Shorewood is an awesome throwback style course. It's old school, opening in 1981 and the design shows. Which is a good thing. It's a look back in time to how courses used to be designed when people were tossing lids around. And it's still a damn fun course to this day.

The course meanders through a pretty clean, well maintained park. A creek winds through a few of the holes and offers additional challenge as it plays OB. Many of the holes have mandos which also add some extra challenge, but seem to mainly be for safety purposes. Really solid design for the available space provided.

The baskets are Chainstars, which are all in good shape and catch fine. No compaints with these. One pin position per hole.

The tee pads are nice sized, level concrete. More than adequate for the distances you'll encounter here. There were long tees on a number of the holes, not sure if these were concrete or not but I don't believe they were.

There's a good mix of shot shapes required here, though it did seem to favor RHBH. There's still a number of both dead straight and right bending shots here too though. A few of the mandos make these necessary unless you got a mean RHBH turnover game.

The flow of the course is generally pretty easy to follow. It's a bit of a walk down the park road to get to hole 3, other than that all the next holes are easy to find. Course starts and ends right by the parking lot too.

The tee signs are really basic but serve their purpose here. You can see most baskets from the tee so you know where to throw anyway. The signs do offer a very basic hole map showing any mandos and OB in play. They also show the hole #, distances from either tee and par. All the info you really need here.

The course is permanent and free to play. I'd be playing here all year long if I lived nearby. It would be a fantastic winter course with the shorter distances. There's trash cans and picnic tables throughout the course and a restroom by the parking lot.

The holes play very close together. Overlapping on each other in places. Probably not too big of an issue when people were throwing frisbees back in the back. A lot sketchier when noobs are chucking Dominators and Firestorms wildly off the tee on sub 200' holes.

This can also make throwing to the wrong basket quite possible as the baskets can be so close together in a few spots.

The course wasn't terribly busy on a tuesday evening, though from what I hear that's not always the case. If this course is busy, there will be backups all over. Our group of 3 was stuck behind a group of 5 for probably four holes before they let us play through. Not necessarily a con, just a heads up.

The distances here are on the short side. I mean really short side so if you like to air it out on every hole this will not be the course for you. Which is ok, there's tons of other options for you nearby.

I was on a mission to finally play all the Joliet area courses over the last few days and this was the second to last one I needed to play. And man am I glad I waited until the end to play this one, in a good way, because I got through all the worse ones before getting to enjoy this treat at the end. I loved this course. It's not the best course around but it's just a damn fun place to play a round.

This isn't a course to go out of your way to play by any means. And I fully understand that the Canyons, West Park and Highland Park are very nearby. But if you got a little extra time I'd certainly recommend Shorewood. I'll be playing this one the next time I'm down here, no doubt about it. Super fun old school course.

Shorewood Park is a classic 18-hole course full of tight and technical shots through a mix of wooded and more open fairways. This course is a great option for newer players looking to test their accuracy and shot selection, and provides a fun round of old-school feeling disc golf.

Location of Shorewood Park is right near the junction of Interstates 55 and 80, and is right off the highway exit when coming from the south. You can also access this park from the other direction on a separate exit on 55. The park has a sign at the entrance, but blink and you will miss it, so keep an eye on your GPS. There are food and gas options not far from the park in Shorewood. If you are looking to make a day of disc golf, this course isn't far from other courses in the southwest greater Chicago area. If you're looking for higher rated courses, The Canyons in Lockport is not too far away, along with Highland Park in Joliet. This is one of a few older courses in the area, with Community Park and the redesigned West Park (the oldest course in Illinois) are also close. These options, combined with other 9- and 18-hole courses in the general area, provide plenty of options for you.

Park Amenities are catered almost exclusively to the disc golf course at Shorewood Park. The park includes a water fountain, picnic tables, a port-o-john, picnic tables, benches, and a parking area. Parking will fill up quick on a nice day, as this course gets a lot of play from locals. There aren't really any other amenities here; no real trails or other areas for other sports, so disc golf is the head attraction at this place.

Course Equipment at Shorewood Park is a mix of new and old. The old fiberglass signs have been updated to simplistic signs that include a general layout of each hole, the distances from each tee to the pin, the hole's par, and an outline showing OB areas. The signs look brand new, and are all in great shape with the exception of hole 10, which looks to not have been updated yet. The white tees are not really marked well, but the red tees all have concrete tees that are in great shape. The baskets at variations of older Chainstars, and while they are clearly on the old side, they still get the job done. The signs also make not of doglegs on the course, and yellow markings either on the ground or on trees are also in place to make note of doglegs that are in place. There are also trash cans at most of the holes, so don't be a litter bug. There's also a bulletin board at hole 1.

Course Design at Shorewood has been virtually unchanged as long as I can remember playing this course, and older members of this site seem to agree that the original charm of the course is still in place. Most of the holes are under 300 feet, with many being shorter than 200 feet. The course makes up for the short length with technical requirements, with plenty of sharper fairway turns, doglegs, and tight tunnels. Most players won't need much more than putters or midranges on this course, but being able to throw dead straight, left turning shots, and right turning shorts will all be necessary to score low here.

Variety, outside of length, is great at Shorewood. Holes like 3, 6, 9, and 10 will require straight shots, while holes like 4, 5, 8, and 16 will require very tight turns to the left or right to challenge for a birdie. Other holes like 2, 13, and 17 will provide more open shots, though there are still ways to get in trouble on these holes if you don't hit your line.

Difficulty at this course mostly revolves around navigating the wooded holes. Newer players will find this course to be a good challenge to try different shot shapes out with slower discs. While this course mostly won't be too challenging for intermediate players and up, it still provides a fun and quick round of golf, as long as it isn't too busy.

Course Equipment is mostly in good shape at Shorewood, but the baskets are starting to show their age. I'm pretty sure some of these baskets might be older than me. While they still get the job done, I think updated Chainstars would really elevate this course. Despite the course's age, the signs and tee pads are in pretty good shape, leaving the baskets as the sole potential weak point. The white tee pads could also use some attention, even if the markers in place were just enhanced or cleaned to make them easier to find.

Safety is something that may come to mind as you play a round at this course. The land this course is on is really just large enough for the course, and as a result, many fairways are close to each other. Many tee pads are only a few feet from the previous pin as well. In addition, the road used to access the course snakes around holes 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 14, and 15, with it being very easy to land on the road with an errant throw. Many blind turns on the road also mean it may be hard to see cars coming before you throw. Make sure you use caution when throwing on this course, and be mindful of other players and cars. Also, be sure to drive slowly on the road; many fairways really do go right along the roadway. Some of the white tees cross the road as well; use extra caution if you do a round from these.

Mud can be a consistent obstacle at this course that sticks around long after the most recent rain has passed. There is a creek that gets thrown over multiple times during a round here. While there are bridges over the creek, the areas by the creek is almost always muddy. If it has rained recently, many of the more wooded holes will also stay muddy for a while. Make sure you wear shoes that can navigate mud well if it's rained in the last week.

Course design, while providing variety in many ways, does have limitations that come with being an older course on a small plot of land. If you are looking for opportunities to bomb drives, this is not the course for you, with 300 feet being just about the maximum distance you will find here. If you aren't a fan of tight wooded holes, or extreme short doglegs, this course will not be one you enjoy. Folks looking for a genuinely wooded secluded course might also get the wrong idea when coming to this course. While it is wooded, it's also clearly a city park with nearby neighborhoods and businesses right next to the park. The nearby highways can also easily be heard from the course.

Shorewood Park is a time capsule that shows where disc golf has come from in its old days. The course was built long before 13 speed drivers and longer fairways were more common, and really maximizes the space this small park has to offer. If you want to play a short-wooded golf course, this is a great option for you. These older wooded courses will always hold a special place in my heart, even if they aren't as well rounded as many newer courses now in place. A course from the 80s that you only need putters and midranges for? Don't threaten me with a good time.

This course and park seem to be getting some more love than when I lived in the area a decade ago. When I lived nearby, this course had graffiti and trash all over the place. Now, the signs are new and improved, there wasn't any trash really to be seen during my round earlier this month, and everyone on the course seemed to be respectful of each other given the proximity of the fairways and the number of players that were playing at the same time. Hopefully this wasn't a fluke and this course is getting more love now; this park will surely always feel like a blast from the past, but will some regular attention, it can remain a welcoming place to play disc golf.

If you're looking for a fun and short 18 hole to play, look no further than Shorewood Park. There are plenty of other better courses nearby, but the fun factor that Shorewood can bring can go up with the best of them. If you can, make time for this old school course after your round at The Canyons or one of the other courses in the Southwest Chicago area.

- Short, technical fairways usually reward good shots with birdies, lots of ace runs.
- The few longer holes like 2 and 17 add some needed distance variety and interesting lines.

- Plays really short and really flat through most holes.
- An overabundance of dog-leg holes, particularly of the left-to-right variety.
- Equipment is getting quite old, some of the baskets could really use replacing and many of the tee-signs are completely illegible either due to fading or graffiti.

With the overabundance of quality disc golf courses in the area, it took me quite a while to play Shorewood Park. This old course is not without its charm and fun factor, but it is showing its age. This course is short, and even with the tight, wooded fairways that dominate most of it birdies are probably much more common than bogeys for players beyond novice level. That said, there is certainly fun to be had hunting for aces and birdies when even an early tree hit leaves you with only a +/- 100' upshot for par.
There is some line-shaping required here, and a few holes where straight and accurate shots are needed, but the course does seem to be dominated by dog-legs, with the majority favoring left to right hooks. I love throwing forehand in the woods, so many of these fairways suited my play style, but less experienced players or those who struggle to throw left to right accurately may get discouraged at the number of times that shot is required to shoot well here. The longer holes are mostly open with several lines available off the tee. It looks like some holes have long tee locations without concrete pads, but I, and I know many others aren't either, am not interested in hunting down long tees if they don't have pads and signs while the shorts do. Long tee pads would be great to breathe some new life into this course.
There are a couple of spots where the path to the next tee pad is not obvious, and my group spent some time turning in circles or wandering around a bit. Simply taping or painting a tine on the baskets to indicate the direction to the next tee would help a lot. Speaking of baskets, the Chainstars are a bit mixed here, many are fine and in good repair, but a number are of the older variety with the really shallow cages and thinner chains. These could really stand to be replaced, and we had a number of bad spit-outs and discs travel through the chains during the round. The tee signs are frequently useless due to fading or graffiti, but luckily, there are only a few spots where the location of the basket isn't immediately obvious.
This is a decent course, but the graffiti, garbage, and surrounding neighborhood/highway detract a bit from the experience. I enjoyed my round, but will be hard pressed to make a return with all of the other courses of higher quality 5-15 minutes away. If you are traveling more than 30 minutes to visit the area, you will be better served by playing Community Park in Channahon, West Park, Highland Park, or The Canyons. However, if like me you have played the other courses in the area many times, and are looking for something new to try, Shorewood Park is worth checking out.

This is an old school course that dates to 1981. I should know, I started playing it as soon as it went in. At the time, it was a nice change of pace from West Park. Steady Ed Headrick had something to do with the design of this course. The PDGA course directory states that he designed the "alt tees".

Nowadays it retains its original "charm" and is a fun course to play.

Sure, it is pretty short, but remember, it was designed for lid type discs. Plenty of ace runs, in other words!

The course winds through the park, along the entrance road and back and forth across a little creek.

It can be quite muddy in the rainy season.

The course is old and has always had a certain stigma about it. Graffiti, litter, and a somewhat low standard of maintenance seems to be the problem here.

The course has been pulled and put back in over the years. Hopefully, she is back for good now.

Even though this area has a wealth of newer, better courses, this course will always have a special place in my heart. It really is quite fun to play, if you go in knowing its history and limitations.

In my heart, it's a 4-star course, but I rated it at 2.5 (decent/typical for a 1981 course!).

- Easy to find holes, decent signs
- Not much chance of losing a disc to water- my biggest pet peeve. There is a lake but it's blockaded by trees and growth usually
- I've never seen anyone else there- you'll probably get the place to yourself!
- good, quick warm-up before going to West Park or one of the others around here.

- Shots were very short, even for my unskilled noodle arm.
- Mud. Mud everywhere.
- Dirty, trash scattered around
- not really the "in-the-woods" feel that I like about a lot of other nearby courses.

the 7-11 down at the 59/52 intersection sells some discs!

- Good mix of holes inside the forest, and holes in the open. The holes in the forest have lots of smaller trees dotting the fairways, there are lines to the basket but they are very tight in some places. Good amount of mature trees in the open holes too.
- Some elevation changes, especially through the forest. A lot of holes are over a small valley that has a small creek. So, a good shot is more or less on flat ground, while a bad shot could leave you with an uphill approach.
- There are a couple holes that demand a certain shot, but usually it is just a matter of getting it there without hitting branches. Throwing it straight will cover most of the holes, but there were a few turns here and there.
- Good tees, signage, and baskets. Some alternate tees, though they weren't marked on the signs. Some were obvious, some not so much. Lots of bridges and wood walkways help to avoid some muddy areas.

- This course suffers in terms of length. Many holes under 200', and overall it felt very short. Not a lot of space to work with, a lot of holes are crammed into small areas. Stray discs can easily find other holes.
- Some of the holes play right next to the entrance road, both human and vehicle traffic to worry about. One of the alternate tees has you going across the pavement.

- A beginner technical course. Too many holes are way too short, and there aren't many holes that stand out. Becomes a chore to avoid a lot of small trees that don't really encourage a certain line, just random luck at times.
- For an experienced player, it is putter practice. Leave the distance drivers in the car.

-Cement Teepads
-Well signed
-Pavilion/Picnic Tables
-Port-a-Potty (in season)
-Garbage Can
-Mostly secluded park (other things however rarely used)
-Practice basket
-Offers something for all player types

Although this is definitely not a challenging championship type course, it is still a course I like to frequent when I am this direction. There are bunch of holes under 200, and maybe three that are over 300...barely. With that being said, there is a great opportunity to use you bag/discs to learn how to shape your shots. There are anhyzers, hyzers, doglegs, and mandos to challenge and give you an opportunity to practice form and quality of shots. Alot of the shorters holes are heavily wooded. The "longer" holes are more open. It's a great putter/midrange/fairway driver course to practice on. Plus it is easy enough to bring newer players where they will not get as frustrated, but still show them what disc golf is about and has to offer. It's what I considered a fun course, not than a challenging course. I still enjoy going there whether it's with a group to enjoy a casual round or alone to work with my midranges and putters. There is enough trees and tight lines to make it enough of a challenge, but very duece friendly. Plus it has that old school nostalgia feel that you do not get from newer courses.

-short course
-road comes into to play too much
-some baskets are too close to each other
-lack of overall challenges

Although enjoyable, the course is still very short. There is next to no room to expand. They used the park to it's full potential. The problem is it's a small park. It also went in way before the disc technology got to where it is today. Any high rated player would not find this park a challenge at all. Any casual player would love this place. Shooting even would not be consider rare by any stretch of the imagination. They road could come into play on many holes when throwing. There are some good hyzer routes over the car path which could lead to someone's disc getting ran over. I always drive extra slow to the parking lot when going through there when I see people playing just incase. I don't want to play a round thinking about how I just crushed someone's 10x Roc.

With there being better courses in the area, this course still getts plenty of play. The layout could be slightly confusing at first play, but it is relatively easy to follow. I can see throwing at a couple of the wrong baskets the first time through. Signs are at each teepad, so recommend looking at them closely. There are a few long tees, if you can find them. If you are looking for a fun course, it's here. Also if you're hitting the Joliet area for a couple courses during the day this is a great first round warm up course. Definitely not the hardest course in the area, but worth a stop.

The strongest aspect of the course is the variety of shots it requires. A great place for new players to practice various technical shots without major consequences or much of a risk of losing discs.

While there is a little park once you get out of the woods around holes 11-12, there was nobody there, so it's pretty much a disc golf only area from what I could tell.

Baskets and concrete tees were all in very good shape.

The course was pretty clean thanks to garbage cans on most tees,

Very short. About half of the holes were around 200 feet or less. Will probably not offer much of a challenge to experience players as almost all holes can be birdied pretty easily.

Very muddy. Holes 3-11 play through woods where there is almost no grass at all, so be prepared to get muddy.

A stream runs through the woods and at a couple crossings only some old wooden planks exist to cross on so there's definite wipe out potential for kids or people who don't have their balance right.

Most of the signs were really old and vandalized, making some of the pars and distances unreadable... definitely in need of some new ones.

Overall it's not too bad of a course. Right off 55 so it's pretty accessible, and one of several good courses in the area, so there's potential for it to be part of a multi-course day for somebody who's trying to hit some or all of the area courses in a single day.

The course plays through a wooded park with dense trees and a small creek. There are some small elevation changes, and they are used very well to add interest and some difficulty. The creek comes into play on several holes, and adds a little bit of a risk/reward decision on those holes without being large enough to keep you from retrieving your disc.

There is a great mix of straight, right, and left turning holes. The course didn't ever feel repetitive, and it was nice to have to use a variety of different shots. There was also a good mix of tight holes through dense trees, and more open holes with some scattered mature trees. Many of the holes have various different lines you can take that offer different looks at the basket with different levels of risk/reward.

There are short and long tees on many holes, which adds a nice level of extra challenge and some different looks from the longs. The short tees are all nice concrete pads with good tee signs. The course is easy to navigate for the most part, with only two spots that are at all confusing.

The biggest con is the lack of real distance anywhere on this course. Most players won't need more than a midrange on any hole, and most are reachable with putters. There were just a few too many ace runs here, though at least the trees make you work for it.

The long tees were just mud spots with some small concrete markers. They didn't provide very good surfaces to tee from, and were often a little difficult to find at first. There were a couple spots on the course that were a little difficult to navigate the first time through, an easy problem to solve with a couple next tee markers.

The course was pretty crowded with groups of inexperienced players. Many seemed a little ignorant of good course etiquette, which meant that large groups were backing up a bunch of smaller groups behind them, and there were some single players throwing on people as they tried to play through.

This course is a great beginner course, with pretty easy navigation and not too much length. There isn't much brush in the woods, so errant shots are pretty easy to find, and the difficulty is good without being discouraging. More experienced players will find some fun challenges here, especially to their short game, but won't find too much real difficulty to keep them coming back.

This is definitely a course worth playing if you're in the area, especially with some other fun courses around. Make a stop here, especially if you're looking for a quick, fun round on a pretty course.

This is a superb beginners' course as is showcases what disc golf is all about and makes birdies conceivable for even first time players.

But, I review courses based on my tastes, so here is what I personally like and how this course stacks up:

1) Holes with good risk/reward. Fair, but harsh punishment for bad decisions or execution. == B- (Pretty good use of trees to create relatively narrow fairways on half the holes. Problem is that the holes are too short for bad throws to be unrecoverable.)

2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities for me. I throw 300' accurately, 360' max. == C- (Only hole #2 is not easily parkable. No thrill in parking any of the others.)

3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography == A- (Great layout and great variety)

4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion. == B (Other than hole 7 where you are by an industrial area, this course feels quite secluded from civilization and the park is relatively pretty. The holes are not secluded from each other at all.)

5) Bonus points for multi-shot holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them. == N/A

It's all about feeding the addiction, so I ranked this course subjectively based on my own "personal addiction factor". The grades above tell how well the course will draw me back to itself again and again and again. Since I have played a decent number of courses (125 18-hole, 64 9-hole as of mid 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar addiction tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they choose courses to play and explore.

I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me....that's the fun of things here. See my profile for my rating philosophy.