This is one of the better manicured courses I've played. Woodchips were well placed to keep wetter areas from being muddy. The fairways were well mowed and shaped so that the rough was a bit longer. It felt a little like a golf course and added to the pleasant scenery.

The holes tend to be in the 275-425 feet range and are all reasonable par 3s. The first half of the course plays around (but not through) some heavily wooded areas, and there is often a gap that you have to hit on the way to the hole. The back 9 is more open, but most of the holes are not completely open and do have some trees to contend with. The moderate elevation changes are used well on the back 9.

Navigation was a breeze, and I didn't need a map. The next hole is pretty much always where you would guest it would be.

Tee signs are the same ones you see in most KC courses, and I am a fan of this type of design. The holes were usually visible from the tee, but the signs always made it clear where you were going and which position was in use (most holes had two positions).

The rough, while aesthetically pleasing, did force me to search a minute or so for some of my discs. The grass wasn't so long that you could really lose a disc, though.

Probably the biggest con for me was that there was clearly some wooded terrain that wasn't used for this course. There could have been some great short technical holes interspersed with the more open holes, although I recognize those types of holes are much more labor intensive.

There aren't any signature holes here, but all of them made me think about what line I wanted to take. The atmosphere was nice, and it did seem like a pretty family-friendly place. If there are some courses where the neighborhood (or the other disc golfers!) is too sketchy, this is a good alternative. The course didn't blow me away, but I had a fun round and would come back.

One of the newer courses in KC. This course continues to be improved over time. Alternate pin placements were added a few months ago; prior to that, the teepads and signage were upgraded. This park is beautiful and a pleasure to visit. Wide sweeping views balanced with forays into tree lined fairways make this park challenging, yet still friendly for new players. The new left turning dogleg pin placements on 10, 11, 12 really add depth to this course.

Avoid the lines on hole one and start across the street mid course. WIND! Everyday, regardless of weather. This course sits on a hill and gets lake generated wind, so the middle portion of the course will require thoughtful disc selection.

The front 6 offers relatively easy birdies, the middle 6 are solid par placements, and the back 6 will test your arm. Great balance. This is the most popular park in KC and makes for a great family outing, picnic destination, or hiking spot after the disc golf game.

Smp is a average course in a very nice multi-use park. Points for good size tee pads, trash cans, signage. Between parks/rec and the kc flying disc club course is well maintained and mowed. One of a few in south KC and much easier than Prairie Center and a lot shorter than Wyco. A friendly course to learn the game on but still not always an easy par round.

7,8,9 can be tough on windy days. 11-15 are bland back and forth. Gotta be sneaky with beers and other refreshments due to park cops in cars and bikes.

Pins are getting moved more often. League on tues nights during warm months. Looks like more improvements around tee pads and maybe some new holes in 2013. KCFDC.org for event info

- Tees and baskets are in good condition
- Benches and trash cans at most holes
- A good challenge for all skill levels
- A good variety of holes - a few wooded, a few wide open fairways, decent elevation changes on the back 9
- A fun course that is challenging, but not frustrating for new players

For some reason, I am not a huge fan of holes 2 and 3. Other than those holes, I really enjoy this course.

A good course. Good for beginners, intermediates, and upper-echelon players. I enjoy the challenge of this course. The hole distances are long enough, but not too long.

The course was really open and peaceful, the land was beautiful. The tee boxes are well maintained and clearly marked. Paths are mowed from basket to the next tee, and there are benches at every tee box incase it gets busy. Plenty of elevation changes.

Not very challenging for more experienced players. Mostly straight holes. Trees are mostly not a factor, however wind could be a HUGE factor.

Beautiful land. Very peaceful and quiet. Too bad I live 500 miles away, I'll definitely stop here and play this one again when I'm in town.

Though open, the pins are far enough away to make each hole a bit of a challenge.
Wind can effect the course, providing another good obstacle.
Not a busy course, but well maintained.
Good to learn on, and advanced players can work at getting under par.
The new hole locations/benches/and all other new things make this course very fresh and exciting.

I would prefer to have a few holes that are pretty short and very techincal and then also have a couple holes that are much longer and much more open.
A water hazard would be nice too.

This is a wonderful course in Kansas City. Beginners would love playing here because its not too long and its fairly wide open.
More advanced players would love playing here because of the great mix of longer holes with technique involved.

It is a very nice course with good distance and turns. There is a ton of shade for those hot and/or rainy days. It is a nice par 3 course with lots of obstacles to have fun with such as trees an woods.There were a few holes that I wanted to throw multiple drives on such as holes 6 and 7. The course is also mowed very nicely on the fairway.

I dont like how the rough is about 3 feet tall but its kinda fun with the challenge.I dont like the woods having tall grass and being pretty deep on holes 16 and 18 because I almost lost my driver probably 3 or 4 times. There are also no visible bathrooms. I also dont like how there is alot of space in between holes because there could be a few more smaller holes. There are also no holes that are less than about 250-245 ft.

Lots of walking. Pretty course thogh

This course is located in a slightly hills, prairie-like park. There are lots of slight uphill/downhill holes. The first few holes are moderate distance and moderately technical. Then It becomes mostly open with maybe 5-10 trees on each hole. Concrete Tees on every hole. Tee signs are great and very easy to read with all the necessary information. Baskets are in good condition and there are multiple pin placements on almost every hole. 17 and 18 are good finishing holes. 17 is a blind anhyzer shot and 18 is a blind hyzer shot.

No trash cans or benches in the park. After hole 6, there aren't any fun holes. It's almost like it was supposed to be a 6 hole course and the rest of the holes are just to get back to the parking lot. Anyway, after 6, all of the holes are straight and open, up and down a field.

This course has all the basics, just none of the, "wow factor". Good tees, good tee signs, good baskets, just not a good course design. I still rated this course a 3.5 (very good). I really enjoyed this playing this course, but it just wasn't good enough for a 4.

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Coming down #18, I had 3 huge wild turkey just pop out of the woods and started walking down the fairway with me. It was really cool. This place has some elevation, great tee pads, great tee signs, and decent baskets. The fairways are mowed nicely. You can tell it is well maintained. They have a message board and you really don't need a map as it is fairly easy to follow along.

Between many of the holes, there was enough space to put another hole in there. So expect to walk a bunch. Most of these holes are straight shots and I did not really feel much accuracy needed to navigate yourself through the holes. This place needs more trashcans, needs benches, and there was no bathroom on the course that I saw.

The Fun Factor here is not really doing it for me. This was just an OK layout for me. There really isn't anything wrong with this nice course. I just didn't have that feeling where I wanted to throw multiple drives on any particular hole.

Very well maintained throughout summer. Fairways are cut at least weekly. Makes it look like golf course with roughs. Trees in play on most holes. A few dog legs. Couple shorties. New cement boxes. New signs, Alternate pins. Added trash cans and benches to holes 1,4,10,13,and 16. Holes 1-3 start near the parking lot. and course follows across the street throughout a section of the park. Holes 12-16 go up and down a stretch with the downhill being long for great drives. and the up hills being shorter but need some technical ability. 18 finishes up the course with a blind dog leg left (unless alternate pin is in use).

Update: New trash can on hole 5 tee.

Tall grass, Lost a couple of discs to it. Lack of changing pins around, however the new pins were set up recently when worlds came through. Not enough trashcans they added one on holes #'s 1,4,10, 13, and 16.. Other than that you have to walk to find one. No bathrooms. unless you like the woods. Could invest in benches on every hole. With all the space in the park could easily put in a second course.

Awesome course. First one ever played. Hit it up at least once a week.

Shawnee Mission Park did a great job transforming this once heavily wooded and weeded area into a solid disc golf course. It has some very nice layouts with lots of variety. Some holes offer more technical shots because of all the trees around it, while others are more open and you more room to work with (there are still a few trees you have to worry about though). I like the way this course takes advantage of the hilly environment, especially on the back 9, to make some of the holes a little more challenging. A few holes encourage you to use forehand throws, while a few others encourage you to use backhand throws. There are also a few blind tee shots and a couple of doglegs. The fairways are in good shape, and the rough can be real weedy, especially in the summer, encouraging you to throw your disc more accurately.

From about mid spring to early fall, the woods in this park can be real nasty with all ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, and poison ivy. There might also be snakes in that area as well, including copperheads, so it'll probably be a good idea to keep your eyes on the ground when playing this course. There are a few holes in which the woods are real thick. If your disc goes in there, it can be kind of hard to find it, and can also be kind of tricky trying to throw your disc out of there. The 5th hole has too many trees in the way, and there are a few holes that are too wide open and could benefit from having more trees as obstacles.

Overall, this is a pretty fun course to play. Yes, there are a few holes that have room for improvement, but overall this course has a lot of good layouts, some of which can be real challenging in a good kind of way.

Very easy to find, and the course is very well maintained. There are a few restrooms, and trashcans available throughout the course.

The course is very well maintained, and plays excellently with the change of elevation, and natural surroundings. The course is in a very nice area of the city, with plenty of parking. It is not usually too crowded, and you won't find yourself waiting to play many holes, or feeling pressed to hurry up and finish.

Holes 3, 6, 12, and 16 are some of my favorites and all play on some of the different strengths of this course.

There isn't alot of variance in alot of the way these holes play. Holes 7-10 are all relatively straight, on flat land, with a few trees that come into play.

Holes 12-16 all play up and down the same elevations, but are of varying lengths, and some with more trees coming into play than others.

I've played this course a number of times, and I have yet to see any alternate pin placements.

This course remains one of my favorites, as it is really where I "learned" to play. It's a great challenging course, although it can get a bit repetitive, especially through 7-10 and 12-15. It still ranks as a "must play" course, and will have you coming back to play again, and again.

This is a great intermediate-advanced course, that will offer even more experienced players enough challenges to keep this course in their regular rotation.

The course now has multiple pins, making some of the holes quite a bit more challenging of a par for advanced am players. Before these pins went in, the hole were almost all or played between 300'and 400'. Now there are options for holes as short as 200' and as long as 500+'. None of the shots on this course are extremely technical unless you get off the fairway and into the woods on holes 1-7 and 16-18, but even then the trees have a strange tendency to kick you back into a relatively safe spot. There are many different lines you can take on most holes, which can be seen as either a good thing or bad. I personally like that I can work on different shots on the same course and same hole. This is a great course to come to alone and try some line shaping practice, and it usually is not so crowded that this cannot be done, however it is beginning to draw bigger and bigger crowds. The facilities on the course are good enough with a bathroom and water fountain to the right of hole 8 across the street. The course flows decently well, ending where it begins, and it also provides an opportunity to cut it short due to time, weather, etc. if you must and play 1-9 then hop over to 16 and finish from there. The fairways are usually well mowed and the rough provides enough of an inconvenience to give an incentive to stay in the fairway.

I really wish there were more scenic holes. The Shawnee Mission park property has ample opportunity for beautiful shots, and it seems to me the parks and rec department set aside the worst bit of land in the park for disc golf. Its still a fine bit of land, but there is so much potential on the property that its a bit of shame disc golf got stuck on land that could be used for ball golf. The elevation is usually a bit underwhelming at this course, and the trees do not provide enough of a challenge in the short pins for the experienced player. Holes 8-12 can be disproportionally more windy than the rest of the course due to their location on the top of a hill.

The front 9 are definitely the best 9 on this course, so if you are running low on time, be sure to play those. Holes 10-15 have long been complained about because they zig zag up and down a hill and a lot of people, however I still maintain that each hole on this course is fairly unique. I did acknowledge there are multiple lines for many holes, but each hole also has a very established preferred line. The preferred lines are really split down the middle-50% LHBH 50% RHBH, giving the better played the advantage instead of the played who happens to be right or left handed. As my home course for 3 years, I played it almost twice a week and it really never got tiring. If you're in the area, go ahead and hit up this course. Its not the ver best or very hardest in KC, but you will like this course all the same.

Not hard to find just inside the park entrance. Plenty of land and with lots of potential. Tee pads have recently been poured in time for 2009 Worlds. For its length, still friendly for recreational players as it is not terribly overwhelming. Elevation on holes 3-5 is used very well. These are the best holes on the course. Also some cool open holes where you can really rip some bomb drives. Rarely crowded and except for a couple of spots, flows really well.

Once you get past hole 10, the holes start to look all the same, and play all the same. About the only difference is whether you're going uphill or downhill. As of my last visit, they weren't mowing it terribly well either and you might be looking for your disc in 8" grass on several occasions. There are also some flow issues between holes 5-6, and again between 7-8. Hopefully, the introduction of teepads will solve this. SMP is infested with deer so watch out driving to/from the parking lot. Ticks and poison ivy are abundant in the wooded areas. Aggresive enforcement by park police (some of course might consider that a pro).

An oasis of repose in the middle of an urban area. SMP is located in a huge park that also serves as a nature preserve. If you enjoy having an adult beverage during your round, DON'T do it here. SMP has its own park police and players have been known to be confronted by park rangers to open their bags to check for alcohol. If you're caught, there is a stiff fine, as there is for being in the park after curfew or having your dog without a leash. OTOH, if you prefer a more family friendly environment where you can take your kids, this course will be up your alley. Efforts are being discussed to help curb the deer problem, in the meantime be careful.

-The land is really nice. The park is so huge that you forget you're in a KC suburb and feel like you're way out in nature, away from civilization. The first three holes border a woodland area, and I saw deer walking around in the early morning. The rest of the holes are my favorite type of terrain-- trees interspersed among grass. The well mowed fairways had a traditional golf feel.
-There are lots of elevation changes with 11 Down/ 6 Up/ 1 Flat. The back 9 is hillier than the front.
-There's an excellent map; it's one of the best I've ever seen.
-On the back 9 there were many mowed paths to lead the way to the next tee, so that made it easy to find your way.
-In the park office there are maps, a couple of discs for sale, and restrooms.

-Tee Signs: There are no tee signs. This is a big need that I hope they will address soon. This would make course navigation much easier.
-Tees: there really aren't any tee boxes. The tees only have bar in the front with the hole number on it. The tees are dirt, but they're level and adequate.
-Fairway shape variety is low. They're mostly straight and that gets a bit repetitive. There are 14 Straight/ only 1 Right to left / 3 Left to right.
-Length variety is somewhat low; the majority are in the 300-399 ft range. 3 of 231-299/ 11 of 300-399/ 3 of 400-441.

Course Level: Blue (most suited for Advanced players rated 925-975)

You be the judge-
My favorite hole: 14. It has a wide grass fairway with large scenic trees scattered all down both sides and an 18 ft elevation drop

With a length of about 6200 ft. shorter throwers, such as myself, won't be carding many deuces.

Navigation- with no tee signs or tee pads there's potential for the course to be hard to navigate. Don't even think about going there for the first time without taking the excellent map with you.

This is a good course on nice land, and I had fun playing it. Most holes are above average. There are no lame holes, but on the other hand, there are no holes that knock your socks off either. If there were tee signs and tee pads I'd bump my rating up to a 7. It's somewhat more wooded than other KC courses, so it's a nice addition to the area. I'd definitely go back again.

NOTE: Look in the "Links/Files" section for my files with Hole-by-hole evaluations, and a more detailed Overall review. You can also read more of my reviews at the Yahoo Group, DG Course Reviews, http://sports.groups.yahoo.co...ourseReviews/

New Mach 3 baskets. Ample parking. Good topography. Practice basket. A beautiful, huge park.

Grass (ie: dirt) tees. An abundance of straight holes. Little distance variation. No course signage.

My first thought when I arrived at the course was "Where is it?" The directions were a little confusing for a first-time visitor and the absence of a course welcome sign made it a little tough to figure out where the course started.

Tees are marked by boards buried flush with the ground, so it was a bit difficult in some places to immediately find the next tee.

The first 6 or so holes were a good start. Good variety of shot shapes and trees are plentiful. Unfortunately, the rest of the course seemed to be dominated by the "wide open drive to a protected basket" type of hole. I also found that most of the holes seemed to play to about the same distance. With the available land, it seemed that the course could have used a few multi-shot holes (par 4s) and a few shorter finesse holes to make things a bit more interesting.

Restrooms are located at baseball fields which are near the parking area for hole #1 and holes #12, #14, #16. There is also a restroom located along hole #8.

There is a great warm-up putting area with trees at th start
There are a good variety of hole types with great topography changes on almost every hole.

The real beauty of SMPark course is its tree lined fairways on most of the holes. There are several tightly lined tee shots that also require a low level toss. This did not factor in too much during the winter months, but as the trees bloom the course becomes more challenging. Current maintenance crews have let the prairie grass take hold and now mow the fairways regularly. This is a class 'A' groomed course!

The basket placement is done on most holes to create a decent challenge on your approach shots. A couple of the holes are easily reachable on the drive if the winds are calm enough. Duece opportunities exist throughout.

Hole variety coupled with the topography make for a fantastic challenge for long throwers as well as finese players.

Holes #5 is by far my favorite - The tee is nestled into the woods with about an 12' wide area to crawl out of. If your drive is straight enough to get out, it is possible to birdie the hole.

I have play this couse regularly and have never had to wait on a group yet. This is a really nice course with minimal player activity it appears.

Fantastic updated course map is available in the links section.

Concrete tee pads have been installed thanks to the World's in KC this year. great length!

Course navigation is now a breeze with the addition of new signage that is easy to spot from the previous basket. Hole signage is truly magnificant - again an addition due to the Worlds in KC this year.

trash cans are now installed so now we just need the players to use them in order to alleviate the trash/beer cans.

Wear a pair of hiking boots or similar when it's wet.
Lots of poison Ivy in the brush so beware!