I always think that I love my discs more than John Houck loves my discs. On many of his designs, I tend to think that he cares not if my favorite disc lands in a swamp, river or lake, or melts in a volcano, or sinks in quicksand, or flies over a freeway fence to be run over by a thousand speeding cars. So I was semi-worried about my pets here at Rivery. But actually, this particular design is pretty easy on your plastic. Granted, the rough is thick in places and you might spend some time searching but there is a better than average chance you'll reach your car with your bag intact.

I liked this course a lot but I loved the stretch of holes 7 through 11. They play through the prettiest but most rugged section of the park. The boulders make for some interesting shots and crazy lies. This section made the course worth playing, IMO. The rest of the course was OK, average, typical or pedestrian like. Pick your own adjective here.

Holes 1 and 2 were fun little Ace Runs to kick off off your round. My DGCR map says that hotel 2 is 177' but the tee sign and my years of experience say 95'. And I did throw in a cubbie Ace on my second or third try on it. It still felt good.

# 17 is another fun hole. The basket sits down in a low spot so not visible from the tee. You don't want to left and high here as there is some really tangled vine bushes on that side plus some kind of old wooden building. Possibly another home encampment?

The amenities here are great. Good concrete tee pads. Nice large, colored signs complete with route map and next tee. Am I the only one who remembers the next tee info was on the previous sign just as I finish putting out and start to wonder, "Where is that next tee"? The baskets are Discatchers which show up nicely through the trees.

Sign is still missing on # 13. Also # 15 is now missing. Near the start is a concrete bunker building which have housed some of the local homeless population. There is one of the missing signs and poles sitting in there.

Only four holes longer than 300' and only of these is over 400' which plays through a scattering of small trees. So if you live to throw bombs, drive on over to Old Settler's Park and throw bombs until you're old and grey.

I feel like one of the lucky ones today. With my hands on-line map, I was able to locate the # 12 tee pad as well as # 18. Without the map, these would have been dicey.

Not a typical Texas course so you Texicans might get a feel for what much of the rest of the country plays. Rivers DGC really has the feel of a Vermont/New Hampshire/Maine course. Technical with a chance of boulders, only those courses up there would probably have Some fun elevation, and chances are, they would be a pay-to-play course and you would be forking out $5-8 to play. So consider lucky that Rivery is available and free to play.

Concrete tee Pads, Good signage, plenty of shade,

Plenty of rocks. If you want to beat in a disc,this is the place to do it. Many holes requiring luck over skill. Some very short holes. Hard to find the park. You have to weave your way through some apartments.

(3.099 Rating) A scenic undulating course that's fairly short and extremely technical.
- UNIQUENESS - John Houck designed courses always seem to have a great deal of uniqueness to them, and the Rivery course is no exception. Although the course is indeed short, it plays longer due to the tight lines. I rarely found myself driving past the hole. The holes types include, water elements, 20 foot elevation changes up and down, tight tunnel shots, a dog leg right (#6) several basket windows, rock elements, a par 4, a gimme hole and the designers infamous poke and hope hole (#13) Really the open thing missing was an open hole, a Par 5 and a dog leg left.
- QUICK PLAY - A single can easily complete a full 18 in under an hour. That is of course the player doesn't throw it into the rough which has had a tendency to be let go from time to time. My group of 4 did the full 18 in 2.5 hours, 30 minutes of which was searching and throwing rocks in trees.
- TIME WAITING - Like most courses, there always seems to be a bunch of walking paths winding threw a course layout. Whatever is the point of these path are i'll never know That said, our group did not encounter but one or two of walkers in our round and we never waited more than a minute.
- ACEABILITY - Several holes are aceable, You will have exceedingly great opportunities on holes (2 and 11)
- CHILL AREAs - There are lots of secluded nooks to take a break in, that is if you brought your own seating or if you don't mind sitting on the ground. Since no one was around, our group took a break by the rocks on 11.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - The course in my opinion, is the most scenic course on the entire north side of the Austin Metro Area. the vegetation is diverse, there are peaceful looking meadows. There are views of the San Gabriel river. There are engaging cliff elements and rock faces. It's a real treat in terms of its Raw Beauty.

There are several unfixable flaws with this course.
- TEE PADS - They are all concrete. Awesome right? The contractor it seems decided to save a few bucks and imbedded the tee sign into the pad. On top of this, they are short and narrow as well. Myself and playing partners actually teed from the adjacent ground on a couple of holes. Probably the 2nd worst tees I've ever played. The worst distinction still belongs to Falcon Pointe in Pflugerville which has all 18 concrete tees pointed perpendicular to the hole.
- MAINTENANCE - The grounds are mowed sometimes. was partly in check during my round but was getting bad in spots. hole (14) fairway has a reputation of being particularly awful. you may consider using a spotter on that hole as regulars have mentioned waist high grass in the past.
- OVERGROWTH - the rough is rough, try not to go into it. We spent significant time looking for errant discs in the over abundance of nooks and crannies and vegetation. Poison ivy was spotted on my visit as well as several cacti species.
- FORGIVENESS - Due to the tight lines, good shots seem to always get picked off. This course will test the placement of your shots. Being off your mark by a foot or two sometimes isn't good enough. In addition, if/when you hit tree. the resulting punishment is sometimes more than one throw. Our group had to make several pitchouts.
- NAVIGATION - Tricky in spots. the trek from 17 to 18 is particularly hard without a map on a first visit. The map on DGCR is mostly up to date. I would suggest printing it out.
- LAYOUT FLOW - the flow of the course has 3 substantial breaks 5 to 6, 12 to 13 and 17 to 18. not a deal breaker but worth noting. Baskets to holes 10 and 11 use the same general area. This will cause flow back-up during heavy use.
- CHARACTER - The course is missing a lot of items that the older established courses have. There is very little seating (one picnic table) no practice basket, no extra pin placements no multiple tees for pro and am. However, the tees are generally shaded and there is good hole signage located firmly in the middle of the tee pad.

A great course for those living within 5-10 miles and for those that prefer the shorter and more technical courses. Not recommended for beginner despite the shortness. Beginners should check out nearby Wells Branch to the south. If you're the open bomb it type, you won't like this course. check out Old Settlers instead. If you want to play a professional type course and arguably the best on the north side, check out Williamson County

Very solid short technical course. Requires a good amount of shot variation with some interesting elevation changes thrown in. Absolutely beautiful course; played it on a sunny day and nearly every fairway was covered in green grass. Most holes had well-defined but tight fairways which required accuracy to navigate without being unfair. Also, one huge improvement from before is that the tee signs have now been moved next to the tee boxes rather than placed on them. This was one of the largest cons about this course, and now that it has been changed the course is much better.

There were also at least one or two holes that were essentially just a poke-and-hope with really no defined fairway to the basket. Also, there were a few times that navigation was tricky; not bad enough to ruin the course, but definitely worth noting. There were also just a few holes that were simply too short (hole 2 in particular). There is only one hole with a wide enough fairway to really throw anything more than a midrange; even on the par 4 the best play is throwing back to back midrange shots in order to reach the basket.

This course is really great if you are looking for a short technical course to work on accuracy. Outside of that though this course does not have much to offer. The fact that it is so short and technical makes it rather different from other Austin courses (especially the ones in South Austin) and really helps add to the wealth of good courses in the Austin area. If you're in the area I would definitely recommend stopping in to play this course, but wouldn't recommend it to people from out of town with only a limited amount of time to play courses.

I really enjoyed my round here. In the end the high fun factor makes this course stand out for me as one of the better courses in the north Austin metro area. I only played this course once when I lived in the Austin and I wished that I had played it much more when I finally got to it. Rivery is a shady and wind sheltered course. There are lots of tunnel shots, which are a personal favorite type of course, yet there is a balance with some open areas. Taller than normal trees specifically the central Texas cedars that provide a short ceiling for most area courses give way to larger type of tree near the river. If you were pressed for time you can shorten your round by skipping ahead to number thirteen which I always like as an option in a course design. The park is near I-35 and is not too tricky to get to; the parking is self-explanatory as well as finding your way to the number one tee box. There a few memorable holes most are short and tight, which I like.

The back nine was hard for me (map less) to find. I was doing fine by following the group ahead of me and then they decided to make a quick round out of it and skip to number thirteen. From this point, without a map it was very hard to find the next hole which after so work I found to be on the other side of the bridge much further from basket to next tee-box than the rest of the course flows. This course could use some nice new concrete tee pads. There's not much to complain about. If this course had the money and love that some of the other area courses had it could easily jump its rating up.

Pretty solid course, for me the place felt like it had gone through the types of changes that establish a course and create something better with each passing tweak. I say this about every Austin area course but if you only have time to hit up a handful of courses than this should be in your second tier. If you are traveling the newer courses are much better. This course has a pretty good fun factor. I wish I could play this course right now.

I can pretty much reiterate what "breakingday" has already stated. This is a well laid out course along the river. I absolutely love hole 10 and hole 11, which are fairly unique holes I have not found else where. There is lots of shade, which means lots of trees and technical shots

With the exception of 10 and 11, a lot of the holes look the exact same ... trees. Just be prepared to get a few knicks on your discs. A few of the tee-boxes are missing signs or are re-labeled with a giant marker.

Just played in early spring on a Saturday and saw no other golfers.

This course is a technical golfers dream. You must be able to hit a line and be able to hit it on annys, hyzers, and the straight ones. The baskets are nice and I like the natural tee pads as well. This course can be enjoyed by all skill levels due to the mix of shots. The scenery is nice and even though it is right next to 35, there doesnt seem to be much road noice which helps out the enjoyment factor. There is always a bunch of wildlife running around here which is neat. Many of the greens have elevation in them making a bad putt or up roll off and making the score go up. If you find yourself hitting trees you will ping pong your way through this whole course.

Navigation is the biggest issue and first timers will need a map or a local to get through this course. Like said before there are many long walks in between holes but I dont mind them. The rough can be rough for sure. The rocks can turn an ankle pretty quick so watch where you step.

I always hit this couse cause of its easy access from the highway. It is very fun if you have the patience and I think you will enjoy it.

Most demanding course I've played. Fine annys, fine hyzers or laser straight. Requires precision on 13 out of 18 pins.

Long walks between 5&6, 11&12. Short trek from 17 to 18 and from 18 to 1...

Very difficult, but all in all, a nice course. I gave it 3 stars because it made my game better by forcing me to think on every shot instead of heaving a drive at each tee. I'd trim a few trees if it were mine just to make some of the tee shots less ridiculous. Especially # 13.

Concrete Tees are now installed, although they are small they are still greatly appreciated.
Course is fun, and can easily be played. Not overly difficult, most holes are very short and the pin is generally easy to see.

Signage missing on some holes - Could be hard to navigate for newer players.
Course was forced to re-design, which has negatively
impacted several holes.
Occasionally mountain bikers will be riding down the fairways of the course so be cautious.
Erosion is getting close to damaging several of the greens.

Could use a fresh re-design, or the addition of the 4TC Tournament Long Tees. A fun track either way, but only a minimal challenge.

This is one technical course. I claim Circle C in Austin as my home course and I have to say that as far as technical goes this course has them all beat.

It has lots of elevation changes, very tough tunnel shots, and even some short aceable holes( they are short but it takes one heck of a shot to hit them).

This is an interesting course. It is brutal as far as being very narrow and heavily wooded, but none of the holes is very long so you can still make par even if you whack a tree off the tee. Just make sure you bring your midrange discs with you. A good approach game is a must.

Being short, this course is a quick playing course. As some of the other reviews mentioned, this course has some very memorable holes- 10 and 11 come to mind due to their very short length and surprising toughness.

This course is very poorly marked. I had a course map with me due to the other reviews and advice from the guys at dgcr, but I happened upon some tourists from Florida on my second 18 and they mentioned that if I hadn't come along they wouldn't have been able to find some of the holes.

At times this course seems rediculous, especially hole 12. This is just my opinion, but you shouldn't have to be Ken Climo to find and hit the line to the basket. Give us a break and at least give one decent line for a fairway. I like them difficult, but some of these were just unfair to say the least. It is the same for everyone, but it would be more fun IMO.

A lot of the signs are from the old layout so it gets very confusing.

The dirt tees are the normal Austin standard- crappy.

This is a good course overall and I'm glad I went out of my way to play it, but it won't be one of the courses I frequent when I head north from S. Austin. If they put a little work into the details this could be a really great course, but as it stands right now I would call it mediocre at best.

The park has recently undergone some construction and the course has been rearranged, so if you haven't played there in the last 2-3 years, you will find an entirely different course.

The Rivery is a pretty tough course. It plays down by the San Gabe river, so the holes are mostly short and heavily wooded. Accuracy is a must because many of the holes don't even have a fairway...you can just see the pin across the forest from where you are standing.

The back half of the course can be difficult to find because you need to go under the bridge.

Don't try to go barefoot or anything, I can guarantee you will be trooping through some brush.

Other than having some difficult to find holes, the Rivery is a pretty good course. Just don't expect to make very many long throws.