Baskets are in very good shape. Navigation is pretty simple- just follow the paths. Holes 1, 9, and 10 struck me as quality, reasonable, and fair disc golf holes. I would like to play these three holes again on repeat. I generally don't mind natural tees, and here is no different. They do their job just fine. Each tee was marked with a large white rock and post with number basic map and distance.

Wow! I can't even begin to describe the gnarly rough and underbrush on every holes of this course. Every hole is lined with thorns and disc eating rough, and I played in the dead of winter. I could not imagine playing this course in full grown summer. Nearly all holes have "fairways"?that are anywhere from about 4'-8' wide (probably reduced even more in spring and summer), with no real flight path to get near the basket. If you do somehow manage a park job it will be pure luck. I started throwing strictly my mako3 on hole 3, only trying to throw it about 130' or less, dead straight, and about 3' off the ground so I wouldn't have to even worry about tearing my coat or pants navigating the abysmal rough. Even with my cautious approach I still managed to miss the fairway a good amount of holes. I did not have any desire to putt out after hole 6.There are some holes which at first resemble legitimate disc golf holes, but then you find that the basket is so heavily guarded by a wall of impenetrable trees that you would need to pack a chainsaw to have a chance of getting within a make-able putt.

I stood on several tees and let out a loud Ms. Krabopel like "HA"? cackle at the sheer idiocy of the shape and intended line of the hole. There are very few instances I would ever suggest someone to play this course....If you have never recorded a 7 on a scorecard and for some reason wish to;If you have a new pair of jeans you want to naturally distress;If you lost all your discs and want to beat in brand new ones by throwing them into trees and thorns 4-10 feet from the tee;If you are evil and wish to detour someone from ever playing disc golf bring them here and they won't likely ever want to play again. A very small percentage of DGers will find West Main appealing, but those who do will defend it vehemently and love it to death. I am not one of those people.

As I played # 16, I discovered a brand new Discatcher basket. My theory is, in the entire history of this course, no golfer has reached 16 with any discs left in their bag. I only made it this far owing to my 38 years experience and sheer disc golf craftiness. How I completed this historic accomplishment was true genius. I threw only my tried and tested classic Rock, and never more than 100 feet. It only took me 71 throws to get to # 16 but I managed to stay out of the elephant grass rough.

This course will appeal to a very small segment of the disc golfing public. Only those players who are able to throw 250' straight as an arrow drives.

The mowed walkouts between holes were mostly easy to follow.

I thought the three wooded, technical holes were very pretty.

The on-line map was perfect. The best I've seen in the 35 Illinois courses I've played on this trip thus far. Very few courses in these parts even have a on-line map.

In late June, the grasses were taller than a man.
The fairways ranged from 6' wide to maybe 15'.
I didn't care for some of the unnatural basket placements.
The 15 ultra tight fairway holes all looked and felt the same to me.
The natural tee pads are a negative.
The course is a lost disc waiting to happen.

The rumor in Batavia is, a few years back a disc golfer named Mike "Buck Buck" McDonald was playing the course one day in October and became so frustrated when he lost his 14th and final disc in his bag, his beloved beaten T-Bird, that he vowed not to leave until he found all 14 lost discs. He had only a gronola bar and half his water bottle. Unfortunately winter came early that year. Mike's remains were not found until spring. The wolves had feasted on his rotting carcus. Search and Rescue workers never could forget that scene.

Don't Be Like Mike!

The main reason that I "played" this course (Mostly just short straight shots to stay within the narrow fairways.) was to provide some more up-to-date photos than those taken last January when the weeds were not up.

Very narrow in spots. Heavy weeds. I had a tough time finding a disc even though it was only six inches off the fairway.

The front nine is easy to navigate by following the paths from basket to next tee. But the back nine could use a bit of simple signage. Which way do you turn when you hit the "T" intersection after 11? Flip a coin. (Right turn.) A few pieces of scrap lumber, paint and a stencil would go a long way.

The fenced in dog park is separated from the course except for the walk in from the parking lot. A sad commentary on this course is that there are many more dog walkers than disc players. Both times I've been there, I was the only disc golfer. Driving past the course in Geneva a few minutes later showed several groups playing.

Apparently no one from the Batavia Park District had been on the course recently since there were several trees down from a recent storm. One large one lay across the 5th fairway.

I would really like to watch some good players attack this course. Just to see what is possible.

The West Main Park disc golf course is set on a rather spacious, quite flat and moderately wooded piece of property. There is quite a bit of potential to the site. The park has a nature trail and dog walk that uses the same area as the disc golf course. There is a nice, large sign with a map at the parking lot, the course has nice DisCatchers and there are adequate tee signs. The shots are probably pretty good (the probably part will be explained) and staying in the fairway is at a premium. The overall layout right now is pretty challenging with decent length.

[rant]TALL GRASS IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE DISC GOLF COURSE DESIGN ELEMENT. Some good courses like Lemon Lake Gold/Silver can get away with it for two or three holes, but an entire course based on tall grass challenge is stupid. The challenge is to find your disc; once you do that, there is no more challenge. In the end all you do is annoy everyone.[/rant]

In my opinion, the course was unplayable by a solo player the days I was there. There are tight (12'-15') fairways created by chest-high weeds on every hole. Even the holes that have actual trees defining the fairway had tall weeds growing in front of the trees. Within a few holes, I had given up playing golf and was just throwing putters and mids trying to stay in the fairway. Given the distance of a lot of the holes, they were not putter/mid holes for me. One hole in particular (#16) made me think "That might have been a cool hole if I had actually played it." It was frustrating. I went back the following day and tried again, but by the time I got to that hole I had long given up on playing golf and was back to pitching putters down the fairway. They are going to have to cut A LOT more grass on this course (like 4X more) before they will be providing adequate space to throw golf discs.

The course uses the same area as a nature path, and on #13 and #15 you tee across the path with a tall grass "divider" between the fairway and the path. The "duh" part is that the nature path is wider (easier to hit) and the tall grass is does not keep you from pitching over on your approach shot. It creates a safety issue that could be easily fixed by moving the tees up so that you don't throw over the path. Hole #17 is the kicker. You throw from off the nature path to a basket set across the path in a way that the nature path is actually where you aim. If the nature path is going to exist, then it needs to be avoided in the course design. There is plenty of land to avoid it and/or move the nature path (which is just a mowed path at this point.) Having three holes conflicting with the path is inexcusable.

Some of the pin placements are odd. Hole #11 is the easy example as you have to throw up to a spot pin high before you have an opening to the pin, so it's essentially a 90 degree turn to the basket. If the pin was right there for a putt or it was another 150' to the pin from the turn, it would make some sense. The basket is set back far enough that I wouldn't make the long putt, but not so far that there was any challenge to laying up. It's just an odd place to put the basket. There were several more pins like that. It's like they set up fairways, and then just shoved the basket to one side or the other without considering how the basket placement altered the shot.

The tees were natural, and that is always a concern.

There are a few places (#11 to #12, #16-#17, #18 back to the parking lot) where you get dumped back on the nature trail to get to your next tee. For the directionally challenged, there should be signs to help the flow in those three areas. There should also be better signage to tee #1 as the bark park path turns off and it's not very clear which path you should follow.

So I'm really going to tear into this one with a low rating, and here is my reason: With the tall weeds and hole distances, you are asking players to throw 300'-400' and hit a 15' target. If you can throw 300'-400' and hit a 15' target consistently, there isn't enough challenge to this course to interest you. The players who would enjoy the design can't play it because they will spend all day frustratingly looking for discs in chest-high weeds and then getting the birdie or par anyway since it's no harder to throw from tall grass than it is from short grass. The frustration, discomfort and extra time that wandering around in tall grass creates will make them skip it and go to West Chicago. So you take a potentially pretty good course and make it attractive to nobody. The course designers evidently did not clue the park district in on how much mowing the course would involve, and the result is a course that is only going to be playable when it's cold and the weeds die down. For that I rate this course an epic fail.