-fairly nice signs with distance and lines
-great variety
-some tough technical shots
-both pro(gold) and am(silver) tee pads for most
-part of a TREMENDOUS disc golf park with three other courses
-the "hardest" of the four courses on site
-a couple great risk/reward holes

-new course that hasn't been worked in
-needs some minor maintenance and cleaning
-some holes just DUMB, explained below
-definitely not as tough or as highly rated as some reviews make it out to be
-Have to ask where tee one is, off the main park layout
-flow is kind of weird.

Was super excited to play this disc golf parks highly reviewed and hyped Gold/Silver course, especially since they are hosting Worlds in 2010. Well, for the first time in regards to reviews/reality I was disappointed. Let me state though that Indiana is SUPER lucky to have a whole park dedicated to disc golf and the guys that maintain this park, thank you! BUT the reality also needs to be taken into account here.

Playing the gold versus silver for almost all the course resulted only in a bit of extra length added as opposed to adding tougher lines. I always find this annoying and lazy in my personal opinion. When we played with some locals we used the gold tee locations that the Worlds will use. eh.

The wooded shots had some nicely placed baskets on small ravines and hills which could lead one to roll into a creek bed and have a tough recovery shot. These holes were nice. I think this is where the course is just fine with the exception of needing some raking and leaf and twig removal.

Two of the dumbest holes I have ever played are back to back on this course. The "big" 1120' number 8 and 850' number 9. You basically come out of the woods and now have these back to back,side by side monster bomb holes through nothing more than mowed field grass with high rough on completely flat ground. BORING. Even the locals who play these courses all the time say they skip these two holes. THAT should say something about it. Suggestion would be to lose these two holes and find a way to incorporate the tree lines better around this area.

The funny thing is the best hole on the gold/silver course actually belonged to the blue course! As you finish up, the tee for blue 14 offers you a chance to shoot from a great tee pad over a small creek through some old trees. Great great hole. How weird is that?

Is this a bad course, not at all, it's young. Is it a tough course, eh, tough to tell, but not as tough as people in the reviews make it out to be. I have played a lot tougher and more technical courses than this. Hell, I shot a -6 pro par from the gold tees and I have only been playing for little over a year...not to brag

SUMMARY: in time with love and work and an honest look at this course from it's designers this can be a four star course. As is right now it is just a three. As for the entire park as a whole, outstanding and shouldn't be missed if in the area. I preferred the red course as a whole. Short and technical and just super well maintained.

This course chewed us up and spit us out, and we played from the silver tees. Godspeed to anyone who attempts the Gold. With that said, this course is the real deal. Most of the course plays through some very heavy woods, but the trees are so mature that it gives nice shade and obstacle, with out having to wind your shots through a million saplings with their little distance stealing leaves everywhere.

The elevation changes were also very nice on this course. Many holes had ravines and trenches that really added depth to this course. At one point one of the guys playing with turned to me and said "I have been playing this game almost 10 years, and never have a had shot like this." in referance to a shot that was maybe 5 feet away laterally, and about 15 feet up. There are numerous holes that make you reconsider going for the pin. if you miss there is an easy 1-2 stroke hole out.

Even when you get out of the woods for what you think is a breather, that's when the craziness begins. When you walk up to a tee and read that the pin is 1120 feet you have to stop and let that sink in you a second. That's damn near a quarter mile. Not to mention that when you get into the open, off the fairways are tall grasses that were pollinating while we were there so there were bees all over the place (only in the flowers, not the fairways) and there were some major risk/reward going on. We had a spotter on most holes and we still managed a few lost disks. This is a course you will never forget.

There is a lot of work put into this course and it shows. I can't imagine the time it takes to keep that place looking the way it does.

These are really the basic cons I had with the complex, as they were the same for all 4 courses.

The signs didn't seem very accurate with the distances.

Navigation was tough were they didn't place "Next Tee -->" type signs.

we sometimes found ourselves throwing at the wrong pin because the one we were supposed to be throwing at was blind and there was another in our line of sight that we supposed was the alternate pin position.

None of these issues were a huge deal and all could be solved with a course map and/or getting more familiar with the course.

I really can't enough good things about the time we spent at Lemon Lake this weekend. The locals we met were the best. Everyone we talked to were so friendly and welcoming that we left knowing we would come back just because this is a place that fosters great discing and great discing attitudes. As soon as we got there we asked an elderly gentleman at one of the lodges where to find the first tee, and we ended up sitting there shooting the "fecal matter" with him for about 15 minutes about the course, the area, and the gun he had in his back pocket (he was teaching a hunting class). They love to met out of towners and finding out where they come from. By the end of the weekend we were getting some, "hey, are you the group from Aurora?" type stuff.

This complex has many things to do other than discing on site, but they never interfere with your game and are only seen once in a while. The area is very secluded and private. I loved this place. I almost wish I could rate Lemon Lake as a whole so I could give it 5 stars.

They have the 2010 Worlds here next year and they will do a fantastic job with it.

Like I do everywhere, I rate courses from the longest tee-pin combo available. No exception here. Truth be told, this is a true Gold level course and I am NOT a Gold level player. It kicked my Blue level butt (I shot a 58 playing Cali)....and I loved it!

What I personally like and how this course stacks up in my list of 18 hole courses:

1) Holes with good risk/reward. Fair, but harsh punishment for bad decisions or execution. == A-
(About 1/3 of the holes are great because you pay big time for poor decisions or when you go big to score well and execute badly. There are 5-6 holes where you have to place your drive or approach perfectly to get to the basket and get your birdie. 2-3 of the holes were very weird in that the designer chose to put turns in the fairway - took a lot of the fun and the challenge away.)

2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities for me. I throw 300' accurately, 360' max. == B-
(As the sign of a great Gold course, this course only had a few holes this Blue level player could expect to birdie. But.....I did not deduct much for this in my overall score since on a lot of these holes getting par was rewarding enough to make it fun/addicting.)

3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography == A
(Wow - great design in this aspect. My only complaint is that there should be a few more "fast greens" - basket locations that have a high pucker factor when putting from 25'+.)

4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion. == A+
(Gorgeous! Pond, woods, hills, marsh, prairie grass and flowers...Wow! And almost 100% secluded from civilization and the other holes. Amazing!)

5) Bonus points for multi-throw holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them. == A-
(Lots of really good par 4's and 5's. The only way to improve would be more holes where you have decisions to make on what routes you want to take each wit different risk/reward balance.)

It's all about feeding the addiction, so I ranked this course subjectively based on my own "personal addiction factor". The grades above tell how well the course will draw me back to itself again and again and again. Since I have played a decent number of courses (149 18-hole, 91 9-hole as of late 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar addiction tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they choose courses to play and explore.

I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me....that's the fun of things here. See my profile for my rating philosophy.

-In my opinion this course is the best course in Indiana and is situated in a park with three other great courses.
-Great mix of holes in the woods and holes in the open.
-Even though the rough is rough, it's so much better than it was just two months ago. I played the course two months ago and the rough was unbearable. I played this last weekend and it was so much better. I thought the "weaved" mowed areas in the prairie grass was a brilliant idea. I thought I played well the first time around and shot 60. This last weekend I shot 54 and I think a lot of it was because the rough was easier to deal with.
-This course has at least five legitimate signature holes (6, 8, 9, 12, 13).
-The addition of the Gold tees truly make this course an awesome addition to the Midwest scene.
-The course really does have a surreal feel to it, as the course really doesn't touch civilization at all.
-The course is manicured EXTREMELY well. This is a direct correlation to the fact that its a pay to play park and because of the dedicated disc golf club in the area.
-The park has an awesome pro shop on site with some great people who run it. This is a HUGE plus to me.
-This course is essentially two legitimate courses within one. The Gold and Silver designs play about 2400 feet different and the Gold design is probably 7 to 8 strokes harder. This is a huge plus for me because it essentially gives this park 5 courses in one park. The Gold and Silver courses are essentially different courses and really offer a great test of disc golf in their own ways.

-The last five holes are almost like a letdown compared to the first 13, but that's probably only because the first 13 are so amazing
-The open holes are probably a little too open for my tastes. I actually like to have some long, bomber holes but I prefer there to be some more obstacles.
-The wooded holes were nice but none of them were fantastic, standout holes. I would call the wooded holes slightly above average and nothing spectacular. Don't let that take away from the course as I have rated the course a 4.0 which is considered Excellent.
-I would have loved to see the course really utilize the pond or the lake a little more to offer some water hazards.

An amazing course in an amazing park - Lemon Lake Park is what disc golf is about. Me and my playing partners could really tell that the people that maintain this park care about disc golf.

Great variety of shot making required. (short, long, wooded, open, some elevation, etc.)
Requires you to hit specific lines and distances for best scoring opportunities.
Greens are well designed for risk/reward putting.
A nicely secluded, woodsy setting that feels like a hike through a forest.

Some of the rough is still very rough, and would advise wearing pants.

With pro worlds coming here next summer, and some new teepads being laid on top of courses, I hope the club does not just lengthen the course, but rather, takes into account the scoring spread. I observed some "betweeners" (i.e. not 2able, but easy 3's), and will be interested to see how top pros separate themselves from the pack if there are too many of these holes.

My new favorite Indiana Course.

Certainly not as hard as some of the other reviews make it sound, but hard enough for advanced players to want to come back again and again in order to try and beat this course (the course will often beat you).
A wonderful addition to a park full of disc golf, and certainly adds to the equation.

As one of the course designers I appreciate the reviews. The course is one year old and we are working hard on perfecting it. We also added the white course in the last year so please imagine the work we have in front of us. I have been on a mission to kill poison ivy...I got this job because I've never gotten poison ivy. Please let me know what fairways have ivy as I thought I got most of it removed from the fairways....can't get it all from the schule but then we should all play the fairway. To play this course it is recommended you have advanced skills or better. The signs are cheap because the course is still evolving....they inform adequately for now.

August 2009 saw a full week with 2 tree stumpers and a huge crew working on the removal of stumps and associated fairway clearing/cleanups. only 16 more teepads to pour and 9 of those will be done within a week. the silver course (short tees) are pretty complete and we are finishing the gold course as time permits. Several holes are being tweaked with different pin placements. Kudos to all the volunteers for their hard work. If its been a few months since you've played this course you will notice a huge improvement on the playability of this amazing course.

Great pin placement and use of the land. Challenging and fun to play. I like the mowed paths in the long grass on hole 8. Concrete pads.

POISON IVY EVERYWHERE so watch out. Signage was a little iffy. Rough was really rough. Not as hard as everyone said it would be Lots of stumps to break a foot on.

Overall a good course. Just needs some good foot traffic and it will wear in nicely. Get rid of the poison ivy in the fairway at least. Concrete pads are awesome. Definitely not your average disc golf course. Didn't play GOLD but I imagine that is a real treat hehehehe

I agree with all that Texconsonite has to say regarding this course. I was there with him. Since he wrote a book, I'll stay very minimal. This course is what the pros are looking for....

still in progress; call ahead for a guide; club members we met were very helpful and will assist you in any way possible

First off, to avoid confusion this course has two sets of tees, Silver, and an insane longer set called Gold. Thus, if someone refers to the Gold course, they mean this one. However, the gold tees are so much longer, it almost plays like a different course, which is scary considering that from the Silver tees this is already one of the 5 toughest courses I've played. Consider it two courses in one: Silver/Gold.

Mixed concrete and rubber pads (on silver) are mostly pretty good, and all holes have signs on silver pads, and on most of the Gold pads (will have all by Worlds) We were fortunate enough to play with Bart, a local legend and one of the course designers, and he gave us the inside scoop on both Silver and Gold.

This course is intimidating. The locals will warn you about it, and they're not just blowing smoke. This course was designed to be tough, and they succeeded. Not only is it long, but it forces an array of technical shots and very very tough risk reward choices to do well. We walked the Gold tees, and they are doubly so.

This course is full of legit par 4's and 5's, which I love, and according to our local guide, some holes will actually be listed as 4s and 5s, they just hadn't settled on which ones yet. I love this, and see this as the future of the sport, because making a super hard par 4 or 5 adds a whole new layer of richness and strategy to the game, instead of the "deuce or die" golf that IMO becomes all too prevalent on many courses I play.

This course does a great job giving you choices. It likes to dangle a tantalizing morsel in front of you, like a narrow route above the trees to cut the corner on a sharp wooded dogleg. However, they make these routes very tough and dangerous, with ugly outs if you don't hit them right, as I learned the hard way on several occasions. I still have the scratches all over my legs and arms to prove it.

This course is mostly in extremely thick woods, with an extensive canopy, and this course is chock full of tight canopy curves.
Many, many blind baskets, even on the open holes. It really helped to have a local guide, but without one, it would be even more punishing to play this course. You don't want to walk these holes to scout them out.

Another interesting feature about this course is the prevalence of ravines. Much of this course winds through thick woods, and those woods are perforated with steep hills and valleys cut by these trickles of water. Its like the White course, but on a much larger scale. Also, the clever course design makes great use of this terrain, in a take-no-prisoners (aka Highland Park) type of manner. Many baskets are downhill, blocked by a few trees, and the slope only gets steeper after the basket, making for some nasty upshots if you dont get the disc to stop on the slope. Also, many crosshill shots come into play, where the danger is to one side. The great part about these ravines is that the trickle of water that runs in them isn't enough to eat your disc, so though you may take a stroke for water OB, or at least have a very ugly out up the hill, you at least get your disc back.


This course throws wicked elevation at you for late trouble around the pins, on top of the tightly wooded fairways and protected baskets with a few trees, for very unforgiving holes, where playing it safe and laying up is a serious consideration in many cases.

Another good thing about this course are the open holes. The part of this course that opens up into a more prairie-like field (UW Parkside Prairieside-esque) is still interesting. Many courses get lazy on the long holes, and just make them open and boring. This course actually leaves trees and long grass strategically placed to force a considered shot, not just grip & rip. The long holes actually sometimes punish you for trying to take the most direct route to the basket at times, vs a safer route taking the corner more wide. Its nice to see risk reward on long, more open holes, because it keeps big arms more honest by throwing some control into the mix. Many of the "open" holes here are an open drive, and the basket is tucked into the woods at the end, or nestled between several trees. Again, late trouble is the word of the day.

If forced to pick one, I think hole 14 is the signature hole of the course. Right away, you are forced to choose between a left and right curving routes through the trees. They both meet up, into one wooded tunnel fairway, which goes about 200 ft further to a crosshill basket with a dropoff after it as well. THe tough part is, the left one is more direct, but narrower and easier to get in trouble on, and cost yourself at least another stroke. The right path plays about 250 to where it joins with the left side, and is a more sweeping curve, with a little wider tunnel cut through the trees. Pick your poison off the tee, either way if you dont make it to the landing zone where the curves meet up, you're taking at least another stroke. Sign says 225, but its more than 300 as the crow flies, and plays more like 400-430 depending on which route you take.

Its great that they have two tees for almost every hole, and several holes with alt pin placements. When its all done they plan on having alt pins on at least half the holes, including all the ones that only have one tee, which is a great thing, since the alt pins here really change the hole and are all tough, as they should be.

This course really challenges you and beats you up, but if you go in expecting it and prepared for it, there's a lot to like here.

Like the White course, this course was put in the ground rapidly, and thus many of the holes need some clearing still before they are where they should be. Also, since this course plays through such dense woods and hillsides, there's much to be done and heavy equipment wont make it back into here to grind up the little stumps that cover the fairways like ankle-twisting minefields.

This course takes 2-3 hrs to play, and it physically beats you up and wears you out. I'm glad we played it second in our day of the total Lemon Lake 4-course experience, because otherwise we would've crawled the last few holes.

The rubber tee pads are alright, but I look forward to the day when its all concrete, as its nice to have good traction when you have to rip it for distance and accuracy like you will here. Again, this course is still rough, so I know this, like the sometimes inaccurate tee signs, is something that will progressively get better.

One problem that won't get better is this. This course was designed to be hard. This is the toughest course at Lemon Lake, by far. Is it the most fun? I'm really not sure. As my travelling companions remarked, it seemed like it really wasnt necessary for the course to beat us up so badly. Some of the holes seem long just to be long, and the gold tees are at times ridiculously so. Its hard to fault either tee because they are both well thought-out and placed, but after awhile, on a hot day, it can seem excessive.

The long grass in the field is very good at swallowing discs, and full of thorns, so be careful walking in there, and watch where your disc goes. Generally, if the hole map says long grass on a section of rough, that means you should steer clear of that area, as its where the thorns are the nastiest.

This course will wear you down, so come ready for a long tough round, and you will be fine. Beginners or people with pretty small arms, will probably not like or appreciate this course as much, and may even find it frustrating. This wont be everyone's favorite, just watch where your disc goes, and know what you're getting yourself into, and you'll have a great round.

This is the Monster, the Highbridge Gold, the Justin Trails Big Brother, the championship course that will humble even the Pros when Worlds is held here in a few years. Not only long, the design here is just mean.

There are no drinking fountains, or civilization of any kind, on this course, so bring lots of water (a 1/2 gallon per person wouldn't be out of line on a hot day) and some food, as well as bug spray and sun tan lotion. It gets hot in the field area. Playing this course is an odyssey, don't underestimate it and you'll be fine.
Its a tough call, but Blue edges it out for now, so this is my second-favorite course of the four at Lemon Lake, though I expect Silver/Gold to pass up Blue once its been cleared out and finished for Worlds. Once Silver and Gold are both completed, with concrete pads signs, and brush cleared from fairways, this is a 4.5 course, no doubt the best of Lemon Lake.

One thing that disturbs me slightly is the course designers comments that the fifth course at Lemon Lake is planned as an EVEN longer and tougher one, more open, which makes me wonder Why? This course almost seems too long at times, i think longer than the Golds here would just be ridiculous, and only a handful of people would even enjoy playing that. If anything, make a course with more water holes than Blue, with technical holes like Red, and call it Purple, a mix of the two. I hope the uber-course is merely a pipe dream, and doesnt become reality, but thats just my opinion.

Regardless, Lemon Lake is what happens when Disc Golfers run amok designing and building courses, and its almost all a good thing here. I hope reason prevails and it stays that way, because this is a very special place, with a great parks department and wonderfully involved club members. Thank someone when you see them working on the course, there's always someone there, and they deserve as much praise as they can get.

Again 3 rounds of 18 at one location is a huge plus for all of the Lemon Lake courses. I have only played the entire 18 once but played partially through another time. Huge holes with challenging shots. Would like to say more but dont know the silver course well enough.

Very diificult to find. Last time i went the new course was not on the scorecards yet and there was no signs so we had to explore the woods a bit but ask the front gate or anyone you see playing and they will help you out.

Longgggg! I tend to play from the harder tee boxes on any course and there is a 1000ft plus pin that will eat your discs with a narrow fairway and tall thorny rough on each side. Fun but play it safe or you're likely to spend some time pulling thorns out of your legs.

very challenging, mixed holes (wooded and open), mixed elevation, throw over ravines and tall grass, silver are short tees and gold are long, great use of the park space

holes are somewhat hard to find, map is needed, still looks like they are putting in the finishing touches.

They have doen a great job with all three of their courses. There is no map for this course posted that I could find. To play the Gold/Silver course, park in main disc golf lot on Left through main gate. Cross street though park and head slightly to the left through the woods and gazebo. You will see a sign for the new gold course. It is near blue course basket 13. Follow sign into the woods to the first tee pad.