Mineral Area College plays host to an open recreational 18-hole course. This is a course that feels longer than its actual distance, and the openness could also make for a challenge on windy days.

Location of Mineral Area College is in Park Hills, right off highway 67 at the junction with highway 32. When you take Flat River Rd and hang a left onto Dixie Kohn Rd. (complete with college sign), you'll want to go past the student housing and swing left into the first big parking lot on the left. Hole 1 as well as a large course map are in the back-left corner, and hard to miss. There's enough food and gas options in town that you'll be able to get by before or after your round. For other nearby courses, Park Hills also plays host to Columbia Park, a wooded course that makes for a nice complimentary experience to Mineral Area College (do they call it MAC? I'm calling it MAC). Engler Park, Bonne Terre City Park, and Potosi City Park are also not far; my group of three manages both Park Hills courses and Engler between 7 and 1:30 on a weekend without much rushing.

Course Equipment was in good shape during my time at the course. All of the tees are concrete and are in great working order. The baskets are white Dynamic Veterans, with some yellow ones in place for certain long positions as well. The tee signs cover all of the basics, with pars, distances, a graphic of the hole layout, and directions to the next tee. The course map at the parking lot is also a great reference point for anyone who doesn't have Udisc.

Course Design at MAC is very open, making the most out of the fields to the south and west of the college. While there are few obstacles in the form of trees as a whole, the course makes use of what is present, including elevation as well as the various rocks (sorry, I mean minerals) that pepper the grounds. Overall, the pars on site are fair but birdies might be hard to obtain with the distances and elevation in use. The double loop is also always a nice plus, allowing you an easy stop at your car at the halfway point of your round.

Elevation is one of the main ways MAC keeps things fresh, with various holes having at least some gradual changes. Holes 5, 10, and 11 have some uphill play, requiring a little more power than the tee sign suggests. Meanwhile, holes 9, 13, 16, and 18 have downhill fairways. The rest of the holes have mild changes, though there are elevated tees on site, with three in a row from holes 11 to 13.

Shot-Shaping isn't a big necessity on this course, but some holes will call for a specific line. Hole 2 really needs a left turning drive given how close the pin is to the student housing. Hole 4 can be attached with anything from a backhand hyzer to a gentle anhyzer to an S bending shot, but just requires you to navigate some well positioned trees. Hole 5 ends in a pocket of woods to the left, requiring a righty backhand for birdie. 7 heavily favors lefties given its position behind the left side of a tree. The rest of the holes are open enough where you can really choose what type of shot works best for you.

Distances are pretty forgiving when compared to the pars attached to them, with most holes playing between 250 and 400 feet. Some holes are shorter, with the shortest ones being 196, 222, and 227 feet long respectively. The longest red placement (white baskets) is 584 feet on hole 3, followed by the second longest red placement on hole 4 at 466 feet. If you want more distance, the gold baskets will add about 500 feet of distance, though I don't think all of those positions get used simultaneously (locals, feel free to correct me on that). With how open the course is, wind can really play a factor; it was particularly windy during the second half of our round here and it really made the course feel much longer.

Difficulty Level is accessible to new players but perhaps leans intermediate just because of some of the longer holes newer players may have trouble throwing longer drives on. Overall, this is the easier of the two courses in Park Hills, as Columbia Park will require players to have a lot of accuracy than MAC needs for a decent score. This is a great spot to try out different lines and shot styles for newer players with all the open holes.

Amenities are very limited since this is a college campus rather than a local park. There are no bathrooms or water fountains to be seen, nor do I recall and benches, so relieve yourself before coming to the course and bring water with you.

Safety isn't a big issue as the course uses land that isn't used by other amenities, but hole two is unnecessarily close to the parking lot pf the student housing, so please be smart with how you approach this hole. Hole 3 also plays close to the driveway but to a lesser degree.

Course Design doesn't have anything wrong with it per se, but it gets very repetitive after a while. The varying hole distances are nice but don't keep you from feeling you're throwing the same one or two shots in a row. The elevated baskets are a nice touch, but honestly, I think it would be better if the weren't all in a row but were rather spread out. Again, the land is essentially one huge field, and the course designers made the most of what they had to work with, but its hard to hide how open the plot of land is.

[b}Drainage/Saturation[/b] can apparently be an issue on parts of the course since the paring lot is slanted towards holes 1, 9, and 10, and some of the land also makes for low spots. After heavy rains, you may find standing water or slushy spots, so be aware of that especially in the Spring.

Overall, MAC makes for a nice, chill round of disc golf, especially if you come here after navigating the woods over at Columbia. There's not much I'd say needs improving here; the score is just representative of the limitations of the land the course is on. If you like open drives, you're going to love this course. If you prefer more spice to your round, this may not be the course for you.

having a course that's kept well with regularly mowed grass is far from a given for many courses, and hat's what you'll find here. Props to the eagle scouts, the local disc golf club, and MAC making this course happen and keeping it in the shape its in. If you're passing through Park Hills or want to make a day of the courses in this area, give MAC a stop and enjoy a nice, chill, perhaps windy round of golf.