The course plays through a large park with some park style areas and some wooded areas. The wooded holes offer some tight technical lines to hit, and enough trees and underbrush to make you work to recover from an errant shot. The park style holes offer wider grassy fairways with enough mature trees to make you think about shot placement, and occasional bushes or thick rough to contend with. There is some elevation, and it's used well to add some fun and challenge. The final hole down the hill is a lot of fun, and it's always nice to end the round on an empty your bag type hole.

There is good length variety, with some reachable shots and a few par 4 holes along with some other nice long par 3s that let you air it out a little more. Though there isn't a ton of hole shape variety, at least this course is unbalanced toward right turning holes unlike many courses. The concrete tees are nice and big, and the erosion control around the pads is an excellent solution for high traffic courses.

The signage is nonexistent, and the flow of the course isn't obvious at all. That makes it frustrating for first time players who will have to wander a bit to find all the holes, especially with a recent addition of 4 holes. It also means that on the handful of blind holes you'll have to scout ahead to figure out the length and shape of the fairway. There are a lot of right turning shots, and not a whole lot of left turning ones to balance it out and test a variety of line shaping skills. I'm not a fan of long grass rough that adds frustration and not challenge, and there are some areas of the course where the fairways are lined with it.

Beginners will find this course pretty challenging, with some legitimate par 4s and several other longer holes as well as some tight wooded shots that could be frustrating for less accurate throwers. More experienced players will find some really nice tests here, but the layout and navigation combined with some nasty disc eating long grass and rough could provide frustration at times for that set of players as well.

Nice concrete tees, nice chainstar baskets. Good mix of open bomber and tight woods.

The newer teepads are set on top of the ground instead of dug in (although that may slowly be getting fixed) meaning there are some throws where going off the teepad is a drop off of like 10 inches. A couple of the new holes are very pinbally in that there is no real clear window through the trees, so you have to aim for one possibility and hope.

Weird layout, there are 2 baskets pretty near each other, and some weird walks. Feels like it could flow a lot better with a different layout.

Played here a few times when it was 14 holes, went out yesterday and played the new 18. The issues that made me not really care for it are still there, lots of right turns, as a forehand player it plays really well, but it gets old. The new holes need some trimming still, and the tons of small stumps in the woods is a trip and fall waiting to happen. The course isn't bad, it just isn't that good, I think a 3 is about right for a rating.

This course is in a suburban city park with a mix of open and wooded holes. The course layout includes some elevation changes, with multiple blind shots over hills.

The park is nice, with a large parking lot and restrooms. The start of #1 and end of #18 are both near the parking lot, which is nice.

Most of the holes have benches, and some have trash cans. The long tees are nice large trapezoidal ones and are all flat. The short tees were all rectangular.

Even though the overall layout is nonsensical (see the cons list), the individual hole designs are nice. Except for having a lot of holes that curve right, there is a great diversity. I never got bored doing the same shot over and over again.

There isn't much underbrush in the woods, so finding stray discs is usually easy.

For a first timer, navigation is very difficult. Even with a map, it was sometimes hard to find the next hole (we got lost between 9 and 10). This course would benefit greatly by having more signage, but the layout is pretty nonsensical in the first place. The paths cross over themselves multiple times, and there's one spot with three baskets all next to each other.

Also the course designer included a lot of holes curving right (4, 6, 7, and 9) and none curving left. Being a LHBH thrower, I'm not complaining, but it does get a little repetitive.

There was also a litter problem in the park, with broken glass rampant in the wooded holes and some overflowing trash cans.

The wooded holes had a lot of 4" high stumps in the middle of the fairway which are very easy to trip on.

I didn't see any of the hooligans mentioned by the other reviewers. We went on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, and while there were many groups playing, it didn't seem overcrowded.

If you are going for the first time without anyone who has been there before, definitely print out the map and consult it frequently.

It seems like there is a current effort to improve the course landscaping. Some of the tee boxes have a wire mesh around them with gravel, and there is some nice rock landscaping in a few places. Mulch is being placed around most of the front 9's baskets.

Lakewood is a fantastic and well kept park. I don't think the previous reviews reflect the quality of this course. With a redesign and major landscaping work this place is pretty cool. It has water, elevation, open, and heavy woods.

The tee pads are pretty awesome. They are plenty big. I have never seen a course with the diamond pattern around them. There is a diamond screen laid on the ground and filled with small gravel. It looks great and eliminates errosion.

The fairways in the open were mowed nicely and the wooded holes were very clean.

Awesome catching baskets. Chainstars are great.

They were not complete but on many holes they had the 10 meter circle marked and were going to fill in the circle with wood chips.

3 pretty nice par 4's that are tough to get your 3. Those are holes #7, 8, & 10.

The course starts and finishes strong. Hole #1 plays across the water onto a sloped green.
#18 is a very fun finishing hole. You play from the top of the hill with the road backstopping it. Great hole!

Some very interesting wooded holes with elevation coming into play.

Navigation was pretty difficult in a few areas. Some signs would make this much more enjoyable to play.

I could tell they were still working on the course in a few areas. Once complete this place is going to be sweet!

Lakewood was our final course before heading home. We had played 10 courses in the 3 days prior. I was heavily fatigued after playing Minneapolis/St. Paul best course. This course got me pumped up to finish out. It was fun! Make a trip and stay a week in the area. It has some of the best courses i've played. Great grouping of courses.

The course certainly starts out impressively enough at # 1, with it's extra large concrete teepad with the steel grating around it. And then you have the landscape rock outlining the bench and garbage can. Wow! On later holes, the parks dept. was out with heavy equipment building up basket areas and/or teepad areas. What great support you players get here from your parks and recreation people! Remember to thank them when you see them working in the parks. I'll give this this course another half point on it's rating just for their great support.

The holes through the woods are tight forcing you to hit your lines.

# 18 is a masterpiece here and would be on any course. At 345' downhill, it's a great finishing hole but what I really liked about it was, it's not just a "grip it and rip it" throw. It has a window there, it's fairly large, but it still makes you think about it.

Navigation was not easy for me playing alone the first time. It didn't seem to follow a natural path. This course could benefit from some next tee signs.

And there are an abundance of anhyser holes here. Lefties who are always complaining should find a little happiness here.

Playing on a hot, broiling day I guess I missed the crowds, including the disc-stealing vandals.

Nice mix of open and wooded technical holes here. Some excellent engineering work being done by the parks dept.?? (I think). It's nice to see a course that's being upgraded and improved upon instead of the many that I see that are slowly falling into dis-repair and decay.

• New holes vastly improve the overall feel of the course!

• Nickname of "Lefty Hills" (due to the abundance of right curving holes favoring the backhand throw of a left handed player) is no longer quite as overpowering.

• The new holes:
1. Have a great variety of elevation
2. Add a feeling of a need for precision and technique.
3. Finally make this a full 18!!

• There has been a lot of work put into improving the tee areas and removing excess underbrush.(all holes now have concrete tees)

• As has been mentioned on prior posts there seems to be a few hoodlums present in the woods. I personally threw a disc on hole
# 9 which landed nicely in the fairway unfortunately before I managed to get to it to make my next shot it was swiped. It is highly recommended that on all blind holes (holes in which the basket isn't in plain view from the tee) that a member of your party run ahead to check that the hole is clear of both shady characters and parties that may be ahead of you. (this shouldn't detract from the course it is just an unfortunate reality)

• Not the most beginner friendly course with a few very long holes and a few very tight ally shots.

• Hole #10 is a plain and simple combination of the former 10 and 11. The basket of hole 10 was simply removed. This leaves the hole feeling unfinished and somewhat unpleasant to play. (Perhaps a new tee location is in order?)

• Rating of holes with pars other than 3 makes comparing scores with others confusing and skewed (Just make them all par 3's and man up!!)

• The improvements on this course have definitely bumped it from a low 3 up to a high 4 rating.

• The order of holes including the new ones is:
o Holes 1-9 as usual
o Hole 10 (modified 10+11)
o Hole 11 (old hole 12 from the tee in the trees out across the field towards the playground)
o New holes (Walk back up into the woods along the fence, first tee located a few feet down the trail)
o Hole 17 (old hole 13 big uphill shot)
o Hole 18 (old hole 14 and everyone's favorite downhill finish)

• I have heard many complaints about the difficulty of hole # 7. This hole is not hinging on the player having a huge arm it is about the placement of throws. I do not by any means have a big arm but with thoughtful navigation I'm able to play par (3) much of the time.

• Thank you to all of those who put the time and effort in to really making this course great!

P.S. If anyone sees or has someone try to sell them my light blue(turquoise) star sidewinder with a name on the inside rim (the disc that was snatched on hole # 9) please let me know. I miss her.

-A good mix of wooded and open field shots.
-Just added holes to make it a full 18.
-Major upgrades in tees and hole placements-they now have concrete pads for all the holes, and have used landscaping stones around some pins and tees. It looks much better than recent years.
-There's a new disc store about 3 miles from here.
-Mowed fairways and well maintained grass.
-Hole 10 is a challenging hole through the woods that really makes you hit your lines if you want to make par. My favorite wooded hole.
-18 is one of my favorite closing holes in the cities, with a long downhill shot that is partially protected by some trees. If you don't have anyone behind you, it's fun to empty the bag on this one.
-The woods make a cool respite from the sun on hot days.
-There are benches on the holes where things usually get backed up.
-The woods aren't terribly thick, so if you get a bad ricochet, you will find your disc pretty easy.
-All holes have nice baskets, with most holes having wood chips around the pin.

-Can get quite busy at times with people who aren't very courteous. You often have to ask to play through and groups of 8 or 9 all play together, leading to a very slow couple of holes.
-Layout can be confusing, so make sure to look at a map first. There are a couple times where the next teepad you see after finishing a hole is not the correct one. A couple "Next Tee" signs would make this course much better.
-If it has rained in the past week, chances are there will still be water on a couple of the holes.
-The new wooded holes are very unforgiving, with no obvious lines to the pin. You just have to throw and hope you don't get a bad ricochet off of the trees. They have also left a bunch of 3-inch high little stumps where they cut down trees, leading to plenty of tripping if you don't watch where you are walking.
-Called "Leftwood" for a reason-Plenty of doglegs-right and dead straight shots. Gets kind of boring throwing the same anhyzer shots over and over.
-Plenty of bugs, so make sure to bring bug spray
-No practice basket

I rated this course a 3, since it is a full 18 with not much else nearby. It's an alright course, but it gets repetitive after a couple rounds. Nothing special here, but stop by if you are in the area. The city has been putting some work into this course recently, which has made it much better. A good mix of holes keeps this course from being completely dull.

This course has it all open, wooded, long, short mostly right but some left. The use of the elevation change here is perfect on hole sixteen you shoot over a valley and through some woods and into the open. Every time I come here these days it seems they are making this course better they added landscaping rocks around almost all the tee boxes and a few boulders around some of the greens.

Confusing to newcomers ask somebody most of the people that play here will gladly point you in the right direction. A little foolery and groups of morons not playing the course in correct order. One occasion of a poacher picking up my disc even after I told him it was down there and let him play through because his group was 1 person smaller than mine I ran him down and got it back.

Be careful on hole eighteen if you shoot RHBH you can turn a disc over right at a playground full of kids if you hyzer too much to the left there is a nasty swamp that is sure to prolong your round quite a bit if you toss one in there.

- Gorgeous course with mowed "fairways", long grass "rough", and wood chip "greens"
- Great use of elevation, especially hole 18 - pictures and videos don't do it justice
- Except for hole 10, every hole was very par-able, but also challenging.

- The wooded holes weren't as nice, and the mosquitoes were bad
- Standing water on a few holes
- I can see why they call it "Leftwood", several dog leg right holes

For the first 8 holes and the last 2 holes, I felt like I was on a real golf course, or at least one designed for disc golf. Minnesotans may be crazy for enduring an 8 month winter, but they know how to do a disc golf course the right way.

- Nice technical course
- Mix of different throws and distances
- Great baskets and wood chips
- Has some great elevation shots
- Partly wooded and partly open
- Nice fairways
- Not too many bugs for a wooded course

- Could lose a disc in the thick woods
- Needs better signs
- Susceptible to standing water after rain

Got turned around in the course and didn't know where to go first time I played.

Lakewood hills is a sprawling course set on some rolling hills in White Bear Lake, MN. It weaves in and out of the woods and up and down the hills. The course features quite a few doglegs to the right. RHBH throwers will need to throw a lot of anhyzers and straight shots. It's nicknamed "Leftwood".

The course has nice ample concrete tee pads. Most holes have both long and short tees.

A wide variety of terrain is used, presenting a diverse array of challenges. You will have to throw a few as far as you can, navigate wooded fairways, throw up and down hill, to the left, and to the right. A few holes are ace-able with a putter, a few are nigh unreachable for even the biggest arms. The long holes make for a challenging 3 and there aren't many <200' gimme 2's.

It's near a YMCA, 4 softball fields, and a picnic area. There is a working water fountain, bathrooms, picnic area, and a play ground next to the course.

On Sunday afternoons in the summer there is a league for just a few dollars. More info on the website.

There are reasonably nice wooden benches on the majority of the holes.

Nice baskets.

The course sees a low to medium level of traffic. Not much hassle involved with playing here. *Since the expansion a week ago, the traffic level during peak times has picked up a lot. Word of mouth seems to be bringing in a lot of first timers*

The course is not easy to navigate. There is little to no signage and the way it's laid out doesn't flow very naturally. Get a map or ask someone to show you the way. * I don't consider this to be a big detractor but, this problem is now even worse with the new holes. They flow pretty well, but the course is even harder to navigate now. Expect hoppers who play the course in the wrong order*.

There used to be bag holders on a bunch of holes but people have broken them all and vandalized the benches.

Lakewood was recently expanded to 18 holes by combining old 10 (651) and 11 to form a long, wooded, challenging par 4, and adding in 5 new holes. The new holes are tightly wooded and add another dimension to Lakewood. Bumping my old score of 3.5 up to 4.0 to account for the new layout. Great course for Eastsiders.

Fun long course. Some woods, some open, elevation used well. I liked the new holes in the woods but they still need some work. This course has everything. Long, Short, Right, Left, Up & Down. I have not played this course since last year and am excited to see what they have done with the new holes.

All the tee pads are in good shape.

The fairways were mowed.

The course has a decent flow. (New holes are a bit hard to find)

Challenging but would still be fun for beginners.

The park has something for everyone. Skatepark, Grills, Basketball Court, Playground.

Busy and confusing to find your way through the first time. There are pins and pads everywhere.
There was no signage when I was there and they could really use some.

Long holes make it fun to play, wooded areas give a nice challenge. It is a fairly nice course I have only played it twice but I do enjoy it.

Very popular course so there is some downtime between holes. I was there and since it is right behind the Y a bunch of little kids where playing in the woods so I elected to not play it. There are places that you could lose a disc very easily. The layout of the course is a little confusing if you are not familiar with it.

I like the course and will probably play it again

COURSE UPDATE - Six new holes have been added in the woods as of 6/10. They do not have baskets, just chopped down trees fitted with wooden discs on top that have hanging pink sticks. Hit the sticks, it's in. They work for now, but most are now missing some, or most, of the sticks. They are also optional to play, so expect most groups behind you to skip them and hop in front on you as your group hacks through the woods. The first three, holes A, B, and C, are to the right in the woods after hole 1. The tee pads are dirt and hole A's tee pad is on a slope. Follow the cardboard signs and pink ribbons tied to trees and plants to find your way to hole B, which is to the left of the A target down the path and on the left. These first two are heavily wooded, and tough pars, despite hole B being 200-225' (maybe less, but it's slightly uphill). Hole C is the reason you play A and B. Downhill, 250' with trees lining a 30' wide fairway. Beautiful. Ace time. Exit the woods and continue to hole 2. After you reenter the woods on hole 9, take a path to the left of the target to play D, E, and F. Again heavily wooded with a little elevation to shoot over/across on D and F. Targets on E and F are half-destroyed.
Now to review the rest! The open shots use elevation well and a couple dog legs will test your sanity. Hole 7 is a massive right dog leg with woods at the joint, and hole 8 is longer and straight from the pad to target, but it plays like a slight left or right depending on your drive due to the trees and bushes in the fairway. The wooded holes with baskets are great, and hole 14 off the hill is an esteem-lifting birdie opportunity.

It's getting more and more crowded as the Acorn crowd and refugees from pay courses are discovering it, but playing it in the morning, early afternoon or evening will likely make for a pleasant and smooth round.

Lakewood has some of the most variety of any course in the metro. From wide open bombs to finesse shots through tight woods to elevation fun, this course has a bright future.

a good mix of holes on this course, left and right, short and long, most of the holes are failry open but a few go into the woods, bad shots wont punish you on this course, you will almost always have a shot to make par,

most of the holes dont challenge your shot making ability, meaning that even if you throw a few wayword drives you can make up for it with a pretty simple 2nd shot

this is a fun course to play, its fairly open so you can just let a few go and see what happens with out a hole lot of consequence if you dont throw it well, the final hole is a real fun shot from the top of a hill.

Very cool looking long holes, lefty and righty holes, a little bit of everything out there. A couple of my favorite holes are at Lakewood.

Signage could be better, a couple of the woods holes are hang out spots for trouble makers

This course is so under rated. It is a true diamond in the rough and well worth playing

www.lakewoodhillsdg.ning.com

Has some of the best variety in the state. Wooded holes, open holes, short, long, shaped holes. good elevation for MN, baskets are in great shape. Tee pads on 12 of 14 holes.

Lakewood Hills DG League every Sunday starting early May, 2 00PM, Reg opens at 1 30.

Pros: $5+1 optional Ace Pot (Cash Payouts)
Ams (adv/int):$3 +1 optional Ace Pot (payouts through Fairway Flyerz DG Outfitters)

18 hole layout, CTP every week.

Limited signage (however we have some bag holders that have hole #s on them now). Only 14 holes, which we are in talks with the city to expand and have been working to eradicate the buckthorne in the woods to see what we have to work with. The punk kids that break things and trash the course (which we do our best to clean up)

Myself and a groups of Disc Golfers are diligently working to better this course. Our future plans include, wooden retaining walls on 1 and 11 to save the hills that the baskets are on. More signage, and of course, 4 more holes. Also, hole 11's basket has been replaced with another Chainstar.

The 18 holes are finally in and looking good with cement tees and landscaping inspired by Bryant Lake. Rating up to 4.

Original Post:

This course was originally designed as 18 with five additional holes to be cleared in the woods (holes 10 & 11 was being designed as a long par 5). Unfortunately, those have still not been approved after all these years but there's hope. That's a key reason why the routing isn't as clear as it should be. In addition, we were forced to flipflop holes 2 & 3 so the new gravel path was more visible for safety. Although thre's more than enough property for at least 18 holes, the Park Dept does not want to use any more space in the open for disc golf and in fact would really prefer it if holes 13 & 14 weren't there due to winter sledding. That's why they haven't put cement tees on those two holes yet.

I agree with several reviewers that this could be an awesome course with 4 more holes with cement tees and better signs. But sometimes things are out of the control of the designers and volunteers. At least you now have the background and apparently there's still hope for the future from what we're hearing.

Good balance of open and woody holes. Lots of elevation changes, and some nice turns. Had the longest hole in the Twin Cities for a while. You'll want to throw a bunch of times on the last hole off the top of the hill. Usually the park is not very busy.

Random vegetable garden in the middle of holes 2/3. Lots of wasted space. That bulldozed area in the center of the park has been that way for at least 5 years now. Plus there's about 5 billion acres of land unused other than a token picnic bench here and there. Never once in several dozen visits have I ever seen any of them used other than the one close to the last hole and the pavillion by the parking lot. Why can't we have 18 holes here? It's ALWAYS windy at this park. No matter what.

Underwent a remodel a few years ago that I thought made it worse. The layout was always super-confusing, and the new one doesn't make much more sense than the old one. Plus, they significantly shortened the long hole, turning it from a par 5 to a 4.

This course has a good mixture of holes. Wooded, clear, marsh, short, long, elevation change. It makes for a fun day.

Some courses are just too easy, and others have no possibility of being played well, but this one offers rewards to those who make good shots, and I like that in a course.

Many holes have different length's which allows you to tailor the course to your ability.

Also, the last hole has is up on a big hill. It's fun just launching the disc and watching it fly.

It is hard to navigate the course the first few times, and even after playing it a couple of times I would have a hard time finding my way around.

I got close to nailing a little kid on the last hole once because it is close to a playground (not sure if that should be a pro or con!)

Give the course a shot, it's a fun one.