I start any review of a course with the natural aspects and Linbrook doesn't disappoint here. This course was built on a beautiful piece of land full of good, thick woods. The 3rd hole plays along a creek. As the lowest spot in the course, it tends to fill with mushrooms and animals. I've seen deer, turkey, etc on that hole. It also does, yes, have plenty of fairway, which to me adds to the sense of grandeur here as everything looks spacious while still feeling secluded, which is rare.

The course, itself, is really well designed and fun to play. You cross a road on 1. You get a downhill dunker on 2. There is a chasm to cross on 4 and again on 9. There is a nice balance of left leaning and right leaning fairways, as well. You, also, get to play a lot of elevation here. It's definitely a hike and you'll throw both uphill and downhill, as well as across those "canyons" mentioned earlier. The 7th Hole on this course is one of my favorite holes in PA, just fantastic. The drive is a huge, sweeping hyzer downhill. If you go too far you're in deep trouble. If you fall to the right or left you're in trouble. Once down the hill you still have quite a distance to go to either pin from there. It's a challenging hole that is also fun to throw. To be this deep in the woods without having to negotiate 100 trees on every fairway is NICE. I love the design in play here.

I love that there are two baskets here, which is one of the things that makes this most stand out for me. You can play 18 holes without it ever really feeling repetitive. They are actually even numbered 1 and 10 or 2 and 11, etc. It does feel like the back 9 pins are harder on most every hole. I wish they would change them up a bit more than they tend to do. The course, also, has three sets of tees, which I always appreciate. As my wife is learning to play the sport, it's important to me to have Red tees at a course for her.

There is a good bit of parking here any time of the year. There is a portable toilet avaialable year-round and a picnic pavilion right beside the practice basket that I've never seen used so it's always available for a rest. There are also benches and tables along the course, as well as garbage cans.

There are three sets of tees, but they are all mostly just carpet or turf mats. Most of them could desperately use an overhaul. A few, in particular, are rough. The Red tee on 5 doesn't make sense. The carpet is nowhere near the sign and directly behind a hanging branch that makes the drive you need to throw impossible. The white tee on 7 needs a level badly. It's a downhill run up on bad carpeting.

The course gets very muddy during certain times of the year. A lot of that has to do with all the elevation and the drainage in certain places, but a few holes in particular are always a mess during rainy seasons, as well as the worst culprit is the trail from 9th basket down back down to the 1st tee. That is made even worse because there is a lot of horse walking happening in this park. That's cool with me, but those horses can destroy that trail even more.

During winter months, be warned. The park actually closes the main drive that comes up to the first tee. Before I picked up local knowledge, that meant walking a half mile uphill to get to the course. The right way to do it is to park on the far left of the bottom parking lot. You'll see a walking path leading over a footbridge. Just keep following it to the 3rd tee and play starting at 3.

Always rumors of a back 9 happening here and I'd love to see that someday. This course seems to be a hidden gem to a degree because it never has the crowds that Knob or Schenley get and yet is still close to most any North Hills neighborhood.

Multiple Tee locations
Multiple pin locations
Challenging course
Technical shots

Old Turf Tee pads
Tees pads aren't level
All woods, no real open holes
Not for new players

I know this course is a incomplete project, but its a lot of fun. For 9 holes it will challenge you, especially from the Blue tees. Par 32 for 9 holes is amazing. And Hole 7 is so picturesque. I'd rather come here and challenge myself on 9 technical holes than play a wide open easy park style course.

Its not quite a 4, but its definitely better than a 3.5. I'd say its a 3.75 right now, with new tee pads and a back nine this place could easily be a 4.5-5 course. Here's hoping they do get it finished!

If they get to put in the back 9 and its of the same caliber as the front, this place will rival the other big name courses in the area.

Elevation, 3 sets of tees with turf pads in process, tee signs and signage for easy navigation. Discatcher baskets. Well defined fairways especially for long challenging holes.

Only 9 holes. Probably gets a bit sloppy after a hard rain.

It was hard to give this less than a 4 star rating even being just a 9 hole course. Such a fun and challenging course. Add 9 holes with similar characteristics and this in my opinion would be the best course or at least top 3 in the Pittsburgh area.

- Great elevation changes
- Very challenging
- Good hole design, requires good forehand and backhand
- Multiple tees
- Minimal course traffic, never waiting on another group

- During spring and summer the rough is "rough". It is very easy to loose quite a few discs
- Only 9 holes

Tee signs: At each tee. Shows all tee locations, all pin positions, current basket position, distance and elevation delta to all positions.

Three tees and three pin positions per holes.

Easy navigation.

Practice basket, pavilion at start.

Played just after a rain. The near entirety of hole-6, early on hole-7, and a long stretch of hole-9 were quite slippery. Several lower spots were quite boggy.

Course plays up, down, and across the wooded slopes towards the back of a public, multi-purpose park. Elevation change on practically every hole, more downs than ups, but mostly my favourite - across valley/ravines.

The throwing lanes are all quite fair, relative to the distance you are throwing. Straight off the tee will work well on a majority of the holes, but some rights/lefts are required in the middle of the course.

Tee pads are a work in progress, with the front half complete. The tees are good quality.

This is the best niner I've played, and it stacks up well against the other top greater Pittsburgh-area courses.

Although it's only 9 holes in its present incarnation, Linbrook offers a degree of epic challenge I've rarely seen on 18 holers. 3 and 5-7 are all well over 500 ft from the short tees, and are complex, multistage par 4s with lots of obstacles and elevation changes. These holes really challenge your game from drive to putt, and it's rare to make par without a textbook play through. The remaining holes consist of tight, turning lines down wooded fairways (2, 8) or more open shots forcing you to choose and navigate a challenging window (1, 4, 9). The last of these are your best chance for birdies, but they're far from gimmies: drastic elevation changes and thick rough mean that one unfortunate bounce or roll away can add 2 or 3 strokes in an instant. Overall, Linbrook is characterized by thick woods, tight windows, extreme elevation changes, long holes, and smartly-designed, unique lines that require you to accurately control the entire course of your disc's flight. It's a spectacular challenge whose golf stands with the best courses in the area.

Navigation flow is well done, considering its penchant for winding paths; the course is helpfully marked where needed.

The proximity to Knob Hill and other quality courses makes this an easy course to hit as part of a larger disc golf trip to the area.

Some holes to single out:

3 is one of the hardest holes I've ever played. The combination of distance (584 or 680), hazards (plentiful mid-fairway trees, a winding creek that borders the fairway's right before cutting in front of the basket), tightness, and elevation (the hillside to the left if you end up there, and the fairway's gradual upward rise) combine to make this a very challenging 4.

6 is another tough 4: a slight hyzer up a steep hill whose fairway straightens out to play along the hillside. Plenty of rollaway potential here, with a tight cluster of trees guarding the pin and some serious rough beyond the basket combining to really challenge your approach game.

7 is a beautiful downhill hyzer that plays into a gorgeous clearing. Birdieable if you hit your drive right. Playing too far to the left means some challenging upshots through the many trees that shield the basket.

Without a doubt Linbrook's biggest con is its rough present state. The tee pads are natural, and are vulnerable to getting mucked up. The rough is largely ungroomed, making shots from off the fairway almost impossible on several holes. When the fairway gets overgrown, even your most well-placed shots can be swallowed. Coupled with a tendency towards blind shots, having a spotter can make or break the enjoyableness of your round.

Tee signs would be welcome, especially given the quirky nature of many lines and the frequent inability to see the pin from the tee. There are white tees on some if not all the holes, but I think I've only been able to pick out one or two of them. Even the blue tees can be hard to find on occasion.

The level of difficulty is extreme here. If you go in knowing what to expect, it's fine, and the fact that there are only nine holes helps temper the sense of getting beaten on. Beyond all that, I appreciate Linbrook's challenges - they're part of the fun - but if things aren't clicking it can be a downer of a round. I've come out of here feeling the sting of an especially tough round more often than not.

There are some limits to the hole variety to be had here given the constantly wooded environment. I think the course design is pretty brilliant, but playing in the thick woods does rule out certain portions of your bag. Coupled with the fact that there are only nine holes, Linbrook presently makes for a very particular kind of disc golf, which can be good or bad depending on how you take to its challenges.

The course was in pretty rough condition the first time I played it (July 2013). I was disappointed, and it marred my overall experience of it, but I decided to delay my opinion until visiting again after hearing from locals that the course usually looked better. I'm glad I did, because this is truly one heck of a course: the long, winding holes are really unique, and the entire thing challenges your game in a way I hadn't experienced before. I think this one is really worth a visit, and presently overlooked more than it should be.

There are plans to expand the course to 18 holes, once the park approves. I sure hope they do, because I feel that a well-groomed, well-signed, 18-hole Linbrook would become as highly regarded as Moraine and Deer Lakes. As it stands, it's still a unique offering to the area's embarrassment of riches.

It's worth noting that, all things being equal, I'm inclined to rate an 9-holer lower than an 18-hole equivalent. I had been inclined to give Linbrook a 3.5 because of this. Linbrook's spectacular challenges and unique holes deserve special consideration, however; three months since my last visit, I'm still thinking about them. As such, as of Jan 2014, I'm bumping my rating up to a 4.0.

Bravo to the course designers for this one. I look forward to seeing this course blossom.

9 Discatcher baskets with multiple pin placements and tees. Practice basket by the pavilion. Excellent use of the elevation and terrain with big uphill, downhill, flat, and ravine shots. Choice of throwing lanes on a few holes with well defined fairways on all holes. Good variety of hole distances with some high risk vs reward off the tee on the shorter holes, while the longer holes are a little easier off the tee. There's no real blind landings even when you can't see the basket from the tee.

It's still new so the ground and rough is still rough, no signage or permanent tees yet(carpet for now). Navigation maybe a little tricky until the signs are done, but if you follow the flags you should find the next tee. Hole #1 is across the parking lot from the pavilion/practice basket and to the right and tees over the path. After holing out #7, go back up toward the left side of the fairway and you will see the flags and you will hike a good bit.

So you thought Pittsburgh had it all already?...Deer Lakes, Moraine, Knob Hill, 2 Mile Ext? Well as George Thorogood said, move it on over, and get ready for Linbrook! This course stacks up well to the surrounding courses and could very well end up being the best of them. So glad I got to play the front 9 of Linbrook twice while toured by Mr. Chris Dietzel! Hole 7 is an absolute beauty and beast, high risk/reward downhill dogleg left nearly 900' long and guessing 70' elevation drop, still dreaming about it! The course has been carved entirely out of the woods, so there's been a lot of work done here and still to go for the back 9. Can't wait to see Linbrook when all 18 holes are ready, it's already so sweet and only going to get better!