Lake Sonoma State Park is a nice, large sprawling expanse of lush green lawns. The disc golf course plays mostly around the perimeter of the park. The course starts next to the picnic shelter and features a practice basket there. There are brand new Discatcher baskets and nice sized concrete tee pads. The tee signs are basic giving only the hole # and an arrow pointing towards the basket.

# 1 was the most interesting hole on the course. It's a very pretty hole and is also the only hole featuring any elevation at all.

# 8 by the Sheriff''s office was a fun hole to throw a roller on. In fact, the whole course is a great place to practice your rollers.

Navigation was fairly simple and the course starts and ends at the same parking lot.

The lack of elevation and relative openness of the course left me a little less than wowed. Granted, it's a nice walk/throw in lush green grass but after playing the three wonderfully hilly courses up in Ukiah, I was a little underwhelmed the lack of variety here.

Agreeing with a previous reviewer, the grass was quite soggy and wet and combined with how thick and lush it is, I felt like I was trudging along at times.

Good solid recreational/intermediate course. Won't challenge advanced players but is a pretty good course to bring newbies due to it's lack of any underbrush and open terrain.

The course was quite busy with a couple of other groups playing and more arriving as I was leaving.

This is another course where the designers did a commendable job with the area/terrain they were given to work with. You can't create a epic Delaveaga type of disc course on a flat grassy park area. You just try to design a course where players can be challenged and enjoy their round. I feel the designers accomplished that here at the Lake Sonoma Disc Golf Course.

Nice new 4'x8' concrete tees on every hole (holes 6-9 were still drying when I played). Simple post-style signs with hole # and an arrow pointing in the direction of the basket. Nice new DiscCatcher baskets. Practice basket and covered picnic/chill area by hole 1. Several restrooms on site, one being right between holes 5&6. Very beautiful and well maintained park with clean mowed grass and gently rolling hills throughout most of the park and course. Many trash cans scattered throughout. Very low traffic. Very easy to navigate. All holes but 1 (hole 3) are birdie-able. Hole 3: long hole shooting into a thick grove of trees with a low ceiling forcing you to stay really low or go over the top and risk getting stuck in a tree. Several tunnel shots. Hole 9 has OB running along the left side of the fairway. Lightly to moderately wooded. Good flow to the course with 9 ending very close to 1.

Relatively easy course with only 1 challenging hole. No hole numbers on baskets. No benches. A couple baskets and fairways are fairly close to one another in the beginning of the course.

This is one of the better 9 hole courses I've played in California. I think the designers did a good job with the available space and the park is beautiful and very well maintained. Even the restrooms were top notch for a free public park. I was the only one on the course at 1PM on a Thursday afternoon, but I'm guessing once word gets around that the tees are in more people will come play it. There's a little walk between holes 7&8, but it's easy enough to navigate. Great course for beginner/intermediate level players, but would get boring for advanced players after a few rounds. Safari is possible.

• Nice new baskets
• A decent park
• There are restrooms and water
• Easy to find
• Some fun shots here and there

• A little tricky to navigate
• No tees
• A bit heavy on the tunnel shots

Tips:
• Tee markers here are brown 4" wide, plastic, flat stakes. It's not clear exactly where you should tee off in relation to these markers so you'll have to guess.
• The map in the Links section needs a few updates. Some guidance tips:
o The Practice basket and #1 Tee are past the dirt area and in the grass by the picnic table. They can be easy to miss from the parking lot but they're there.
o #3 Tee: After you finish #2 go right to the edge of the tree line and then straight back through the dirt field ~150' where you'll see the tee marker.
o #4 Tee: After you finish #3, go right and follow the fence line around to the left. You'll see the marker next to a covered picnic area.
o #5 Tee: After you finish #4, go past the restrooms and #5 tee is ~50' ahead next to the fence on the left. It had fallen down when I was there so it may be on the ground (I did try and stand it back up).
o #8 Tee: This tee was MIA when I was there so I just chose a spot near the corner of the new fence, roughly where the tee is marked on the map. I did see a metal pole on the other side of the fence. Maybe that's where the tee was?
o #9 Tee: This tee was also MIA when I was there but there was a little orange flag in the ground with some suspiciously placed sticks forming a rectangle in the middle of a small grove of trees to the right of where #9 tee is supposed to be on the map. This forms a nice anhyzer shot to the basket so I threw from there.

Random Thoughts:
I had a rough day on this course and I can't decide if I just caught this course on a bad day. I got there around 10:00AM and I'm guessing the sprinklers had just been on which is normally not a big deal but the grass in this park is super thick and a little high which means it's a little bit of a slog to walk through, and in some areas was muddy, and others full-blown flooded. The other thing that made this course a challenge is the lack of tees. Not only was I just guessing on where the intended tee area was but due to the aforementioned soggy grass, I found myself slipping quite a bit, and when I wasn't slipping I was thrown off-balance because not only was the grass high and wet but the ground itself is anything but flat. It's quite clumpy in fact. As for the holes, there is some fun to be had out here but be prepared: these are longish holes with some emphasis on low tunnel shots. To summarize: #1 is a nice starter hole as it lets you let one fly with minimal obstacles. #2 is a challenging tight tunnel shot. #3 I don't really understand. It's a really long hole that starts you out ~200 feet from a tree line which I don't see any way of penetrating so your best bet is to try and land it in one of the tree openings to set yourself up with a long tunnely shot to the basket. This is by far the hardest hole on the course. #4 is another tunnel shot although quite a bit easier than #2. #5 has you throwing out of the trees towards a fairly open basket. #6 starts out in the open and has you throw into a basket in the trees. One of the few places you can kind of let fly again. #7 is similar if you have the arm for a big hyzer but the short route demands a pretty straight leftish to rightish shot with medium height. On a side note, I'm surprised this tee is where it is out in the field. I wouldn't be surprised to see the football/soccer crowd yank it out one day. #8 (where I played it) is a shortish tunnel shot. #9 (where I played it) is a pretty wide open medium-size anhyzer. I actually almost aced it which was a nice way to finish the round.

Bottom Line:
As I said, I'm a bit conflicted about this course. It's a decent park from an amenities perspective and I do see great potential here for (with some alternate tees) a fun 18, but it's absolutely going to need some clear flat tee areas as the ground is just too shaky right now. While I didn't 'get' a couple of the holes, that's fairly irrelevant as others may love them. And that certainly wouldn't stop me from coming back. And who knows, maybe it's not done(?) I know what you're thinking, no course is ever done. But I think you get my meaning. In any event, I look forward to any improvements and a return visit.

UPDATE 10/03/2012: I spoke with one of the course designers who informed me that the course is, in fact, still in progress. There are two concrete tees coming for each hole thus making a full 18. There were also some last minute changes made to the park that caused some of the hole re-routes such as on #8. I was also informed that #3 is actually a par 4 which makes a lot more sense to me now. With all of this in mind, I'm now looking forward to a return trip and an updated review.