A few miles south of Spartanburg, the Pipeline DGC at Old Canaan Road offers a rugged up-and-down trek through some lovely wooded and open areas.

The Pipeline features technical, mostly-wooded disc golf where fairway placement is paramount to scoring well. Its highlights include a couple fantastic holes in the open with significant elevation, such as Hole #3, which is 507 feet and goes through a valley. Hole #11 might be the signature hole; at 399 feet, the basket is down a huge hill to the right and across a small meadow, with a huge drop-off and meandering creek guarding the backside of the hole.

The Pipeline will definitely offer challenges to one's accuracy. Areas off the fairway aren't unmanageable, but recovery shots won't be easy. The average length per hole is just under 350 feet, and if you're hitting lots of timber, the course will feel longer.

The practice area for the Pipeline is excellent, as there are two practice baskets probably 100 feet apart next to the parking lot. The carpeted teepads are a nice addition too, though they're not all perfectly level.

The most significant drawback to the Pipeline is the plethora of trees in some of the fairways. Straight shots that stay in the fairway can still end up in "jail." Also, the expected lines on several of the holes are ridiculously tight and might need some luck to finish in an ideal spot. Holes like #1, #6, #14 and #18 rely a bit too much on the "poke-n-hope" strategy. And the design for Hole #7 is a bit silly, as the fairway gradually turns left most of the way, yet the basket is tucked in on the right side.

The short (red) tees shave more than 1,300 feet off the original design. However, the red tees are marked by red boards in the ground or painted stumps, and they are difficult to find. Also, these tees are natural. During a disc golf road trip, my group planned to play from the red tees to conserve time, but that plan was quickly discarded. The long (blue) tees are probably a better design and decision, as searching for the inadequate short tees isn't an appealing option.

Par is definitely challenging. A 1000-rated round is two-under-par. Several of the par 3s are in the 350- to 400-foot range, yet with the tight lines, birdies will be tough to come by. As BrotherDave said in his 2016 review, a couple of those holes could be considered par 4s.

The Pipeline isn't for the beginners or faint of heart, as only four holes are under 300 feet.

You can see why the Pipeline is rated as a top-5 course in South Carolina. While the course delivers big elevation amid the wooded challenges, the course could be improved by removing some more trees. For example, Hole #18 has the potential to be an incredible finishing hole, but the vast quantity of small trees cluttering up the supposed fairway, especially closer to the basket, take some of the shine off this closer.

One definition of "pipe" is "a narrow tube made from wood," and at times, you might feel that description fits many of the fairways you'll encounter at the Pipeline.

-Tee signs on every hole
-Good signage leading you to course from road
-Good variety of lines
-3 BEAUTIFUL holes
-Two practice baskets
-Lots of elevation change

-Almost entirely wooded
-Very tight in places
-Tee pads are mix between what used to be gravel and carpet (although footing was not an issue on tees)
-Not particularly cart friendly

I highly anticipated playing this course based on what I have heard, and it is a very good place to play.

Course is mostly wooded with relatively small windows that define flight paths. All the lines are there...hitting them is the problem. This is definitely a challenging course that will really make you consider each shot.

All holes have tee signage and navigation was fairly easy due to the well worn in paths. Tee boxes appear to have been filled with gravel at one time, but that is mostly gone. What is left behind is some sort of grid substrate that is flat and stable. It looked worrisome, but held up just fine for me. There is very little water in play besides hole 11, and it would be hard for someone like me to get into that trouble.

I believe my favorite hole was 17 with the high tee off to a long pin position with a tight lane to hit for the drive. I guess my least favorite was probably hole 1 simply because it is a tricky shot for me. But, I do look forward to figuring that hole out!

All in all, this is a great course, but I would have liked it to be a little more open because I am not good enough to consistently hit the lines that were required. But, some guys that played with me hit them well, so it can be done be high level disc golfers. I would recommend the course for intermediate level players and up. I think Rec level players would really struggle here.

3/29/21 Update:

Out of the 68 courses I have reviewed, this is where this course ranks along with similarly rated courses:
Rank-Course, Location
16-Woodruff Leisure Center DGC, Woodruff, SC
17-Shaver Recreation Center Original, Seneca, SC
18-Foothills DGC, Easley, SC
19-Langley Pond DGC, Burnettown, SC
20-Century Park DGC, Greer, SC
21-Pipeline DGC, Spartanburg, SC
22-Zube Park DGC, Hockley, TX
23-Duncan Lake - East, Duncan, OK
24-Lindsey Park - Red Course, Tyler, TX
25-Veteran's Park, Arlington, TX

Had some good variety of holes.
Mostly wooded with some open

Some thick parts along the course that could be cut down some
At the time I played, the grass was really high

Nice wooded course. Really need to hit your lines.

Finding Pipeline DGC is kind of like finding that hip dive bar whose location is kept somewhat hidden to keep out all the tourists and yobbos. You know the kind, in the seedier part of town, down the dimly lit alleyway, past the sedated monkey riding the tricycle and down into the cellar guarded by a Duck Dynasty reject. When we arrived at the park, we pulled up to the park's main entrance, you know, like normal people. Nope, no course there. Keep driving up the hill, past the ball fields and down the rough driveway into the back corner of what looks like a maintenance area. Park at the gravel lot in front of some pipeline related utility area and you're there. You know you're there b/c there are two (2!) practice baskets and a disc golf sign near the picnic table. Walk past the fence and the hidden gem is revealed.

Boring necessary stuff: Tees are those rubber doodads with the gravel in them, installed well but meh. Signage is informative, yippee. Baskets are shiny and heavy chained Discatchers. Transitioning from hole to hole is a snap. The course is no mountain hike but there are some laboring treks on occasion. A few benches sprinkled here and there if memory serves.

Mostly wooded with a quarter or so open bomber holes. The woods are fairly tight on occasion but generally a good width. These holes can be pretty tough if you can't throw lasers off the tee and many are dubiously lengthened out of plausible birdie range. The open holes utilize the pipeline run and they are pretty cool and nice respites from the lumberjacking. Seriously good use of elevation as fun downhill holes are plentiful and at times extreme.

In lieu of cons I'm doing a brief hole-by-hole:

Hole 1 has a lot of trash and brush piles between the gap and the pipeline, plus noobs could flip one over the fence. Otherwise, good hole playing open to wooded with a fast green.

Hole 2 is the starter hole a hole too late. One splitter tree(s) early to force an anny or hyzer on an otherwise open, shorter hole. Solid.

Hole 3 is great; 500'+ slightly downhill par 4 down the pipeline. Nice rolling terrain.

Hole 4 is a short, tightly wooded gauntlet over a valley. Mid/putter laser time.

Hole 5 is a really nice looking gentle turnover/forehand. Good, solid hole.

Hole 6 is kind of a shorter, more downhill version of the previous hole, except more of a forehand since the basket is hooked around the corner a bit more and the approach is guarded well. The only thing that bothers me about this hole is it's got a touch of classic Schwarz "hump" hole going on with your drive annoyingly obscured by a slight rise in the ground. Hopefully the trees between the basket and the tee as the crow flies aren't trampled and destroyed over time, otherwise this hole may lose a lot of difficulty.

Hole 7 is a "do everything possible just to make par" par 3. You're not reaching the green off the tee unless you have a sweeping hyzer to late flip to turnover to roller for good measure in your toolkit. Tight wooded tunnel all the way lined with tree jail. IMO it's a par 4 shaped fairway with a par 3 distance. I'm not crazy about it.

Hole 8 feels like a par 3.5 hole. Straight through the woods again for 350' with a little uphill green. Most can probably reach the green off the tee with a fast driver but the width of the fairway and the thick rough makes that a very risky proposition if you can't throw this far on a very controlled throw.

Hole 9 is a sweeping hyzer slightly downhill thru the woods again. There's a gap ~100' off the tee with splitter trees at the bend. Rewards luck more than skill as you have a good birdie chance if you avoid the random trees.

Hole 10 gives mere mortals a chance to get a birdie again. Long, downhill thru a tight wooded tunnel again but a doable par 4. Why the similarly tight, long and occasionally uphill holes 7 and 8 are par 3 whilst this is a par 4 is kind of a head scratcher but if you can float a disc long and straight you'll love this hole. Michael Johansen would get a boner thinking about ripping the Comet down this fairway. The basket's approach is neat with a high and low road scenario.

Hole 11 as the signature hole? I think yes. Open bomb down the pipeline again but risk/reward is amplified. It's a distant turnover or bomb flick with the pin tucked into some woods between a small creek and a raging river of a creek. Weak sauce gets you in the little creek or thick rough alongside it. Too much pepper and you miss the approach gap to the green or worse, a landing in the rapids. To top it off you have a slightly raised basket on a stump and a really lovely green. Terrific hole.

Hole 12 is another tunnel-ish, straight to fade, this time on the flats with that huge creek looming on the left. It's long and open enough to tempt you to go for it but the creek is foreboding enough to make you uneasy. Fun, pretty hole.

Hole 13: The token hyzer hole. It's short and a good confidence booster, bordering on deuce-or-die.

Hole 14 is like a shorter version of hole 10. Throw a laser down the tunnel. The green has some spots where it looks like it could get weedy but otherwise a nice putter/mid potential ace-run.

Hole 15 is a fun little hole with a bit of a split fairway, the left lane being a tempting ace-run and the right lane a bit longer looking hyzer. More nice and subtle high/low road elevation change.

Hole 16 is the only real "WTF were you thinking, Schwarz?" hole. A challenging to pull off (in terms of design) open>wooded>open hole that starts flat, goes steeply downhill through the woods, then slightly uphill again. This could rival hole 11 as the signature hole but the angle of the passage thru the wooded middle is just too goofy to attempt to carry off the tee. Any "go for it" drive is surely to be punished with a get-out-of-jail pitch back onto the fairway (that's if you can find your drive). I can't imagine any line thru the air where the disc can reach the 2nd open fairway where you can be rewarded for an easy birdie 3. It's a boomerang line that defies natural disc flight. So lay up to edge of the hill, throw another downhill tunnel shot and make a safe approach to the slightly uphill green.

Hole 17 is an EXTREMELY downhill, wooded, tunnel shot. This one will trick people into throwing nose down too much but it's the classic, "float a putter/neutral mid" type hole you see in the mountains a lot. MJ and his Comet are grinning again. Also another par 4 that should be a 3 considering all the elevation change. This is a gorgeous and extremely satisfying hole and the hanging basket between two holes is a lovely touch.

Hole 18 is a beast of a finishing hole and the only one that really forces you to throw steeply uphill. But it starts with a downhill, slightly L>R blast. The elevation also runs L>R with a knoll on the right. If your drive lands on that knoll the hole doesn't play that uphill. Land left and down and you're looking at a daunting approach fraught with roll-away peril. The green is extremely fast and can have you leaving the course wanting to pull your hair out and murder the designer or feeling fortunate and relieved. This is an epic, well-executed par 4 and possibly my favorite. Footing is very tenuous on that green so better safe than sorry.

A little birdie told me that an excellent course designer did the finishing touches on this Schwarz design and it shows. This is a fantastic course and must-play in the area along with the toned down but superb Va-Du-Mar erm, Shoally Creek. Just a few things kept me from rating it higher such as the tees (concrete snob), the occasional enigmatic pars, hole 16's oddly angled fairway and some usual new course stuff like brush piles hiding your discs. The wooded bits got a little repetitive with straight shots through trees but the undulating terrain and pretty woods does a lot to mitigate that. This course can be a workout on a hot and humid day but not too bad.

Pipeline is a challenging yet enjoyable 18 hole course for most any experienced level of disc golfer. It is primarily a tight wooded technical course, but there are a couple of signature holes that are more longer and wide open that play down the wide clearing for the underground pipeline.

This course has pretty much everything- woods/open (mostly woods); flat/up/down (some really fun downhill throws); water in the form of a big creek that comes into play on #11; variety of shot shapes required (though a majority of the time straight is often your best choice, there are places requiring lefts and rights; length is quite diverse with a combo of some short birdie holes, your basic 3-par holes, and some really tough holes to earn your 3 where a 4 is still not a bad score.

There are a lot of really special holes here. #3 down the hill in the open pipeline area. #11 is another fun downhill with an elevated basket to the right next to the creek (in my opinion is the signature hole here and one of the coolest holes I have every played.) #12 is nice because it is also down in the flat land by the creek and just looks different than most of the other holes. #16 with the unique shot shape or shot placement required to get through from one open area to the other, with a tough basket placement to follow. #17 is a narrow downhill shot. And #18 with the basket up on top of the hill in the dense woods is a challenging finishing hole, not so much the drive, but on the approach which is the difference between finishing with par or bogey. (I thought the back 9 as a whole was better than the front 9. Glad the designers saved the best for last!)

Discatcher baskets are highly visible and in fine shape. Tees aren't concrete (kind of hard to describe) but posed no problems. Tee signs were very good. Navigation signs were well-placed because there are a couple spots that would be confusing on your first round without them.

Very clean course, mowed grass, fairways trimmed and neat, paths from hole to hole were clear. Big bonus is that this course is on land used only for disc golf (no other park/outdoor activities around). You also get the isolated from the rest of the world feel, which I do enjoy.

I noticed that DGCR says this course was built in 2015, so it is in remarkable shape for being so new, as it usually takes more time for courses to get broken in to perfection. I saw there were a couple new hole placements also, which tells me that the locals here working on the course are still looking to make improvements and tweaks.

Became a little redundant on the middle section of wooded holes (#4-10) with several holes in a row of similar style. They are all pretty tight and mostly straight, not a lot of room for error, thus shot/disc selection becomes pretty conservative on all of them if you want to score well. I did not feel there was a lot of risk/reward options, but mostly here is the shot, now do it, now do it again, and again. Don't misunderstand, I like tight wooded holes, I just prefer a mix of styles throughout 18 holes rather than long stretches of the same kind of hole and shots in a row.

Parking lot does not look like a place you are supposed to park being in the back of the ball fields by all the maintenance vehicles and old or out of season sports equipment. It is just a gravel lot with no actual lined parking spots. It felt a little uninviting and you question if this an area you are authorized to be in. However, there is a practice basket and after a short walk to #1 tee all is forgotten and the course itself is great.

Does not loop back after 9, so be prepared, this course is not really a difficult hike, but does have some length and elevation that could be tiring on a hot southern summer day. Also, I don't remember seeing any restroom facilities in the disc golf area.

I was very pleased with the quality and variety of courses in this part of the country. You could spend a week here playing a lot of very good courses.

I debated between a 3.5 and 4.0 because I have this somewhere around a 3.8, but with about half the holes being just ok (nothing special and a touch of redundancy), it just lacked the "every hole is unique" factor that I feel is worthy of a 4.0+ rating. However, I can see why others have rated it very highly, and I have no problem with that. If I lived here I would play here often, and I would definitely play again if I was ever back in the area.

- The Pipeline is a really nice, well-designed course. ----- There is a good balance of short, long, and really long holes.
- Holes 11, 12, and 17 are among some of the most picturesque holes in DG, especially 11.
- Great woods-y type course, with more than its share of tight, technical shots.

- If you're not a technical player, this course isn't for you. There are only a couple of "grip it -n- rip it" style holes and both require a RHBH anhyzer. It's tough to call this a "con," because the course is designed to be a test. That being said, if you look on YouTube at the courses being played by the pros each week, there is much more of a balance between technical and long-game shots.

Again, this is a very good course and quite enjoyable. If you don't have an acceptable technical game, then expect to (1) get frustrated with 7+ strokes on many holes, (2) spend lots of time looking for discs, and (3) lose a disc or two...or three.