Santa Maria, CA

Waller Park

Permanent course
45(based on 37 reviews)
Filter course reviews

Filter reviews

Filter reviews

Waller Park reviews

Filter
4 0
mashnut
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 22.2 years 831 played 777 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Very nice park course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 28, 2013 Played the course:once

Pros:

The course plays through a sprawling park that was beautifully groomed when we played. The grassy areas were recently mowed and there was no trash and no dead limbs or other debris in the fairways. The course is a mix of open field type shots with some longer distance and holes with mature trees to avoid.

The wooded holes offer a few interesting lines and some low ceilings to contend with. There's a good mix of hole lengths, with plenty of shorter reachable holes and some that let you air out a longer drive. The tee pads are nice concrete with plenty of grip. There are some minor elevation changes in play that make for a couple interesting elevated greens.

Cons:

The course is a little too open to provide many really interesting line shaping challenges. On top of that, a few of the more wooded holes have silly lines where the basket isn't reachable off the tee except with some luck, but there isn't enough trouble that most bad drives will turn into a bogey or worse. That leads to a lot of boring 3 holes where you don't have too much chance at a 2 or a 4. There are also a bunch of tweener length holes in the open that have the same scoring spread problem.

The signage is inconsistent, and doesn't do a very good job of laying out the hole. In a few spots with multiple baskets in view that can get confusing. There are also a few poorly marked walks between holes where you'll need the course map the first time through. There are some conflicts with picnic areas and park roads in a few spots, it seems like that was avoided in a lot of places but there are still some potential issues.

Other Thoughts:

Beginners will find this course longer, but not very punitive so it won't get too frustrating. More experienced players will find the layout very straightforward. You don't need a full repertoire of line shaping to score well here, and there isn't enough trouble to really punish you for errant drives. It's worth a stop for sure if you're in the area, and makes for a nice relaxed round.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
1 0
Hazer
Silver level trusted reviewer
Experience: 18.1 years 168 played 54 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Very Nice Fun 27 in Beautiful Park 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Dec 14, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

27 holes. Nice cement tees on every hole (besides hole 25) that are smooth in the back and grooved in the front. Basic signs with pin locations and distances. Some signs showed the direction to the next tee. Very beautiful park with well maintained grass throughout the course besides on the more heavily wooded holes. Good variation throughout the course testing all shot types and playing through 3 distinct terrain types. Great distance on some holes, and very tight technical shots through heavily wooded areas on others. Some holes are quite challenging. The front 9 is moderately wooded and pretty flat with very large mature trees. Some smaller hills come into play starting with hole 8 and many holes feature at least modest elevation change. Hole 11 has one pin position featuring a fall away green. Holes 25 & 26 shoot through a heavily wooded area with small hills requiring you to hit your line or pay the price; a bad shot might cost you more than 1 stroke. There are some signs throughout the course pointing the direction to the next tee. Also some baskets had next tee arrows on them. Nice mando signs on holes that had mandos. Nice safe distances between pins and tees but no real long walks. No overlapping fairways. Multiple pin locations on all holes except hole 20. The tee for the original 18 layout's hole 13 still stands and has a sign next to it explaining that this is a hole from the original 18 layout and that the original layout can still be played (this original hole 13 shares the basket with the current 27 hole layout's hole 14, but is not an actual hole on the current 27 hole layout). Great flow to the course. Very fun to play. Beautiful, peaceful park with restrooms and water fountains on site. Everyone on the course and in the park were very friendly. Very low traffic when I played.

Cons:

A few signs were missing or damaged and hard to read. Some signs had inaccurate distances listed on them and did not list some (I'm guessing new) pin locations. The signs also do a poor job showing the hole layout. Navigation can be a little tricky going from hole 9 to 10. The first 7 holes are pretty wide open and don't offer much of a challenge. For holes 15-25 the course opens up a lot and despite a few long distance shots these holes are not very challenging. Overall the course is fairly easy and only a smaller number of holes offer a real challenge for experienced disc golfers.

Other Thoughts:

This is a very nice course with a great variety of hole types, terrain, and types of shots needed. That said, I was expecting it to be much more challenging after reading the reviews (I shot -2 playing all as par 3's my first time playing, and I'm an intermediate player at best). Despite this, I still would highly recommend this course to any disc golfer (besides fresh beginners due to the length and difficulty of some holes). Also I didn't play the most difficult pin placements on a lot of holes, so if set up for a tournament I'm sure the difficulty would be higher. The tranquil setting and beauty of the park are amazing and if I lived in the area I would hang out there even if I wasn't disc golfing. The course navigation isn't as tough as some other reviews make it seem, but maybe some more 'next tee' signs have been added since those reviews were written as I had no problem navigating without ever looking at a course map. To get to hole 10's tee walk across the paved path and to the left you will see 2 tees: the one closer to you is hole 10's. The tee closest to hole 9's basket when in the deep right position is hole 13's tee, not hole 10's. Hole 25 shoots from a paved walking path and has a sign next to the tee area which is marked off with white paint. This is no doubt a fabulous course and is in my personal top 10 courses in California. Will definitely play again the next time I am in the area.
Was this review helpful? Yes No

Latest posts

Top