(4.212 Rating) A blue-ribbon worthy woods course with 3 layout options
- 3 LAYOUTS - Shelton Springs recently got a substantial upgrade. On what used to be a two-layout course, has now been upgraded to have 3 tees on every hole. Reds are the shorts, Whites are the middle tees and the Blues are the longs. To my knowledge the extra newly installed tee went to either the blue layout or the white layout, thus if someone played the old long layout, the next round would have a mix of old and new tees to throw from. I appreciated having the options, and ultimately elected to try the White tee layout called Timber Claw. Timber Claw is ideal for MA2 level players, while the Red Springboard layout is ideal for MA3s and the Blue Misery Whip layout is ideal for MA1s.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - Of the twenty courses I hit on my trip to the Pacific Northwest, I scored the beauty here in a tie for the highest, but just shy of my top 40 among my 620 courses played as of this review. Shelton Springs is blessed with lots of heavy woods comprised mostly of skyscraping Douglas Firs. It's a very tranquil and enlightening environment to throw in. Hard for me to pick a favorite looking hole, as many of them had a similar looking play and feel to them, but I'll go with hole (15), as there is some subtle elevation movement on that one.
- SIGNAGE AND NAVIGATION - Courses like this one, need a lot of navigational cues, and this place has them. Great tee signs that are color coded. Lots of extra navigational signs directing traffic after finishing holes. I made only one goof during my round. The only missing navigational element is a posted course map.
- AMENITIES - In addition to the nice signage and 3 tees, the amenities package as a whole, is elevated. Benches are present at seemingly half of the tees. New high quality red-banded baskets are present. There's a practice basket, portapotty and lost disc drop box near tee (1). I enjoyed seeing the chain man artwork near the parking area as well.
- HOLE VARIETY - The 3 layout options in itself, provides variety. What I liked just as much, was the fact that the hole distances vary substantially regardless of the layout chosen. There are 1000 foot par 5s here and low 200 foot holes. There are dogleg multi-play holes and a few holes that make an escape from the woods. The only attribute holding this aspect back is the monotonous feel of the woods. See cons below.

- MONOTONY - To me, the similar looking feel hole to hole, is the biggest reason why this course falls short of the 4.25 threshold on my ledger. If someone showed me a picture of a random wooded hole, it might take me 8 guesses to call-out the correct hole number. It's wooded, void of water and flat. The landscape has very few differential elements to it. Not the courses fault, the land is what it is.
- TIME PLAY - Shelton Springs, like most high quality courses, is not a quickie. I would recommend taking the time to savor this one rather than trying to blow through the round like I did. Anyways, as a blind solo on the Whites, it took me 55 minutes.
- FINISH FROM PARKING - I found the parking situation to be weird. Unless I did it wrong, it appears players are supposed to park along the wide shoulder on North Shelton Springs Road. Tee (1) isn't too far from the street, but (18) is at least an 800-foot walk back.
- FAKE ISLAND - I don't take points off for this, but I very much did not like the gimmick improv island hole. I think it was hole (11). It does add difficulty, but I don't award points for unnecessary gimmick difficulty inflators. The lining masonry block boundary also looks like an eyesore in these majestic woods. I also didn't like (10s) unnecessary fake OB area along the right with its ugly yellow spraypainted trees.

Shelton Springs is an awesome course all around. I played 10 courses in the Seattle Metro area on my trip out here, and this was my favorite far and away. I think its destination worthy, which is not something I often say for courses that are flat and water-free. Plus it will appeal to a wide swath of skill levels due to the 3 tee element. Beginners would be best to stay clear however. Anyways, a very strong 4.0 course to me. If it were flawless, I may have considered a low 4.5 rating. It reminded me of a couple 3-tee courses in my personal top 30. The Admiral in Mobile Alabama, and O'Hauser near Appleton Wisconsin. All of which I have given a strong 4.0 course rating.

I recently played Shelton Springs at the 2022 Washington State Senior Games (English Translation- Old people who can't throw very far). Shelton Springs is one of Washington states premier course. An argument could be made that it is Washington's number 1 course. More on that later.

SSDGC sits on a large piece of Washington forest and on the neighboring power lines fields. The courses weaves back and forth between the two. The forest is typical for Western Washington with lots of large mature Fir trees with Salal and other plants providing the rough.

The course now has good sized concrete tees on both the Black and Shorter Red tees. Longer championship Gold tees are in the works. From the Black tees the course plays 8360' feet. Us old folks threw from the Red tees which provide a solid intermediate challenge at just under 6700'. From either tee, the trees are the main challenge, or missing said trees is the challenge . In the forested part of the course, the trees are present off the tee, in the fairways and almost always protecting the baskets. The baskets are Chainstars, which are in good shape. The signs which are imbedded in stone columns are vandal resistant, are colorful, nice and informative. Garbage cans are scattered and there is a porta-potty at the start and another at the halfway point. There are benches at each hole and the shade is welcome on summer days.

The course is absolutely clean with no litter present and almost no vandalism noted except for the # sign which is missing. Downed limbs and branches are quickly taken care of. The Mason County Disc Golf Club is active and takes pride in this course.

The course is flat, which to me limits it's appeal as to be being Washington's finest. Without elevation, there can be no epic downhill.

To me, there is no signature hole here. Not one, that will forever remind me of Shelton Springs.

The holes playing under the power lines are pretty blase. # 4 is just an open 300' without any obstacles.

There is no water.

So back to that argument as to Shelton Spring's ranking among the state's top course. As far as challenge, it's probably a toss up with Sea Tac. Both are a bear from the long tees. The courses are Crystal Mountain are, no doubt more challenging, but I don't count them as they are more gimmicky, being open just 3-4 months. My Washington state personal favorite is Camp Selani Jamboree in Spokane with it's plethora of delicious downhills.

Picking your favorite Washington course is probably akin to picking a Shelton Springs signature hole, I doubt whether there is a consensus favorite. As for my rating here. I would score it about a 4.2 if I were allowed. On the DGCR standards, 4.5 is phenomenal and 4.0 is excellent. Being flat, with no water and average in beauty, I see Shelton Springs as being more excellent and less phenomenal. Maybe it's an an excellent course with phenomenal challenge.

Very clean & well kept. Excellent navigation, and signs. Nice tee pads pro and am. Nice baskets very well kept. Lots of holes to air out but must hit your lines as well. The black tees will make you work for your pars

Not many cons only tiny things is No elevation change...not a fan of hole 18 however very beautiful basket setting.

Worth the drive for sure and you will not regret playing this

Great course! ... VERY WELL MARKED. ... A technical course (mostly wooded) that will make you throw every disc and every type of shot. (and yes, you can even air it all out on a few holes!) ... Huge concrete tee pads .... Beautiful wooden benches on virtually every tee. .... VERY, VERY CLEAN. I saw NO trash thrown on the ground, not even a cigarette butt. ...... Good clean paths, nicely covered in wood chips. .... Very well designed. Everything is tight and compact, and not spread all out and about. But you never feel imposed upon. ... Red / black tees are quite different from one another, not just a longer version of the red ones. .... And this park is just for disc golf.

No smoking!? Really!??? (yeah right -- and yes, I do pack out my cigarette butts) ..... Kind of noisy (local traffic) on the field holes. .... A long walk to hole 1 from the parking lot. (try and park along Shelton Springs Rd., not in the parking lot.) ..... No elevation at all. .... The 'field' holes detract from the beauty of the course, especially having to walk along the road to get to red #3.

This is the cleanest course I've ever seen. And very well marked (which is great when you play a course for the first time). ..... It's also really nice that it's both a very technical course and an 'air it out' kind of a course.

Very clean and well maintained. Good veriety of play options. When trees or limbs fall on the course of play they are removed or cleaned right away. Under brush has been thinned to help you find a lost disc, but still looks natural and healthy. Shelton is proud of this course and it shows in its maintenance and design. Well done!

Would like to see at least one more outhouse mid course or near the PUD building...

All around an excellent experience for new players like myself and the more prolific throwers as well.

-2 tees on every hole(red and black)
-Good signs at the tee breaking down distance, par, etc.
-Course is very well maintained, don't really have to worry about looking for discs unless you have a really poor shot
-Good Variety of holes, allowing you to use all the shots in your arsenal

-I would've liked to see a kiosk at hole 1 with some course info and such
-Some of the next tee signage could've been better placed. This is a minor concern and once you play the course once the layout is natural
-Seems like parking could be a bit of an issue on a busy day

Overall I would say this is a great course. I really like the variety, long and short holes, some wooded, some wide open. It really allowed me to mess with a variety of shots. My favorite hole was probably 11, which wasn't very long but had a mandatory 'island' you needed to land in. Seems like the local club is doing great things here, you can tell the course gets a lot of love and i'm sure it will continue to get better and better.

Love to play here. Course is very challenging yet very playable. Playing from the red tees is as hard as playing from the black tees. Both set of tees have different challenges and types of throws from the pads. If you get in the thick stuff...hard to find your disk. Wish this course was closer, would play it more!

Not really a 'con' but course could use a locked 'found-lost' disk box. Drove to disk shop to turn one in this week.

Great layout! mostly through the washington forrest, uses all of your throws,challenging, some actual par 4's from the pro tees! fun! stroller friendly. great all around local course!

wish it had some elevation...but i guess you cant have everything. on some holes if you make make a bad throw or hit a tree, there is some thick ground brush or foliage that will "devour" your disc...

awsome tee pads, good sign placement, pro and am tees for every hole...good stuff!

Massive number of trees and beautiful setting. Loved the moss covered fairways and it was easy to find most discs. I probably shouldn't have played the Black course first cause it was LONG!! Great marking and arrow signs to get around.

No much elevation change. Looking forward to those cement tee pads. Too many trees but that's also a Pro.

Nice work MCDG.