Northfield, MN

St. Olaf College

Permanent course
2.095(based on 11 reviews)
Filter course reviews

Filter reviews

Filter reviews

St. Olaf College reviews

Filter
1 0
notapro
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 20.8 years 569 played 284 reviews
1.50 star(s)

Beginner 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 25, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

- Course is set on the grounds of a college, in two different sections. The back nine plays close to a parking lot, and tennis courts, and the front nine has some basketball courts nearby; I could definitely see potential interferences at this course when school is in session.
- Front nine plays on the south end of the campus, which starts off with a pretty significant downhill bomber. The rest of the holes play amongst a variety of trees. #2 is a sharp dogleg right around a forest, and then through a tight grove of small trees. #3 also plays through this grove; the gaps are tight and low. #4 is a HUGE blind hyzer around a large gathering of pine trees, and #6 plays as a RHBH hyzer over rough or a FH flex left of some trees. These are pretty interesting holes, with some tough lines.
- Back nine plays on the north end of campus, which starts off amongst some big pine trees. The first three holes are very short, but are kinda hilly at least. #13 is a tough hole; an elevated tee through a very small gap. #18 is another cool one, a long dogleg left around the woods, that finishes with the pin on the right in front of some pines. The rest of the holes here play up and around a small ridge.
- Decent elevation changes here and there, #1 is a very cool downhill shot, #3 is pretty steep, and the holes on the ridge are uphill with sloping greens. Nothing crazy, but definitely noticeable.
- Front nine's baskets are pretty janky, there are no signs, the only things are 2x2 wood pieces marking the front of the teepad. Tough to navigate! Even with the map it took me some time to figure it out. Good luck. Back nine is better, baskets are much nicer, there are decent tee signs, much easier to navigate.

Cons:

- Biggest con here is the absolutely insanely jacked up layout. The two nine hole layouts are over a 1/4 mile apart, for starters. There are multiple places with crossing fairways, teepads in mortal danger, backtracking, criss-crossing, blast zones, etc. etc. The back nine is especially bad in that regard. Navigating the front nine can be a nightmare, the only clues are destroyed wood markers and barely legible number plates on the baskets. Blech. Also, a ton of spots with safety issues for non-disc golfers as well.
- A lot of short holes here, with many around 200' or so, and with some weird lines. Plenty of holes are 'normal', and then others are seemingly from someone who has never played before. Maybe due to space concerns, but yikes.

Other Thoughts:

- Well... it's a course. There are definitely some legitimate, fun and tough holes here, like #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #13, and #18, and the ridge holes aren't too bad, but the rest are very substandard. Definitely best suited to beginners, if only because of that. Still, the frustration outweighs almost all benefits. You really have to appreciate the good to enjoy this one.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
4 0
lapants
Experience: 14 years 32 played 2 reviews
1.50 star(s)

A tale of two courses. 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 11, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

I'm splitting this review into two parts for the front and back nine as the are very different.

BACK NINE:
good signage that helped create well marked teepads.
baskets are in good shape.
good mix of holes, as well as use of elevation changes.
clean trimmed fairways.

FRONT NINE:
grass was well trimmed.
Hole one was fun to play

Cons:

BACK NINE: Playing hole 4 a blind shot and when I got there the basket was completely gone.
Constantly had students with backpacks and people running through fairways while i was preparing to drive. (which is kind of expected)
some of the fairways played across each other which could pose a safety concern.

FRONT NINE: No signage whatsoever, constantly got lost trying to find dirt tees, even while using the course map from this page.
Basket are rusting out pretty bad.

Other Thoughts:

The main killer for this course was the front nine and it's lack of signage, overall it was very average, but the front nine needs some work. i could not even find some of the teepads and the baskets are pretty rusty.

if your in the area check out the back nine, but don't go out of your way to play here.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
1 0
sheepweevil
Experience: 16.1 years 31 played 22 reviews
1.50 star(s)

Confusing and Showing Age 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 17, 2010 Played the course:once

Pros:

The setting is nice, and the placement of trees adds to the course difficulty.

On one of the holes, a doe walked right in front of us.

Cons:

We came to this course without a map, and it ended up a complete disaster. We couldn't find a parking lot close to the course, so we had a long perhaps quarter to half mile walk to hole 1.

The tee boxes are dirt, and there are no benches or trash cans. It is very hard to tell what is a tee because there are dirt patches everywhere. The baskets are old and rusted.

Other Thoughts:

We didn't even know the back 9 existed, and didn't see them at all. Fairly disappointing.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
Top