Houston, MO

Emmett Kelly Park

1.835(based on 3 reviews)
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11 0
Three Putt
Staff member
Diamond level trusted reviewer
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Experience: 29.3 years 152 played 127 reviews
1.50 star(s)

Where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns.

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Dec 30, 2023 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Good ol' Emmett Kelly Park; for five or six years after it was established, it was the only disc golf course for about 50 miles in any direction. For a little town of 2,000 people in the middle of nowhere on the way to nowhere, it was quite a bit ahead of the disc golf boom. It's something to do in a town that doesn't have a lot to do in.

The park is essentially a hillside sloping down to a creek bed, so there is good elevation for a variety of uphill/downhill shots. The shots have a good variety of distances to them. It's a park-style course with not enough trees to force you to take any certain route, but there are obstacles to avoid. The shots themselves in a vacuum make a nice recreational course. Ignoring all of the things that will come up in the next section, the course can deliver on fun factor. If it was on the way to anywhere, I would stop and play it more often because it can be kinda a hoot to throw.

Cons:

The biggest issue for me is that the park is too small with too many other amenities to accommodate a disc golf course safely. You throw at park benches. You throw at playground equipment. You throw at walking paths. Hole 4 is a blind shot over a road, and two other shots have you throw over roads. You throw at the next tee. You really have to be there when other people won't be in the park to be able to play the course.

As big of an issue as safety is on this course, it's not the only issue. The course has maybe four or five tee signs left. Hole five has no sign and no indication anywhere that I have found indicating where the tee was, so I just throw off the road. Some tees have a timber outline so you can find them, others just have the sign.

Holes five and six have their tees away from the last basket, but the rest of them are just there next to the last basket. The baskets for holes 1 and 9 and the tee for hole two are all right next to each other. Some tees are set up so that you throw over the next tee to get to the basket. The course really isn't designed to be busy ever. If it was, you would just throw at one another all day.

The baskets are...not good. They are homemade. The basket attachments are shallow, the design is single chain (and on two baskets broken links hang down, providing even fewer chains) and they just don't catch very well. They are rusty. A few of them lean. One has had the top sorta smashed like a big tree limb fell on it. They have held up for 20 years, though.

The course is a recreational design, but hole six is a 600'ish pull with the creek to your right. In theory it would be an air-out shot, but you have the creek and roads and walking paths and play equipment...it makes it a more technical two-shot hole than a bomber hole. Given that it's a recreational course, you could make that two shots, add a little length to the 175' hole 7 and take out the very dumb "throws at a walking path, swing set, and basketball court" hole 8. It would make the course a little safer and keep with the recreational design better.

Hole five might have dumb poles for power lines in the fairway. I say might because I can't find the tee anymore. If you follow the map and go to kinda sorta where it looks like you should be, there are poles for power lines in the fairway.

Other Thoughts:

There is a gap in the top of these baskets that a disc can fit through; in theory a DROT putt could slide through and land in the basket attachment.

This course is a very hard thing for me to rate since in a strict interpretation of course design, this course should not exist. It does exist, though. It's in a very small town that has no real reason for anyone to go there on the way to nowhere, so the potential for high traffic is negligible. It conflicts with other activities that also probably are not going to have high traffic in a town of 2,000. So there are safety concerns, the tees stink, the tee signs are bad and many are missing, the baskets are run-down homemade artifacts that don't catch well, and...dammit, it's a hoot to throw. Despite all the flaws (and OH BOY it has flaws) it's a fun little niner. It's been hanging in there for 20 years, and I hope it stays there for years to come. I still have to give it a low rating; fun only gets you so far with all of the other issues the course has.

To be clear, no one should go out of their way to play this course. Since it's in the middle of nowhere on the way to nowhere, very few of you should ever stumble across this course. If you do, go when no one else should be in the park and...you might actually have a good time.
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1 0
henriw
Experience: 1 played 1 reviews
2.50 star(s)

A somewhat flawed technical challenge 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 7, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

If you want a course that will test your ability to shoot around trees and steep hills, you will probably like this course. The holes are all placed on a very steep hill with lots of trees all around. The course provides lots of shade on hot days.

Cons:

This course is extremely easy if you go by their course markings. Some of the signs for the holes are missing. The course is situated around a community park, so there is a lot of non-disc golf traffic in it. Expect random kids to be running around on the different holes including a swing set that is right next to one of the holes.

Other Thoughts:

There are not a lot of disc golf courses in this area, so this course definitely can satisfy you if there are no other convenient courses. Other than that, this is not a course that you want to travel for. It just doesn't have a lot to offer besides some interesting technical skills practice.
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0 1
stuster
Experience: 3 played 3 reviews
1.50 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 20, 2009 Played the course:once

Pros:

open, fun,good practice,some skill shots, do some thinking about the hole your on and you'll do beter

Cons:

walking track for exerciseing people

Other Thoughts:

there are 4 and 5 pars on this course and all of the should be 3's. i threw 15 under, but if they were threes it would have been 5 under
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