Madisonville City Park DGC reviews
14
0
Cerealman
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience:
15.7 years
584 played
178 reviews
Mundane Madisonville underwhelms
Reviewed:
Played on:Apr 14, 2023
Played the course:once
Pros:
Madisonville City Park offers a park-style course with substantial distance, limited rough and a pond that comes into play on several holes.
The best holes are likely found in the middle section of the course where elevation and moderately wooded throws come into play. The holes in this segment offer a variety of lines through a valley featuring scattered trees.
This course is a good option if you want to practice distance but not worry about consistent punishment or terrible rough. Even errant throws can result in easy scrambling, as the lightly wooded format and forgiving pars should keep the big numbers off your scorecard.
The fairways are fairly clean of debris and most are on some nice grassy areas. Plus, the course was mowed and in excellent condition when I played.
Hole #1 is the best chance for an ace; at 285 feet, it's wide open and slightly downhill.
The teepads are solid and large enough. The H.B. Clark-typical signage is good.
The best holes are likely found in the middle section of the course where elevation and moderately wooded throws come into play. The holes in this segment offer a variety of lines through a valley featuring scattered trees.
This course is a good option if you want to practice distance but not worry about consistent punishment or terrible rough. Even errant throws can result in easy scrambling, as the lightly wooded format and forgiving pars should keep the big numbers off your scorecard.
The fairways are fairly clean of debris and most are on some nice grassy areas. Plus, the course was mowed and in excellent condition when I played.
Hole #1 is the best chance for an ace; at 285 feet, it's wide open and slightly downhill.
The teepads are solid and large enough. The H.B. Clark-typical signage is good.
Cons:
The Madisonville City Park course has several little flaws that apparently didn't bother many of the previous reviewers.
The designer created a bunch of tweener holes, as 10 of the holes are 360-460 feet, and a few are par 3s but most are par 4s. There are also 10 par-4 holes, but only three of them (all 580 feet or more) are obvious par 4s. The blurring of par is a bit frustrating; why is one 365-foot hole listed as a par 3 and another 365-foot hole merits a par 4?
Score separation will likely be extremely limited due to the long but lightly wooded design. I played the Madisonville City Park course in a doubles format with three friends. Heading into the last hole, the two doubles team differed in score on just one hole. Furthermore, nearly all our birdies were on par-4 holes and most of our pars were on par-3 holes.
Hole #8 is a quirky hole. If you don't want to attempt the 325-foot-plus water carry, there's a bailout spot over the trees lining the pond on the right with some ideal landing zones. Even with that safer option, the second throw will likely be a long toss to the basket that will bring trees and the downhill slope to the water into play.
Holes #9 and #15 play over a small drainage area at the bottom of the hill that can be quite muddy at times.
Navigation is tricky in spots and not intuitive. While teepads can be spotted, it might not always be the correct one. There are also a few holes where the basket isn't visible from the teepad.
The course does play near some areas where other parkgoers might frequent. There's a walking path to keep an eye out for, and individuals were congregating around the pond in a couple spots.
The course starts and ends with some blah, nearly-wide-open holes to depart from and then get back to the parking lot.
The designer created a bunch of tweener holes, as 10 of the holes are 360-460 feet, and a few are par 3s but most are par 4s. There are also 10 par-4 holes, but only three of them (all 580 feet or more) are obvious par 4s. The blurring of par is a bit frustrating; why is one 365-foot hole listed as a par 3 and another 365-foot hole merits a par 4?
Score separation will likely be extremely limited due to the long but lightly wooded design. I played the Madisonville City Park course in a doubles format with three friends. Heading into the last hole, the two doubles team differed in score on just one hole. Furthermore, nearly all our birdies were on par-4 holes and most of our pars were on par-3 holes.
Hole #8 is a quirky hole. If you don't want to attempt the 325-foot-plus water carry, there's a bailout spot over the trees lining the pond on the right with some ideal landing zones. Even with that safer option, the second throw will likely be a long toss to the basket that will bring trees and the downhill slope to the water into play.
Holes #9 and #15 play over a small drainage area at the bottom of the hill that can be quite muddy at times.
Navigation is tricky in spots and not intuitive. While teepads can be spotted, it might not always be the correct one. There are also a few holes where the basket isn't visible from the teepad.
The course does play near some areas where other parkgoers might frequent. There's a walking path to keep an eye out for, and individuals were congregating around the pond in a couple spots.
The course starts and ends with some blah, nearly-wide-open holes to depart from and then get back to the parking lot.
Other Thoughts:
I was pleased to see that Madisonville offered two highly-rated courses on DGCR. Unfortunately, this course falls significantly short of matching its nearby counterpart on nearly all fronts, including design, challenge and variety.
The Madisonville City Park gets stuck in a rut of long, lightly wooded holes with undefined fairways, resulting in a bland design with low score variance.
The Madisonville City Park gets stuck in a rut of long, lightly wooded holes with undefined fairways, resulting in a bland design with low score variance.
