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Hillsboro, OH

Rocky Fork State Park, South Beach 9

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1.55(based on 1 reviews)
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Rocky Fork State Park, South Beach 9 reviews

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sisyphus
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 12.7 years 398 played 383 reviews
1.50 star(s)

Significant Downgrade

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 16, 2023 Played the course:once

Pros:

Nine holes beginning by the course map just left of the parking area incorporate limited elevation and a couple of basket locations close to the water. Intermediate hole lengths (199' to 426') in the flats adjacent to the lake and beach area are all 'guarded' by tall, native rough, and fairways mown 30 or 40' wide down to the landing zones and greens which open up a little wider. Hole nine throws over a pond to near the lake.

There are adequately sized concrete tees flush to the ground, nd DGA baskets that catch pretty well, considering their age. You do have one or two shot shaping challenges, and even a potential ace run or two, and for those who enjoy a challenge, holes 2, 8 and 9 have challenging basket locations close to the water's edge, forcing a little bit of care in shot (and disc) selection.

It's a multi-use park, but safely separates the disc golf from almost all the other activities. There's camping on site, and obviously a lot of chances for boating, fishing, and even swimming, and there's a primitive bathroom facility right at the start of the course.

Cons:

When the original 18 hole 'Rocky Fork' course was redesigned, they kept essentially the open 'field holes' from the old 18 hole course, but changed the woods holes into a 'Storybook Trail' for hikers. The result was the elimination of the holes that made the course worth the trip all the way to the Hillsboro region. The holes that they kept are in the flats, out in the sun, the bugs and the goose poop, with nasty, thorny, disc eating rough as the only challenge a player really has to avoid (besides throwing in the lake on a handful of holes).

The third tee is crumbled and unusable, with its sign faded away and laying on the ground (we threw from the side). If you don't really look closely at the map, you're more likely to walk to the next available tee after 3, and discover later that you skipped hole 4. The day we played there, an Amish family had parked their buggy in the 5th fairway, sheltered their horses under the pine to the right, and set up a little 'camp' on a tarp there, as well as utilizing the adjacent shelter. So they could probably use some signage telling folks they're on a disc golf course...

The dogleg right hole 6 is probably too narrowly mown to be 'fair' to folks below advanced levels, and finding the basket cage on the ground when we got to it, was disappointing.

Using a lake as a forced side of a 'green' is interesting for tournament play, but not terribly fair for less experienced players when they see their putt roll off the lip and 10-12' into the drink. It's not very clear who this course is intended for. Even though they have kept the tight fairway grass well mown all summer, I'd be very surprised if it really gets much play.

Other Thoughts:

If bugs, thorny, disc-hiding rough, and a good chance to lose a disc to the lake aren't really your thing, you might want to go to the west end of the lake and play the more forgiving campground course. Or, I guess if you're someone who enjoys the woods as much as we do, put the discs back in the car and enjoy hiking the storybook trail instead?
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