This is a course that would garner about a 3.5 rating for design (possibly better?), if only… (see cons).

Tailwater park is a large, pretty, muti-use, well-supported feature in the town of Brookville, Indiana. It has a disc golf course weaving throughout the flats along the river and even up and down alongside the available sloped areas, and the variety of shots is actually well thought out, from tight release gaps, to ace run shorties, to true par 4, 500 footers through park woods, and tricky basket positions guarded by pines and river banks. It has highly visible blue DisCatchers that ring out like new. For navigation for first timers, at this stage of the game, use the map and look for the excellent, laminated signs at each tee (on steel signposts) for details, including the notes for 'next tee'. There are alternate basket positions on six holes and a choice of tees on hole 15, all of which add variety. It has a pedestal and elevated basket on hole 10, the second of the two truly 'technical' wooded holes. My favorite hole might be the park valley crossing hole 17, which is 'reachable' AND safe: a rewarding deuce if you can get it. In all, the course is well suited to challenge the recreational to intermediate disc golfer, and well worth the visit, as long as the park is relatively empty, like it was today (a January day with an inch of slushy snow having fallen overnight).

…however, and this is huge, this would be an excellent design if it was newly carved into an otherwise unused section of park land. It was not. The design took advantage of the existing paths as fairways or OB edges without really counting on the fact that discs tend to fly everywhere, not just where the advanced skills player might intend. I counted fifteen places where either the path IS the fairway, or a bench sat right in the intended line of flight (especially on the otherwise ideal challenge of hole 15), or you have to cross a road, or otherwise had a safety issue. As a result, the park actually pulled the baskets briefly in 2023, and there was a meeting of minds on whether to keep the course at all. With promises made to redesign the hazardous holes, they put them back. But personally, I felt that only holes 1, 2, 9, 10, (13?), 14 and 17 play fully safe, and if the park gets busy at all, the rest really need to be reconsidered. That's not to say that many of the 'unsafe' holes are bad disc golf holes, they just aren't likely to coexist without some significant rethinking. Sometimes you have to trade length and challenge, or even decent course flow, to get 18 safe, fun holes into a park. Sometimes you have to commit to quite a bit of labor (clearing invasive species and underbrush through wooded areas, for instance) to accomplish this goal.

Other less important cons for me were the cheap, temporary, and small (often 4' x6') rubber mats used for tees, the fact that the sign is missing for hole 11, and more importantly, you have to literally walk back the (blind) 11th fairway to get to hole 12. When they complete the redesign, it would be nice to include more 'next tee' signage and a course map and kiosk.

There's a lot to like about this park. It has potential. I added (snowy) pics of the tee signs and views from the tees here on DGCR.

Hole by hole: 1) nice dogleg L-R through mature park trees, look to the stop signs to spot the basket. Cross the path/road 100' to
2) open-ish ridge runner down left to the flats, then look left 70' to hole
3) riverside, but best line is hyzer at bench and path, and basket is really close to the shallow creek left. Go forward 100' to
4) short uphill R to L fade into pine gap (over path). Take path N 200'…
5) straight and short-ish but crosses road, then cross road to
6) long lane shot straight, but rhbh hyzer again puts a bench and path in play. Go up hill and path to left past the BENCH
7) that sits right in the power rip line for the side hill, 500 footer (crosses path, OB paths above and below the sledding hill).
8) another 'Path IS Fairway' to either of two basket positions blind and left of the path bend. Walk 80' forward to…
9) enters woods with split fairway to two basket positions (tight release gap left), safely away from other park activities, then…
10) has similar options with a cool pedestal and elevated basket on the left. Walk up the path, with two tees visible. Look left…
11) throws from path, along path and fades R to L to base of two sycamore trees. Then retrace the fairway all the way to
12) Path IS Fairway, with basket tucked in to the right just past the last pine. Go forward to path tee for
13) Throws between trees to outside the ball field's right field foul pole, with the parking lot OB long. Back L just past the shelter,
14) Safe upslope and open to short basket right, and long basket way out (to 567'!). Next tee(s) are across (or on) path fwd.
15) Either tee throws toward river BUT bench is directly in line of approach, and river drops off just past the basket. Back to R…
16) Crosses road to reachable basket backed by bush, but be aware of bench left side. Cross path to…
17) Rolling, picturesque 'valley' crosser to short pin, with long basket option beyond, then L to riverside path for
18) Path IS Fairway with reachable basket on steep sloping edge of river bank (OK if river is low).