- Decent variety of shots for a short course
- Quality Discatcher Baskets
- New(ish) signs and rubber tee pads

- Very short and flat, doesn't provide much challenge
- Alternate tees hard to find or not always marked

Lohmann Park's location behind an elementary school is delightfully appropriate. Averaging right around 225' for its 9 holes, this course is perfect for beginners. I recently played this course for the first time in about 3 years since graduating from the University of Illinois. I learned to play backhand on this course over a summer after playing exclusively forehand for a couple years. Lohmann's short length and lack of punishment for bad shots was perfect for working on my game and learning new shots. Of course, having improved significantly in the past 3 years, the course has little to offer now outside of ace runs and a fun round of birdie or die golf.

Since I'd last played, they have installed new Innova Discatcher baskets, tee signs, and rubber tee pads, all of which were much needed, and are a great improvement over the old baskets, faded signs, and rutted, natural tees. There are also a couple of new, young trees planted. Navigation is easy, and the park is always well maintained.

The individual holes remain the same, and while there is some decent shot shaping, particularly on holes 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8, they are all short and open enough to make birdies fairly easy and bogeys rare. The alternate tees add some distance and difficulty, but the markers are hard to find and not really worth seeking out. However, if the 9 holes used by the Illini disc golf club are marked with flags, as they were for my latest round, they make for a decent addition with increased difficulty for an 18 hole round. Check the Links/Files tab for a map, and look for the flags while you are out. There is usually little enough traffic on the course that playing the alternate tees isn't a problem.

This is a great 9 hole course for beginners (especially considering what the designers had to work with), and provides enough shot shaping to entertain players with more experience.

- Lohmann Park sits directly behind Thomas Paine elementary school. It's a flat grassy expanse, one half mostly open with a few scattered trees and another section that is a bit more heavily "treed" without ever approaching "wooded." No schule or undergrowth makes finding discs super easy. This is a stellar example of above average course design catering specifically to school children and/or beginners. Great layout for families!
- First of all, this course is pretty short. Experienced discers will be tossing ace runs on most baskets and playing deuce-or-die golf. That said, there's still enough line shaping (#'s 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9) all require some sort of good golf shot around trees in order to be close enough for the "gimme" birdie. The lack of long holes makes this layout ideal for younger players, people new to the game, and families. Bad shots can be recovered from for easy pars in most cases, but could lead to the occasional bogey.
- Outstanding use of the trees. Almost all the holes have some sort of tree or tree grouping to force the shot one way or another. #1 starts this off, #3 requires either a low-clearance shot under the branches or an up-and-over shot (spike hyzer/tomahawk/thumber), #8 is a tunnel shot (very cool for this sort of course) and #9 has a protected green. All above average for this sort of park style 9er.
- Rubber tees were easy to find and totally serviceable. The red markers were difficult to find (I started finding them, despite looking, on hole #5 and could only locate two or three altogether). The supposed whites and "singles layouts" were nowhere to be seen. The course was immaculately groomed. Grass neatly mown, signage in place and serviceable, mulched areas under baskets, trashcans, benches, and portajohn (located by #6's tee).

- None, really. I guess the flatness of the property kinda stinks, but not much they could do about that.

- Not a world beater, by any stretch of the imagination; however, it's easily fun enough for experienced discers to play a round or two here and not get bored or entirely complacent while remaining accessible enough for beginners and families.
- If you're looking to find a good template for what a beginner 9er on less than stellar land should look like, you'd do well to at least check this course out. I've seen waaay more crappy 9ers than I have good, so props where props are due!

Wide open for most shots, some trees to make play interesting. Easy to spot both tees and baskets.

Rather short course. Not a lot of difference from one hole to the next for most. kinda short on parking if anything is happening at the school.

Great place to learn the sport. Easy to play with kids! Champaign/Urbana NEEDS more courses!!!!

This course is easy to navigate, quick to play, and usually has little traffic. It is also clean.

The holes do have adequate variety and most holes have alternate possible lines of play. For example, hole 3 has several full trees in the middle of the fairway. You can play a big hyzer over the trees, a straight flat shot through the center of the trees, or a big left-to right shot around the trees. I've seen players do all three.

Not all holes favor RHBH throwers. A few of the holes prohibit or discourage such throws. Holes 7 and 8 are very nice partial or full tunnel shots (though short).

The lack of heavy traffic allows for some creative play: improvised or personal alternate tees, or playing the course backwards.

A good course if you're looking for some ace runs.

The tee pads (gravel/dirt) aren't great. They are all different shapes and sizes, and some are too large. The tee-pad on hole 1 is about 40 feet long. I recommend playing all holes from where the tee-sign is rather than all the way up to the front of the tee pad--this will add some needed distance.

Some of the baskets are getting old (though all are still functional).

The distances on the tee-signs are all wrong. I recommend subtracting10--15% from each distance reported (even when playing from the tee-signs).

The terrain is boring as are a couple of the holes: it is almost all flat (slight inclines on a couple of holes); no water or other significant hazards; only one patch of forested area used for one hole. Holes 4 and 9 are wide-open, with no obstacles except for a tree on 4 and a few on 9 that are right by the basket.

Hole 9 is missing a tee sign and gravel tee pad (play it from the obvious large dirt ruts).

There is no parking lot designed for the park. The only lot is the school lot (the course is behind an elementary school). This causes no problems on weekends, evenings, or in the summer. But when school is in session, you'll probably have to find street parking a block or two away from the course.

On some weekends (mornings/early afternoons) a cricket club uses a big chunk of the park. You can play around them, but their field encroaches a little bit on one or two of the fairways.

The signs have 2 or 3 tees marked per hole, but only one tee per hole is obvious. There are a couple of dirt patches in the grass marking some of the alternate tees, but in half the cases, no sign of alternate tees can be found anywhere.

There are no bathrooms or water available.

I find the course fun and challenging enough to keep playing it. But I'm only a 20 minute drive away. I wouldn't recommend making a special trip (and it's not immediately off a highway).

The short tees are easy (but it's still challenging to get all or nearly all birdies). I've gotten extra challenge and fun out of making up alternate tees (where none are available). This can significantly lengthen the course. I now have some 300+ foot holes to play.

Short beginner course, great for learning your upshot game. There are hyzers, anhyzers, straight shots, ceiling shots, and a tunnel shot. Several alternate teeboxes provide a little more length and challenge to an easy course. The homie backwards tees are more challenging, and add a few different twists to the course design.

Short, flat, and very easy. From the short tees, -4 or -5 is not hard to do at all. Many trees have been cut down around holes 1 and 2, which takes away some of the beauty of the course, and a little bit of the challenge.

Gravel teepads are unprofessionally installed, and look it. They are twice as big as they need to be.

Watch out for the kids in the neighborhood, they sometimes come out and pick up your discs on holes 8 and 9.

I was a student at U of I, so this was my "home" course for 6 years. I'm definitely grateful for those 6 years, as the course really improved my upshot game, and made me very comfortable with 200-250' shots.

Lohmann Park plays around a small park located near an elementary school. Lohmann has numerous mature trees that will deflect throws off their line adding difficulty to the rather short course. All tee pads except hole #9 have nice signage with distances and pars posted. Hole #8 though only 200ft is a nice little tunnel shot to test accuracy. The park is kept clean and tidy. As already stated, most obstacles are mature trees which makes it very hard to lose a disc at this course. Lohmann has two great sets of alternate tees. A set of longer tees along the marked course and a set of backward tees that really spice up the course. The backwards tees have a variety of short technical holes along with a couple long bombs.

The teepads are gravel and do not have clear cut endpoints which can encourage foot faults. The marked course is rather short and repetitive. I believe there is too much wasted terrain. Though the backwards tees are a great way to play the course, they are hard to find if you do not know what to look for. Additionally, when the park gets crowded with disc golfers the backwards tees are hard to play quickly. Lohmann is also a multi-purpose park with an open field where cricket and football are often played.

As a student at the University of Illinois this is the best we have. Every time I play this course I play it forwards and then backwards for a relatively interesting 18 hole course. Learning the backwards tees will significantly improve your experience on this course. Either try to contact someone who knows them or look for the blue brackets painted on the ground. I feel this course would be far better if the backwards alternate tees were changed to the main marked course. As far as tee pads go, the Reds are marked, the white and blue I have never played and the backwards my group marks with orange spray paint when we can.

The only upside to this course is that it is the only one in the area. For this reason, I've played it more than 100 times (Some summers, I've played twice a week, and usually through 2x or 3x on each visit.)

The other good thing I can say about it is that you cannot lose your disc here. There were several ugly areas that have been fixed, because when it was first set up, you had to worry about losing discs in the cornfield (hole 3) or in the 7 foot weeds (hole 4).

There are 2 sets of alternate tees, and a map for playing the course backwards. These would would really be nice, if only they were better marked.

Can be played in 20 minutes.

Hole 8 plays through a grove of trees, which makes for an interesting hole. I'd call this the signature hole for the course.

Some students in the area have been doing what they can to make this a better course recently (2011). As examples of what they've done, a replacement sign for #9 has been added, wood chips have been put down, and concrete markers are being planned for some of the alternate tees.

There are a few standard problems that you may expect with any park-district built course:

1) Lack of elevation changes. This shouldn't be too surprising. We're in Illinois.

2) Lack of interesting features. It feels like you are walking around a 7-segment display. Nearly the whole course can be seen from the first tee.

3) Lack of medium or long range holes. Once again, this is probably to be expected for a 9-hole course run by a park district.

Sometimes park district courses can be nice, but the following concerns have made me rate it lower than a standard park-district run course:

4) Lack of parking. The normal parking area is often blocked off during school days, and you have to park in the elementary school's lot.

5) Lack of maintenance. The tees are still dirt and there is no foul line for throwing. Replacing the sign for #9 took 8 years, and many of the signs are dirty.

6)Inconvenient location: It's far from campus, and far from interstate.

7) Lack of right doglegs. Hole 2 is really the only one.

8) Crowded. Holes 3 and 4 are often unplayable because of soccer, and hole 9 is often unplayable because of either cricket or park district football practice.

Even if the park isn't being used for other sports, the course can be crowded just from disc golf players. This is the primary course for U of I students, and players from C-U, Mahomet, and Rantoul, so it gets a lot of use. Most days, playing the back 9 (reverse tees) is impossible just because of the number of other players.

Since CU is a college town, there is a lot of demand for a good course. This seems like it would be a nice secondary course for a town this size, but much too small to be the primary.

As of 2011, there is a group of students that run tournaments on Mondays and Fridays. The facebook page found in the links section is the place to get more information.

The course fills the role of a driving range. It's not designed for competitive play, and it's not designed for people new to the sport. It pretty much functions only as a practice location for people that are already interested in the sport.

The city of Champaign has made a plan for a new 18-hole course on 150 west of Champaign, but they say it is at least 8 years away (stated in 2008)! I think that the park districts here do not understand the popularity of this sport.

This is a very nice little course in Urbana, Illinois, several miles east of the University's campus. The course seems to be in a pretty good area of town and I felt safe at all times. First and foremost, I had fun when I played this course. There are signs on most holes 8/9, and for the most part, are pretty detailed -- listing the distances, par, and alternate tee pads. I had no problem parking in the lot, but I was there on a weekend. Although this course was short, it is still decently demanding. Playing the primary tee pads is definitely the easiest of the routes you can take, and low scores are definitely possibly, with the longest hole being only about 280-290 feet. That being said, trees come into play on nearly every single hole, some much more than others (tunnel shot on #8), so there's always the potential that a shot just a little offline gets trejected. For people with a little bit more experience, this course is great for working on midrange fairly shots, since there are no concrete teepads and nothing in excess of 300 ft. If you play the alternates, which are much longer, and often times much more difficult due to the trees, the course is actually very enjoyable and nowhere near as easy. I liked the variety of shots that each hole allowed me to throw. It was nice to go to the teepad and have the option of going straight, hyzer, anhyzer, spike hyzer, etc., on a good portion of the holes. It's a very fun way to work on that all important short game.

The fact that there are only 9 baskets limits this course quite a bit. Without going into the school (frowned upon, I'm sure), there are no public restrooms or water fountains. There is a gas station just one stoplight west on Florida Ave. (along with a ton of fastfood). There are no ceiling limits with exception to maybe holes 7 and 8. If there was an elevation change, I couldn't find it, with exception to maybe 2 and 3. The gravel pads are okay, but are exceedingly long and at times uneven. It was sometimes difficult to find a place I felt would have sure footing for my toss. I can't say that I agreed 100% with the distances listed on the signage, so just be aware of that and use your judgment. Parking probably won't ever become an issue because the lot is fairly big, but just be mindful of the fact the parking lot of the park is shared with a parking lot for the elementary school adjacent to it. There is the possibility for street parking on Florida Ave if need be. The park serves multiple purposes -- which is awesome -- but because of the limited space, there is the possibility to have holes taken up by other activities (e.g., Rugby on Saturday afternoons). Suggestions: Concrete tee pads would be nice. Concrete tee pads for the alternate tees would be fantastic. Some of the baskets are getting a little old and are a little shallow compared to the newer Machs. Having the holes remeasured wouldn't be a terrible idea (unless I'm absolutely bonkers -- possible). I think there might the possibility of having someone with a keen sesne of space come out and redesign a good portion of the course, lengthen it and add more baskets. I really think they could get more out of the space they have allotted for the course without compromising the integrity of the park.

Overall, a fun course to play. I just cannot in good conscience give it more than a 2 because of all the things that need work (and the lack of 9 extra baskets). It is however, a good 3.5 - 4/5 on the fun scale, if such a lunacy exists.There's supposedly chatter of putting in a new course somewhere in Champaign. There was a sign mentioning something about a league, if there was interest, but no actually designated time posted that I saw.

Very good use of available terrain features to provide some challenge to a short course. This also provides a suprising variety of flat, uphill, woods shots. Not overly busy and in a nice neighborhood with a clean well maintained park. Nice for a quick round.

Verrryyy short course with some really easy shots. You can see almost all nine baskets from the welcome board.
Course is mastered quickly and after a couple of rounds can be a bore. The Tees are very primitive and poorly maintained. The baskets can turn into mud pits with a good rain. Sits behind an elementary school and parking can be a little ways from the course.

This is one of the closest courses to my home. I try to play whenever I am in Champaign but it is not something I would travel to the area to play. It is a great course for beginners as it gives them opportunity for new shots and has a couple of semi challenging holes. The C-U area needs a better, bigger course with the UI there and they have been planning this for years. Until then this is a nice older short course for a quick round. The description mentions alternate tees but these are not well marked and hard to find in essence you can make up your own course.