Short technical course, great for the beginner and the experienced.

Most of the course is wooded, provides plenty of shade.

Easy to get to from I-20 and would be a definite stop for any east Texas trip when the cons are addressed.

The baskets are nice disc catchers and look to be in great shape.

1. No tee boxes - as stated before it looks like some locals used tree branches marked with pink flag tape to create "tees" but half of the holes you couldn't even find these.

2. Course is not marked well and we spend half of the time looking for the next hole and basket and then looking for the tee for that hole.

3. Only about 1/3 of the course was kept mowed or clean, starting from hole #2 to hole #14 much of it was overgrown.

4. Some tree thinning is definitely in order, but selective care needs to be taken to keep the course challenging. Basically my thought on this is many of the small and young cedar/pines that dot the course holes could/should be taken out and leave the larger trees for the course.

5. No restrooms, trash cans, etc. - not anything that would keep most disc golf players from playing, but some amenities that are always nice to have.

This course has so much potential and this is where the city or ISD of Van, TX has fallen short. The course is on the backside of a school in the back acreage past the football practice field. It is not hard to find, and unless there is a school function, parking shouldn't be an issue. The course itself looks to be very promising, but the lack of actual tees and maintence of the course let me down. Some simple investment such as tees (concrete or even sand like in Canton) would be a huge improvement and make this course a must play. The simple maintence of mowing and moving the dead limbs from the trees out of the main course way would be the next item on my list of "dos" for the city. Honestly if just these two items were addressed, I'd change my score from a "1" to probably a "4" in a heartbeat. I plan to send a letter recommending these to the city or ISD (whoever actually owns the property and is responsible for it) and let them know the amazing potential this course has with just a little bit more work!

This was a course that has some great wooded holes. This is a mostly technical course, as disc flight navigation is certainly needed. I like tight fairway holes and this was certainly that. Don't get me wrong; there are a few holes out in the open as well, but nothing that you are going to be able to open up your arm on. The baskets are in great shape and there is a colored rung in the basket to help you find the next tee.

Finding the course was not simple. Park behind the school and walk to your left along the tree line until you reach a mailbox that supposedly holds scorecards (nothing but spider webs when I was there). Navigation is not easy. Some tee pads have a grey cinder block helping you find the tee and someone has marked some trees with ribbon as well as using sticks to outline a tee pad. Even with all of that help including the colored rung showing you the direction of the next hole, it was still not easy to find your way. There are no bathrooms or map/message board.

There certainly needs to be some maintenance done on this course. It needs some of the fallen and broken trees cleaned up and some over grown limbs trimmed back. They did recently mow although, that does affect most of this course. I really appreciated the work that someone was doing to help identify the tee pads, but even that needs more attention. The holes are all fairly short. This is not always a bad thing but even the open holes did not let you throw long.

The Fun Factor was surprising ok. I enjoyed the technicality of these short holes and did find myself enjoying some of those challenges. I think this could be a fairly fun place to play if it ever gets cleaned up. I have to send out a thank you to whoever has spent time trying to make it better already. It was a big help. It does suck to have to park at the school, since that can be an issue for most of the year.

Good course with a few challenging holes. Great place to go to try for an ace. I played in the winter so there was not much standing water. I like the fact that some locals are trying to make trails and tee boxes with sticks and spray paint.

Def needs a lot of upkeep and maintenance. Needs more trees cut down for fairways and paths. needs better hole markers and directions to holes. Could not find hole 16 or tee boxes for 1, 17, and 18.

Overall I would play this course again on my trips between Dallas and Tyler. But I am sure I have not seen this course at its worst.

1) This course is set on an awesome piece of property. It has the potential to be great if some maintenance would take place to some of the trees.

2) Scorecard mailbox at the first tee area . . . although it was empty.

3) Orange paint on the basket rungs direct you to the next tee. This is always helpful especially on a course with tough navigation.

4) Tees ae marked with concrete blocks, flags, and some orange painted logs. Unfortunately, not every tee has this setup so finding some of them is difficult.

5) This course has a nice variety of different shots. It has most of the course set in the deeper woods but also has a couple holes that play through an area with mowed turf and spotty trees. This is a nice variation to those densely overgrown wooded holes. There also are a couple holes that play mostly in the open.

6) Nice discatchers are in great condition. The bright yellow band is a necessity on this course otherwise you might not even be able to see some of the baskets.

1) Course needs some serious thining. It would be a pretty good technical course if some attention would be paid to fallen trees. Some thinning should also be done to make the course just a little bit more fair.

2) Mailbox was empty and a scorecard and map would have been helpful. We constantly had to walk up the fairway to try and find the basket and sometimes the next tee.

3) Distances listed on DGCR were all wrong. Perhaps they were for "short" tees but we did not see any indication of a shorter set of tees.

4) Tees were marked with the logs, concrete blocks, and some flags, but they were inconsistent. If you are going to mark tees with stuff like this you need to do it on every tee or it will be confusing for first timers.

5) Holes #16, 17, and 18 were too difficult to figure out. We couldn't find a tee for 16 or the basket, we found the 17th basket but no tee and did not know where #18 was. What a frustrating way to end a round. I really wanted to complete the whole course so I could say I played it. So I just gave myself pars and moved on.

6) Ribbon has been placed to help you find your way between holes.

We chose this course because the holes were listed as very short on DGCR, little did we know everthing was completely grown over, but also all the distances are wrong for sure. Unless there were alternate tees we missed on every single hole the distances listed never seemed to be very accurate.

There is not a lot of positive things to say about this course. If it were maintained, even minimally, I might say the best feature is that you are in the woods the whole time with the occasional glimpse of a herd of horses on the neighboring land. You might enjoy the shade and a quite course that you would almost certainly have all to yourself. I hope I read a review in the future declaring the course has been cleaned up and is playable because it is so close to the highway that it would be too easy to stop off and play a quick round as you drove thru Van, TX on I-20.

This course seemed abandoned to me. There was even a note from a local in the mailbox labeled 'disc golf' asking for someone to call him because he hadn't been able to find anyone else who played the course and had only been able to find about six holes.
After spending way too much time trying to find the 4th hole I gave up and headed back to the car when I happened to meet up with a local who had just decided to start playing disc golf and had never been to this course before. I decided if this was the only course this poor chap was going to have to play then I needed to help him find the holes. We started with 17's bucket which was one of three that could be seen from the open and we worked our way backward, hole by hole thru the thick brush. Some grass tee pads were marked with blue stakes in the tall grass, some with flags and there were some ribbons hanging from trees attempting to mark the way. Fortunately for us but unfortunately for the course almost every hole was comically short. It might be interesting to play the course with a putter but in its current condition most of the fairways are not defined and most of the holes were quit useless. A few holes had potential, but in its current condition this course is simply not worth the effort it takes to play it.

If you insist on playing this course then here are a few directions. Take the first entrance to the school, the main entrance does not lead to the back where the course is located. From the parking area you will see a white mailbox across the field, this is the beginning of the course. You play the first hole down the tree line. From then on you need to walk down any path you can find, look for ribbons in the trees and blue stakes in the ground. Also look for broken cinder blocks, these were located on some of the tee pads. Don't hesitate to walk down the so called fairways until you can find a basket, the holes are so short its not a bother. If you get lost just walk 60ft in every direction, you will usually see the next basket before you find the tee pad. If all else fails make up your own holes and try not to get bitten by a snake in the tall grass. Good luck to ya...

This course gets a low rating just because there is quite a bit to complain about but lets get to the good things first. A neat little course that has TONS of potential! Great baskets that are in good shape. The tightness of this course is great because I really enjoy technical golf. The tees are natural which is also a like of mine. The course is pretty short so even the newer players wont be to overcome with big boomer shots. Your Rocs/putters and TL will get plenty of play here leaving all of your big boy drivers feeling left out.You will have to have a good straight shot to score well here but you will also have to turn your disc in some really small tunnels. I have never seen anyone out here so you can play as many shots as you want and not have to worry about getting in anyones way.

During the spring/summer months there is tons of water and the mosquitoes will eat you up for sure. The navigation can be tough but I have found most of both sets of pads over time. There is some debris that is scattered throughout the course but nothing to bad.

I think that if there was a club here or someone who lived closer would make an effort, the problems could get fixed here and this would be a great stop for any golfer traveling to East Texas. I always stop when in the area cause its worth it if you can take the time. If the problems were taken care of I would rate this much higher for sure!

-Very Nice Baskets (Thus, the half disc)
-Abundance of wildlife (mostly rabbits... oh and horses)
-No Wind (Thank you trees)
-Not Crowed
-Plenty of Parking
-A Create your own disc golf course of sorts... (The tee boxes blend in beautifully with the surroundings)
-A perfect opportunity if you've been looking to check the buoyancy of your water disc!
-Not only do you get to play disc golf, you get to complete an obstacle course made up of fallen trees, mud puddles, and THORNS! (Yah!)

^^ See Pro's ^^

Does anyone know how tough it is to move baskets to dryland?

ok so i gave this course a 2. this course has relatively new baskets, there are clearly defined paths from hole to hole on the first nine. pink streamers mark not only your way from hole to hole, but the tee boxes as well. this is a great practice course. the holes are short, but with some some tight woods, or some cool technical shots, it will be a low scoring game, but there is enough to challenge you and make you use way more shots out of your bag than I thought it would. bring a good mid range and a good fairway driver, your long arm is not needed.

lets start with the swamp, literally. the other reviewer said don't go after a heavy rain, we've had dry sunny weather for about a week and a half, and there was standing water everywhere. i was using my dragon in some cases just to make my life easier. a few holes the basket was in a 30 ft wide puddle, that you were going to have to walk through even if you ace it.
With the water came the mosquitoes. good lord there were mosquitoes. i bought a full can of Off the other day, and the three of us almost emptied it on nine holes. saying they were awful doesn't even scratch the surface. the markings, while i applaud them for making do with what they had, and trying to mark the course, were confusing. there were times you weren't sure if they were marking the path to the next hole, or you had arrived at the next tee box. these three factors led to us voting unanimously to leave after 9 holes, and drive to athens, where the course is awesome.

I like this course, i honestly do. I see it to be a fun, technical course that could really be on my favorites list. They just built it in some low land, so that the water doesn't drain at all. When it gets cold, the water goes away and the bugs are gone I'll be going back for sure, but it was bad enough today I couldn't finish my round. props to van for having a course at all. If I'd played this course when it was dry, it would have been a 3 or 4 for sure. for directions, exit I20, head into town, take the first entrance to the jr high, and you'll see the pictured mailbox behind the football field.

I like the fact that it is mainly a wooded course, some tight fairways. Easy to make birdies on half the holes. Bring your putter and mid here and go to town! I love the heavily wooded holes that you have to have some accuracy to do well and will quickly be rewarded with birdies. Right on the edge of school land, quiet and probably not used very much.

Quiet a few to list. Flat, no elevation. No real teepads. There was to be both blue and red tees, but on almost half the holes, I was unable to find where they were. No teesigns at all. Nearly all holes are about 160 feet or less. Nothing real long. Course is on flat almost swamp like land and played after a big rain and holes were in the middle of standing water. No trash cans. Definate navigation issues for sure.

I must give this course some credit for the fact that a town the size of Van (pop. 2500) would even have a disc golf course. If I lived there, I would even put up some of my own money to make this courses a little better, teepad markers and signs on where to go/throw. There is some potential here. The land alone with all the trees can make for some good holes. If you live really close, it is worth to check out. Right off the interstate for a quick play as well.