What to Expect - Madisonville City Park is an older HB Clark design set around the picturesque park in downtown Madisonville. With multiple ponds/lakes, a classic old time stone walled baseball stadium, an outdoor concert stage and venue, miniature golf course, pickle ball courts, tennis courts, the park is not only visually stunning but there is a little something for everyone.

Amenities - There are multiple buildings on site, the baseball stadium, the main assembly hall, the miniature golf course, the traditional golf course clubhouse next door, etc where modern bathrooms are available. There is a small pro shop that sells a small assortment of disc golf discs and equipment inside the traditional golf pro shop. Not a big selection, but worth checking out this is also the location for the lost and found.

Course Design - Long for a city park design coming in over 7'500 feet. The course dances the line between open long Par 3's and more guarded tweener Par 4's. The start and end of the course are much more open regular park style golf while the middle section is much more moderately wooded. One set of tees and one pin location. This course borders on the intermediate scale of difficulty due to its length which is a little much for beginners/novice players, but can be absolutely shredded by advanced and pro players.

Tees/Signage/Baskets - Tee's are skinny and a little on the small side (product of an older course) textured concrete but in great shape for their age. They are almost flat to the ground surface so running up from behind or off the side isn't a huge issue. Tee signs are simplistic full color with generic hole maps in old HB style but still contain all relevant hole information. Definitely showing their age but still provide everything you need. Baskets are older Discatchers that are showing some rust on the chains here and there but still catch well.

Maintenance - This course is almost always immaculate. The fairways and park itself are mowed and clean overall every time I have played here. The rough is VERY rough and thick but is rarely ever in play (Holes #3, #6, and #8) are the only holes where this should come in (and only if you make a terrible mistake to get there). Small trash cans at most tee pad locations and they are rarely full or overflowing.

Signatures - Hole #7 is a beautiful hole visually, and probably one of the only legit Par 4's on the course. With the lake to your left you must throw over the corner of the lake to a very well protected landing zone on your tee shot, then navigate a low ceiling approach into a basket location pushed right up against the bank of the water. Probably only 575 feet in a straight line over the water from tee to green, but forcing you to play straight over the corner of the lake, then diagonally left to the green makes the hole play more in the 700 foot range. (This Hole and Hole #8 both have short tee pads for players without the power to throw over the water). Hole #8 is a straight bomb over the water (300 plus feet of full water carry) to an upward sloped green, plays roughly 425 feet tee to green (and add the elevation distance) and is listed as a Par 4. There is a tricky landing zone to bail out to on the right side of the lake, but it is heavily guarded by trees and the lake wraps around blindly on the front side so if you throw too far, you are still wet. Soft Par 4 for the players with power to get over the water, a daunting nightmare (especially in the wind) for players with just barely enough power to get over in perfect conditions, and a definite lay up hole that becomes difficult to par for anyone without 300 plus power. Probably the two most signature holes on the course back to back, maybe not the most loved, but definitely the ones everyone talks about. Hole #16 gets an honorable mention for its beauty over it's difficulty.

Extras - This course doesn't provide much punishment on the open holes outside of some pretty forgiving OB in the form of roads that slice through the course. You can rip on the disc and not really concern yourself with the result. Couple this with a lot of tweener distance Par 4's and Eagles are definitely on the table throughout. The middle section of the course provides much more wooded lines that force some shot shaping, but are pretty wide and extremely fair. The elevation is utilized more in this section too which makes these holes more challenging and fun to play. Outside of the two water holes (#7 and #8) big numbers on your score card should be very difficult to incur.

Navigation - Pretty straight forward but not always intuitive. Hole #2 basket to Hole #3 tee pad is weird for first time players (You have to walk around the bathrooms and find the tee beside the playground about 100 yards away) Be careful as Hole #16 will be teeing off blind right at your head if you stay on the grass instead of taking the sidewalk to the left of the bathrooms. There is a cluster of 3 tee pads here, #3, #9, and #16 so take a second to make sure you are playing the correct hole. Take note of where #16 tee pad is so that when you complete Hole #15 down in the bowl you will remember to walk up to it (and dodge tee shots coming down to your left from Hole #3 and to your right coming down to your right from Hole #9).

Tweeners - As with a lot of park courses there are 10 holes here between 350-450 feet. A couple are Par 3's, but most are Par 4's. This course has I believe 10 par 4's in total throughout which is a lot, with only 3 that are certainly two shot par 4's.

Benches - Lack of benches throughout, would be a nice touch, especially on a course that is heavily played and sees a lot of backups.

Safety - This course is in heavy use and people are spread out everywhere. The slight elevation changes throughout do create blind areas from the tee and make it difficult to insure others are not where you are throwing. (Actually played a tournament here with a full on Christian Rock festival going on the same day and had to throw our tee shots on #16 over the crowd, which was completely nerve wracking)

Lost Disc Potential - Huge lost disc potential with the lake holes, especially with the close proximity of the baskets to the water and the forced water carries off the tee.

Potential - Huge potential for alternate tees and/or pin locations here that isn't utilized. Though I do understand with having Little Mahr park for the beginners and Mahr Championship park right down the road for the advanced and pros, why leaving this set up for players in between that skill level is done.

Boredom - This course suffers from having too many similar lines and similar shaped holes that aren't bad, but aren't spectacular. There are multiple forget me holes, or holes that obviously only exist to get from point A to point B. Hole #18 is one of the most lackluster finishing holes I've ever seen, just a wide open uphill righty hyzer in and open field to an unguarded pin that gets you walking back towards the parking lot (though you still have to walk straight down #1 fairway to get back to the parking lot a couple hundred yards away). Low score variance, especially among more skilled players, leaves this course unremarkable, and that's a shame because it is gorgeous and well maintained.

This course falls short of the Mahr Park complex on pretty much all fronts. Though wonderful in aesthetics, the game play is a little flat. It falls victim to being too close to one of disc golf's stellar Championship courses and being directly compared to it (even though HB designed both for completely different end goals). All that said, Madisonville City Park is still an above average intermediate skill level course that deserves a play through. Paired with Mahr Park, these two courses combine to create a must play destination in the city of Madisonville. While bland it always is a peaceful and enjoyable outing when I play this course, and it is a wonderful bridge course when you just aren't feeling like tackling "Big Mahr".

(3.294 Rating) A beautiful medium length city park course with a few moderately wooded holes.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - I smiled the whole time. Several holes have either plays or views toward the lake. The picturesque interactions between this lake edge, the rolling landscape and the older pines are delightful. It very much reminded me of Taylor Lake in Largo FL, an old favorite of mine. The setting at Madisonville is even better though, because there aren't eight foot gators lurking in the weeds. The holes away from the lake are generally nicer looking as well. There are a lot of eye pleasing valley shots between holes (9) and (15).
- CHALLENGING - With a correction in par structure to current PDGA guidelines, this course would read as an Intermediate level course. There are several par 4s on Madisonville that would be par 3s on a newly built course. For example, hole (5) is a lightly wooded 365 footer. Hole (14) is a 400 foot RHBH hyzerbomb, which unfortunately is something I only see others do. On the flipside, there are some challenging legit par 4s holes out here. Hole (10) is a test of length and placement off the tee, and then threading the needle on the approach with a dogleg play to the right. Only three birdies have been recorded on this hole on DGCR out of 77 rounds.
- SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY - This course manages to find the perfect middle ground between too easy and too hard. The one set of tees will work good for 800s thru 935 rated players which is a vast majority of the day to day players.
- CHARACTER - The basics are done well and there are a few other nice extras. First off, nearby tee (1) is a nice looking course map and practice basket. The tee signage is the typical HB Clark style and they are still in great condition after 10 plus years. The tees were all in great condition and were a healthy 5 feet by 12 feet in length. The baskets are DISCatchers, all of which were in great condition on my visit. There is also good tee shading, shelters with picnic tables and restrooms. Missing items are alternate tees, only holes (7) and (8) have multiple tees. There is also a lack of seating at the tees, see cons.
- NAVIGATION - Adequate with the hole signage and course map. Roughly two thirds of the next tee signs can be spotted from the preceding basket. I do however recommend having a printed map otherwise players will find themselves pulling up picture of it on their phone multiple times. There are zero navigational cues on the layout. Tee signs don't even show next tee direction.
- UNIQUENESS - The hole variety is indeed above average, however when I compare it to other courses I've rated 3.5 or above, it would fall below average among those courses. There are lots of moderate and mild elevation changes in the 20 to 30 foot range. There seems to be an overabundance of valley plays. Water comes into play on four holes and its always on the left. Basket guarding is light, but there are a few tight tree gaps to split. The diversity in shot shaping however is what's lacking the most. Most of the holes are lightly wooded and a couple are completely open. There's only one dogleg hole and there are no well-defined tunnel plays. There are ten listed par 4s, but only a handful are legit.
- MAINTENANCE - A well maintained city park course. The grass in one section in the park was maybe 6 inches high, so I'm going to assume that they mow alternating sections by-weekly.

A solid course with few issues.
- LACK OF SEATING - A course this established, this hilly and this nice, needs more seating. Not everyone has a Zuca. I only recall 2 benches on the entire layout.
- SAFETY HAZARDS - Hole (1) plays down a park road where I had to wait for a couple cars. Tee (16) plays really close to a pavilion and so I abbreviated my throw with people nearby. Hole (18) plays along a major walking path. A few other holes also have small walking paths in play.
- WATER HAZARDS - Four holes have the potential to take plastic. I personally chickened out on (8) and went straight to the drop zone. Upon checking Google Maps post round, it's a 320 foot water clear. Hole (7) is a wonderful and terrifying play with water along the entire left side. Hole (16) is similar, but it has more room to work with. Holes (7) and (8) both have drop zone tees to mitigate some of the hazard risk for those not ready for that level of challenge.
- TERRAIN - There's a lot of moderate elevation change that could be an issue for those that struggle with inclines and declines.
- SPACING - Several fairways edges are shared. Holes (3), (8), (9) and (15) all parallel each other. I was arguably in another fairway 3 times on my round. Not the worst spacing by any means, but players need to be cognizant of other disc golfers on occasion.
- TIME PLAY - At 7,295 feet, Madisonville is going to take a bit longer than the average 18 holer. I personally finished solo in 90 minutes. A foursome will likely finish in about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

I very much enjoyed this course. It offers just about everything I enjoy about disc golf. Most regions I've been to would be pleased to have a course of this caliber in their town. Despite the new exotic thriller next door at Mahr Park, I'd being willing to bet that this course gets more daily play. These two courses in town makes Madisonville a great day trip destination.
- PERSONAL NOTE - I know this comes off as bragging, but I threw in a 250 foot shot on (13) for an eagle 2. I had a poor 210 foot drive and just quickly picked the same disc up and threw it. Center chain smash. It was my highlight of the day.

18 single concrete tees with tee sign and single position Discatcher baskets playing through a pretty city park setting with some gentle elevation changes, some open spaces with large mature trees, and a lake.

Nicely maintained course with no rough to lose a disc in. Good course to watch your discs fly. Restrooms and other city park amenities. Park open until 10pm.

Only one set of tees and basket position set for intermediate to advanced level players, however the Champ and Rec courses are just down the street. Not much variety in line shaping and distance, really only need to bring a driver and putter to score well.

High potential for interference with other park users, I had to skip hole 2 due to other parkers playing in the fairways, and there were a couple holes I had to wait for walkers to clear out the way.

Took me awhile to find hole 1. Some potential to lose a disc in the lake on a couple holes, especially hole 8. The alternate tee pad for hole 8 is in the fairway of hole 3. Only one loop of 18 holes back to hole 1. Can be a bit muddy in the lower laying areas of the course.

Madisonville City Park is an above average intermediate to advanced level disc golf course. It might be a bit long and intimidating for rank beginners, while for the pros it might be a little repetitive and easy although a relaxing break from the Mahr Champ course. The good thing is that this course pretty much fills the gap between the Champ and Rec courses down the street at Mahr Park.

I really enjoyed holes 3-8, 10-13 where most of the wooded holes are, and also enjoyed the par 4 hole 16 by the lake.

This is probably the most popular disc golf course in the area for the local players. For the traveling players like myself it's not a destination course like Mahr Champ, but it's a good course I'd recommend playing if you happen to be in the area. I also highly recommend Brother's BBQ for a good quick eat in the area.

Madisonville City Park is a beautiful park with rolling hills and a lake. The course plays around most of the lake and there are good views throughout the round. There is no rough here, just mature trees so there's no problem with loosing a disc (unless you throw one in the water). Navigation is pretty good, there were a few places I had to stop and look around but overall it was fine. There are big concrete tees and Discatcher baskets with yellow bands making it easy to locate the baskets. The course has moderate elevation changes on some of the holes and the tall, mature trees are fun to throw around.

Two of the four water holes have alternate tees to make them friendly to beginners. Hole 7 is a fun 610' par 4 teeing off right next to the lake and forcing a water carry, it's easy to play it very safe or as dangerous as you want, and the basket is just 40' from lake. Hole 8 is another forced water carry about 350'. Both these holes have alt tees which take away the water carry and make them more approachable to players who might not have the control or distance.

The course is mostly open. Not that there aren't some places to get in trouble, but overall the course is open with only a few mature trees to beat so poorly thrown shots are rarely punished unless it's on one of the 4 water holes.

The shot selection is poor here. There is only one hole that forces a turnover shot for a RHBH players.

There is not a good variety of distances here. Only 2 holes under 300ft and only 5 under 350 make this a pretty open grip and rip course.

The alt tee on 8 to avoid the water carry is in 3's fairway making it a little dangerous. 16's tee seems a bit close to the restroom and could bring it into play with an errant shot.

I enjoyed playing here and would certainly play here more if I lived closer. If you're in the area you should definitely stop here for a round.

Weigh all the pro's and con's and this is a beautiful, above average course on the cusp of being excellent, but IMHO the openness and lack of variety in shot selection and hole length hold it back from getting a 4.