(3.437 Rating)A nice course requiring a routine check-up.
- VARIETY - A full palette of entertaining holes. Up shops, down shots, left hooks, right hooks, bomb-it opportunities, needle lines and gut checking water to avoid. Very few holes were followed up with a similar looking hole. There are a couple multi-play holes here as well, but three of the four par 4s are completely open bomb holes without placement consideration. Overall I'd say the variety is roughly 80 percentile. I was personally impressed on how it all flowed together.
- RAW BEAUTY - The word "Great" seems appropriate, but I would not use the word "Spectacular". Several holes are carved threw heavily wooded areas. Hole (7) was particularly awesome with the fairway playing along the angled slope of a hillside. I think a bit of the luster was recently lost along (4) and (8) as the new road is now on the left. However there is still way more good than undesirable features. I scored the course beauty just outside my top ten for Alabama for beauty out of 77 Alabama courses played as of this review.
- CHALLENGING - The Blue tees are Intermediate level, IMO. So when coupled with the shorter Red tee layout, this course is going to appeal to wide swath of skill levels. The course requires both length and precision where a balanced player will score better than a one trick pony. I think a 950 rated player will average 5 or 6 down from the back tees when played as a par 58. Some of this difficulty is flawed in my opinion as several of the new unmarked placements have only luck lines to the basket, see cons.
- SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY - As alluded to a bit above, this course appeals to a wide segment of the disc golf population. 800 rated players to 950 is the ideal audience.
- CHARACTER - Solid basics and a few extras. To start, course map and community board. There is is a nearby practice basket. Multiple tees at every hole and a hoard of alternate basket placements. Lots of tee seating and adequate tee shading. The signage is nice looking, but needs an update with all the recent basket placement add-ons.

A nice course needing a reminder of the basics.
- UNMARKED BASKET PLACEMENTS - I personally feel that extra basket placements make a course better. It increases the re-playability with fresh looks and in some cases, if there are multiple baskets, it can offer immediate play choice options. Tumble tree is one of a few courses I've played where I think the multitude of options has made the course worse. First off, only one or two target locations at the tee are noted on the signage and only one distance is given. In addition, several of the unmarked positions I played were just so wack in their juxtaposition that it will leave just about every seasoned traveler scratching their head. In my round I think I played 14 or 15 unmarked placements, thus by the 5th hole I began running up every fairway to check blind basket locations cause it was almost certainly not at the noted signed location. I will fathom a guess that there are around 60 basket sleeves on the layout. Signage needs a complete overhaul to account for this apparent recent upgrade.
- NAVIGATION - Doable, but frustrating solo. First off, the course map near tee (1) only shows one tee and one basket and the artistic description is not 100% accurate in a few areas. I can tell the map was done without under-laying a satellite view. I don't recall much in the way of navigational cues and tee signs don't have next tee direction on them. I had to ask for directions two times and strolled the wrong way two other times.
- HOLE 18 BACK TEE - This tee will be unplayable to everyone in a few years. Image trying to throw over a 3 story building to blind basket location 350 feet away and the building grows 3 feet taller every year. I give you Hole 18 Blue tee at Tumble Tree. Oh and you have to guess which unmarked basket location to throw at. This was the only hole I played from the shorts. SMH.
- RED TEE BIAS - The primo amenities and extras went to the short Red tees. The tees and the tee signs are better from the Reds tees. Benches were generally at the Red tees as well. I personally don't have a problem with this, but I could see some players at and above the Intermediate level being a little irked.
- SAFETY HAZARDS - Roads and pathways come into play on a handful of holes, mainly on the front nine. Be aware of pedestrians and cars. A few extra seconds of waiting should clear most issues.
- WATER HAZARDS - Some will find the pond on (2) and (4) to be an evil disc thief. It looks deep and it had a very cloudy water appearance on my play. I added more rating points for this feature than took away.
- TIME PLAY - I wasn't planning on being here 75 minutes and I ran on several holes. Figure 2 1/2 hours for a four some.

As of this review post, my 77th played course in Alabama. I'd say there's just enough here at Tumble Tree for it to make my personal Top 10 for Alabama. I've hit all of the current top ten courses in the state so I'd say its ranking just inside DGCR's Alabama Top Ten is fairly accurate. Not destination level worthy for those outside 2 hours away, but for those in Central Alabama and West Georgia, I would highly recommend checking out this high quality regional course.

This course is very well maintained. There are multiple pin placements on every hole (most have 3, and some even have 4) and these are rotated every so often.
This is a fun course with good elevation change and some fun wooded holes.

The 3rd and 4th pin locations are not shown on the map and there is a pond that comes in to play on holes 1, 2 and 4 that has swallowed many a discs. Be careful driving on 1 and 2 and approaching and putting on hole 4.

Over all a nice course and the course manager, the parks and rec manager, really cares about keeping the course maintained and fun.

Nice variety of shot types, from wide open to somewhat wooded to very wooded. Modest elevation changes on some holes added challenge. Plenty of wind on the more open holes added considerable challenge the morning I played.

A small pond comes into play on two holes. Hole 2 requires carrying over the pond while Hole 4 places the basket just beyond, or in front of the pond, depending on the basket position.

This course offers constantly changing hole types and shapes. From open holes to completely wooded, and then something with woods on one side and perhaps an OB road or path on the other. Fairway shapes vary from dead straight to curved, with quite a few tight doglegs. In fact, a couple of the alternate pins result in very dramatic, "basket completely around the corner" doglegs that were challenging to navigate.

Course offers both Red and Blue tees, but the Red seemed to be the primary tees with the tee signs and better pads. Hole lengths are shown to vary between 159' and 545' but with all of the alternate pins in play (see cons) I really have no idea how long the course played.

Mach 5 baskets were in perfect condition, and were an unusual royal blue color. Very attractive, but could be tricky to see on the shaded holes.

Many alternate pin positions have been added, but the original tee signs remain. Most of the pins were in alternate positions the morning I played, leaving me to walk up most of the fairways to locate the pin. Many were so far from the original position that the tee signs were worthless regarding hole length. It would be great if some method (magnet, bolt) could be implemented to indicate basket position, or ideally to get signs reflecting all pin positions and corresponding hole lengths.

I recognize that accurate tee signs and basket markers are more important to a travelling DG'er like myself than to a local player who is out there constantly, but with 3 - 4 pin positions per holes some clarification would be welcomed!

A few of the holes had many small trees within 5 - 15' of the basket. While a tree or two isn't an issue I found some of the baskets obscured from short distance.

Long tees had no signs, and were rather small. I'd guess 3' wide by 9' long. Definitely felt like the second-string tees.

A popular walking path winds through the course, and you may find yourself waiting on folks. The sight distances are pretty good though.

Lots of good things can be said about the Tumble Tree Disc Golf Course and the Opelika Sportsplex it calls home. After all, it has a lot to offer. Combining an assortment of hole types and lengths, the layout should scratch most golfer's itch. There are open holes, water shots, wooded shots, and enough out-of-bounds to keep the sharpest of shooters honest. And speaking of sharp shooters and wooded shots, be ready for some tight lines and a premium on accuracy in the woods. Those who do well with precise drives and can work and shot shape their mid's will have an advantage on the wooded side. And again, once you get out in the open, controlled drives will keep you out of trouble with the OB walking trails that tend to follow some of the fairways.

From the long pads, a slightly longer thrower than average will give you an edge over your noodle armed competitors. I felt like some of these long pad shots due to terrain and shape made reaching the basket tough for the average recreational player, but just slightly. But for them, again playing longs, birdies will not be easy to come by. That will make upshots really important and playing clean on the short holes will help erase mistakes. Open/Pro level players will sail through the course with little to no trouble except those that struggle with tight wooded fairways. On paper at least, its not a daunting course at all. I think for the locals who play here a lot, I can imagine this being a course where they can have drastic swings in scores. Some days them tearing it up, and some days the course beating them up. Note that wind will ramp up the challenge on the nearby out-of-bounds holes.

The duel tee pads, positioned short/long and colored red/blue, give you a chance to mix things up depending on your mood. Combine that with what is often three possible pin placements on the holes, and you have yourself a well diversified course. Some thoughtful basket positions on mounded peninsulas, tucked into trees, near water, or otherwise in challenging positions keep things fresh. It's worth noting, some of these alternate positions really change the hole, both in terms of length and shape, sometimes dramatically. Although except for a few holes in the heart of the course, there is really no drastic elevation changes. Still, it appears that the designer took advantage of the available land to bring it into play as much as possible.

Blue Mach 5 baskets are in great shape and something I don't see often in my area. It was nice to play on something different. They are pretty good catchers and I like them. Concrete tee pads are here and serve the purpose but were slightly smaller than usual. Some are also better than others. It appears that original tees were installed and then a second set added later. Sometimes they may have added a short pad, other times long. Some of the new pads appear to be a series of precast masonry slabs (perhaps intended for A/C units) lined up three in a row. While they aren't as roomy or as level as a poured slab, they get the job done. Several times, the course takes advantage of the hard surface of the walking paths for tees and are indicated with spray paint. The tees signs are nice but are lacking many of the new improvements, pin positions, and so on. Let them be more of a crutch for navigation than totally relying on them for a portrayal of reality. Finally, benches were at a lot of the tee areas and rounded out the embellishments. Oh, and with this being a really nice county facility, I would venture to guess that you could always count on the grass to be cut/managed.

Most tee signs are at the short pads. More often than not, you reach the long pad before the short which means walking up to the shorts then back to the longs if you are unfamiliar with the course. And with outdated info or missing new pin placements, you may find yourself walking up parts of the fairway to get your bearings or find a basket obscured by trees. Some intuitive disc golf sense will get you through the course but expect a little bit of looking around time.

In my view some baskets are way too close to the next tee pad. I'm remembering hole two's long pad which was nearly inside the circle of one's basket. Some are worse than other while other times holes just seemed to play too close to one another. Probably not a big deal most of the time, but during tourney's there are a lot of offenders. I don't think a lot of thought went into imagining where golfers would be on following holes and line of sight issues (Holes 1, 4, 5 all sort of get too close for comfort for example). I say that keeping in mind that I am not easily distracted and can generally play through things with little to no interference. For some reason it just got in my head. Couple that with the walkers and other park users you'll see on parts of the course, and there are lots of distractions.

Note that if you are looking at pictures posted in 2013 here on the DGCR site, the trees have grown a lot. Some shots where I am told folks used to throw over certain areas are now too tall forcing you to take tighter lines. Hole 8, which evidently used to be one of the tighter and tougher wooded holes, has been drastically altered by a new road which completely removed trees from the left side. Now, it is still a challenging par 3 but the trees have been replaced with a new OB road following the left side. It's an interesting hole and quite frankly adds to the diversity of the course. It's also where some good use of elevation comes into play. That said, I heard a lot of locals who seem to miss the old wooded hole.

The Sportsplex was nice and had clean bathrooms, plenty if parking, and other amenities. Overall the course and park are well worth a trip. I feel like this is a 3.25 rated course but bumped it to a 3.5 as it had a pretty high fun factor to me.

Solid course. By far the best in the area without going to Columbus. This course has plenty of length with optional long and short pads along with multiple placements that are changed regularly by the local club. They seem to be doing a great job on this course from what I have seen.

The signage is better than most with one suggestion put in the cons as are the baskets. The baskets look new.

Shot variety is great. Lots of nice tight accuracy shots that still have enough length that most holes have some decent to significant challenge. This will test your game unless you have a canon for an arm. There are a few holes around 500 feet+ as well as some water that isn't all that challenging to get around but still fun to not let it get in your head.

The big field at the end makes for a really fun driving range. The practice basket is also a big plus that many courses are missing.

Friendly locals. Everyone I have met out there has been really helpful...even doing some spotting for me on a blind hole or two. Great people.

Walking paths are present but generally out of play until holes 16 & 17. No big deal...very open and easy to see people.

The signage has everything you need to know except for pin placement. It would be nice if they would give you this at the tee because there are several blind holes. Also, tee signs are at the shorts instead of the longs so you have to walk past the long to see the sign and then come back rather than have it at the long that you could see on your way to the short if you were playing the short pad. That seems backwards to me. Maybe there is a reason they do that I can't think of.

The course design never doubles back to the parking lot so whatever you are going to take to the course go ahead and take with you.

Next tee navigation is a little bit tricky the first time playing this course. You can't always see the next tee from the last basket. There are some arrows on the course in some of the more difficult to find spots which is a huge help. I would add a few more of those arrows and this would be a non-issue.

Great course. I always look forward to playing it and look forward to continuing to improve on it and getting to know it better. Thanks to all who put so much work into this course. It shows.

Great mix of all types of holes and shots. Some open holes, slightly wooded holes, and very wooded holes and even a few water shots. Hyzer shots, anny shots and straight shots. I played the Pro tees, which were very fair. Much more elevation than I am used to in south Alabama, so thats a big plus for me. Course was well maintained and had great signage. Had a great time and I hope this sparks some interest in the area. Very limited on disc golf options unless going into Georgia a little.

Not very challenging, for the most part anyways. Especially from the short tees. Hole 2 has some wicked rocks near the basket that could def do some damage to a disc (this could also be a Pro I suppose, just another obstacle).

All in all, great course. There was a lady giving a tour of the course to another lady when I got there, explaining the rules and the purpose of the sport. Hopefully this means more courses in the area