Really nice use of a big park with courses on both sides of the park. Clean and well laid out I never miss a chance to play here when in the area. Close to Munster for a few 3 Floyds beers!

Not close enough to STL LOL

- Course is set in a large section of the entire complex, the occasional (dog) walker is probably the only non-DGer out there. Some of the holes are kind of close to each other, but overall it is pretty well secluded.
- First thing of note; this course is extremely, extremely different depending on how the holes are played. With gold/silver tees on almost every hole, and some gold/silver baskets on other holes, playing the gold-to-gold, or silver-to-silver, or anything in between, will be a drastically different round. This review will be for the gold-to-gold configuration, as that is the most noteworthy.
- Pretty much broken into three different sections; the deep forest with a great mix of skinny and mature trees, medium forest with clear fairways but deep rough, and open areas with various trees and shrubbery. Good mix all around, as you go into the deep forest, into the open areas, back into the deep forest. Good variety, including shooting out of and into the forest; both for drives and some approaches.
- Parts of the course have pretty significant elevation changes, especially in the forested areas. Some good elevated teepads, starting with #1, downward sloping fairways like #3, mild uphill shots like #13, and lots in between. A few spots have real roll-away potential, like almost all of #14, fairway to basket. The holes within the forest usually have some dangerous areas to avoid, like a creekbed and just straight-up rugged terrain.
- Simply awesome variety of lines to be found here, with the different areas of forest, elevation changes, and multi-shot holes. Each hole is pretty different from any other, with the exception of some similar straight shots. Mega hyzers, long, low hyzers, uphill anhyzers, a few obvious places for flex shots, some longer uphill shots that finish left or right into the forest, it is a lot to get into. In short, almost every shot to be found here, regardless of arm.
- Course has absolutely no shortage in length, especially from the golds. While the 850' and 1100' hole definitely skew the average hole length, it is still a fairly long course. Including all 18, it averages out to 461' per hole. Taking out the two long ones, the 16 remaining holes still average 396'!
- Water comes in play on only one hole, but is both scenic and potentially dangerous (in a good way). It sits at the bottom of a downhill shot, through the woods, where you need to do a 90 degree turn before the lake. Bigger arms can definitely reach it if the disc decides not to hyzer (RHBH).
- Great baskets, good signage (tee signs are pretty, say hole number and length), decent teepads (some are in bad shape). Some benches and stuff here and there, nice to take a break at least once.

- Some parts of the course are still very rugged, with dirt steps that turn to mud, and some places where crossing the creekbed takes a little creativity. Hopefully still a work in progress.
- A lot of the holes really just need a straight shot in some form or another. There is great punishment for failing to do so, like rollaways and deep rough (and some nasty, nasty schule in the open holes), but the line itself is kind of bland. This is true for the bombers, some ace runs, and a few in between.
- This is nit-picking, but the course definitely lacks any large elevation changes. No huge downhill bomber to add some fun/flavor to the set-up, just because of the terrain.

- Just an all around fantastic course. Definitely championship level, with some extremely tough holes, some punishing "easy" holes, and a great variety of different looks. No matter how big an arm, or how accurate, both will be tested to the max. Fantastic variety of lines, constant, though mild, elevation changes, some tricky greens, nearly every hole has something to make it challenging.
- Beginners should stay far away from this course, play the red or white. Everyone else should be challenged in a big way, from rec players to top pros. If you aren't able to get the few deuce-able holes, it is impossible to score well here.

- Lemon Lake's Silver and Gold courses share fairways and often baskets. Gold is championship-caliber, while Silver allows mere mortals to play along with shorter, easier tee (and occasionally, basket) layouts.
- The Gold course challenges all aspects of a discer's game and requires distance driving, precision on approaches, careful putting, and the ability to recover from thick schule in order to score well. This course starts off with shorter wooded holes before opening up into a mostly flat field covered in thick prairie. Once into the open, the holes become much longer in length with one topping 1100 ft. After several in this style, the course again enters the woods and finishes much in the manner it began, with 18 ending near the beginning.
- Silver tees simplify matters greatly but still provide a decent challenge for less-experienced players. Many holes are shortened significantly, providing several ace runs, and often give a straight look whereas the Gold tee might be blind. On most holes, silver tees play to the Gold basket, but several holes also contain a Silver basket. Baskets are extremely easy to distinguish, as they are boldly covered in metallic spray paint of the corresponding color. On holes where a Silver basket appears, Silver tees play to the Silver basket, Gold tees to the Gold basket.
- Brushed, level, grippy new concrete tees on all but one or two pads, where above-average brick was used instead. Most concrete tees are trapezoidal in shape and absolutely top-notch, others are square and slightly shorter but still sufficient.
- Dual pin positions for both Gold and Silver baskets keep things fresh.
- Excellent signage throughout, once you actually find the semi-hidden #1. Next tee signage is everywhere and greatly alleviates a somewhat awkward flow in a few places. Rustic tee-signs made of large logs add charm while providing the hole number and each pin position's distance in either silver or gold.
- Moderate elevation comes into play and is used to great effect. Pin positions near slopes provide risk on several holes. Several doglegs ascend or descend through woods. A couple of holes feature miniature "gorges" that offer the potential for trouble on errant shots.
- Stairs, earthen steps cut into slopes, bridges, mulch, and gravel implemented throughout as needed. Mulch and gravel used sparingly and effectively.
- Great amenities: bathrooms, drinks, water fountain, pavilions, tennis courts, etc. on site. Several holes have brooms for the tees. Benches and trashcans throughout.
- Isolated and pristine natural setting.

- Although the wooded holes are cleared out fairly well, holes 8 - 12 have rough consisting of super-dense prairie and/or scrubby, brushy woodland. The prairie is largely composed of goldenrod, thorns, nettles, and poison ivy. Some trails are worn in, but finding discs off the fairway proves to be a major hassle. In fact, a large part of the risk on these longer holes is that of the rough swallowing a disc.
- A bit of a challenge to find initially.

- Located on the same property as three other outstanding courses: Blue/White/Red. The first tee is located near Blue's #13. Park at the 2nd lot, pass Blue's #12 tee, and cross the bridge.
- $4 local, $7 out-of-county pay-to-play. Certainly reasonable for the quality and quantity of disc golf available on-site.
- My rating reflects not only the solid Silver course, but also takes into account the outstanding Gold layout.

UPDATE (6/30/2019): Several holes have been shorted to more of a Silver layout length, either through removal of the old Gold tee pad positions (#'s 11, 12) or a shorter pin position (#7). Not that this makes the course less of a monster...it simply minimizes the amount of frustration and ridiculousness those old hole layouts caused (especially #'s 11 and 12). No longer do you need to worry about going into the thickest, least forgiving schule imaginable. While I thoroughly enjoyed the longer tougher holes, they were on the point of ridiculousness and there's still plenty beatdown factor.

The course was in tremendous condition, with new tee pads and baskets, well-groomed fairways, and plenty of trash cans and places to sit.
The length here (and there's a lot of it) was integrated well into the design - except for a couple of holes it didn't seem to be there just for the sake of adding distance. Even on the 1120' #8, while the first 800' is "grip and rip", it finishes with an interesting and well-protected pin. Virtually every hole here would be a stand-out on most courses.
This course demands and rewards accuracy, but the lines are clearly defined and there are virtually no random trees that would get in the way of a good tee shot.
There's a lot of elevation changes, and the holes are well balanced between up/down and left/right shots.

Navigation was really difficult in some places, starting with just trying to find the first tee. My biggest issue was with the scorecard, especially where it shows hole #1 and that it has #16 as a dogleg right when it is actually a severe dogleg left. Also, while there were "next tee" signs on most holes, in a couple of cases they were not clear (good luck finding #6 tee!)
The rough is deep and there are many places where finding a disc would be extremely difficult if you are off the fairway. This is true even on the open holes and I would suggest having a spotter on several of them.

I played the gold tees/pins, which plays over 8,900'. Pro Worlds was here recently, and there was clearly a ton of work put into this course. The locals who put their time into this should be recognized for their efforts - I certainly appreciated it.
There were some long walks between holes, although on a course this big that shouldn't be a surprise.

Overall, this is a course I would definitely play again (especially since I know my way around it now!) and qualifies as a destination course. And, with three other courses in the park I would definitely recommend a trip here.

This is one of the most challenging courses that I have seen. It is long and in the woods with great elevation and then extremely long, flat and open for a few holes before returning to the wooded area.

There is no easy hole from the long gold tees. When the cement tee pads have completely replaced the rubber, this will become a tremendous improvement.

Update: 2 sets of cement tees on each hole now!

I've seen the love given to this piece of land and can see it only getting better week by week, month to month and of course year to year. It is a gem within the Lemon Lake complex.

Since it is such challenge, the fun factor can be diminished somewhat. I simply walked it on a chilly October morning and was tired after 18 holes. Playing from the short silver tees is much easier for this Adv Masters player.

More next tee signs are needed although a lot exist already. I had a map and was still confused which way to go at times. After #5 go back to your left 90 degrees
and into the field. I found #16 before finding #15.

The rough can be extremely rough, the tall grass on the longer holes makes it easy to lose a disc or make a run up almost impossible.

Holes 10, 11 and 12 are too similar, a great walk through the woods but the same golf shot over and over.


Being in such a great complex, a water fountain on the course somewhere would sure be appreciated. Bring plenty of water and maybe a snack, you'll need just on this course alone.The park itself has this provided elsewhere.

As mentioned by others, blue #14 would make a great #18 on silver/gold.

Print a map from this website, you'll need it.

Lemon Lake is a terrific complex for DG, 4 courses with other park amenities such as good restrooms, picnic tables, a snack shop in summer all in a clean park enviroment. Please do not consider a park entrance fee (when staffed) a drawback, it is totally worth 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.

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.

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