I first heard about this course going in because Avery Jenkins and Dana Vicich were definitely on the radar, and Carrolton is sort of in the 'tristate region'. Of course, being a limited arm, technical, short course lover, I held off on a visit. Then I heard via the first review here (thanks, InnocentCrook) that this beastie was not only long but also fairly hilly. But now that I've actually played here once, I was actually amazed at the changes in elevation. In the Cincinnati area, the Devou park course recently took the area crown for maximizing a workout. Three Rivers might be Devou's big brother. It was built on an old ball golf course, and is definitely scaled to be a championship caliber track, with maximized scenic opportunities for a gallery to enjoy the big arms flexing their stuff. If you like bombing some drives off the tee, you're going to love this.

The tees are nearly 6x12, level, concrete, and fresh. Signage is excellent, and there are enough benches around to rest the weary legs you WILL be developing. All the 'longs' (blue) baskets are permanently in place, and there are basket positions for 18 white baskets, even though they were only out there today for holes 1 & 3, plus shortened positions (in the low to mid-500 foot range) for holes 12, 15 & 18. Often, the basket positions were situated to present challenges for your upshots and approaches to the greens. For instance, hole 9 memorably dives over the precipice and down into a bowl in the trees. 6 is uphill in a pocket, 7 is off the ridge into a sloping wooded green to the right, and I really enjoyed 17 because I could reach the dogleg and had a chance to run an approach down toward the pin. Even the shortie hole 5 is incredibly steeply uphill in a gap.

Overall, the takeaway for me was that there is variety, and fun, plus a lot of exercise (I think they should consider renting golf carts!), and the course is designed to present a strong challenge for advanced and open players, plus give this one a chance to not be embarrassed by the birdiefest often seen by those incredible tour players.

You will want to keep it in the fairway early on (especially on the tempting hole 3), because the steep rough edges are all thorns and 'cling-ons' (you know those triangular burrs you have to pick off one by one?). And you'll want to leave your cart at the bottom of the stairs up to the 4th tee, probably walk it up the path left on 5, and leave it at the bottom of the hill when you walk up the path and down the stairs to 6's tee. At the 9th hole's approach, I suggest walking your cart around left to the path between the 'bowl' and 10. Having been pleasantly surprised by the 'front 13 loop', I personally felt like the ball golf feel of 14 & 15 was a little 'meh'. And, though there are golf cart paths throughout the course (that I'm sure would be used as OB edges for tournaments), I still keep my 'safety' rating high, because they were always part of a golf course, and anyone using them for walks through the park 'should' be cognizant that they still ARE.

As I played this course, I kept thinking about the 'bigger' courses recently growing up in our region. If you've played them, Three Rivers is a combination of Caesar's Ford and Devou. So if that's your cup of tea, you should plan a visit.

Huge, wide open throws, very challenging on a lot of the approach, putting shots. Visually pleasing course. Nice baskets and concrete T-Pads.

Some of the T pads are too short, signage isn't acurate,I.e. Hole 12 isn't marked correctly. Most, not all, of the white baskets are missing. Grass is not well kept with lots of clippings around. Hole #3 is easy to lose a disc with thick foliage on left and woods on the right. (Use a spotter if you have one)

I loved this course, although my shoulder, back and hip were wore at by the end. Could be a 5 star course with a bit more work and better maintenance.

Brand new course in a Kentucky state park utilizing land left vacant by a defunct golf course. Situated directly across from the park's lodge, it would make a nice overnight stop if you're trekking through the area bagging courses. Located just about halfway between Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH just minutes off Interstate 71. Doing its part to fill in an area that was previously void of disc golf. (The next closest courses are Hidden Ridge to the north at about a 35-minute drive, or Wendell Moore to the south with about the same drive time.

The course sits at pretty much the high point of the park so there's some lovely views to be had, especially up around the tee pad of hole 12 where you can literally see for miles in most directions.

If you're looking for a course where you can air it out with full power drives on pretty much every single hole, this is your course. The rough can certainly be punitive, but the fairways are predominantly wide open (former) golf fairways so unless you're way off target, they'll rarely come into play. Where the wooded areas do come into play, it's usually just the last 50-100' of approach into the basket or a pocket of trees around a tee and/or baskets, but it is used well.

Elevation for DAYS. This region of Kentucky is exceptionally hilly, and this place even takes that up a notch. Those of us of a certain age remember when another section of this state park included some ski slopes. That feature of the park was removed sometime in the mid to late 1990's and the equipment was sold off to Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg, IN. (Give County Farm Park or Cedar Grove a spin if you're up in that neighborhood.) Needless to say, there's no lack of elevation.

The targets are very nice, brand new, blue, Discmania baskets which look to be almost a 1 to 1 clone of an Innova DisCatcher. Every hole has 2 sleeves. (According to the course organizer, more are in the works. More on that in the cons.)
If you enjoy a strenuous walk with your rounds, you're in luck. I think my fitness watch put me at 10k steps somewhere around hole 11 or 12.

There's some well-located pin and tee positions here, but a lot of the alt. pin positions don't really add a ton of variety. Example: On a wide open 400' hole like #14, the pins were about 60' apart in a wide-open area. There's not much difference in playing to either one so it doesn't present a very different hole. Hole 1 on the other hand did a good job with a short pin set at just below the top of the hill and the alt. long pin all the way on top of the hill plus tucked behind a small jetty in the tree line at least 50-60' further than the short pin. I feel like there's more instances of situations like hole 14 here than there is of hole 1. For a course bagger playing here once and moving on it's not too big of a deal. For locals, a bit more variety in shots would add to the replayability.

Tee pads. They're all pretty level with good turf, but really could use an extra foot or two in length considering almost every tee shot is a full power rip with a driver.

For those of you out there with poor base level fitness and/or bad knees who don't enjoy a strenuous walk....beware.

Considering the length and elevation present, some strategically placed benches every 3rd hole or so would be a welcomed addition.

Super LONG. If you can't throw an accurate 400+ foot drive you'll be hard pressed to shoot below par. With almost a full third of the course clocking in at 700' or longer, all of which are par 4's, big arms will have a HUGE advantage over the 300' max drive folks. 400' is right around my absolute max distance and on account of all the elevation I was very rarely looking at any semblance of a birdie putt.

The course organizer mentioned that he'd like to put some additional pins and baskets in place, especially on the 700' plus holes, that are set up more around the 550-700' range to give more options when playing. Having a short and long pin on some of these holes would open this course up to a much wider range of players and would be a fantastic addition.

The course is a bit shaggy currently, nothing brutal, but it's going to take a fair amount of mowing time to keep things playable here. All that wide open ball golf fairway space comes at a cost. I don't hold this against the course for my rating but based on my experience with other KY state park courses, it could become an issue in the future. (Looking at you Rough River Dam State Park!)

Disclaimer: This type of course isn't exactly my cup of tea when it comes to course design. I prefer highly technical, densely wooded golf with lots of line shaping required.

Now, having said that, I love that there's these types of courses out there on the other end of the spectrum of design and I'm even more excited to have this type of course fairly near me. It's a great compliment to the mostly wooded courses in Greater Cincy/N. Ky. These "bomber" type courses seem to be a bit more prevalent down in this neck of the woods with Wendell Moore just a bit further south, and Graviss McDonald a bit east closer to Frankfort, both of which I would consider "bomber" courses where a big arm has a distinct advantage. Further north at courses like Idlewild or Hidden Ridge, I might reach for a distance driver off the tee just 2 or 3 times during the round, carefully trying to hit the landing zones and playing the control game, methodically working my way through the woods. Here at Three Rivers DGP, I'm pretty sure I was throwing distance drivers off the tee on every hole BUT 2 or 3 of them.

Here's some of the standouts in my mind:
-Hole 3 is a really nice downhill shot that I'm itching to get another chance at, especially if it's in the long pin nestled up on the left side slope. Like throwing straight down the chute of a valley running away downhill.
-Hole 6 is a very challenging down then up type of hole with a well-guarded green. The uphill approach to the basket adds a lot of effective length.
-Hole 9 to me is the signature hole. Wide open for the first 600-ish feet, then into a beautiful "mini valley crossing" corridor of large sycamore trees.
-Hole 12 has the best views, and a bit of a top of the world type tee shot. I'd love for there to be a true long pin that's further up the hill in the open to separate the two current pin locations a bit more. Maybe push it out to around 1000' and call it a par 5.
-Hole 16 is very well laid out with a green almost completely surrounded by huge eastern red cedars. One of the few holes where a RHBH player may prefer to throw forehand off the tee to avoid possibly fading out early and going WAY down hill.

I struggled to rate this course a bit. It's got some potential and it's honestly more like a 3.75 in my eyes vs. where I've rated it at 3.5. I'm only 35 minutes away and will update this review as the course progresses. I feel with a bit more maintenance, slightly longer tee pads, a good mowing schedule, along with some benches, would very easily push this course up to a 4 or 4.25. Highly recommended as a course to provide some variety for those of you venturing into or out of the wooded courses of Greater Cincinnati/N. KY.