Ralph Williamson Memorial DGC (a.k.a. Lakewood Disc Golf) is a 20-hole course that sits in a multi-use park, in the Seattle sprawl south of downtown.

For a park in the middle of an urban neighborhood, this course has a lot of character and a unique feel! There are lots of holes with rolling elevation changes, and a few holes where the hills are pretty steep. Holes 11 and 13 are each 250'-300' throws that feel like about 100' further due to the steep upward incline. Hole 12 plays about 250' down the same hill, and it feels like you could throw a putter off the tee. In good weather, you can see the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges in the distance from the top of a couple of these hills. There is also a pond lurking behind the basket on holes 5 and 7, and if you start your round on hole 1 you'll have to throw across it right off the bat. The hole is only about 200', but there isn't really anywhere to lay up if you can't throw that far (I don't consider some weeds with the parking lot right behind them a viable option).

Hole variety is solid here. There is a good mix of technical holes vs. more open ones. The vast majority of holes at least have a couple of trees to work around. Distances are mostly in the 200'-300' range, but there are a couple of longer holes. Although it isn't signed this way, the finishing hole #20 should definitely be a par 4 (it's about 600'-650' long) and holes #15 and #19 could be par 4s as well. Generally speaking, I would say there is enough here to challenge DG'ers up to an intermediate level.

The baskets are DGA models. They have definitely seen a lot of discs over the years, but are still in decent shape. Same story for the concrete tee pads. The tee signs looked like they had been recently refreshed. Each one has the hole number, map, distance, and par that I was looking for. Many of them show multiple pin positions, although there is only one basket installed per hole and it didn't seem like the current pin position was indicated on the sign in any way. There are several blind holes and I found myself walking up fairways on more than one occasion to identify the correct basket location.

There are at least two practice baskets near the parking lot. A couple of trash cans, benches, and porta potties are scattered around the course.

This course has a lot of safety issues. The park appears to be very popular with both DG'ers and non-DG'ers. During my visit (late afternoon on a Monday), I believe I played past four different groups within the first ten holes (thanks to those groups for letting me play through!). The reason this is a problem is that several fairways are quite close together, and/or baskets are close to an adjacent fairway (e.g. #10/#11, #12/#13) - so I had discs thrown by golfers playing other holes land close to me on several occasions. There are also many throws (both blind and otherwise) towards non-DG amenities that could be in use. Walking trails are very much in play on several of the holes. The most egregious safety issue may be hole #19, which has a walking path running basically directly down the fairway, and a picnic shelter right next to it maybe 2/3 of the way down. Another unsafe one is #14 which plays downhill off the tee and has a walking path defining the left side of the fairway.

Navigation is also a big problem here. There is a kiosk next to the parking lot, but no map was posted on it during my visit. The map that was uploaded here was out of date. I dug around the internet and eventually found a map from a 2019 event which seemed to be pretty accurate (that is now the map uploaded here). I would never have found all of the holes without that map. There are arrows pointing to the next hole on most tee signs and hanging from the bottom of some baskets, but some of the walks between holes are long and it isn't always intuitive which way to go. I think the worst was #13 to #14 and #14 to #15, although #1 to #2 and #3 to #4 were also tricky. I'm pretty sure that some of the hanging arrows were also pointing in the wrong direction when I visited, which didn't help anything.

There is a long walk back to the parking lot after the finishing hole 20.

There are a couple of holes that just play straight across open grassy areas with no obstacles.

I don't think the course is long enough or challenging enough to keep better DG'ers interested.

There is a separate parking lot located between holes 16 and 17. Between this extra parking lot and the way the course is laid out, you could mix it up and play all kinds of different hole combinations. During my visit, there was at least one group doing just that. They let me play past them around hole 8, then again on hole 19.

Many of the distances shown on the Hole Info page here are incorrect. I think the overall distance listed for the course might be a slight overestimate, and some of the individual holes are off by over 100' if I am recalling correctly. I started to gather the required information to fix the distances, but entirely forgot after about the fifth hole due to how many groups I was playing past and other park users I was working around. Or blame vacation on the brain.

Overall, this course is fun but the navigation issues and safety concerns (the latter of which I think I weigh more heavily than most reviewers) pushed my rating downward to a 2.5. Even if I were to cast aside the safety issues, I feel like this course is a bit overrated at its current ~3.75 average. This is a fine option for locals - so long as they are being very careful and observant of their surroundings. For those visiting the area and short on time, I would recommend the nearby SeaTac course over this one. If you do play here, maybe try to visit on a weekday morning (when I assume the park is less busy)!

- Great scenery
- Well kept
- Nice stone benches

- Poorly marked
- Difficult to navigate
- No tee signs

The course layout is relatively intuitive, but there are no tee signs and most baskets don't have numbers on them. It can be really difficult to navigate for first-timers.

Chainbangerz has done some great work out here to update and change up the course. The new Tee Pads and rock-like benches are amazing. super grippy Tee Pads and well thought out benches with enough room for 4 or more. Chainbangerz has plans to improve the course further which will only make this course better. Holes 1 and 9 now offer more challenge with the water hazards and possibilities for discs to go swimming.

The course no longer flows like the previous layout did. you end on 18 some distance from the 1st hole, I have been parking at the old lot so the return to the car is a little shorter. The Lack of a Path from the end of 1st hole to the 2ns could use some work, or a sign. the "goat" path from the 2nd hole to 3rd needs some work to be more sustainable, as it is now I can see there being issues with mud when it starts raining. On hole 12 the preferred flight path come very close to the basket on 11, I was almost hit putting in on 11 from a player teeing off on 12 and the person on 12 had a good shot. I would like to see some more trash cans at a few of the tee pads, there is a bit of trash left behind at many of the tee pads. The overall lack of signage is an issue if you are unfamiliar with the new layout.

clearly Lakewood is a work in progress, with new baskets around the first holes the layout is soon to change for the better. Thanks Chainbangerz for all the hard work and dedication to making this a great course to play.