The Roche Harbor course shows right from the start that it has received much love and hard work from the local group. There is a rustic type shelter at the beginning complete with practice basket, course map and plenty of old donated chairs and tables. Because of the words old and donated, the course takes on this folksy, rustic feel which permeates throughout the course. It works here as it feels charming not junky. The teepads are rubber. Most are long and level. Just a couple are shorter and uneven. The baskets are Discatchers with the number facing back towards the tee. The tee signs are small and inconsistent with their information. On the front nine, the tee signs and the DGCR hole info sheet did not agree. There was no hole distances for the back nine.

The course is fairly short, recreational distances but has some difficult, wooded fairways. It's mostly flat but plays in and out of the woods giving you some different looks and challenges. There are two raised baskets. # 9 basket sits atop a 6 foot high stump while another basket on the back nine sits upon a 3 foot high stump. There are oodles of homey touches on this course. Especially on the front nine, there is seating galore, some of them cleverly engineered. There are just enough next tees signs, markers and ribbons to make navigating the course fairly simple. # 5 has a small tree with the branches trimmed and shapen to act as a perfect bag hanger.

I can't decide on a favorite hole. Several are in the running starting with # 9 with the 6 foot elevated basket. # 11 with the Buddha, # 14 where you're trying to thread your tee shot through this miniscule gap in a patch of multiple trees and # 15, which is just a very pretty hole. I also liked #18 with just the top of the it's basket just barely visible.

Least favorite hole: # 12 (250' estimated) which has you throwing uphill with a thick ground covering of salal making for some searching for your disc.

Short distances make this a recreational course.

Lots of good holes but probably no great holes.

# 17 is just a 325' (estimated), wide open hole. I'd love to see a few poles driven in the ground in front of the basket. I've seen this done effectively at other courses that have wide, open holes and are trying to increase the difficulty on a particular hole.

As always, I have to agree with my buddy sillybizz about the effort and expense needed to get out and play this course. It cost me $70 for me and my wife to take the ferry out here from Anacortes. Then you probably will need a room and sillybizz is right on about the ferry boats schedules in the summer. Book well ahead of time as the ferries do fill up early and it's problematic getting off the island on Sundays.

Hole # 11 has this little Buddha perched on a log beside the teepad. There was a scattering of change around this Buddha. I instantly felt this incredible need to donate some change. I dug around my bag looking for some spare change. I just had this feeling, that if I didn't pony up to little Buddha, I was sure to lose my disc on this hole. I finally found a Canadian quarter in my pocket and offered it up to the Buddha, which is strange because I'm not a Buddhist nor am I Canadian. So what am I? I think I'm a Muslim. No, those are the dudes trying to kill us! So I guess I'm not sure. After talking to a local course honcho after my round, he informed me that this Buddha was placed there to remember a local who had adopted this hole but has since passed away. I loved this clever, little tribute to a fellow disc golfer, sadly gone.