The first thing I'll note about Sam Benn disc golf course is that for a in-city 9-hole course, the park/course has some very nice, professional amenities. Lots of parking right off of the first tee (though the first tee itself is a little hard to find), nice picture tee signs, solid concrete tee pads, and some good Innova Discatcher baskets. The only "extra" that the course could really benefit from might be some sort of information sign near hole one. The Course lacks "next tee" signs after each hole, but there was only one transition (hole 6 to hole 7) where it took more than a minute to find the next tee. Overall, from an amenities/ease of play standpoint, I loved the fact that, driving through town, without a map, I was able to get through an my whole round in no more than 20 minutes.

I'll also note that it seemed like about half of the holes (though I wasn't looking too hard) had alternate tee pads. All of the extra pads seemed to be tacked on "pro" pads, as they didn't have tee signs. I list it here as a "pro" on the course as I imagine for bigger-arm locals I'm sure it adds variety, but at the same time, the pro pads were generally not much longer than the normal pads, and didn't seem to add much to the course itself.

The design of the course was also quite solid, especially for an 9-hole park course. About half of the holes did a nice job of utilizing the large trees to create some challenging, but not punitive, tunnel shots. The one long open-field hole, hole 5, was a bit on the boring side, but did allow for a great roller opportunity. I loved hole 4, which is a sloping downhill par 3 to a protected pin tucked on the right side with OB right and OB long; the hole offers a choice between a skipping RHFH shot, or a RHBH roller, punishing RHBH players who possess neither.

Overall, there are quite a few fun shots on the course, a really nice distance/elevation blend for a course of this size, nice use of the landscape, good course amenities, and a pretty good overall "fun" factor.

It seems like perhaps there was some redesign since the reviews of JR Stengele and Sillybizz, but there are still some weird course design choices on the final few holes. I didn't see the bathrooms that were in play before, so that seems to have been resolved, but holes 6-9 do have a lot of potentially dangerous overlap/blind tee shots. Hole 8 in particular is very odd, the hole is a 90 degree dog leg right, where you throw right over hole 6's basket, and right near a few of the early hole tee pads. Holes 7 and 9 also have overlapping fairways. Fortunately when I played the course was near-empty, so it didn't cause much trouble, but I can imagine on a busy summer day, eventually someone could get hit badly on a blind tee shot.

Other than that, I would say that the course lacks a bit of the "wow" factor that would keep it from reaching the 3-3.5 disc rating range. If this course was 18 holes of similar quality I would certainly bump up the rating to 3. Some of the holes are a little on the easy/simple side, and I could imagine with a little redesigning work, the course could be made more dynamic, with more distinct "am" and "pro" pads that push the boundaries of the park a bit more.

While I wouldn't *quite* call Sam Benn Disc Golf Course the "epitome" of a quality in-city multi-use park 9-holer, it's pretty close. There's nice variety that keeps players of different abilities/playing styles happy, and nice tee pads/signs/baskets that do a good job of ushering in new players and putting a good face on the sport. While I wouldn't go too far out of the way to try this course, for anyone traveling through this part of Washington, it's more than worth a very quick stop off the highway to get in a quick, enjoyable round.

a nice little park in a quiet part of town, not far off the main drive through Aberdeen to the ocean.
well treed.
lots of uphill/downhill shots.
nice course layout.
signs are awesome!
very nice baskets!
a good mix of technical shots.
decent teepads.

this was a "short" course. [which is probably why i scored so well!]
there was a Par4 [hole #5] that i thought could have been a Par3.
i couldn't see some of the baskets from the tees, so i had to go looking before my shot.
this wasn't negative, it's just a beginner needing to check out the course.
in the winter, it is swampy wet!

WARNING: i had to throw across a blind walking path on hole #7. if i threw 30seconds earlier, i would have taken a lady out who was walking her dog.
this would have made my experience horrible, it would have really hurt her, and potentially could have shut this great course down, which would have been a shame since the next closest course is pretty far away.

i do think the course designer did a fantastic job setting up 9 fun holes in this small park, but that is definitely a hazard.
i had some sunbathers driving around the anhyzer [RHBH] shot into hole #9, but i asked them to have a heads up and protect themselves in case my disc got away from me. they seemed kind enough.

this was an enjoyable stop on our way to the ocean. my wife and mom-in-law took the kids to play at the playground while i banged out this course in 25 minutes. they said there was some shady drug-related activity going on up there, so they loaded back in the van and drove around to look at the nice houses while i finished.

this course is not long in length and should be quite easy to get a par or birdie on the course.
it didn't feel really challenging, but it was fun.

the amenities [signs, baskets, tees] were great.

i made lots of comments on the pictures i uploaded, so be sure to check those out.