Inside the Midwest Desert
Far western North Dakota
A Discgolf Oasis
... Patterson Lake

I visited shortly after the ND State Championship, and the Layouts for Rounds 2 3 & 4 were still on the Teesign Posts

Yellow & Blue DISChatchers on most Holes
Not sure if the Second Baskets are permanent, seasonal, and or temporary... but they surely enhanced the experience, Seeing/Playing two different Positions/Baskets

Most Holes have a Second Tee... and some have a third, or even fourth Tee

Great Design, in that the Alt Tees Often give the Hole a different play/look
2 3 4 6 7 11 12 14 15 16 & 17

Great Design with Basket Positions too
10 seems to just have the one Position, but the rest of the Holes have a B or even C n D Placements, that change how the Hole plays/looks

Some fantastic, rememorable, and challenging Greens

8 9 & 12 have Baskets precariously placed near a little Cliff ledge that drops into Patterson
13 Long is a picture perfect Green with the Lake behind the Basket
14 has an esthetically pleasant Green with a Lake view, and a Gnarly Green in the Woods with the Basket elevated on a bank
17 has a sweet terraced Green
Actually, over half of the Blue Baskets were in pretty excellent placements

There was more Elevation & Trees involved than I was expecting for this part of the Country

Fall foliage was starting, the tall Grass and Veg wasn't thick, and it wasn't Buggy the third week of September

Cactus
Wear good Souled Shoes, and be careful when Picking Discs up

The Wind hates your Discs... why wind, whyyyyy?!?

For a small town, there was a lot of Pedestrian Traffic on the Trail
Careful on 6, think it's the only time you're Blind to the Trail traffic

State Championship Layouts with all the OBs, was the most 'Scoring Challenged' DG I've come across
I went OB numerous times on the same hole, numerous times each round!!! I had to laugh at all the ways Throws seemed to just barely find OB out there

Accounting for the Wind on EVERY SINGLE Throw is an absolute necessity

Windy Upshots into Bottlenecking Greens is on the Menu at Chez Patterson... it might be todays Special

Some might complain or retain disdain about the Rough that surrounds the Wooded Basket placements... but it seems there's not enough Trees in Western Dakota to go and do a ton of Clearing, so the Veg off the Fairways is gonna be punishing out there

Replayability Factor rates high at Patterson
Round Options can vary here, from a typical Recreational experience, to a 10,000ish foot Par70+ with OB seemingly everywhere on every hole challenge

There's enough Unique things about Patterson Lake Dgc, that I'd encourage anyone to make time for a couple rounds

- good quality Innova baskets, some holes with two, color-coded
- two or more large high-quality concrete tees on most holes
- several excellent designs of par 4 and par 5 multishot holes that force careful thinking about the shot-shape and positioning for approach
- surprisingly effective use of modest elevation changes, not as flat as I expected of ND
- water hazards were well-designed. A couple of outrageous tee shots on holes 9 and 11 were super challenging, and also holes 8, 13, and 14 had very fun approaches with water behind
- island greens were a lot of fun to play on 11, 13 and 14
- some fantastic tunnel shots through wooded areas at the margins of the park -- hole 15 was the highlight, with a beautifully shaped fairway requiring a 350-foot gentle turnover tee shot to get in position for a dead straight approach up a narrow pine tree-lined 2nd fairway reminiscent of the iconic BRP hole 4.
- several wide open bombs to test the big arms (not my favorite type of hole, but good for variety)

- a couple of weird hole conflict areas where multiple tees are clustered in small areas. Probably not an issue in casual play because the course likely doesn't ever get crowded. But in tournaments I can imagine some distraction and/or hazard issues.
- thick reeds or steep dropoffs complicate disc recovery on the water hazard holes
- maintenance was a bit sketchy, most of the wooded fairways were only mowed in one or two passes and no trimming around the trees or edge of rough. Hole 11 pro tee (not on the map) needs constant attention to trimming the ceiling of the tee shot -- only realistic option on the day I played was a 40-ft putter layup before going across the water.
- not beginner- or intermediate-friendly, so not a good choice for casual golf in groups of mixed skill levels.
- designs of some holes allow no shorter safe area for people without a 350+ arm (2, 11, 14 come to mind). Better designs on these holes would have a shorter safe area that ideally makes the 2nd shot tougher, so that shorter arms can play for par, but bigger arms are still incentivized to try the big shot for birdie.

I was fortunate to play this early in the morning with very little wind. I had an absolute blast on this course, after having it in my wish list for years. If you play here, be prepared for a good old fashioned butt kicking. I was super disappointed with my score until I looked up scores for various tournaments...hey my score actually wasn't so bad!

A true and complete challenge that requires pinpoint accuracy on some holes and 500' drives on others. The course overlooks a nice lake in a continually improving park facility. There are several basket positions and tee pads on many holes which adds even more variety. If you play this course enough you will learn how to shape shots from left to right and right to left, plus how to throw perfect straight tunnel shots.

For the love of God put numbers on the baskets please. I would give this a 4.5 or a 5 if that was done.

I came away with quite a story thanks to hole 6 which I will call the culvert hole for the rest of my life. This is a tough hole for sure as you start off with a gap just over 4 feet wide . I was elated to get my drive through it, but then I saw my roc3 heading towards a culvert under the elevated roadway and sure enough half way in. I bet I could go back and not execute this shot again if I threw a 100 drives. I am not a rule expert so I thought hell just play it where it lies when in doubt. I drug myself in the culvert and played on. It took two shots to get out and I took a 6 when it was all set and done.

This is a championship level course. The teepads are great, the park is well maintained in almost all areas, and it has a very diverse set of holes, forcing you to throw a lot of different and interesting shots in order to score well.

Get ready for a challenge. This is not a beginner level course, this will test players of any skill level in order to perform well. This was a fight at every hole to even stay at par, and felt very satisfying to complete. It's not a course that feels like its unreasonably hard, or designed just to be difficult, it's an extremely well designed and thought out course that requires a high level of play to conquer. I felt like I played extremely well for my skill level, and was happy to come away +3 to the par.

The cliff shot is a signature hole, and will test even the biggest arms to be able to conquer. Beautiful view of Patterson Lake on several areas of the course, but the cliff shot stands above the rest as a great experience. Ripping out a drive and making it to land is something to celebrate.

Can be difficult to navigate due to so many pin placements, but with a course map and some scouting we didn't have much trouble. Definitely, definitely go into this with a course map.

This is not a course for beginners. Even the short tees will lead to a long and frustrating day for inexperienced players. Be prepared to be tested regardless of your skill level, and for more experienced players it was a great challenge.

A couple of teepads in the treeline opposite the lake had not been cleared out in a while, and it made the teeshot fell a little claustrophobic, and a little ridiculous to make it out of the tunnel cleanly. Hopefully the rough stuff has been cleared out since I played.

There is a chance on multiple holes to lose discs to the lake. Obviously the cliff shot will rob you of any disc that you flip too far, and there are other shots too or across the water that can easily take a disc from you on a bad shot. I would recommend bringing some discs you aren't attached to in order to be able to open up and really give it all you've got without the worry.

One of the longest holes plays past the campsites, and I did get worried that an errant shot would have a chance at hitting a tent or camper, any decent or conservative shot will be just fine, but the danger is there for an errant drive.

Definitely my favorite course I've found in North Dakota. An incredibly well designed challenge that I will be returning to in order to try to conquer the course again. If you're an avid disc golfer looking for a challenge, it's worth a decent drive to go at this course.

Amazing challenge. Getting a 3 on the triple mando shot was one of the highlights of my trip!

Wide open for play. Eight of us rolled through Memorial weekend and were the ONLY people on the course.

Risk/Reward: If you play a smart game here you can really pull away from your card.

The Cliff Shot: You'll know it when you play it. Big brass ones can get you a deuce- or can leave you in 40' of Lake Patterson.

Solid Variety: While in general most shots are long, there are some short technical ones to bring you back to basics. Long arms are definitely favored, though, especially on the 1000'er.

Navigation: While each pad is marked, the course itself isn't. Nor is where to start. And the people at the gate to the park seem to have no idea that there's a course there.

"THAT'S a mando"? Granted, this is a bit of personal preference, but when I see a mando I want it to be there for a legitimate safety/speed of play reason. NOT because you're trying to make a field shot challenging by mowing the grass different lengths and setting them as arbitrary mando.

Plays amidst and RV park. Really slows game play at times on an already long playing course.

When we stopped here we had a heckuva time finding a course map or even a solid set of directions. I'd really recommend trying to get in touch with someone local to show you around, explain certain mandos, etc.