Carmel, IN

The Hill @ Northview Church

3.365(based on 38 reviews)
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The Hill @ Northview Church reviews

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6 4
Jukeshoe
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 14.7 years 316 played 268 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Short, Fun, Family-Oriented DG 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 1, 2013 Played the course:once

Pros:

- The Hill (aptly named) is located on the property of some sort of mega-church compound. The looming church building dominates the round in the background, frowning down on heathen discers like myself. As this is a private course, play by their rules: no smoking, drinking, or cursing the Lord. Amen.
- Good use of the rolling terrain. No part of The Hill gets cra-zy with the elevation, but almost every single hole incorporates some sort of up or down. #1 and #18 provide perfect examples of the range of elevation in play. #1 plays down from the parking lot. #18 climbs back up to the top of the hill, with the basket tucked between a few large tree trunks.
- Amenities. Good baskets, adequate signage (although a touch confusing first time through it shouldn't create any real problems). Dual pin positions help add a bit of much-needed distance. Portajohns on several holes. The circle is often represented by a ring of uncut grass, which is a novel touch. We used these to "up" the challenge factor by playing them as island greens with everything else being OB.
- Several holes have more trees than the rest of the course, which is mostly open with scattered trees. These holes do a decent job of creating fun fairways and greens.

Cons:

- Despite the signage saying there were two sets of tees, there was scant (read: no) evidence of the long tees. The only thing marking the shorts is each holes sign. The natural tees are rutted and uneven in many places. Far from ideal, but also not the worst thing I've seen.
- Part of a busy multi-use park; cross-country seems to take priority, so the course could be unplayable at certain times.
- Short and repetitive. Not much of a challenge for experienced discers. Great for beginners and casual players, or if you're ace-hunting, warming up, or cooling down. I had a blast scoring 5 birdies on the back nine, and I stink at disc golf.

Other Thoughts:

- Overall, nothing is really wrong, per se, with this course. It probably accomplishes the goals of the designer (an accessible church course) that is fun and family-friendly. In that respect, it's wildly successful. But for hardened discers looking for adventure golf or a challenging round, The Hill is a slippery slope to boredom.
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4 4
discNDav
Gold level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 37.9 years 437 played 91 reviews
2.00 star(s)

nice grounds, poor course 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 6, 2013 Played the course:once

Pros:

Located on very nice grounds, the land was manicured and well maintained. Cut grass is always nice to see on a disc course.

A few concrete tees on the back nine. Am and pro tees on most of the holes.

New DisCatcher baskets. Good elevation on the back nine after a flat front.

Cons:

The course design was poor in my opinion.

Several blind shots even though it was a mostly open course. No variation on the tee shots, almost every throw was the same off the tee.

Mostly dirt tee pads worn into the grass. Red ground level markers also were near the dirt tee area but were very hard to find, sometimes 40 ft from the tee sign.

The grass was cut more so for the cross country course than for the disc course which seemed odd while playing.

Other Thoughts:

I thought a lot of holes could have been designed better. Great land which could of been
utilized better.

IMHO, over rated by others here.


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4 3
jcjohns
Experience: 22.9 years 81 played 10 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Eh 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Mar 21, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

Well maintained. Clean greens. Elevation changes were nice to see. Tee pads were natural, but movable so not to warn out. Multiple pin locations.

Cons:

Tee signs were nice, but some holes were blind and there was no indicator on which position the pin was in. Finding tee markers was difficult since they were marked with 4" diameter circles up to 50'-60' from the tee sign.
Lack of variety in shot needs

Other Thoughts:

I could see this being a course made for beginners. Playing the blue (long) tees, if a player is RHBH and can throw a 300'-400' hyzer there are no holes that can not be done in 2 shots. The red tees actually seemed to be more difficult even though they are shorter. Unfortunately, the length of the red tees was not much more than a putter or mid-range for the slightly advanced player.
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9 1
AdamE
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 20.6 years 267 played 148 reviews
2.00 star(s)

2+ years

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Aug 28, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

The Hill has discatcher baskets, nice tee signs and elevation changes on most holes. There are two sets of tees on every hole which caters to a larger variety of skill levels. The course has grass tees marked with something that looks similar to colored mini's. There were no roots, no signs of erosion and the tee area's were pretty flat so they didn't bother me at all.

The course plays through some large mature trees with virtually no undergrowth to worry about. While the course is more open, it uses what trees there are well.

Cons:

While I don't mind the grass tees, it was a problem trying to find the tee area. For the most part the red (short) tees were pretty close to the tee sign, but the blue (long) tees were rather difficult to find. Some of the tees aren't quite pointing in the right direction. I threw at the wrong basket on holes 1 and 18, and had to inspect a few others to make sure I was throwing at the right one. Navigating the course wasn't incredibly easy at first, but then I noticed the "next tee" on the tee signs which helped. I ran into a local who joined me after two holes. He'd played the course 5 times and still had trouble finding things occasionally.

While the tee signs are nice, the aren't always a very accurate representation of the hole. They didn't help a lot trying to find the blue tees. The distances on a number of holes is longer than advertised. I'd say some of them are around 50-75 feet off, but that's just an educated guess.

The course has little diversity.

There are only 3 holes I would consider wooded. About half the course is wide open or only has one tree strategically placed in the way.

There's no shot diversity either. I think 18 was the only hole I threw a turnover shot. Hole 4 looks like a turnover shot at first, but the line there is a big hyzer shot over the top.

The pins were in the B position when I played here and even for a guy with a fairly big arm, many of these holes are out of reach for a birdie (despite what the distance on the sign says) so it quickly became a par fest. But of course none of the holes are long enough to be called a par 4 either.

Other Thoughts:

My low rating of this course compared with the current course rating might be unpopular, but I have to call it like I see it. And after playing 118 courses, I feel I have a broad enough view of courses to disagree with the current course rating of 4.00 on 11 reviews and believe I have made a strong enough case to support my rating.

Overall this is a beautiful piece of property and it appears the church takes pride in keeping everything looking nice. Unfortunately the course is long, mostly open and monotonous.
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