+ Innova DISCatchers. They seem like they are brand new and catch just as expected.

+ Large, seemingly brand new tee pads. The grip is phenomenal, they are plenty long for the tall crowd and they would be Conrad approved in my mind.

+ Teesigns are great. They give you almost anything that you need. The distances were different from what uDisc had but the distances on the teesigns seemed more accurate.

+ There are next tee arrows on some trees and some dedicated signs to show you to the next hole. Without those, this course was the easiest course to navigate that I have played in recent memory. I didn't need to use uDisc once to figure out where to go next. Everything was natural and the course flowed perfectly.

+ Hole 1 and hole 18 start and finish pretty much next to the parking lot.

+ There are two courses located at the park and both hole 1's are about 100' away from each other.

+ Bathrooms located near the beginning of the course.

+ Benches were present on some but not all holes.

+ Elevation is used perfectly to me. I wasn't expecting to find a ton of elevation here but was pleasantly surprised with the terrain. I loved how the elevation was used. Almost every single hole has some sort of elevation change.

+ This course is an excellent example of fair wooded golf. I have played far too many courses that are in the woods that don't have fair lines to the basket. Hole 6 is the closest hole to not being fair but there are lines and its a short hole. I really enjoyed playing every single hole. There was never a time when I had to stand on the teepad and contemplate life and try to figure out what shot the course wanted me to throw. Every hole has at least one clear route to the hole.

+ I used a good mix of forehand and backhand and about half of the discs in my bag. I leaned primarily on mids and fairways since staying in the fairway is key here. I didn't have to pull out a distance driver until I hit the last 6 hole of the course. I really enjoy a course that is this style, that forces you to have accuracy and not just raw power to score well.

+ Hole 1 starts out with a bang. This hole is the biggest downhill hole on the course and its a great way to start the course. The hole is downhill and straight for 90% of the hole then it turns right. If you bail out long or left then you risk going OB. Its a great way to start the course off.

+ Hole 10 is the closest hole to Hole 4 at Maple Hill that I have played. Its the one hole on the entire course that brings the lake into play. Its a booty hole puckering, straight and slightly downhill shot that if you go 15' past the basket then you will lose your disc to the lake. Of all the ways you could have brought the lake into play, this would probably be my favorite way.

+ Hole 16 is one of the fairest and most fun 1000'+ holes that I have played. It plays along a clearing in the trees where a pipeline has been put in and because of this there is a straight 1000' hole that is about 50' wide the entire way.

- A few holes play a bit to close to the road. There aren't many but the main culprit here is hole 17. I didn't even know there was a road until I came up to my approach shot and was about 5 feet from it.

- No pin indicator. There seemed to be 2 pin positions for every hole. It would be nice to see the addition of pin indicators so that you dont have to run up the fairway on every shot to see what position the basket is in. Most baskets could be located pretty easily but it would be nice if you didn't have to run up the fairway.

- No loop back to the parking lot half way thru. This is just nitpicking.

This course is probably in my top 5 if not top 10 for sure. I would travel out of the way to play this course if I am ever in the area again. I really wish that I would have had more time here so that I could play dogwood as well. If you were to place me on this course and ask me where I was, I would have guessed that I was in northern Wisconsin and not in northern Louisiana. This course transported me to a course that has my favorite style of golf.

Those that might be put off by the length of this course should still try to play here. I never felt like any hole was too long and I was able to get in a round in just under an hour and a half.

A complaint that I would have (not a con) is that I wish that all the par 4's and 5's weren't all clumped together in the last 6 holes. I would have loved to see these mixed in a bit more but it does make for some fun mental games.

I can't express my love for this course enough. If this course was closer to me I would choose to always play here. I truly loved every hole. Its a good mix of everything and has every element that I look for in a course. I will be coming back here one day and camping here so that I can spend a weekend playing here. There are some glamping tents that are right off of some fairways that would make for a great place to camp for a boys weekend. This course is out of the way but should be on your list of courses to play if you are in the area.

-- Challenging course requiring accuracy and distance.
-- The short and long tees are generally so different as to make it feel like two different holes.
-- With another highly-rated course (Dogwood) at the same location in a state park with cabins and camping, it's a great destination course.
-- Elevation changes are epic. You start with a 70-80 foot drop in elevation on hole 1. Several holes have uphill and downhill shots on the same hole.
-- Scenic views of Lake Claiborne on a few holes, although the lake only really comes into play on one hole (10). The water is 15-20 feet behind the basket, so an overthrow likely means saying goodbye to your disc.
-- Tee pads were natural (and definitely a negative). With multiple confirmed reports of concrete tee pads, I'm moving tee pads to "pro" and raising my rating from 4.0 to 4.5
-- Fairways are kept free of tree limbs and brush. You might have trouble getting back to the fairway if you miss it, but you shouldn't have much trouble finding your disc.
-- Restrooms available near hole 1.

-- Tee signs look good and are mostly accurate, but at least two of them have the short tee marked on the opposite side of the trail from its actual location.
-- The last six holes are MUCH longer than the first 12 and almost feel like a different course.
-- No pin indicators. With really long holes and lots of trees and elevation changes, it is really important to know where the pin is. However, many of the holes force you to walk up the fairway to find the basket and then trudge back to the tee.

-- $3 to enter the park for day use.
-- Far away from civilization. Few (no?) places nearby to buy basic beverage and snacks.
-- Cell phone service is spotty at best. Don't count on having service.
-- Wildlife is abundant. I saw four deer on my last visit.

(4.283 Rating) (RE-EVALUATED) A medium length, moderate to heavily wooded course, that's no doubt a Louisiana destination course.
- UPGRADED BACK TEES - I received word that the blue tees were recently upgraded to concrete, hence this revision. The tee conditions at the time of my visit were horrible and it was the sole reason I scored it a 4.0 instead of a 4.25. The new pads are 5 feet by 12 feet and so I elevated my score for the course about 2 tenths of a point.
- RAW BEAUTY - Personally one of the most beautiful courses I've ever played and currently still in my top 3 on my list of 482 courses played as of this revision. Perhaps it was the time of year I arrived as everything was in spring bloom. I'd say every hole on this layout looks well above average and a bunch would be signature looks on 90% of the courses out there. Carved mostly through pines, but what makes this course special is the constant rising, sinking and twisting of the elevation. The downhill tunnel shot on (10) with water beyond is killer. Holes (3) and (4) where both awesome valley shots over a headwater creek. Anyone like me who's a sucker for beautiful courses will love this place.
- ELEVATION - Flip'n awesome. Hole (1) starts with an 80-foot down shot. Several other holes exceed 40-feet in elevation play. Then number of holes with less than ten feet of elevation change can be counted on one finger.
- HOLE VARIETY - Absolutely superb. In addition to elevation, almost all the other plays are here. Twisting holes to the left and to the right. Lots of shot shaping opportunities. A 1000-foot long by 50-foot wide bomb-it par 5. Several par 4s and a stop it short of water play on (10). The one glaring miss was not having an additional play along the lake. From checking the park map though, it appears that other park features occupy the remainder of the lake's edge.
- CHALLENGING - The back tees read Intermediate level and the front tees read Recreational level. This course with the two-tee configuration should work for a wide swath of skill levels, 750 to 925. I'd say that the challenge is above average but short of what I expect of phenomenal courses.
- SIGNAGE - Gorgeous tee signage and course map. They roughly make my top twenty on artistic appeal as of this revision. It has almost all the info one would need and the artistic description is not only just beautiful its accurate.
- NAVIGATION - About as good as one would expect from a heavily wooded course. Accurate course map, navigational cues between holes and intuitive pathways. I personally only looked at my photo of the course map once.
- AMENITIES AND EXTRAS - A touch above average. In addition to signage and solid navigation I appreciated the several picnic tables spaced evenly along the layout. Tee shading was on all 18 holes and there are restrooms and shelters in the park. It would be great if they added a practice area with basket. Perhaps it's there now.

With the tees fixed now, the only thing I now would have wished for, is that the challenge had been more intense.
- NO ADVANCED CHALLENGE - As stated in the pros, this course offers a solid Intermediate level challenge. So, although I had to work for it to card pars and even some birdies, the subdued aspect of cerebral intensity left me yearning for more. I've given 18 courses a 4.5 or higher as of this revision, and among those, Whitetail is the third easiest. As an Intermediate level player myself, I should generally not be able to throw under par on what I consider a top tier course from the back tees on a blind solo round unless everything goes right. The backs need to be toughened up by 4 or 5 throws in my opinion. The front tees can stay the same.
- HOLE 13 - This was by far my least favorite hole on both courses here. Please note again that I threw from the back tees. Anyways, from the tee I couldn't see the basket, so I walked down the fairway approximately 250 feet to the top of a ridge to try and identify where to throw. When I got there, there was no defined lane anywhere. What's the point of having a blind 700 foot hole where you have to pray to hit one of a dozen 8 foot wide moving lanes over a ridge. The throw off the tee is complete luck and the approach after that is a crapshoot.
- NO BASKET LOCATION INDICATORS - Having to run up blind fairways to check basket placements on a course with lots of elevation movement is not fun. They are needed for this style of course.
- TERRAIN - If you have bad knees or ankles I'd stay clear of this course. As stated above, lots of elevation change and also rocks and roots to stub a toe or twist an ankle on. Although not the best course for the disc golf cart, it looks doable with a Zuca.
- PARKING - Very few parking spots next to the course. I think I counted five. Perhaps all the course traffic comes from those at the camping locations and the ones by the course don't fill up.
- TIME PLAY - Whitetail is going to take a chunk out of your day. This one took me 90 minutes solo playing the back tees. I could see a group of four seasoned players playing the back tees at around 3 hours.
- LOCATION - This gem is unfortunately out in the middle of nowhere.

What an awesome course. With this re-evaluation, Whitetail re-enters my top 20 out of 482 courses played. The Whitetail layout is a technical players dream course. Both the beauty and variety here are among the best examples I've ever seen. It shares a lot of traits with courses I've rated highly such as Inverness, Wilderness and the IDGC trio. The only aspect I see lacking is the preferential one of challenge intensity. This is a no-doubt destination course and it should be highly sought after by those that live within a 4-hour drive.
- PAY TO PLAY- Only $3 the day I arrived to enter the park. 100 percent worth it.

This course was a huge amount of fun to play.
There were several holes that have great lines - the sort of lines that make you want to throw again and again just to try and nail the perfect shot.
Great variety - in length as well as type of shot: putter shots, hyzers, forehands.
As other reviews mention, most of the longer holes feature at the end - not a problem, and there are some excellent par 4s and 5s there, requiring placement of shots on the fairway.
All of this in a lovely wooded state park, near to a picturesque lake. Only one hole plays anywhere near the water, which is fine as I'm happy not to lose a load of discs!

This is just minor nit-picking:
The dirt tees - these were fine in the bone-dry conditions I played but I imagine in wet conditions they could be hard work. They can be quite small and there's the odd tree-root around.
It's nice for a course to have alternative basket positions - however, would be v. helpful if there was an indication on the tee of which was in use, or just a general 'all baskets As' at the entrance: on several holes I had to go basket hunting because I couldn't see which one was in play.

$3 all-day entry to park = bargain.
I drove to Homer to get lunch and brought it back for a picnic by the lake, which turned out to be an excellent decision.

Played the long tees here and really enjoyed this beautiful course! I feel like the course makes good use of the elevation and the terrain to make a beautiful destination.. Two tee pads and two pin positions actually make for a more diverse course, and also gives players with less experience the option of a shorter route.. Really nice tee signs on the long tees. There are also arrows for navigation from basket to next tee..

Natural tee pads, not sure its really a con because they are fine to throw from. But they can be hard to keep in perfect throwing condition. There is also a bit of a walk between some of the t baskets and the next tee. Probably the biggest detraction for me was not knowing what pin position was being used. It didn't seem like there was any rhyme or reason to it.

This would be a great place to spend a weekend playing disc golf! There is another great course on site here too! be prepared to do lots of walking! There is some fairly intense hiking involved in playing both courses in one trip.. Also if you like camping there are great camping spots, and places to park an RV so you can spend a few days playing. Cabins are also for rent here. We only seen one other group playing here so its not a crowded course at all!

Immediately upon getting to hole 1's tee pad, I knew Whitetail would be better than Dogwood. Whitetail feels more manicured (like a ball golf course) while Dogwood feels like every other woods course (rough and newly cut). This might change with time as Dogwood ages, but for now Whitetail stands out.

The number one thing I look for when reviewing woods courses are how fair the fairways are. Sure a course could be "challenging" if it has an old growth tree too many in the fairway, but if your holes are "poke and pray" I won't reward it with a high review.

The fairways at LC - Whitetail are more than fair. If ball golf courses had wooded holes, they'd look as nice as Whitetail. The only hole that came close to being a poke and pray was hole 6?, but it's still fair if you hit the tight line.

I hope you're comfortable throwing drivers in the woods! When I said this place was the best woods course, part of that was because I threw more drivers through trees than I usually do. Normally it's smart to club down in the woods, but if the pin is 1000ft away (as it is on 16) what else are you to do? You'll probably have to throw a confident driver or two in these woods, which ups the challenge.

Looking back, I believe I threw 8 Putters, 2 Mids and 8 Fairway/Drivers off the tee. I tend to throw putters where most might throw a mid, so all things considered this is as well rounded of a woods course as you can imagine.

Counting left/right/straight shots, the pattern continues. You'll throw a lot of straighter shots to start things off, but depending on the pin position, they could be doglegs also. It doesn't noticeably favor one particular throwing style. You'll need to do it all.

Speaking of alt pins, it's always a good idea to have many alt pins if you can, and Whitetail does for most holes. It also has 2 sets of pads per hole which is also important to be able to reach a wider range of players.

Whitetail doesn't have any navigation issues as far as I could tell. We navigated without a map and were just fine. (same couldn't be said of Dogwood). The signs are very nicely made and give you all of the information you need.

My favorite hole was 17. It was close to being a semi-open hole, but was SO WELL DESIGNED. It reminded me of the longer par 4's and 5's of Europe. I loved this hole and wished there was 1 or 2 more like it out there. Hole 18 is also a fantastic finished hole, really allowing you to end on a high note, both aesthetic and challenging.

The property itself is breathtaking, especially as you make your way towards the water. It's not only the best woods course I've played, it also is one of the prettiest. I saw plenty of wildlife and many whitetails (imagine that). It's a place you'd spend a weekend with the family at, regardless if it had a course or not.

I wrestled with the fact that the tee pads are only natural. Part of me feels like some turf or similar pad would really up the respectability of this place. At the same time, if there was ever a natural/beautiful property that deserved to stay as close to natural as possible, Whitetail is it. They really do work out here, BUT since you already have big hunks of metal and chain + signs everywhere, maybe a proper tee pad wouldn't be terrible.

There weren't many (if any) benches to take a quick rest at. If this course were highly trafficked (the location makes this rare, I imagine) it would need benches. If any huge tournaments were ever held here, with the long waits at holes that are inevitable, I feel some nice seating would really help.

It was strange to have all of the longer holes on the back nine. Not really a con, but it would've helped the flow to have a few more on the front.

The course isn't two 9-hole loops, so there's no going to your car during the round. This also makes it harder to host tourney's/weekly's as many people will have REALLY long walks to their starting pad. For the traveling player, however, this doesn't matter.

I can't really say too many good things about this course. It deserves the praise it garners. I'm a very nit-picky reviewer, but it's because I believe constructive feedback (and never settling) is the only thing that will push the envelope. Dream big and grow the sport!

As I've said before, I can't find myself giving a "one-trick-pony" course a 5. I believe you have to challenge ALL aspects of a players game to be considered perfect, and to date I've only given a 5 to two courses (Selah Lakeside and Hawk Hollow). This is one bad ass woods course, however!

That being said, there are places for woods only courses in our sport and many would say they're arguably MORE challenging than mixed courses. Lake Claiborne is, simply put, the best woods course I've ever played. I feel kinda bad that my 4.5 will pull the rating down slightly, so normally I wouldn't review the course, but at the same time I feel my review is needed. I'm a trusted reviewer and this course has very few of those reviews. It's also a newer course that doesn't have the number of reviews to gain a reputation, so hopefully this helps.

As an aside, it seems like there is camping on site. If you're into that, I'd certainly recommend it as it's a drive from the closest town (Ruston?). It's feasible to stay in West Monroe and drive in early if you need more stuff to do at night.

Amazing scenery. The hole type features all sorts of elevation changes and obstacles that strained my newbie skills. Great terrain to play on (cut grass and straw). Very detailed teepads. Amateur tees included. Nice baskets. They give you scorecards.

Its hot in Louisiana.

I played the first time as a beginner and it was very difficult but it was still very fun with mixed success. I would recommend coming prepared with all sorts of shots.

Beautiful property
Good mix of distance and elevation
Good signage
Challenging but fair

Needs more trashcans and benches
Dirt teeboxes

I loved this course. Very challenging and very well designed. Absolutely beautiful woods. This is located in the most hilly part of Louisiana, a bit different than our flat swamps and bayous. I would like to see some gravel on the tee pads, and maybe a few more trash cans. I hope to do a disc golf camping trip here soon. As others said, better be in shape, because this one's long and hilly.

It is fantastic to see a course of this quality in a State Park. For the princely sum of $2 you can play this course all day long, if your legs hold up. Be sure to ask for the excellent map/scorecard when you check in.

Easy parking right right at the Headquarters Building, with a beautiful cut-out steel sign marking the entrance to the course. Restrooms in a couple of places on the course, with benches, trash cans, etc. all available as well.

This is an outstanding piece of land for a course. Plenty of elevation with rolling hills and creeks cutting through the area, and a healthy forest of mixed hardwoods and evergreens. The ground is mostly clear, so locating discs isn't much of an issue,even if your drive kicks hard off of a tree.

Very nice tee signs at the Blue Tees, with a simple distance sign marking the Red Tees. Two basket positions for most holes, which are clearly shown on the tee sign. However, there is no marker to show which position the basket is in. Baskets were Innova double-chain models that looked brand new.

Navigation was easy, with "Next Hole" signs where necessary and dozens of arrows on trees.

Every hole requires lacing your drive through the trees, with many requiring significant shaping of your shot. Hole 17 is a great example, requiring a sweeping right-hand turn to a landing area, followed by a second shot that turns left toward the pin.

There is a lot of up-and-down on the course, with many baskets placed on hills so you have to consider the risk/reward of running your putt. I had an outstanding approach on hole 4 get up on an edge and roll about 75' down the hill.

Only Hole 10 brings the lake into play, but it is a scenic hole with the lake directly behind the basket to discourage a too-long drive.

Hole 16 is an arrow-straight 1054 foot hole down a pipeline right-of-way. While not really creative, it will test your ability to throw long, straight drives.

My only real con is that there was no indicator for which position the basket was in at each hole. Several holes required a walk up the fairway to make that determination. UPDATE MARCH 2018 - Still no basket indicators.

While I usually consider "natural" teepads to be a con, in this setting they fit very well, and all were flat and smooth. I don't know if they stay in this shape all year but they were perfect the day I played. UPDATE MARCH 2018 - While the natural teepads were still in good shape, there were a couple of bumps and lumps that were obvious, and an exposed root on one that could catch a toe. I think that this course would benefit from concrete tees.

Much of the length on this course is on the back 9 with 50% of the total course length on the final 6 holes. It would have been nice to have distributed that length a little more evenly.

Just a great course out in the pristine woods. We had the entire thing to ourselves on the Tuesday afternoon that we played.

After first playing (and reviewing) this course in December 2014, I was able to return and play it again in March 2018. I found it to be just a good a course the second time around! However, the natural teepads have deteriorated just a bit and will continue to detract from my overall rating of the course.