Pro: Multiple pin placements on most holes make holes seem fresher, longer.
Pro: Some challenging tunnel shots let you work on your tunnel throws.
Pro: The designers made great use of the woods. There are no two woods holes that are alike. Matter of fact, it's hard to find any two holes on the course that are too similar to one another.
Pro: You mostly feel like you're alone out there, as it's hard to see other players on other holes, especially once you get to holes 5+
Pro: Definitely some ace opportunities without the course being too easy.
Pro: The area is beautiful, with the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed UW-Parkside as a backdrop
Pro: There are some fun elements: an elevated basket (#4), an elevated tee (#5), a drive through a hedge (#16), and other delights. There's even a hidden hole!

Con: With woods comes bugs, so there are times when the skeeters are overwhelming in spots. It's only happened rarely but it happens.
Con: There's a (little-used) road that runs around UW-Parkside. I dislike roads near courses in general. You only really see it as you pass from one to another, but all things considered I'd rather not have anything of the sort.
Con: Parking is a question for some. There's an ample parking lot, but the signs warn of needing a permit. Whether that's always true I don't know. When school's not in session the parking has been free. During school you either pay for the metered parking or walk from a nearby road to the course to avoid parking issues.
Con: No nearby facilities if UW-Parkside isn't open.
Con: Signage could be clearer. It's easy to start walking in the wrong direction to some tee pads.

Parkside has a good variety of holes. As a LHBH thrower I am looking to see if a course is LHBH friendly. A good course has a balance of four things in a course layout: short left, long left, short right, and long right pin placements. Parkside does a good job with this! Too many otherwise good courses are sullied by an unbalanced hole selection.

I consider this to be my home course. After looking through previous reviews, I hope this review will clarify some issues.

PARKING: UW has installed some parking meters for golfers in the extreme SE corner of the main parking lot. No need for a pass. If you park anywhere else during the school year expect a $25 parking ticket. The UW police are not very forgiving.

FIRST TEE: After you've parked, walk across the
nearby intersection toward the SE and toward the road you probably entered through. The first hole is just in the prairie. Two tee pads will materialize.

FLOW: paths take you from basket to tee except for #10. Head south on the path from the basket. It is on the same side of the road. After playing 10 and 11, you'll walk past #9 basket again and then cross the road to get to #12. I've bumped into numerous players that this crisscross has confused.

BASKETS: There are multiple basket placements for many holes. If you played here before, look for the new placement before you throw. They change periodically.

Graffiti and vandalism has destroyed the signage.

Some holes can be a bit wet in the spring.

The path to the #7 tee and #7 left side rough is loaded with Poison Ivy - beware.

Don't believe the very creative graffiti..

I really like this course. The holes and tees are marked out fairly well. There are a wide variety of different kinds of shots. there are a few short holes, and some really long ones. They have some elevated tees, and elevated baskets. Wide fairways and narrow corridors. Not too tough for the beginner, or too easy for the pro.

There are a couple places where the signs pointing to the next hole could be clearer. I know we skipped a couple holes first time through without realizing it till later.

I wish I could go back here. I used to work in the area, and if I ever do again I will be stopping here.

Very challenging wooded shots that require control and finesse. Long open bombers for the big arms. This course really is made for all skill levels. Half are open and the other half are in dense wooded areas where an errant throw could potentially be a bogey or worse. The longs tees are very challenging and have different looks than the short tees. Great use of elevated tee pads on a few holes to give some change. Also the elevated pin on 4 is really neat and can cause problems of roll outs.

The course could use some elevation, but does have some elevated tee pads and pins to help. There aren't many benches around so if it gets crowded, it could be a problem. Hole 2 and 3 are very close to each other and can cause some issues with errant drives.

Overall, I really liked this course from the long tees. It was very challenging, but had a lot of deuce opportunities. I think this course is very balanced and does a great job of changing it up from open to wooded to open to wooded to open.

This course is extremely well kept and clean right by a small university. There are two sets of concrete teepads for the majority of the first 18 holes. Just this year there were an extra 9 holes added (no concrete teepads, but at 27 holes what more can you want).

Great signage is present everywhere on this course and if it is your first time playing it is almost impossible to get lost (unless of course you head into the thick rough looking for your beloved disc).

The first few holes on the course are very open but with some heavy rough off to the side that you want to navigate around, or you may very well be searching for your disc a long time. It would be very helpful to send out a spotter in certain holes like these. Due to the more openness of these holes they provided very reachable deuces and some very exciting ace runs.

Hole #4 has to be one of the coolest holes on the course. The basket is placed on top of this mound of boulders/rocks a little over 300 ft straight out from the tee. After your drive, you get to make the decision if you want to go for the birdie putt and risk having your disc roll all the way down the borders, and be left for a tough par to save, or just lay up and easily get par.

Hole #5s long tee is also very interesting. The tee is elevated 10-15ft above the ground with rails along the side so you don't fall off of it after your release. This makes for a very tough drive as you are throwing from about the exact height of a bunch of trees leaves and if you try to go around them to much you will end up in the woods that runs along hole #5s right side. The shorter tee has no elevation and make for a much easier shot.

Many of the wooded holes in this course are not that long, but are very tough because they have extremely narrow fairways. Many people like to tomahawk their drives for these holes. The good tomahawkers usually get somewhere close to the basket and the basket and the ones who aren't so good will be spending some time looking for there discs. I recommend just throwing what you are comfortable with on these types of holes and always making sure you know where the basket is before you throw.

Hole #10 is one of the longest holes from the long tees on the course. The long tee starts out elevated on this hill and the basket plays to a slight right that you have to navigate you drive around some bushes scattered throughout the fairway without getting it lost in the thick rough on the right side of this hole. The short tee is located at the bottom of this hill, still around 300ft from the basket.
After Hole #10 the tougher woods holes come in to play with lots of trees engulfing many of the holes.

Hole #14 produces lots of ace runs from either of the tees as it goes straight through a medium-narrow sized farrow and takes a slight left into the open.Many of these ace runs com for RHBH players. In my 3 rounds I have played at this course. I have seen someone hit the chains and out in 2 of my 3 rounds. Very deuce-able.

Hole #16 plays of a tee that is placed right behind this hedge that makes driving very interesting as it force people to throw much higher than normal or over think some of their drives. Is a relatively short hole only somewhere around 250ft that doglegs to the right.

Hole #17 is also a pretty short hole, but much higher scores are seen on this hole as rolling hills and a tree canopy knock many drives down. I have found that the best approach for this hole is the release a very huge hyzer around everything and it will get somewhere around the basket if it doesn't get knocked down by a tree as it hyzering back.

There are very few cons on this course. Whenever I have played here the bugs have not been too bad.

You can lose a lot of discs in the rough if your the type of person that stops watching their disc as soon as they realize it's a bad drive.

This course is well suited for players of all ages and skill levels. The shorter tees make it still a very exciting course for the younger player, and produce tons of exciting ace runs for the more experienced. The long tees make this course an extremely challenging, while the distance might not seem too far the placement of the long tees and the areas you have to navigate around are key to the toughness of the longer tees.

This course is currently 27 holes. The disc golf club in this area already has plans to add an extra nine, they have the baskets just sitting inside waiting! The only problem is they need to get approval first. Once it is approved look to see UW Parkside as 36 hole course and cement itself as definitely one of the best in Wisconsin, and maybe even in the Midwest region.

If you are in the area you HAVE TO COME AND TRY OUT THIS COURSE. You will not be disappointed, I guarantee it.

There are also nice, clean bathrooms inside the school for use, and they sell new disc golf discs in the student bookstore(although the price is pretty expensive, ($18 for star plus tax is an additional fee).Mostly Innova brand, with all lines of plastic.

Have been back here to play a few times since my orig review. Much better feel for the place now. Front 18 are truly a nice course. 1 - 5 play in the open with mowed fairways nicely carved from meadow. Sig basket on 4. Rough is just that, but not too bad that you will lose a disc. 6 is a hint of what is to come in the woods later on.7, 8, 9 are amongst the trees but not quite woodsy. 10 and 11 are back to mowed prairie. I made a donation on 10 of $15.95 in the form of a lost disc. I used the pro tee pad (nicely elevated). Disc went into rough just to left of shorter tee pad. Has my area code 847 phone number on it... If you find it. Discraft Xpress in crystal Z, yellow. Thank you for calling me to give it back. 12 thru 16 are all great woodsy holes. Liked the basket on 12 with its elevation. 17 and 18 play in the open and feel like afterthoughts just to finish 18 and get you back near the start. A few holes are aceable...many are definitely birdieable.

The addtl. back 9 is not fully developed. A nice bonus for some addtl. play, but not as complete as the front side. Not a lot to gripe about here in general... a few legit things. By comparison with so much good the gripes can seem petty, but as disc golfers we seek nirvana and look for little things.
Rough can eat discs as I did lose one today, but whose fault is that? Bugs can be bad in the woods, but knowing that and bringing spray you will be o.k. Mentioned earlier 17 and 18 are sort of afterthoughts, but the trees make for some option and hazard. No fun to have to pay to park. Not really paying to play, just playing to park. Hint... use the metered spaces and bring quarters instead of buying the pass.

This was my first course that is not a clean shot with some trees. More cut out of overgrown prairie. This has hedges and natural obstacles and blind shots and lots of optional approaches. Spotters recommended. Good fun. A must play. Discs available at bookstore in main building. Nice assortment, more than before, prices are standard.

Really nice course. Well laid out and maintained and a good mix of shots is required.

None that I recall.

Played this course while visiting Chicago with friends and loved it. Heading back this summer and will happily make the 1 hour drive from Chicago to play it again.

When I set foot on this course, I couldn't help but ask myself repeatedly, THIS is a College Course?? How can this be a free College Course?? Having only played UW-Whitewater before, the difference is like night and day.

Dual concrete tee pads on almost every hole, with a detailed Tee map at every tee, telling the distance of all basket placements from that tee. Trash cans attached to almost every tee sign. Woodchips under every basket. Multiple pin placements for almost every hole. Log benches and/or picnic tables at many tee pads.

This course delivers the goods. The multiple pin placements usually drastically change the holes. One usually bends it to the right, one to the left. Thus, its hard to say this course favors left or right more, as it is a function of where the pins are at any given time.

This course is one of the most technical I've played. It forces many strange shots through very tight gaps in the trees. Several holes had me scratching my head after a dozen rounds on the course. You can play some holes a different way every time for 10 rounds, and still not know which way is best.

This course has many holes that seem fairly short, under 300 ft from the short tees, yet the technical challenges make them much harder than the distance would indicate. There are no GIMME holes on this course. I have par'ed every hole on this course, but I have also bogey'ed every single one of them, and double bogied many. Some are harder than others for me, and some are easy for me that are hard for others.

This is a course that it really helps to have a wide variety of shots in your bag for. With all the weird lines you are forced to play, you'll need to pull many rabbits out of your hat to make pars on all of the holes.

The long tees, and the more open, longer holes in the field (especially #4) also bring distance into play, though big arms should not get too excited, as this course is still mostly about accuracy, even on the open holes. No amount of power will make up for precision and careful shot selection on this course, and the millions of tiny trees are tough to shoot out of.

The wind off the Lake is wicked, and makes the open holes tougher than they would seem. Paying attention to which way the wind is blowing is essential on this course, on all but the most heavily wooded holes. Failure to do so will put you in a world of hurt, especially putting.

This course features many very unique holes, including a terraced rock pile that makes for some of the most difficult putting you'll ever do, and a raised porch tee that changes the whole feel of the hole.

The whole course plays through the woods, with the first 5 holes in an open field, and the last 3 through scattered trees, which makes for a nice balance of tunnel shots and more open.

For all its diverse holes and technical challenges, this course is mostly flat. However, every scrap of terrain has been maximized, with some landscaping done to increase it. These are the areas where terrain comes into play or has been added to accentuate this shortcoming:
Hole 4s manmade concrete terrace pin adds elevation
Hole 5s Long Tee on the raised Deck makes for a cool (very) elevated tee.
Hole 10, already a hard hole, has a beautiful loooong tee elevated a foot high, which makes the wind even harder to overcome.
Hole 12 has a pin on a small hill that is very hard to putt on. Rollaways are very brutal
Hole 17 plays over several rolling hills with a low tree canopy limiting the window.

So, though the course is, on the whole, quite flat, but the terrain in play significantly impacts the holes. Also, if there were too much terrain in play, this course, already quite windy due to proximity to the Lake, might actually be too hard, so it works out.

There is very little water in play on this course, though there are some concrete OB sidewalks and roads, on at least 5 holes, which will punish errant shots. Also, there is a small river running through the brush on the right of hole 10, and a marsh in the brush to the left of holes 1 and 2, which can both cause unplayable lies if you end up there.

This course flows fairly well overall, though it is initially hard to find tee one from the parking lot (its on the left side of Inner Loop Road as you enter campus from Woods Rd/Hwy G) Also, for first-timers its slightly confusing transitioning between holes 6 & 7 (take a left through the woods), and getting to hole 12 from hole 11 (across the road).

In the setup I played, this course seemed to have many more left curves than right curves, but that was due to the pin placements they had in at the time, and not a permanent situation.

Though very technical, this course is fairly short from the short tees. I found myself driving with midranges on many holes. However, if this bothers you, the long tees add significant distance to many holes and force you bust out your drivers more.

Also, the Bookstore on campus sells discs, so check it out if you are in need of some plastic. Follow the main road into Campus (Inner Loop) past the front parking lot. Enter the double-doors of the first, all-glass building you see on the right. The bookstore is on your right as soon as you enter the doors.

The new nine holes across the street are a totally different feel, and since they are fairly far way from the normal 18 hole course, I refuse to consider them part of the same course. Nobody plays them as 27 holes by finishing each round on the 18 with a walk over to the new 9. It's doable, but a bit too far to make sense, especially when, from hole 18, you have to walk by Tee 1 to cross the street to new holes anyways, hence its a separate course, IMO. Also, the plan is to expand the new 9 to a full 18 by year's end, so once that happens, it will be a distinct, different course, and thus deserve a entry in DGCR and a separate review. Until then, its more like a Bonus 9 on the original course, but still deserves some kind of special treatment, which brings me to:

BONUS 9 "Prairieside" REVIEW (3.0/5.0)
Nice new baskets are in good shape, same double-chain style as original 18. A few of them are numbered. Dual tees are dirt. Long tee's marked with worn spot in the ground, and a wooden stake and/or orange flags. Short tees are harder to find, marked with faint orange "]" spray painted on ground, usually worn grass is also telltale sign.

This is a totally different feel from the front 18. This area plays up and along a large hill, with scattered trees and bushes on the fairways, and fields of prairie grass for rough (hence the name), very different than the thick wooded canopy you are used to in the other 18.

Its more open than the regular course, but also longer. Like the wooded course, Prairieside is very well designed to force a variety of shots, and the wind is a factor on every hole.

Despite it's generally more open nature, trees are in play on every hole here, and many of the baskets on Prairieside are well-protected with multiple short trees, forcing a variety of spike hyzers and curves. Also present are several blind tee shots and hillside pins, even a forced mando around a giant dead tree. The hill that half the holes on this course shoot up or down brings more drastic elevation changes than anything present on the Woods course.

From the short tees, this course is like a longer UW-Whitewater, but with more drastic curves and better protected pins. From the longs, it is all that plus a great opportunity to flex your Max-D, which the woods course does not really allow, while still forcing control and some variety of shots. On this course, its about placing your drives, similar to holes 1-4 on the Woods course, but with shule on both sides of the fairway, vs an open field

On the whole, it is less technical than the Woods, and not as difficult overall. However, the holes are fun and fairly interesting in their own right, and offer a nice change of pace for those frustrated with shooting through all the narrow windows across the road.

If Prairieside were a separate course, I would give it 3 out of 5 discs. A good, fun, well-designed 9-hole course, but not as challenging or memorable as the original. However, if you're here, it's definitely worth your while to check out these new 9 for the different look and feel they provide.

1) Great variety of holes. A handful of long open prairie grass holes. A handful or tight technical wooded holes. And some very interesting unique basket locations. Mostly left turning holes, but a few where you need to make a right hand turn. That might just be the basket location I played, so I would like to play this with the alternate basket locations!

2) A decent variety in length of hole. There were 4 holes under 200' but none of them are right out in front of you. they are technical holes. The old 18 is shorter than the new 9 holes, but they are equally enjoyable. The variety in length and shot required is great.

3) Nice baskets across the board and nice concrete tee pads on the old 18. New 9 will have concrete eventually I imagine, but for now are just dirt/grass. Multiple tees on most of the old 18 and half of the new holes. That is always a plus.

4) Nice signage on the old 18, and no signage on the new 9, but it is still being worked out I am sure. On the new 9 the forward tees are only recognizable by the painted ground so if you are looking for alt. tees on the new 9, you need to be aware (There are only 5 that I could see).

5) Very well maintained clean course. I played this after 2 weeks of being closed between the winter and spring seasons, but it is evident that the locals clean it up all the time, or perhaps the University staff does a good job keeping this clean. It does help that the course is surrounded completely by University property, all of which is pretty much a commuter campus. I wouldn't expect a lot of garbage, but even the trees, shrubs, grasses, and SHULE (My third usage in reviews, someone need to keep a tally!) is well maintained. No area on this course is unfair due to maintenance. Your shots are clearly dictated by the maintenance, but nothing stood out as unfair (except maybe #16 tee, those shrubs you shoot through or over should be 1' lower, I am only 5'7"!!!!! so I need to relaese the disc much higher than normal to get over them.)

6) Very unique course due to some features. #4Tournament basket is located on a 20' radius mound of soil which has boulder on the inner 6' radius. So if you overshoot the basket you are likely 10-12' away below the boulders and soil, shooting up to a basket about 6 feet in the air. Definitely not an easy putt in the wind!!!! Very unique basket location! Plus the next hole you go from elevated basket to elevated tee. This tee is set about 8 feet in the air on a platform. Not only is it elevated to change the feel of the shot but it is also blocked by trees. You have to either throw a huge anhyzer in to a 269' hole or a spike hyzer. It is a great hole that challenges your shot making! there are others worth mentioning, but I will let you all find out what makes this course so fun!

7) Beginner friendly, for the most part. Technical holes but fair enough for a beginner to enjoy.

1) New 9 needs some signage, although I know that will be there soon.

2) The final 2 holes are kindof (No nevermind they are) lame for finishing holes. I would rather play them as 1 and 2 than 17 and 18. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to finish on the most boring holes on the course!

3) I like a course I can only come up with 2 cons!

This course is two seperate courses. The older 18 holes are great wth a lot of variety. The new 9 seems to be a little bit like "Hey lets make another 9 holes" Nothing too exciting, but they do have more distance than the old 18. I also think it is still being developed so I can't be too harsh on them. Plus I would take a little bit lesser 9 on jsuta bout any other course just to have them in one location. These new 9 are a bit removed from the original 18, but thats ok its only 1 block away basically.

Nowhere on campus did I see that parking is restricted, but the guy who works in the property maintenance said you need to get a $1.50 or $2 daily parking pass from the police station. I parked for 2 hours on a weekend without a ticket and I think I was just outside the police department. There are also meters available if played during the week for a 2 hour limit but they only take quarters so come prepared. I wish this course was closer becuase it would be my highest ranked in Milwaukee to date, but Dretzka and Brown Deer have not opened yet for the spring/summer, so my guess is it would rank in the top 3 in the Milwaukee Metro Area. It looks like most people agree with this statement, depending on what you are looking for.

Wide variety of shots required to score well; many risk/reward situations; dual tee pads; multiple pin locations; concrete tee pads; mix of heavily wooded, lightly wooded, and more open holes; some cool basket locations that will make you think more than a couple times about running that 40 footer; a couple of elevated tee pads; benches; decent variety of hole lengths, although none will take a full drive and a long approach (500+) for a veteran player; nice tee signs

No real elevation changes except elevated tee pads/baskets; some may say that too many of the wooded holes have the same feel; small tree stumps/poison ivy cover some fairways - tread carefully and wipe your disc if you get bad reactions to ivy; some long walks between holes; very, very long grass will add at least a few minutes to every round

Today was the first time I've been able to play Parkside in its new and complete form. For awhile the old first few holes were closed for separate road construction, then the bad storms knocked down many of the trees and closed some of the wooded holes, then after the new course was built some of the tee pads/fairways were still being improved. Now that I've played a tournament there, I'm going to say this should be close to as good as it will get. How good is that? Really good!

Big disclaimer here: if you have trouble controlling your disc or don't play well in the wind you may be in for a long day. (Many would argue I am both of these, but the tournament had spotters.) If you go 50 feet right or left on a 300 foot drive, don't be surprised if you end up searching for 10 minutes or even lose your disc. Even with spotters today, a few of my playing partners came very close to losing their disc... actually, one did.

So many times on this course you'll see someone tee off and approach a hole in a way you wouldn't have considered. That's probably Parkside's biggest strength - some of these holes (about half) are really tricky and may require advanced techniques. Plan on learning or improving some shots - tomahawks, spike hyzers, and rollers all have a place and purpose here.

Because of what I've mentioned above and the character brought to the course by some of its unique design features, this course is better than Good - 3.0. The course doesn't come close to having the presentation, the elevation changes, and the 'wow' holes that would have me even consider it Perfect - 5.0. I'm torn between a 3.5 and a 4.0, but the effort put into the improvements and the quality of the 2008 Prairie Open pushed me over the top. The people that play this course regularly really do enjoy the sport and I'm convinced the new holes they've added will continue to improve and be refined over time. UW Parkside is Excellent - 4.0.

There are some very nice wooded technical holes as well as some unique open holes. One of the holes requires you to throw from a 12-15 foot high platform which is very cool considering you have to work around a huge tree with lots of rough to the right. The park itself is well maintained especially considering the traffic it gets.

Not a lot of elevation but a good mix of left/right and tight fairways. Not a whole lot of chances for power drives.

I would definitely play course again.

Good variety of holes/terrain. About the half the course is open and half runs through the woods. Some interesting artificially elevated holes and tees come into play. Dual tees throughout. Is well kept up and scenic.

some of the holes on the back 9 get a bit repetitive (through the woods)