Awesome location near downtown.
Huge and varied park setting.
Some good shots on the northside.
Also some decent pin locations.
Boring southside nine.

Hideous baskets on the better nine.
VERY short layout.
Little elevation...typical park course

Zilker Park is due for an overhaul. I will change or delete my review if it improves but it has really been let go and that's just kind of depressing. It does function as a close by practice course to downtown Nashville, but with so many great courses nearby, I would skip it unless it is on your way or you just want a quick 'grab a few discs and go for an hour' kind of round.

1) One of the most unique tee areas I have ever seen on a course. If it wasn't raining miserably when I played here I would have taken a picture, but you literally seem to br throwing a tee shot from the alter of an old outdoor church. Holy Lord bless this drive!

2) Beginner friendly course because it is fairly open. There is a little bit of challenge on a few of the holes, but it is still pretty simple.

3) I am sure this place is crowded which I actually consider a positive . . . not because I want a crowd, but because I want this course to absorb a lot of people so the other courses in Austin are less crowded. DISCLAIMER: This does not mean this is a good course or one I would return to offten!

4) Teepads on the other nine are nice. They are kindof hexagonal and really allow you to take any angle of approach you want on each hole.

5) The technical holes on this course are fun. There are some shots you need to bring to the table which is always nice.

1) One of the nines the tees are dirt and mud not even grass and dirt. These are some of the worst tees I have ever encountered.

2) There is nothing that indicates where the tees are or what tee you are standing on. This is a really old course so I assume this is because they do not expect outsiders coming to their course. Little did they know one of the top 25 traveled DGCR users was staying 4 miles away! You gotta be prepared.

3) Lots of picnic tables set in the middle of the course. This could be a positive for those picnicking but a negative for those trying to play their disc golf rounds as I am sure there would be kids running around.

4) Old discatcher baskets have rusty chains and definitely have seen better days.

5) The turf out here is really in rough shape. This is fo rsure one of the holdest most played courses in town. It probably is played a lot even in its current condition because of its central location to Austin. This would simply mean it would be near impossible to ever make turf repairs or upgrades to the course.

6) No signs available on this course which definitely helps the traveling disc golfer find where they are going.

7) Dangerous in a few spots where the next tees are too close to the previous baskets.

8) Not enough variety from hole to hole in terms of distance. They all seem to be very similar. I would rather play a 150' hole and a 300' hole than two 225' holes and all seem to be in that range of 225'-275'.

Overall this course only suffers in my rating because it is missing some of those things that courses typically need to keep me excited about coming back. One set of tees are horrendous the others are awesome. The baskets are old and rundown and could use an upgrade. The turf on a lot of this course are All of the issues are certainly fixable, I'm just not sure that there is a plan to improve the maintenance. The course really is two different nines and I almost feel like I should be able to give two ratings here. The older more technical shorter course would get about a 1.5 the other more parklike with the large older trees would get about a 2.5-3.0, but I need to decrease the course because it just feels like two courses.

Note: I am going to be reviewing this as an 18 hole course since they have had all 18 baskets installed for over half a year now.

-large concrete tees on half of the course, the other half has natural tees that are in good condition for the most part

-lots of birdie ops

-best beginner course in Austin as most of the holes are around 200'-250'. There's 3 or 4 holes that are right around 300' give or take, and there's a couple shorter than 200'.

-impossible to lose a disc as the rough, which only exists on a handful of holes, is quite forgiving.

-can be played in under an hour when the traffic is low, and really, the only time I ever play this course is when I don't have time to play any other.

-It's located next to Barton Springs pool, which has nothing to do with disc golf, but is probably the best thing about this course.

-too short; this is a course where you just never have the opportunity to really let loose and bomb one.

-too easy. Whether it's short or long (most being the former), it's just plain easy, emphasis on the plain...and the easy. There's no tunnel shots with most of the holes having only 1 or 2 trees you need to avoid to get an easy birdie.

-It's a boring course with no risk/reward type scenarios. No risk--all reward.

-$3 parking fee during the weekend makes this course even less appealing, although you can park under the Mopac bridge or on the north side of Barton Springs Rd., both of which are only a short walk away from the course.

I would not recommend this course to anyone other than someone just learning the game or if you only have an hour to play.

There's a sign at the beginning of the course that says no alcohol allowed, which is weird because every other park/DGC in Austin allows you to drink beer as long as it's in cans.

It can actually get pretty crowded with beginners (i.e. very slow players in large groups) during the weekend so an expected 1 hour round can turn into a 2 hour round if you catch it at the wrong time.

If you're an experienced disc golfer there's really no reason to play this course considering every other Austin area course is better and more challenging.