Nice tee signs
3 different tee pads
Well maintained and roomy tee pads
Water and restrooms available
Navigation was surprisingly easy
Good mix of wooded and open holes
A few downhill holes that make you want to throw multiple shots just to watch the disc fly
Nicely maintained beautiful park

Nothing I can think of, may be a little out of the way for some

Park is host to some old farm equipment shows, has a tractor pull area and an old working saw mill on site. At the parking lot for the course there's a nice shaded area with horseshoes, clean restrooms and a large pavilion with vending machines. Park looks like it get a lot of use and a lot of attention from the county, very nice to see.

The course starts off with a downhill shot to a slightly tucked basket followed by a second downhillsh open shot into the woods. Kinda nice to have these 2 as openers to loosen up you arm as the course heads into the woods after that. The wooded holes had well defined fairways and while some were snug, all seemed fair and I didn't feel like there were any filler or novelty holes, everything seemed to be well thought out. Hole 9 takes you out of the woods and back up to the parking area, good to be able to refill on water or grab a snack half way through. 10 is another beautiful downhill shot into the wooded alley that's another bag emptier for a casual round, then back into the woods and same as the first 9, no gimmick or filler holes ending in 18 which is just an uphill distance hole sitting there just asking to be birdied if you can get it close.

Adding this to my list of courses to hit if I'm anywhere near the area and looking forward to playing it again. Also I hope like to see the farm equipment show and sawmill up and running one day too.

If a course gets a 4 or higher from me, it should be taken as an immediate "GO PLAY"

Sontag has almost everything you'd want in a disc golf course. You'll have a few open field shots, a few field to woods, a few woods to field and the majority are wooded, technical and long.

Don't expect to roll up in here and destroy this course, honestly I went into my first round here with survival in mind. I had been thoroughly warned that this course is a beast. It didn't disappoint. It will test your precision on nearly every hole. Apart from holes 1 and 18 (see cons below), I have very few complaints with the hole layouts.

In typical Hoeppner fashion, the course is two 9-hole loops, the only way any 18 hole course should be. This allows for tournaments and events like doubles to run a little smoother.

Placements shots are the name of the game here. You'll need to be accurate off the tee pad or you'll suffer from it. Even on the open/semi-open holes, your drive placement greatly determines if you have a reasonable shot at getting up-and-down. A bomb drive may look impressive, but if you're off the fairway just slightly, your score will suffer.

Challenge. You won't walk away from Sontag with a good score if you weren't on your game. You'll need to throw mostly technical driver shots, up, down, left and right. To add to the variety, you'll even need to throw technical putters and mids off the tee on several holes. Even the par 4's and 5's sometimes lend themselves to mids/putters off the tee as placement is more important than distance.

There are plenty of benches on the course (what appeared to be 90% of holes, including some at the blue tees). You'll need them.

Despite being natural/gravel, the tee pads were VERY big in most cases. Even those guys that Happy Gilmore from off the tee pad should be able to start on the pad on most holes. The only exception to that was hole 6 I believe, which didn't need a huge run-up but was half-occupied by a root structure.

To get things started, hole 1 is a little lackluster. A wide open field, flat, into the a small wooded alcove. Basically you have to throw it straight and hope it pokes through the first tree line.

Since we're talking about individual holes, hole 18 also left a lot to be desired. To be worked out the way I was through 17 holes, I expected something epic for the finality. I was pretty disappointed with a wide open mid range shot.

There were a few navigational stumbling blocks. If I hadn't been playing with someone who had played the course before, I'd probably wandered around a little between a few holes. A course this nice shouldn't suffer from little detriments such as this. Hopefully some locals will take this issue on.

Natural tee pads/Gravel tee pads are a big pet peeve of mine. I don't think I could give a course any higher than a 4.5 with either of these tee's. They don't allow for good form on the tee and also up the chance of injury quite a bit.

There is technically water in play, but it really isn't in play for anyone over Intermediate level. It's a dog leg left as is, the only way you end up in the water is if you throw the wrong disc. Only inexperienced players will worry about the water hole. It would've been cool to see more of the lake used in the shot.

I was hoping for a little more variety on the open shots. There wasn't any in-between from wide open to densely wooded either. It was all or nothing, but mostly all (the trees!). Only 3 holes could be considered "open" and hole 18 is a honestly an embarrassing finish for such a fantastic course.

You'd have to be a masochist to subject yourself to the blue tees, I'd imagine. It's probably fun once or twice, but even the top pro might come out of the woods hating themselves. I'd be interested to see what the course records are from each tee.

I wouldn't recommend this course to the rec players of the DG world. Intermediate players should know what they're getting into and might want to play red tees first. If you're Advanced or higher, this course will test your game and is a blast if you play well (I was lucky enough to shoot -2 from white) but I'm sure it could be demoralizing if you're not on.

18 hole course set in a remote park with nice facilities. There are bathrooms and a huge gazebo right near hole #1. There are three sets of tees for each hole and nice baskets. The entire park is well maintained. The course is also nicely taken care of. Grass is cut short, paths are clear, and steps, bridges and pads are well done.

The strength of this course is its great variety. While it is known for its long wooded holes, it also has some short wooded holes and some wide open bombs. Truly something for everyone.

Along with the variety in the style of hole there is also a nice use of available elevation. While there is no top of the world shot, there are some really fun downhill shots and some long uphill stretches. There are also plenty of lefts and rights. Nothing is repetitive, and the course does not favor any particular shot.

Hole length variety is also nice. Yeah, there are a good number of long wooded holes with tight lines. But, there is also a handful of shorter wooded holes that force you to hit a line. There are even a few fair ace opportunities for the average player.

A truly challenging course from the long pads. You will need length and accuracy to score well. You can't be a one trick pony and conquer Sontag from the long pads. Lots of fun.

Natural pads in the grass and gravel in the woods. Maybe not a true con, but they could be improved. The gravel pads are well done and huge though.

Signs are rudimentary and could be improved. When you have long, winding holes, good, accurate signs are nice to have.

While this course isn't perfect, it is a truly top notch course. With a few refinements it could even be considered great. The one debatable aspect of this course is the design of some of the wooded fairways. Is it really necessary to have lots of late trouble or heavily guarded basket positions on long wooded holes with tight fairways? Or to have a random tree or two in the middle of a long tight fairway? I guess it's a matter of personal opinion, but whatever the case a few of Sontag's holes seem to have an element of luck added to an otherwise nice hole.

IMO hole #10 is a great hole. It is 700-800' depending on what pad you play from. It is a sweeping downhill shot over the well tended grass. Then you must hit a gap to enter the final 250-300' of wooded fairway that tightens as you approach the basket. Lots of fun.

I also really enjoyed #16. It is a slightly downhill tunnel with a thin strip of trees down the middle. You can throw the left line or the right and have a fair chance at success. White pad is 360' and blue is 390'. It is just a great looking hole.

If this course was closer to a large population center I think it would be much more talked about. It needs a few more touches, but it certainly is in the ballpark of courses like Iron Hill, Nevin, Nockamixon or the Angry Beaver. If you are in VA it is a must play.

- Great variety of distances & types of holes, including long downhill drives, tight wooded shots, water hazards, etc.
- Makes excellent use of elevation on several holes (10 is awesome)
- Very picturesque, most of the course is untouched woods. Playing the course feels like a hike through the woods.
- Part of a large recreation park that contains restrooms, picnic shelter, & several other sports facilities. However, this portion of the park is dedicated to disc golf so there's no conflict with pedestrians or other activities.
- Compacted gravel tee pads on the wooded holes

- There are a couple fairways that could stand to have a few trees removed. In some cases luck more so than skill is involved to clear some of these trees.
- None of the new/redesigned holes have good signage, there is currently just a hand-drawn sketch at each tee indicating the par & distance.

I wanted to play the redesigned course for a few months before posting my review. The old layout was definitely my favorite local course, so naturally I was unhappy when I found out about the required changes that were being made. A few of my favorite holes unfortunately had to be axed (3 and 12 are especially missed) but the course designers did a good job keeping as much of the existing course as possible. I really like some of the newer holes, like 2, 5 and 7, that create some interesting lines the course previously didn't offer.

Overall this course is extremely challenging, it forces you to use a variety of different shots & discs. Good mix of wide open vs. tightly wooded holes. The key on the majority of the holes is to keep on the fairway, accuracy is definitely more important than distance. I feel like this course, more so than any other, has helped me to become a better player over time.