Rose Park features a variety of challenging holes that go in and out of the woods, provide distance in unexpected ways, and offer decent challenge overall. Alternate pins on some holes add some extra variety.

There's not much elevation change, but the course makes up for it with good design decisions on a lot of the wooded holes. A lot of holes start in the open and finish in the woods, or vise versa, and small elevation changes sometimes make a big impact on several holes.

Holes 8 and 9, the water holes, are really interesting and stand out from the rest of the course. They both have aggressive and safe options, and manage to not be gimmicky like some narrow gaps between woods and water sometimes are. Hole 9 plays along the back of a baseball field on part of the fairway, but that actually adds to the challenge. Hole 10, the other hole with a par 4 pin, offers a lot of interesting options too.

The last three holes on the course are quite fun, with some sweeping left-to-right and right-to-left shots, that reward long, sweeping hyzers but also have chances to put you in early trouble. Just make sure you don't throw at hole 4's pin from 17.

A few too many holes are just wide open. Those holes have a little variety in distance and elevation, but a lot of them are just a distance fest with nothing special going on.

In addition, some holes are a little odd. Holes 2 and 7 are strange doglegs that are a little tweener, and hole 3 is just too tight. A few holes are blind from the tee, and while that helps promote replaying the course, it does cause some problems.

On that note, navigation in general is decent but not great. The area around the tees of 6, 14, and 15 is very odd, and holes 14 and 15 themselves play exactly parallel, so you can throw both drives before walking down the fairway. Both those holes are pretty boring, so the wonkyness isn't even worth it. You also have to walk a long way from 11 to 12.

A park road runs around a bunch of holes. It doesn't get much traffic (unless there's a game on one of the several ball fields in the park), but the road comes into play enough that it gets annoying. You have to throw across or probably along the road several times.

This is certainly a good course, but it has just enough flaws that it can't be called a destination course, even for the region. Some of the pros and cons listed above sort of conflict with each other, such as a creative hole design that puts the road in play. This means the course ends up being only slightly above average.

I can't think of many ways this course can be improved. Maybe the woods could be utilized a little more or something, but I really think the design is quite good. It would help if a few more holes had alternate pin placements, which would give opportunity for more challenge and variety, and make some holes feel a little more natural.

Sitting through and around the city's park and public sports fields, Rose has a few thorny holes to try and snag your score on.

Concrete tees are plenty large enough to launch from, and the MachV baskets are all in good repair and have an arrow on the pole to point you to the next tee. Tee signs are older, but still have plenty of helpful information on them.

Several unique holes:
- 8 has a thin fairway with water on the right and a slope away with dense trees on the left.
- 9 is a dogleg right par 4 with water on your first shot, a difficult second shot around the berm created by the baseball field, and a tough green to get to.
- 10 is a blind right-to-left which is a lot longer than it seems.
- 12 is an excellent 2-shot hole with the basket tucked behind a low-hanging tree.
- 14 is a forehand shot that crosses the road and drops to the right with the basket tucked in a clearing.
- 18 is a short, entirely wooded tunnel with the tee and basket tucked into the woods, forcing a low left-finishing shot (skips are a good idea).

You could park and start at several spots (1, 7, 13, 14) and they'll all lead back to the same spot.

I didn't compliment overall features above because it feels very "one-and-done" on features. 1 has the raised basket on the stump, 7 is the dogleg, 8 is the dangerous water green, 9 is the water carry, 10 is the wide left turn, 12 is the big, booming downhill, 17 is the guarded green, 18 is the tunnel. The boxes are all ticked, but only one at a time, and nothing ever done more than once (maybe 3 qualifies as a tunnel, too)

You'll notice that almost all of the highlights I mentioned above are the newer 9 situated around the Braksick sports complex. That's because those newer holes are simply better designed. The original 9-hole course would be passable, but nothing exceptional.

Navigation is overall good, but a few spots can get confusing when you can see three baskets from the same tee. (2-3, 10-11)

Several holes offer very little challenge (1, 4, 5, 11, 15). One or two of these is ok, but five of them is disappointing to see on an otherwise decent course.

What you have here is two very distinct courses. 1-5 and 15-18 are a standard mid-level city park course, while 6-14 are high quality in design. They're both equally kept-up, and as such I would give the former a 2.0, and the latter I would give a 3.5 leaning toward a 4.0. It's a split experience.

It's up to you if this course is worth the drive from KC or Topeka. I would say do it, and if you wanted to park by the football field and just play 6-14 that's a fine option too.

If you haven't heard of McLouth, KS, you probably wouldn't know the town has an 18-hole disc golf course. The town is about 20-25 minutes north of Lawrence, but is a few miles off of the closest major highway (US 59). However, it's worth playing if you're in the area.

Lots of shot variations- There are a lot of different shots on this course. Backhand, forehand, turnovers, a few tunnel shots, a few hard doglegs, a couple of par 4s, and some options for thumbers, tomahawks, and grenades if you can throw those.

The course has a good mix of holes that are good for beginners but also have ones that are challenging for intermediate to advanced players. On the tougher holes, most have a safer route that beginners can go for and not be searching for discs in the rough and/or water (Holes 8 and 9 have a fairly significant water hazard).

The course is pretty walkable and cart friendly. There are a few spots that are a little steep, but for the most part, there's not a lot of obstacles to try and navigate.

A majority of the holes play with some kind of tree/wooded element, but I would say most of the lines you have to hit are fair/generous. There are a couple that are really narrow, like holes 3 and 18, but if you hit the line, you should have a putt for birdie.

Probably the biggest drawback of the course is it that it does not drain water very well. There is an area between Hole 5 and Hole 16 that collects and holds water every time there is precipitation, and it takes a long time for that water to drain/dry up, even if there are ideal drying conditions. A lot of the rest of the course also gets muddy fairly quickly, so bring shoes that are waterproof/water-resistant and have good traction. The course doesn't become unplayable, but it makes the round less fun.

The tee signs are fairly simple and don't provide a ton of detail, but they do an ok job. There are a few tee pads that are a little shorter than desirable, but most are fine.

Like most wooded areas in the midwest, be careful of thorny plants/vines. There are spots like this all over the rough around the course, so be aware.

There are some spots to lose discs. The pond on holes 8 and 9 come into play on your tee shots, and hole 8's basket is within 30 feet of the pond and the ground slopes toward the pond, so roll-aways are possible. Hole 9 also plays between the pond and a baseball field, so discs that go astray can go over the baseball fence as well.

A couple of other things- The course plays around a couple of playgrounds, some roads, and around the athletic facilities for the school district in town. The course is still easily playable with just pedestrians and the playgrounds are not close super close to any baskets. However, if there's an athletic event for the school district, that may present a challenge to play the course.

There are some very "different" holes on the course that make it unique. Hole 2's short basket location is tucked into the woods and requires a shot that goes straight for about 180 feet and then takes a sharp right turn. You can also go over the top of the trees with a turnover or forehand, but that route is harder to execute successfully.

Hole 7 has a 90 degree dogleg left after hitting a gap about 100 feet off of the tee, then the basket is guarded by the tree line on the left, and bushes in front of it, and you have to pick between the left gap or the right one. However, if you have the power to go over the tree line and want to risk it, there is that option.

Hole 8 is around 300 ft, but has trouble all over it. The pond is on the right side for most of the shot so you have to throw something you trust to go straight, but if you fade too early or really far left, there are woods and a steep embankment that makes saving par very tricky. The basket is perched at the top of the embankment, so parking this hole is very difficult.

Hole 12 is not a super long par 4 (around 520 feet), but requires two pretty good shots to have a birdie look. There is an OB road to cross, and you can choose to cross on the tee shot, or throw short left off of the tee, and cross the road on your second shot. If you cross the road off the tee, the approach shot is a left to right shot around a large tree, or you can try to go under the tree through a narrow gap with a brick pillar in the middle of it. There is also a train car on the right side of the fairway, adding to the uniqueness of the hole.

Holes 16 and 17 are both extreme doglegs to the right, and the gap you have to hit for both are a good distance from the tee pad, so hitting the gap is priority number one, then having something go right. 17 is over 100 feet shorter than 16, so it is much easier to birdie. 16 has a mandatory pole on the right as well.

I have seen Holes 1 and 15 have elevated baskets, which I think adds a good element to those holes.

Overall, I think this is a really good course with a lot of variety, and has a good amount of birdie chances for intermediate and above players. Beginners should have a few holes where they might have a look at birdie with a good shot, and it would be a good course to work on upshots if they don't have a lot of distance in their game yet. There is a tournament that gets played here every year, so the course is a worth while stop if you're in the area or just passing through looking for a course to play.

The course is well laid out, and features a variety of open holes and wooded shots. Both times I've been I was the only player, which I kinda liked.

while probably not a con for better players, The straights in the wooded portions are very narrow at times and the undergrowth next to it is very dense and frequently thorny.

It's a good course in a beautiful park, but if you're prone to leaving the fairway wear pants to save yourself from the brambles

Rose Park has some unusual holes, and does well fitting 18 holes into the nooks and crannies of a small park that has a lot of other stuff going on. There is a playground, high school athletic facilities, a pond and some picnic shelters. None of them were being used when I played there the day after Christmas, save for a gentleman walking laps on the track.

Expanded from 9 to 18 holes, the tees are all concrete and have signs, and those DGA baskets with deep buckets were all good. There bright spots throughout the course, with some water, woods, elevation, and long par 3's.

It begins with hole 1 near the playground as you drive into the park, very easy to find. A decent starter that is discreetly slanted downhill and has a couple dozen trees as you get near the pin.

Hole 2 is a hard dogleg right with thick rough if you cut the corner too tight. 3 is a good one that has a straight shot to a clearing before fading sharply left once you enter. It also has thick rough if you get away from the line. Neither are easy birdies, especially if the wind is out in force.

Hole 7 doglegs hard to the left, and is guarded by trees and tall grassy bushes. Number 8 is very high risk and reward, with a pond on the right, and steep drop off into dense growth to the left of the berm.

10 is the most crazy, toughest hole, and I liked it the best. The fairway bends left before reaching a bridge, and the basket is to the right once you get across. Getting across the bridge is not easy, because there is water to the right, and mushy grass where the water makes its way toward the pond on the left. Both sides of the bridge have many trees, chopping the approach into a slivers if you are not right at the front end of the bridge.

12 is long for a par 3, and there is a train caboose on the right side that I hit with my terrible second shot. I have never hit a caboose with a disc before, I wouldn't recommend it.

14 has the largest elevation change, dropping off the side of the road about 20' pretty quickly, and a big tree waiting to catch any disc that flies too far to the right.

17 was a fun hole that is shielded by tree branches down the middle, but has a left opening for the RHFH hyzer, or a smaller tunnel to the right if you want the RHBH hyzer. I mistook the basket for hole 4, which is visible down the center of the right hole, to be 17. It would have been a great throw had I been right, but it wound up costing me as I blew the comeback and made a bogey.

18 is in some thick trees as well, it bends to the left and is perfect for a RHBH hyzer if you can avoid being knocked down by all the trunks, stumps and branches.

I don't remember playing a course that crossed roads so many times. Holes 1, 6, 12, 13, and 14 all do it. May not be an issue most of the time, when if the park is host to sporting events, practices or picnics, it could be frustrating.

Some of the tees were pretty small, I like them to be larger myself. 8 and 10 have significant chances to lose discs in water or rough. 11 and 12 play close to the shelters, dangerous if they're occupied.

It isn't the strongest 18 in the state, and has some definite issues. Probably several holes that become unplayable if there are lots of people, and cars parked in the lot.

However, Rose Park does have a full 18 now, and I would think the rural location doesn't draw a lot of traffic most of the time. I'm guessing holes 6-14 are the new holes, and you could skip some or all of them to shorten it up to 9 or 11 holes.

Hitting the caboose on 12 was a new one, but another weird thing I had never seen occurred on hole 8. My brother in law turned over his driver straight into the pond. We were able to retrieve it without getting our feet wet, because the water was frozen. Not solid across the entire surface, but that edge appeared to be shallow. I was not totally confident it would hold, but couldn't leave his plastic sitting there in plain sight. It slid 25' from the edge, but I was able to scoot out there slowly, and slid it back reaching the last few feet with a stick. I guess that is as close as I will ever get to playing ice hockey.

The wind was killing it that day, and both of us were shut out from getting any birdies all day. I had a putt on 15 but missed it, and he had a good look on 18 but could not convert. I was 11 over par (65) at the end of the round with 2 double bogeys. Extremely frustrating, everything that I threw hard was highjacked by the wind, and there were not a lot of good drives from either of us.

If you are running out of new courses to play in the area, this is not a bad option. I will likely come back and try to post a more respectable score eventually. Just not until I get a great weather day, or at least a day with no wind.

-Good use of natural landscape
-Good mix of throw types required
-Basket quality is good with hole # marking
-Tee pads are concrete with good signage
-Grass was well maintained (when I was there)

-Pretty flat area
-The deep rough is very rough hard to find disks with lots of spiders
-There are a few roads and parking lots that conflict with disc flight path. I threw right over a truck parked on the side of the road.
-There is a hole on the back 9 that is a disc eater. About 10ft wide strip with nasty pond water to the right and a drop off spider infested deep rough on the left. Beginners skip this hole.

If more people played this course and kept the spider population down the course would be much better.

Increased from 9 to 18 holes. The additional 9 holes definitely add an increased level of dificulty and variety.

Concrete pads

Excellent baskets

Signage, benches, trash cans. Maintained fairly well.

While they do have concrete pads, they are a bit short. The original 9 pads were placed into the ground. The second 9 holes the pads were poured on top of the ground so they are elevated.

Here is a combination of reviews from the original Rose Park course listing that was retired.

Chained Evil rated it a 3.0 and wrote:
Pros: This course offers a nice mix of moderate and longer length holes. The flow is logical and there is good signage and new DGA baskets with next tee arrows on top of them. The course is clean and plays around a park and school grounds.
There is a kiosk at the start of the course with scorecards.
Hole 1-slight dog leg to the right and plays slightly downhill
Hole 2-uphill shot with a sharp dog leg right and the basket is tucked into the tree row
Hole 3-dog leg to the left, tunnel shot off the box
Hole 4-wide open
Hole 5-plays on the backside of the football field
Hole 6-open shot
Hole 7-dog leg to the right with 2 trees off of the box
Hole 8-dog leg to the right and the basket sits behind the gap in the tree row
Hole 9-dog leg to the left

Cons: Some of the signs here seem to be facing the wrong direction, don't know what that was about. The tees for holes 4-6 are a bit on the short side. There are no alt pins here either. The walk from 3's basket to 4's tee is a bit long, but necessary to bypass the soccer field.


Other Thoughts: This is a nice 9 hole course that will provide you with a decent challenge. Wind could be a factor on some holes depending on which direction you were throwing. You will want to stay on the fairway because the rough is thick in spots and thorny in other spots. Getting back onto the fairway could be added strokes for sure.
Overall this is a pretty good 9 hole course that is worth the play if you are close by.

bigreddog gave it a 3.5 and wrote:

Pros: This course has a lot of doglegs and forces you to throw every path of shot. 3 holes have left to right and 2 have right to left. Also some holes are tighter so they encourage lower shots than the open holes 10/10

There is a large variety of openness on the holes even though there are only 9. There are two that are almost but not completely wide open, some that are tight only closer to the basket, some only near the tee, and two tight the whole way. 10/10

Newly opened and nicely mowed fairways but the rough isn't too thick. There are new tee signs and several benches in good condition throughout the course. A couple of the wooded holes are a little rough around the edges but more foot traffic should fix it. Course maintenance 9/10

Baskets are brand new and tees are concrete with no cracks. The tees are a little small, but they're still concrete. 8/10

Navigation between holes is pretty easy because most have a trail mowed from one basket to the next tee. There is one confusing part after hole 4 because the 4 basket is close to the 8 basket so the trail to 9 looks like it could be the trail to 5. Overall 8/10

Even though there are lots of obstacles, there isn't much deep grass so discs are pretty easy to find except for the third hole and possibly the eighth hole if you miss on the wrong side. 8/10

Benches and shade make for a comfortable round. No water fountains or bathrooms that I saw but I didn't look that hard. 7/10

This course would be able to challenge players of most skill levels but may be frustrating for beginners on the more wooded holes. 7/10

Navigation on the actual holes is pretty good but there are a couple of tricky spots. From the 4 tee you can see the 8th basket too and also from the 5th tee you can see the sixth basket about the same distance away. 6/10

Cons: No alternate hole positions, but this is a very new course and that could change in the future. 0/10

There isn't much elevation present. there are 3 holes that are slightly downhill but none that are uphill or with much slope from the side. Hole 5 does have an elevated football field to the right that makes for an interesting shot. 2/10

Most holes have only one way they can be played so they don't require much decisionmaking. Holes 1, 7, and 9 do have a couple of possibilities but overall it's not the best. 3/10

There isn't a large variety of distances on the holes. Hole 5 is significantly longer than the rest but is more wide open. 6 is shorter and also wide open and 8 is shorter and requires a window shot on the drive. Other than that though most holes are right about 300. 5/10

Other Thoughts: I wish there were 18 holes on this course because the 9 that were there were really fun. I'm sure that only having 9 holes will cause this course to be rated down but I don't think that's something a course should be counted down for.

It's kind of a long drive from Olathe for only 9 holes but I can't wait to go again once I'm back in Lawrence.