- good amenities at Lemon Lake in general: bathrooms, practice baskets, pro shop, garbage cans/benches, etc.
- nice Discatcher baskets colored for the appropriate course
- baskets have hole numbers
- some nice concrete tees, but a variety
- continuous improvement going on
- some nicer wooded shots on back 9
- good use of next tee signs to make navigation clear
- incorporates some more technical shots and some limited elevation change on back half
- well mown and maintained
- mostly dedicated to disc golf if not a cross country weekend

- temporary tee signs have no maps, but are being improved
- still a lot of natural and rubber tees
- front 9 is fairly open and not particularly unique
- some safety hazards
- really long walk from 19 to 20 seems forced
- no particular wow factor

The blue course was the first I played upon arriving at Lemon Lake to knock it out before the cross country meet took over half the park. For a location as renowned as Lemon Lake, I probably expected a bit more. Blue is obviously not the highlight of the park, and there's nothing particularly special about it. The technical challenge in the woods on the back half helped elevate this course form a 2.5 to a 3 for me.

This is one of the shortest courses at Lemon Lake, which isn't to say especially short, but on the shorter side. The front 9 has some tree obstacles, but is fairly open and not especially challenging. The back 9 is much more interesting. I think the biggest positive takeaway about Lemon Lake in general is "continuous improvement." They are in the process of pouring new concrete tees on the other courses, and all 4 courses in the park are getting updated tee signs which are not in yet.

There are a few safety hazards with holes throwing near roads/walkways which were a bit concerning. In general, the park is pretty empty so this wasn't too bad. I really appreciated how the baskets had the ring colors for the particular course they were part of. The courses are mostly separate, distinct areas, but have some borders near each other so it's nice to have the clarity which basket is which. Navigation could have been confusing here but the next tee signs are used really well to make it pretty easy.

Hole 16 was one of the notable ones for me, with a pretty high risk shot towards the water. If you go too far past the basket, you'll be in the drink, and one full of plants that would be hard to find a disc in. I appreciate the tranquility of this county park; I saw several deer and it was mostly very quiet and peaceful, one of the reasons I get out to play disc golf regularly.

Overall, most people won't make the trip to Lemon Lake for the blue course specifically, but it's worth playing if you are already there. The complex in general really cares about disc golf and takes good care of the property, and the pro shop on site has a really good selection of discs. There's definitely more to choose from here than Dellwood, so it could be worth a drive.

- Some interesting new wooded holes and a decent mix of fairways types and distances

- Many fairways use limited elevation to great effect, several dangerous and interesting greens

- Part of a complex with 3 other good to great courses

- Many of the holes on the front nine have ill-defined fairways or are too short to be interesting

- Terrible natural tee pads on most of the course

- Multiple areas of conflict with existing walking paths and roads

The new Lemon Lake Blue layout is a course that lacks an identity within the complex. Prior to the many changes the property has undergone the last several years, Blue was the long, open, bomber course. I don't know the decision process behind the redesign of the Blue course, but I would speculate that it has something to do with the design changes on the White and Red course, and a desire to recapture some of the shorter, wooded holes lost on those layouts. Unfortunately, I think the new design fails to capture what was lost, and instead loses something else from the complex.

The new front nine is a series of short, wooded holes that range from potentially great to frustratingly odd. Holes 1 and 9 have the bones of great disc golf holes that need to be cleaned up and refined, but use the mild elevation change to great effect with interesting greens. Hole 6 is a dangerous downhill shot with a narrow fairway ending right before the lake. Most of the other holes are either too short to be interesting or have fairways that are not yet well defined. It is very much a birdie-or-die type layout where distances are achievable by players of most skill levels, but trouble is easily reached even with seemingly good drives. The tees for the front nine are sorely lacking at this time as well. They are uneven, stumpy, sandy things that will hopefully be replaced before too long.

The back nine has more of the original feel of the Blue Course, with more open and longer fairways (with the exception of the new 16, which also needs its fairway cleaned up). The south-east section of the course that used to be home to 5 longer, open fairways now houses only one ~650 foot hole. It seems to me like more could have been done with this space, and some of the shorter fairways on the front nine combined into longer, more interesting holes. My final feeling after playing the new layout was that not enough thought was put into the new design, and to what it was supposed to be. Is it a shorter, more technical course perhaps better suited to less experienced players? Should it still have long shots but add a technical element to it? As is, it doesn't seem aimed at any particular skill level, with just about anyone being frustrated with some part of it. Adding permanent tees will certainly help this course's rating, but it will always feel a little disjointed.

I didn't notice a lot of serious conflicts with walking paths, and I played on a fairly busy Sunday, but there are still too many for a new layout. It just solidifies the feeling of lack of care in design. The baskets are good and signs are adequate and as mentioned before, with the exception of 3 or 4 that use the old concrete pads, the tees are abysmal. The long walk from 9 to 10 is excessive.

Blue was always the weakest of the courses at Lemon Lake in my opinion, but it had an identity separate from the rest of the complex and I enjoyed playing it in conjunction with the others. The new layout loses that identity, and doesn't add enough new interesting elements to make up for it. There is room for improvement though, and hopefully the design of the front nine is refined and cleaned up in the future. As it stands, this is probably the course to skip if you don't have time to play everything on your visit to Lemon Lake.

- Long gone is the old blue layout of a decade ago, replaced with a fresh layout that largely eschews the open bomber vibe of the old course for an extended excursion into short, heavily wooded holes. The course now starts in a different location: as you pull into the park, the flight center is at the top of the hill in the second parking lot to the left. Cross back over this road to the right of the flight center, and hole #1 starts in the grassy area throwing over the creek towards the general direction of Gold/Silver #1. Hole #'s 2-9 skirt some walking paths through the woods. Short, technical holes with good use of elevation but horribly thought out from a safety standpoint. Seems almost every one of these holes has heavily-used walkways close behind the basket or to the side of one fairway. Some of these are blind shots, basket easily reached from the tee. Hole #6 is maybe the best of these, in that it doesn't attack a walkway and is nicely backdropped by a fast, scenic green, Lemon Lake waiting directly behind the basket to swallow long drives.
- After hole #9, the course transitions from the wooded area through the park and pavilion area for hole #'s 10 & 11. Hole #12 is an oldy but goody, the tee located down the road towards the entrance after crossing the road. Throw over the marsh from a long tee or use the shorter marked tee. Pin tucked into edge of pines. To get to hole #13, again cross the road. Hole #13 is a bomber, well over 600' and the main hole remaining that still has the feel of the old Blue layout. The walk to hole #14 transitions (unmarked by next tee signage) down a side park roadway (not the main entrance road) to another set of holes: #14 is a mostly open hyzer shot around a big pile of garbage (literally) that ends with a scrubby prairie green, slightly downhill and blind from most of the hole. Hole #15 is a RH FH or anny shot along some scrubby woods on the right, open field to the left, basket tucked into the edge of the woods. Hole #16 is a new short, tight wooded hole. Hole #17 throws from the woods out to the basket by the main road, and Hole #18 finishes, confusingly enough, at a gold-colored basket located back alongside hole #11 reprising half of an epic hole of years past alongside the lake. Instead of the old long basket placement, this opts for a shorter basket higher up the slope, under the massive oak tree.
- Amenities are a bit lacking for a place like Lemon Lake, to be honest. The signage in use at LL has always been lacking in any sort of hole shape/layout description. This continues that tradition. Signage is sufficient in that it shows where a tee is, but sometimes not in which direction the basket lies (hole #13 I'm looking at you!) Tees are lumpy, stumpy natural and occasionally concrete from the old layout. Signage says "stump removal pending." Cool.

- Lumpy stumpy tees in places. Not ideal, not the worst thing ever, hopefully an upgrade is in the works.
- Next tee signage, where in place, is great and helps keep this course from falling apart at the seams, from a navigation/flow aspect. Even with signs there are confusing sections...after #13 the walk to #14 is for the first (crucial) half, unmarked by next tee signs. You just have to guess. Hole #10's sign also seems to be missing, and replaced with a single pink flag.
- The horrors of the safety aspects of this course are shocking for a place as "established" as Lemon Lake. For shame, this place should know better. Short, dinky technical holes crammed between a busy network of pathways with blind looks is just screaming for an accident. In one quick round out here, I saw three different groups of walkers almost get hit on three different holes from three different groups. Yikes! Granted, it was a busy holiday weekend, probably near peak usage, but still...
- Long walks between different sections. The next tee signage exists in the form of flimsy cardboard signs, easily pulled from the ground; if anyone removes or damages any of the next tee signs on any of the longer walks there goes your round...you'll be wandering, for sure. Between the newer design on White and this new Blue layout, it seems to me as though the people at Lemon Lake are more interested in having you walk between holes than actual discin'! Worst of all, the holes presented after a long walk are often throwaway-ish routing-type holes, instead of anything real juicy. Prime examples being hole #'s 10, 12, 14, & 18.

- I dunno, I was hoping for something more in the vein of the old Blue course; what I found is probably more along my lines of skill and course preferences (shorter, heavily wooded) and I still came away with a feeling of general dissatisfaction. The new blue layout feels way too forced, with not enough payoff. As a stand-alone course, it's fine for what it is. As part of the larger Lemon Lake complex (which still boasts Gold/Silver, albeit with Gold's neutered layout), it does add a bit of what was lost of the tighter technical holes on Red when the tree damage radically altered everything.
- If/when full concrete pads are poured and routing signage becomes established (it's mostly okay but needs one or two tweaks, especially after #13), this course could potentially add half a disc, but the tees are just too stumpy/natural at this point, and do detract on several shots.
- Geez, I think White may be the second best course out here (after Gold/Silver) now that Red is neutered and White's back nine is beefed up. Weird, what a decade or so will do!