarcik Park has a really nice disc golf course. There is a balance of five wooded shots, five shots with the Lollipop Pines in the fairway, and eight park-style shots. The park has a nice rolling terrain so the course has nice elevation changes. Holes 2, 4, 14 and 18 are over 400' with 18 being in the 700' range. Holes 5 and 9 are ace runs. The wooded shots are on the shorter side, but holes 6, 10 and 12 pitch up and play longer than they measure. The course has good variety and can play somewhat tough. It creates an Advanced/Intermediate challenge while retaining a lot of fun elements, so the course can cater to a wide variety of golfers.

The course has Gateway Titans in good condition. The course originally had two dirt tee areas and two pin placements per hole. The course now has one concrete tee and on some holes the old second tee placement can be found, but they used a mix of white and blue placements for the concrete tees so it can be confusing trying to find them. The tee signs are still the old signs showing the multiple tees and listing multiple tee distances.

There are a couple of creeks that can come into play and a pond that I guess you could throw into on seven, but there is no real water carry on the course and no real OB issues. There is a mando on hole four to keep you away from the ball field on the right.

The course is a bit in the middle of nowhere, but as you pull in there is a sign directing you to parking and the first tee.

There are some flow issues here. Holes 1-6 flow fairly well, but when you walk out of the woods there isn't a sign to get you to 7. 7-8 are pretty easy to figure out, but there needs to be a sign by 8 telling you what path to take to hole 9. The 9-10 transition isn't the best and could use a sign. The transition from 11 to 12 is the really long, golfless walk and it does have a sign once you walk down the hill from 11, but there needs to be a sign near the basket to tell you down the hill Is the way you should go. 16 to 17 is another long walk and it's confusing which way to go from 16's short placement. Finally 17 to 18 is another long golfless walk. There are a few "next tee" signs, but not nearly enough to accommodate the meandering flow.

The basket for 15 is kinda stuck in the area of 7's basket and 8's tee, which in most cases I wouldn't mention but the reason for all the wandering on McCormack courses is to get good shots that don't conflict with each other. It was weird to see that shot sorta crammed in on a McCormack course. Hole 9 as well is kinda sorta close to a playground and isn't a great hole. It also has a weird flow from 9 to 10. It seems like there would have been someplace in that park for a better hole and the flow from 8-10 would have been better. Again, I wouldn't mention it except it was weird to see on a McCormack course.

The Lollipop Pine holes are really tight lines; at my skill level I end up playing poke and pray and try to sneak something around them. There is a lot of air there so it works most of the time. If you were really insistent on threading the needle on those holes, the lines are probably a little too tight on them.

Not a con to me but a criticism I have heard is that it isn't a "hard" course. Some of the St. Louis course are used for an A tier and have long, pro-challenging placements that this course lacks. If you are looking for the hardest of hard courses, Konarcik Park isn't that course.

Waterloo is on the way to... Waterloo? It's a good 25-30 minutes from Jefferson Barracks to Konarcik Park, which makes it hard to add into a day of disc golf. The course is a bit overlooked in the St. Louis area.

I've wondered why Jefferson Barracks has such a better reputation than Konarcik Park because on most days they play to about the same difficulty level. My guess is that Waterloo doesn't host a PDGA event and doesn't have a tricked-out pro-challenging pin placement like Jefferson Barracks does. Jefferson Barracks is rarely set up in that all-long setup and on most days plays a lot like Waterloo, but the fact that it can be set up in a tricked-out pro-challenging setup helps with the reputation. Konarcik Park just doesn't have that.

Every time I walk away from this course, I'm glad I made the trip. It's a fun round with a healthy amount of challenge. It's got good variety and makes for a good round for a wide variety of skill levels. Waterloo is a bit of a trek, but it's worth the driving time to check this course out.

Nice park setting
Tight fairways that demand control of your putter/midrange
Good elevation changes
Great signage

Most holes were very short
Natural tee pads
Long walks between holes

Overall, this was a great course. I appreciate courses that have a lot of short holes, but a few more holes that required my driver would have been nice. It was fun to play, but I don't know if I would make the drive out from St. Louis to play it again.