Very beautiful space to play with varied open and wooded holes of varying degree. Holes 1-4 skirt a meadow and are in/out of woods. Holes 5-9 are all woods. Holes 10-18 play around another rolling meadow, mostly in the woods with more elevation changes.

I like these elevation changes though tough on my bad foot. Especially on holes 3, 8, and 9.

The uphill holes pose a welcomed challenge for me to figure out better to play. Holes 4, 14, and 16.

There is a 1-disc golf disc holder on the kiosk board at the DG parking lot - for lost discs. Maybe add 2-3 more?? (smile)

Port-a-potties in parking lot and two restrooms along the course are most welcomed. Other restrooms in other parts of the park.

If you are here for the first time, take a course map printout or take a photo of it at the disc golf parking-lot kiosk or save the PDF here to your phone. You will need it. I only found the no. 1 short tee after a side trip to the rapids. I mistook tee 7 for tee 6 the first time I played the course. No. 6 tees are across the street just beyond the 5 baskets and 7 tees. I wasted a great deal of time trying to find no. 11. A following group of young men confirmed the way to go (far side of the restroom building and picnic pavilion). No. 17 hole is even more hidden than no. 6. Halfway between the two baskets of 16, there is a spur lane off into the woods to the left, and there you will find no. 17. The one "next hole" sign I saw was entirely unnecessary: from the far basket of 12 to the tees of 13 (virtually at each other). Maybe someone has a sarcastic sense of humor... .

No tee signs either, so if you really need to know the distance, print that from online as well. There are red and blue circles on the tee boxes with hole numbers.

While no. 8 is a beauty, that dense underbrush all over the fairway and beyond is disc-eating rough. Throw a *bright* colored disc (yellow, orange, white) when the carpet is spring/summer green, so there is sufficient contrast for you to have some luck finding your disc.

It's a very lovely park. The rapids and small beach at the end of the main road (spur down further) are gorgeous. Steep and can be slippery going down and walking around. Nobody is supposed to be swimming here but...

I have yet to explore the non-DG course trails but shall in the future. Some do come through the course at 3, 8, 17 and 18. The main field at the gatehouse is massive and can be used for picnicking, field play, etc. There is a playground there for the kiddos and another near the DG parking lot. There are basketball courts midway back. And picnic tables and picnic shelters all over.

The first time I came, it was a weekend day and somewhat busy in the park. I did find two young ladies having a picnic dead in the middle of the 7 fairway. Seems to be a regular problem in multi-activity parks (Burke Lake is really bad...)

Disc golf course map here does indicate all pavement is OB. I guess you make the decision... The cliff exposed at the no. 12 basket continues on down through 13 as well. The drop-off behind the 15 baskets is less severe but no picnic.

Don't confuse the 18 short basket with the 10 short basket. Ten is straight ahead and uphill. Eighteen (from the 10 tee) is around the right bend of trees.

Good Distance
Beautiful Park
Big Tee Pads
Fairways well groomed

No Tee Signs
Tee Pads are gravel, and slightly rutted
Very little direction to the next tee.
Not easy to determine which basket position is in play
Fairways are well groomed, off-fairway is not
No idea what OB is
Throwing across active roads.
Pedestrians walking the course

This is a challenging course, utilizing the elevation changes nicely. The tee pads are in decent shape and a very nice size. I played the long tees to the short pin position. I'm still not sure what pin position that was, but I think it was 'B'. With that in mind, this course didn't wow me.

It was very hard to get around for the first time. There are no tee signs so you need to bring your phone.

I had to refer to the course map on almost every hole to find the next tee. I had a lot of trouble finding 7 and 17 even with the map.

With a 4+ rating I expected a course like Nevin or Hornets Nest in Charlotte. In my opinion, this course pales in comparison to both.

Although I have only played this course once (so far), I feel like I can certainly cover everything I liked and disliked about it.

I have been to this park about a dozen times, but this was my first time playing the disc golf course. Thankfully, some good weather over thanksgiving weekend gave me enough time to get a round in on the short-short.

The course is well maintained and was gorgeous to walk through in the fall. It offered a great mix of fun and challenge even on the short layout. While the distances weren't huge on some holes, the layout of fairways and great use of the natural layout of the park had me using more molds than I anticipated I would be. It's got elevation change, line variety off the tee, and technical shots in just the right blend. While accurate drives and approaches were rewarded, a tree kick or wonky drive was not overly punishing.

The long to long course seemed like a whole other beast of a course with some huge distances and some tight fairways. I can see it offering a very hearty challenge to the experienced player and I would have loved to try it if I had enough time in the day.

The rough wasn't bad even with fallen leaves everywhere. Even if the grass is a bit tall or thick, I never had any issues locating an errant drive well off the fairway.

Good blend of left/right handed holes. I found myself throwing backhand and forehand almost equally to hit one of the multiple sweet spots in the fairway off the tee pad. I assumed each hole was a par 3 and shot about +2 playing casually but with good effort.

I didn't encounter any pedestrian traffic aside from other golfers (who were very courteous). Maybe it was just the time of year I was playing but I didn't notice any trails or gathering areas close to the course.

Being my first time playing here, I had a few issues navigating the course (as did my partner). Now that I've played once I feel like all of my confusion is gone but it was a little frustrating at times walking to what seemed like the next hole only to find out I had skipped over two.

Lack of signage and concrete pads. In most places this wouldn't bother me, but a course with this great of a layout deserves something better than uneven gravel tee boxes (some fine, some with large holes). Tee signs would also be great as there were a hole or two I just drove blind on. I couldn't imagine even trying to play long-long without knowing where some of the tucked away long pins are.

While this course is technically pay to play, I think the few bucks per car fee (honor system) is more than fair for access to this park which contains a great deal of pavilions and some amazing hiking/biking trails. The locals are all very friendly and the grounds are well maintained without any riff-raff running about.

I wish I could give this course a 3.75 and I understand that my gripes over tee pads and signs may be a limitation of being withing a state park, but with them I would have no restraint in rating this a 4. I had fun as an intermediate player and my partner playing their first round ever had a blast. I will absolutely be returning here in the future.

The multiple tees and multiple baskets provide a number of different routing options. The majority of the holes are interesting and well designed. The designers were clearly disc golfers, it would seem. The highlight holes, playing short to short and short to long, were 8 and 17, two of the holes that would fall into the "more wooded" category as the course ranges from wide-open shots to significantly wooded holes. And I didn't have trouble finding discs, even when I left the fairway on wooded holes while throwing multple discs. Might have been luck or it might have been a lack of underbrush for the most part.

As I discuss below, my relative disappointment with the course may simply be that I had had the course talked up to me in advance of going.

The four major drawbacks to me are: 1)lack of signage, 2)minor-ish navigation issues, 3) gravel tees and 4)issues that come with "state park" territory.

Given the lack of signs and the number of blind shots (even short to short), you pretty much have to walk the course once to get any sense of the holes. I chose to do that instead of walking up many fairways for research(the back nine features fewer blind or "dense in the trees" pins.

Others have touched on the navigation issues in earlier reviews, so I am not going to harp on them. What they all said remains accurate: some confusion in the middle of the front 9 and some backtracking necessary hole to hole, especially if you play the long baskets.

The loose gravel (powder gravel) tees are pitted from wear. I mentally allow uneven tee pads to get the best of me, so that's on me. But filling in the wear sports would be a huge improvement. Some are better than others, with perhaps 1/3 being worn enough to really be uneven.

As for state park issues, I decided to play the front 9 again (short-long) after completing the 18 holes. I ended up playing long-long on the first hole because people were picnicking in the fairway. When I got ready for my approach shot on 2, a man walked up to the pin and started reading the hole number signs. Odd. And twice I encountered people walking at me in fairways. Perhaps the holes share some "hiking" trails, official or otherwise. Not sure, but I prefer not to have interaction with non-disc golfers, especially if they are picnicking in the fairway. Oh, there's also a picnic table between the B and C pins on 1 that was being used. I worked around the people but still a problem.

Although the park costs 2 bucks, I don't see this as pay-to-play. It's "pay to get access to a state park," but that access doesn't guarantee a disc golf experience free from non-disc golfers. I guess I was looking forward to that (based on what I expected the course to be).

This is a course I wish I could write about without ranking. At just over 4, the course clearly has been a good experience for many people. I don't know if I'm there. I really felt it was a 3.0 but bumped it up to 3.5 wondering if I was scoring based off of disappointment relative to expectations.

Until I moved to the Balt area, I had never played a state park course. Now, having played two (I know, small sample size) I see them as doing the best they can with the space and contexts offered by a state park. And the designers did a really good job. That said, a number of the back nine holes (11, 14, 16) were pretty boring. Also, the short tees turn many shots into "straight" shots. The 2 tee/2 basket design offers variety, but the variety requires concessions from individual layouts.

I can't say much about the Green Monster (long-long) other than I opted out of a few long pins on the front 9 because they required throwing in or over much rougher (and sometimes overgrown) areas. That didn't interest me with my limited skill set but others may have a different experience.

I wanted to write this review because a recent one hadn't been posted. I wrote it specifically for someone who is only going to visit the course once. The course takes a lot of labor in terms of getting a lay of the land. I suspect I might enjoy it more on a return visit but I can't really say I enjoyed playing it today (I never felt in the "disc golf" zone). Like I said, I settled on a 3.5 as a protection against my own possibly unfair biases, but that seems like a high score for a course I didn't much enjoy playing.

I played the Long Tee to the Long Pin so my review is based on that design. What a challenge it was to play the Green Monster. This course was truly par 4 golf. I would recommend only playing the long tees to the long pins if you are an experienced golfer. There was not one hole under 400 feet! This course is listed at par 64 but I would probably put it at a par 67. It was an awesome test of golf that you simply do not find that often. Kudos to the designer and the park for allowing this course to be put in. On a long course I like to have long tee pads and these were some of the biggest tee pads I can remember playing. I like to be tested on a disc golf course and this course really tested your distance and your ability to hold a line. The course also had some sneaky elevation by the basket that really added some extra challenge. I had a few 50 foot jump putts that I attempted - one went in and one went 40 feet by and the one that I missed hit the basket. It appeared that most holes had three tees and every hole had two baskets. There are not many courses in the country that can boast having two baskets on every hole while offering enough variation to make it a different feel with a different challenge. Even though this course is really long from the back tees, it offered some nice variety where you couldn't just grip it and rip it without consequences. Hole 2, for instance, was this way. Even though the hole was 423 feet the fairway was tight enough to give me pause about crushing my destroyer and trying to make a 2. I threw my Buzzz 340 feet and took my three and went to the next hole. Finally, kudos to the designer for getting the baskets to be different colors. With two baskets on each hole I think it was imperative to go with a different color for the long baskets.

I truly wanted to give this course a 4.5 rating. I truly did. I knocked the course down to a 4.0 because of navigation issues. Even though I had a very detailed map I was simply lost on a few holes. After hole 5 I played hole 7 thinking it was hole 6. I went back and played hole 6 and was scratching my head at the navigation. Hole 5 played along the road and then hole 6 went across a road and down the other way. Unfortunately none of the holes have signs on them. Most holes do include some directional signs for going to the next tee but a lot of the time you are "hoping" that you are playing the right hole because as I said...none of the holes have any type of sign. I thought about giving the course a 4.0 rating but the combination of the tee pads and the safety issues forced me to give this course a 3.5. The tee pads, while really big, are soft gravel. The addition of concrete would immediately raise this course up in my opinion. On the safety issue, this was two-fold. On many holes (at least six I can think of), the long basket finished down a hill about 150 feet past the short pin. You then had to walk back up the hill to get to the next hole. In my opinion this is a safety issue. If someone was playing behind you and didn't know you were there I could see someone getting hit. Even though the addition of the second basket on each hole is WONDERFUL, walking back up the same fairway is not ideal. The second safety issue were holes 4 and 9. 9 was actually one of my favorite holes but throwing across a road of which cars are constantly driving down is just not a good idea. Hole 9 is not as bad as hole 4 because the angle allows you to see the cars more easily. Hole 4 is unfortunately a very dangerous hole, in my opinion. Because the latter 250 feet play somewhat uphill, you simply cannot see if there are cars coming or not. This is simply not safe. I think this is easily solved by simply finishing this hole before the road. I think having a road cross a hole is okay if its at the beginning of the hole where you can easily see if a car is coming, but putting a road where cars travel 30MPM 300 feet from the teebox is simply not safe.

PLEASE NOTE: Please pay attention to the location of this course. If you type Patapsco Valley State Park in your GPS you will be out of luck. I would recommend punching in the latitude/longitude coordinates or using the address listed on the first page when getting to the course. In addition, it is imperative that you get a map from the ranger station. If you do not have a map you will not have any distances and you will not know where to go on some holes. Also please note this is a pay to play course. I think this is the future of disc golf and was okay to pay the fee. It was $5 because I was out of state but that probably keeps some of the chuckers off of the course. Some others have commented that it was $3 but they definitely charged me $5. It this course adds signs and concrete I would definitely raise my rating to a 4.0 and would even consider a 4.5.

As I read in previous reviews, one of the main things you will definitely need is accuracy.This course is a great course that I will definitely come back to it time and time again. It was very challenging and fun at the same time. Whenever I made a bad drive, soon enough I would make a birdie, and I would be happy again. It also had a great variety of elevation changes and hole lengths. Price was alright, at 3 bucks a pop.

As a somewhat of a beginner, I found this course to be quite challenging. Narrow fairways and tight pin positions just add to the difficulty. I found myself having some drives off the tee that looked alright, but do to the tight fairways, seemed terrible. Out of the whole time I was there, I probably spent 10-15 minutes looking for discs, and it would've been more, had I not had friends to spot where my discs landed. And because disc golf is not played from the ground like regular golf, it would help if the "rough" wasn't so tall. That is where the bugs live! Directions were not too good, at numerous holes I could not find the next hole.

great terrain, rolling hills and woods with some open holes. mostly par 4 holes from long tees- green baskets. 2 baskets every hole. Awesome variety of shots off the tee and upshots.

too many par 3.5 holes forcing short drives to set up 2nd shot, with no risk/reward option.

wish they opened up some of the wooded holes slightly so the tweener holes would be closer to tough par 3s than easy par 4s

potapsco is a very long technical course that i love to go to. it challenges me everytime i go, well it wants me to type more so im just gonna say LOVE POTAPSCO!!!

all the trees i hit at potapsco. but i always seem to hit trees. all kinds of trees that is

Lovely setting.
Black walnuts available for the gathering in season.
Parking convenient to midpoint & end of course.

Used to be, one could get in free on weekdays.
Disc loss potential.
Certainly a compromise could be reached for widening the mowing of high grass; perhaps a a few more meters on either side of the pertinent fairways at an in-between growth height.
Watch your step for stumplets in some spots. .

Pin location of Hole 18 can be scouted when driving Hole 10.

Great holes with lots of variety. Good use of elevation, tress, rocks, creeks, and everything else they could squeeze in. Woods and open fairways. Some holes that are real challenging. Bad shots can cost you.

New pads under construction. Needs signs to navigate course. Layout is a little tricky. Some holes cross each other and some backtracking required to find next hole. Back nine has a couple straight boring holes. They could use a hazard or tree to make the shot tougher. Some baskets are hard to see. Maybe something bright on basket would make it easier to see.

When new pads are done this course is easily a 4. Put some signs up and tweak a few holes and it's as good as it gets. A must play if you are in MD. Play Seneca and Rockburn also and you couldn't ask for a better day.

Great layout. Good mixture of shots needed to play this course.

Signs or arrows to next tee box are needed as well as a more accurate course map.

Loved playing the course but found it frustrating when getting to the next tee box wasn't obvious and worse was trying to find the basket to throw to.

very technical course with a great layout. most of the holes are in the woods and require you to hit your lines. the designer did a great job of utilizing all the elevation changes in the park.

multiple tee and pin positions for each hole. when i played all even holes where in the short pin position and all the odds were in the long position. and when the say long they mean loooooong.

the park is also very well maintained. the field holes were mowed and i don't think i saw any poison ivy which is a miracle in the mid-atlantic area in may.

as has already been mentioned concrete or flypads would be nice. i didn't encounter any mud but the tees are starting to get depressions near the front. also there is very little signage and some sort of direction to the next tee is needed. i almost quit trying to find hole 11 my first time through.

patapsco hosts a tournament called the patapsco punisher and i can see why the call it that. with better teepads and some signs this course would easly rank 4 discs. add another 9 holes (there appears to be plenty of room) and it would easly be a 5.

Beautiful park, great scenery, elevation changes, multiple pads/pin locations, east to navigate, get to use all your shots on this course

natural t-pads, no signs, throwing across the roads, pay to play

Overall I thought this was a fantastic course!! Great mix of shots with lots of elevation changes. I played the short t's first round to get a feel of the course, then threw from the long. Had a blast.. Defintely was worth the trip. Map with scorecard on back available at the gate

Nice variety. Holes in the woods, holes on the edge of the woods, holes in the open. The lay of the land is fun. There are no flat holes on this course; you're either going uphill or downhill on every shot.

The layout is very clever and challenging.

The two sets of tees offer some variety.

Nice baskets. Many of those that aren't visible from the tee are marked with neon green poles that reach 12-15 feet in height.

The course is nicely maintained, and it seems like the locals care about the course. I didn't see a single trash can on the course, but I didn't see a single piece of litter, either.

Plenty of parking near the first tee.

The course is in a "no pets" area, so you won't step in any dog crap.

It appeared that there were multiple pin placements for each basket.

There are plenty of picnic areas nearby, and there is an outdoor barbecue area with a stone fire pit. Very cool.

The drive to the course is gorgeous. Beautiful country scenery.

The course is not well-marked.

At each tee, there is a small piece of wood that can't be seen from far away, maybe 6 inches high, with the hole number and an arrow. The arrow is supposed to tell you which way the hole generally moves (straight, left-to-right, right-to-left), but they weren't always right.

There are no distances marked on the course.

There is no marking on the baskets for where the next tee is. As I mentioned, the tee markings are tough to see from far away, and in hilly areas, it took us awhile to find the next tee more than once.

The tees are "natural," which means they suck. Some of them had cinders, which in the late winter means they were muddy AND cinder-y. Strangely, it hadn't been raining and the rest of the course was pretty dry.

The course is in a "no pets" area, so you can't bring Fido if you like to do that.

I mentioned that you won't step in any dog crap, but I stepped in enough deer crap to surmise that the local deer population celebrates Thanksgiving in February.

There were signs posted about rabid raccoons, and sure enough we saw one out in broad daylight that could barely stand up. We tried to call the park ranger and got the voicemail... nobody home, I guess.

I usually like to mention some place good to eat in the area, but this course is in the middle of nowhere. Since I played with my sister and brother-in-law who live in Laurel which is fifteen minutes away, we ate at a place down there called the Wild Buffalo Grill. We'd never been there, and they tell me it's always packed at dinner time, which led us to believe the food was good. We were correct. The buffalo chicken was really good, and the onion rings were the best I'd ever had. My sister had a really good chicken salad, and my brother-in-law (a pulled pork connoisseur) said his was the second best pulled pork sandwich he'd ever had next to my mother's, which is truly untouchable. The bar had a bunch of different types of beer I'd never heard of on draft - which is always cool - as well as some old standbys, like Bud and Guinness. It's not a fancy joint. Some locals were there to watch the Maryland-UNC basketball game. It's not something I'm used to here on the east coast. It was more like something out of suburban Cleveland where I grew up - a local mom and pop bar halfway between dive bar and greasy spoon cafe. Clean but not fancy, friendly but not 5-star service. I left happy, full, and looking forward to returning.

18 holes, 18 Blue and 18 Red Tees, 8' x 16' level boxed crush stone, 18 Grey Baskets w/ Multiple Pins, 18 Long Green Baskets. Lots of elevation changes, Scenic views and wildlife in State park, Nice baskets, mandos, wide open, woods, tunnel, left, right, mixed, uphill, downhill shots, use most shots in the bag, challenging physically and mentally, can be creative and technical. Awesome course in the Punisher layout Blues to Green Baskets 9400+ft!

Nice bathrooms, water, camping, biking.

Needs Signage, bring a map or someone that knows the course if its your first time. Plays across park roads. Yellow jackets and chiggers in late summer and fall. Rough can eat in places.

State Park $3 fee. I have a hard time recommending to traveling players with the lack of signage and potential to lose discs.

1) 3 pin locations per hole
2) Pro/Am tees on every hole
3) Great variety of uphill/downhill/flat holes
4) Great variety of long/short holes
5) Love the variety of pars, from 3 to 5

1) Tee pads are mostly dirt or crushed gravel, so they become muddy and slippery when wet
2) There are absolutely NO signs to tell you where the next tee pad is
3) The tee pads have an arrow pointing to where the basket is, but just to one of the pin positions, so if the pin is not at that location, it's a little confusing
4) A little more walking between pin and the next tee pad than normal

While the course does provide plenty of challenges, with the current par system (67), the course rewards your good shots with birdie and eagle ops compared to some courses where one bad throw gives you a double bogey. My first trip out, I shot an even par with 2 eagles, 2 birdies, 8 pars, 5 bogeys, and 1 double.

Ignoring the lack of signage, the course itself is absolutely gorgeous. Plenty of wildlife. including deer that aren't even close to being scared of people. The only hole that you need to desperately watch your disc is #12, when the pin is located at it's left location. About 10 feet left of the pin, there is a 100 foot drop off that you'll find hard to navigate if your disc fades to the left too much.

Once you figure out where the tees and pins are, one of the better courses in the surrounding area, providing you with plenty of variety to keep you interested time after time.