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Cranberry Township, PA

North Boundary Park - Championship

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4.25(based on 15 reviews)
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North Boundary Park - Championship reviews

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RichS
Experience: 4.8 years 8 played 1 reviews
5.00 star(s)

A significant challenge, still getting better 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Feb 13, 2020 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

A wide variety of holes and hole types to challenge all aspects of your game. If you can't throw forehand, backhand, high arcing spikes and rollers, you're going to be in trouble on at least a few holes.

A mix of par 3, 4, and 5's, each true to par (and a couple bordering on "should be higher"). Several long holes requiring three solid throws through gaps and tunnels.

Up, down, blind, gaps, tunnels - even a token wide open tee shot on Hole 1 to draw you in.

Three tees and three basket locations allows you to face something new every time, if you want. Tee pads and baskets are best of the best.

Detailed signs tell you length, elevation, location, direction, etc. Next hole signs with arrows so you don't get lost.

25+ benches now installed

Cons:

Not for the beginner. Learning the sport here could be frustrating. I suggest Knob Hill, down the road, after mastering the Learn To Play, before taking on the big course.

Gets muddy after rain.

A workout. This can be a pro or a con. I enjoy the challenge, but this isn't a Sunday stroll among the trees on level ground.

Still a work in progress - leftovers from tree cutting, trimming, etc. will clear over time. I think a few more trees could go on a couple of holes that are Plinko from many locations (8, 17, maybe 16). A few stairs are in, and stones have been dumped in locations where stairs and raised baskets will eventually be.

Big, long, complex. Takes several rounds to fully see and understand the locations, directions, and options. I'm still trying to work out two holes.

Other Thoughts:

I'm rating this on what it's growing into, and relative to other courses, given only 5 rating levels above "Decent". I don't think a "perfect in every possible way" course exists, so my 5 means a top course, in discussion with others as among the best, certainly in the top few percent.
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18 0
The Katana Kid
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 8.5 years 184 played 56 reviews
5.00 star(s)

North Boundary is another gem in the Pittsburgh area!! 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jan 21, 2020 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

The North Boundary tee signs are great and I think this review is the first since they were installed. My first impression of the tee signs was not that good since they are just mounted on a metal pole and don't have the impressive appearance you see at Deer Lakes or Moraine. But after taking a moment to look at these signs closer they are full of valuable information.

Each hole has 3 unique signs for each tee: gold is long and full scale professional distance with more difficult locations. Blue is the middle tee and still too challenging for me. White is the shortest and placed about right for my game. Thank you J. Gary Dropcho and Doug Cloutier for giving us an equalizer tee when we play with professional and intermediate players! In my Deer Lakes review I comment in detail about my appreciation for this design.

Each tee sign lists the distance in both feet and meters to each of the 3 basket positions: A, B, and C.

Each sign lists the elevation change in plus or minus feet. This is really nice since there is elevation in play on nearly every hole.

All 54 tee signs have a well illustrated picture of all 3 basket positions so you are never really "throwing blind" even though you can't actually see the basket, but the basket IS where the sign says it is and this is especially not an issue after your first round. I only played one round and never felt lost. Some of the previous reviews complained about throwing blind from the tee and that is understandable since they played before these excellent tee signs went up.

Each tee sign has a marker peg to let you know which location the basket is in: A, B, or C.

Next tee signs are extremely helpful to navigate this course. These nice metals signs are anchored on trees easily visible from the baskets.

The roughly finished concrete tees are great in every way. They are long enough for a good run up as well as rough enough to prevent slipping in wet weather. All the gold, blue, and white tees are equally well constructed and level, pointing in exactly the right direction according to the tee sign's illustration, which really help you pick your line.

I liked the layout of nearly every hole. The downhills are great but even the uphill shots present many challenges. Number 17 winds down, around, and up to the basket. I made, what I thought, was a great approach shot to the bottom of the knoll where the basket was placed, only to discover that there's a little swampy area there where my Leopard disappeared. When I finally located it and went in for extraction my hiking shoe sunk completely in the mud and came off when I tried to pull it out. Boots! Wear boots for this place; it's no fun in a swamp in a sock and digging your shoe out of the muck. But it was worth it to get my Leopard back.

The baskets are high quality disc catchers.

North Boundary Park is surrounded by the Cranberry Township. So you are basically in town, not like Moraine or Deer Lakes, and yet you feel like you are in a secluded remote area most of the time you're on the course. At 11's basket a full size red tail hawk sailed right by me, within 10 feet, and perched on a nearby branch. I took pictures until it flew away, showing off it's pretty red tail. Cool!

Cons:

Your energy level will be tested here, but people pay money to burn calories at a gym and you will likely sweat a lot here and there is no fee..

Some of the basket positions were in the B position and some were in the C position and some were in the A position. I suppose this isn't a big deal if you're paying attention to where the peg is on each tee sign, but I'm not used to playing a course where the basket positions are not consistently in the A, B, or C location.

The transition from 11's basket to 12's tee was a little precarious when I was there right after a heavy rain. I tried to walk up the slope and kept sliding backwards. I eventually gave up and walked around. This spot is begging for some steps, which I'm pretty sure will eventually show up as the course matures, especially if the Pittsburgh Flyers are involved. But this isn't the only spot that could use steps, it's just the most needed.

I don't like hole 13's white tee layout, which is harder than the blue and gold tees since both blue and gold have real fairways to give a clear line to where the basket was today, in the A position. I played 2 discs and both hit trees.

Other Thoughts:

I am the 5th reviewer for No Boundary. The first reviewer gave it a 3.0 and the only reviewer for the 6 hole beginner course on site gave it a 4.0. I suppose that is a quirk in our rating system, that a 6 hole course could be rated higher than a championship level course.

If the PDGA decides to hold Worlds in the Pittsburgh area again then I would be surprised if No Boundary was not included. In time it will be at the same level as it's big brothers: Moraine and Deer Lakes, upholding a great disc golf heritage in this part of the world.

The gps location led me to a private driveway. A nice guy, who lived at the end of the driveway, came out and explained that there has been a gate installed at the end of the private drive so there's no longer access to the park that way so I needed to go around the corner to the park's main entrance. I plugged in the address for the course and it led me there. When I went in the entrance I decided to take the fork in the road to the right, which led me to the 6 hole beginner course with the statue of a disc golfer. That is an okay place to park if you want to play the beginner course but it's a pretty good walk to hole one of the main course. So take a left as you pull into North Boundary Park and work your way around to the Veteran's Memorial Statue. Park there since that's where both the front 9 and the back 9 start. You might want to refill your water bottle after your first 9.

My final thoughts: This is a great course, even if some people think that Gary Dropcho lost his mind. I think his design of this course is spectacular! I suppose it means that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. AND THANKS PITTSBURGH FLYERS FOR INSTALLING MUCH NEEDED BENCHES!!!
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