I know this question equals Pro Choice vs. Pro Life or Trump vs. Biden and everyone has an opinion. My opinion has always been that I would rate a great nine hole course 4.0-5.0 but the simple fact remains that I just don't find nines that have all the attributes that I want a 4.0 to 5.0 course to have. I've currently rated 1457 courses. Of those, I have awarded 8 5.0's, 22 4.5's and 83 4's. So 113/1457 means I give out a 4.0 or higher rating about one in every 13 courses I rate. And I'm awarding little nine hole Lion's Hillside Park in Bismarck, South Dakota a 4.0 rating. I will explain.

Lion's Park is a wonderful piece of land on which to build a course. It's perfectly hilly with just enough mature trees. Next, this course provides a nice challenge for MOST players. The amenities, baskets, tee pads and signage is more than adequate. The course is easy to navigate and the park is beautiful. There are two pads for each hole which helps keep up the interest and it's a ton of fun.

The course starts right at the park's one parking lot and loops back. The baskets are older Mach III's with a large number on top. The tee pads are nicely long and concrete. The pads have the hole imbedded in the corner. The signs are simple and easy to read. Navigation is intuitive. Most of the holes are either really pretty or nicely challenging or both. # 2 is lovely with basket sitting down in a small depression. # 3 is tough playing at 633' slightly uphill from the alternative tee. # 9 is a fine finishing hole at 375' slightly downhill to a basket near the parking lot.

I do have one concern and I probably wouldn't 't even call this a con. Because this course gets so much love, erosion is everywhere, especially around the baskets and lots of other high usage areas. If this course was in one of our more liberal cities such as Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland or San Francisco, they (???) would shut it down, for like two years in order for the grass to regenerate. One idea that might help with the erosion issue would be to spread some wood chips around each basket. It would certainly look better than mud.

There are a couple of signs missing.

Only nine holes.

Older baskets.

Some players would want more options such as different basket placements.

The alternate tee pads could be more radical than they are to increase distance and challenge.

I loved playing this course at 8 am on a lovely early September morning. I'm thrilled it give it a 4.0 rating. It's a fun throw in a beautiful park. I definitely wasn't planning on finding a course like this in Bismarck, ND. A very pleasant surprise, indeed. Lion's Hillside DGC needs a few more ratings in order to be listed amongst the top courses in North Dakota or among the top nines anywhere.

This 9 hole course is located in a very well maintained city park which maximizes the surprising amount of elevation and loads of foliage in the park.

The layout of the course is great with Hole #1 being close to the parking lot and #9 coming very close back up to it. Very easy to navigate (except Hole #3 is up to the right, not left which the rows of trees makes you believe it would be). Each hole provides unique challenges and will require you to test your skills a bit but not overly difficult. Some holes I was able to drive with my mids and others I had to go all out on a driver (i.e. Hole #5), I really appreciate the variety!

Each hole has two teepads to choose from if you feel like playing a couple of rounds and adding new challenges to the holes. The pads are cement, a good length and in good shape. The baskets are excellent and the tee signs include appropriate information on hole distances per pad and the par.

The tee signs could include a map of the hole being played even though you can fairly easily spot the hole on all but #3, it just would be nice with the amount of trees in play.

No nearby bathroom that I found but it's a small park, figure it out and keep it clean. Also it's probably the busiest place in Bismarck to play since it's so conveniently located, but keep your eyes open and be patient.

This is probably my favorite 9 hole course I've played thus far (many to go I'm sure) but it really is aesthetically very nice with a lot of trees and elevation and will test your skills while still being very beginner friendly.

I chose to give this course a 4.0 rating because it is only 9 holes and the signage could be Slightly better, also it can be very busy. Other than that this place is great and I recommend it anyone to go here and play a few rounds!

Pretty straight-forward, quick 9 hole course, that can be played multiple times in a session. I would call it an intermediate course just because of elevation changes, trees, and the different types of shots needed to score on holes. All of the tee boxes are concrete and fairly large. Even the alternate tees are very good. The course is fairly short, but takes a lot of finesse.

Signage should have a mini-map showing where the hole is. Sometimes the tees are dirty.

Living in the Bismarck-Mandan area, I choose this course over and over again. The others aren't as good. Fun for both beginners and advanced.

The Tee box for each hole, gave you two choose's. Nice wide concrete pads. Signs with the Par and Feet were in great shape. A nice mixture of short and long, with uphill and downhill.

The signs need to show were the basket is and were the next Tee box is. The Tee boxs did have some loose dirt and leaves on them, which made footing a little hard at times.

Great place to play, instead of the bigger course in Bismarck. The last time I played this course was when it had 18 holes. Iam Glad they reopen this course. It is the best 9 hole I've played this year. The wind is a factor here.

The defining characteristic of this course was the elevation changes. Only a couple of the holes were level. Most had you either throwing up a hill or down a grade. This made for some challenging but very fun shots. The par for each hole was very reasonable and even a beginner would be able to computer on this course. There were trees but they only came into play on a couple holes. The tee pads were in great shape, and most holes had two tees allowing a player to play the course twice with various angles. The baskets were also in great condition and the grass was kept low.

A couple of the holes did not give the greatest guidance to the next tee pad and a couple baskets were difficult to see, but each tee had a marker showing where it was.

An excellent course. I wish it had been a full 18 holes because the way the first 9 were laid out showed creativity in design and offered a very enjoyable experience.