- great elevation change for a 9 hole city park
- high quality baskets
- basic park amenities like ample parking, bathrooms, some garbage cans and benches
- some decent tree obstacles and shot shaping
- hole 9 ends back at parking lot
- generally well manicured park
- cool covered bridge over creek incorporated into several holes

- major safety hazards with walking paths
- crammed in the middle of too many other activities
- some may find the course too easy/short
- natural tees are abysmal
- tee posts have no information other than hole number

Well, I guess I am in the minority amongst the trusted reviewers. This course has not gotten a lot of love, but I really enjoyed it! Admittedly, it's not mind blowing, but it has surprisingly good elevation change for such a small park, a little creek running through it, and some high quality baskets.

The main con here is safety, with a lot of fairways throwing over walking paths. I hate when things are crammed into multi-use parks like this, and I wanted to give this course a 2.5 based on fun factor/general quality but couldn't with the safety issues. I played just before full darkness so nobody was in my way but this could be a serious issue at other times. I can't imagine this course ever getting busy, but the playground and walking paths certainly could.

The tee posts are very basic and have no information other than hole number and a directional arrow. The tees are natural, uneven, and showing wear. These two items could seriously use upgrades. With that said, I thought the course forced some limited shot shaping, incorporated elevation change well, utilized some variety of hole distances, and was a lot of fun to play.

This will be a quick 20-30 minute round but for something casual it's worth a quick stop. If you are road tripping, the McNair Dam - East campground is only 5 minutes away with some campsites with fantastic views of Carlyle Lake. I wish I had realized how out of date the pictures of this course were; I would have taken new ones. The baskets shown have been upgraded and are much nicer now.

Overall, I don't completely get the hate for this course. It certainly has its cons but those aside, it's a fun little course to throw quickly.

Carlyle City Park is a short recreational 9-hole course that plays around some hilly terrain. This course won't require much outside of mids and putters for most, and makes for a quick round if you happen to be passing through the area.

Park Amenities at Carlyle include a baseball diamond, tennis courts, various swing sets, and a pool. There are also bathrooms, pavilions, and water fountains around. It looks like this park has drive-through Christmas lights during that season, so late-year golf may not be a thing here during that event.

Course Equipment is limited to baskets and tee posts at Carlyle. The baskets are fresh MVPs, and are in fantastic shape. The posts include the hole numbers, and are painted white to stand out.

Course Design is relatively limited at Carlyle, but has some fun features. The number of trees in the park will require you to throw some fun shot shapes on occasion, with holes 1 and 6 playing with a little left turn and holes 3 and 8 being right turning shots around tree branches and a bathroom respectively. There's some elevation on site as well, with holes 4 and 6 playing downhill and holes 3 and 5 playing more uphill. Overall, while this is very much a rec-level course, it will ask a little of you in terms of shot shaping.

Course Difficulty is very much catering to newer players. Intermediate and up will find this course to be pretty easy, as the unique shots that are required will either be able to be hit or will put you in a spot to make an easy par.

Course Equipment is lacking on this course. The baskets look like they are a significant upgrade from what was here before, and there look to be a couple of new bridges over creek areas that were likely built as part of the eagle scout-related revamp of this course that took place a few years back. That being said, outside of the tee posts with the hole numbers, there's nothing here in terms of tee signs or tee pads. I'm not expecting an eagle scout project to nail these things, but I've seen other similar projects where these pieces of equipment were attempted. Hole layouts would be nice, but even a distance would be nice to have for each hole. Tee pads might be wanted after a while too, as natural pads tend to wear in after a while.

Safety is a concern in some parts of the course. Hole 1 plays over a path that's pretty much a blind shot from the tee. Hole 3 is also a blind shot. Other holes like hole 6 play close to either paths or other park amenities like swing sets. In a lot of cases, the next tee is also very close to the previous hole's basket, including the tees for holes 2 through 5. Watch where you are throwing as best as you can to make sure you don't hit other folks in the park.

Design and Navigation at Carlyle leave much to be desired. Even for a 9-hole, there's things that stand out that could be improved. Navigation, with the lack of any signage, is hard here unless you have UDisc, as the flow is not always smooth. Seeing as some of the baskets are not easily visible from the tees, it can be easy to throw to the wrong basket on this course. In addition to some of the safety concerns, the design of the course is also lacking in some areas. The blind shots on 3 and 8 are not ideal, as you are guessing on how much turn to put on your disc. Hole 3 has so many branches in front of the tee that there isn't really a clear fairway to the basket. Other holes are just kind of hard to either judge or locate from the tees without distances or a clear indication of the direction you are throwing to. Even a map at the parking lot would help immensely with many of these problems.

Location of this course is ideal mainly just for Carlyle residents. Gas and food options exist in town, but it's out of the way of any interstate or highway that most people would find themselves on. I combined this course with the courses in Centralia, which seems to be the best way to go about playing this course. Otherwise, it's out of the way of just about any point A to point B route that a course bagger would be taking.

Overall, this course leaves much to be desired. It's kind of a shame to see such nice baskets on a course where the rest of the design and infrastructure are lacking. This honestly would likely be a better course if the holes were either designed to be even shorter, or if there were less holes in the design. This is a tight park with sporadic pavilions and paths, and fitting 9 holes on this site is a challenge. I'm guess the eagle scouts didn't design this course, but just updated the equipment that was present.

I think a shortened course in terms of the number of holes or distances would improve this course for disc golfers that come by here, other park-goers, and the city as they maintain the course. A shorter course would be mainly just for new folks, but would be a nice intro to disc golf for locals who may then want to adventure out to other courses.

If you're a dedicated course bagger, by all means stop by Carlyle. Otherwise, unless it's on the way, I wouldn't drive too far out of the way for this one.

It's a city park course with excellent MVP baskets.
For a tiny course there is good use of elevation.

Boy of boy. The issues with this course.....

1. Basket location/Teepad location. - It's really awful here, My drive on Hole 1 ended on Hole 2 teepad, inside circle 1. I also landed on the hole 3 teepad from Hole 2. If fact, with the exception of 7 and subsequently the hole 8 teepad; I think every basket is within circle 2 for the previous hole's drive. That's pretty bad.

2. dirt pads, basically would be unplayable if it rained. as it
hasn't rained in awhile I was fine today.

3. Hole design. Well well well. We all know the 2 famous Rec Level / amateur disc golf course designers. Mr Forehand and Mr Backhand. It goes like this. Mr Backhand likes to put courses in that feature a lot of RHBH hyzers because that's what they throw. Then there's Mr. Forehand who comes along and says....hey hey hey....what don't you just do everything opposite that way it'll be challenging. Most folks would say, lets have a mixture. Not these folks. Mr Forehand must have compromising photos of the town's mayor. Every optimal line on this course with the exception of Hole 8 is forehand. If you have a 250ft forehand or a very solid turnover game you should shoot -5 or better. if you don''t you will be faced with low ceilings and/or much more difficult lines on most of the course.

I've said it before in other reviews and I'll say it again here. Scouts should not be designing/building disc golf courses. I don't know when this became a thing. They almost never have real pads and typically have poor design and worst of all is they ruin a potential opportunity for a properly designed disc golf course to go in that park or in the town. Yes its obviously cheaper than paying a professional or using Gateway and their design services/baskets if you are close-ish to St. Louis but cheaper is almost never better. And now the city has to maintain that course. It will now be even more difficult for a proper course to be installed because that would be a 2nd course for the city to maintain. This is why these Scouts courses have to stop. Unless they are only retrofitting an existing course with baskets and/or new pads. It's ok short term but terrible long term.

The sad thing is this course has great baskets on an otherwise crummy course.

Sometimes another course isn't always a good thing. Improving an unplayed/unpopular course is great is you hire someone for the re-design who knows what they are doing. Using funds to buy nice baskets only to have the course design stink doesn't make sense.

This park could have held 6-7 good holes but they sandwiched 9 in. More isn't always better especially when it means good drives can land on other teepads!

About an hour east of St. Louis, nestled up to the largest man-made lake in Illinois, is the small city of Carlyle. The city's website promotes opportunities for boating, fishing and beach visits, which all rightly overshadow the only disc golf course for miles around.

The course starts right near the parking lot with a sign that indicates where to begin and gives credit to the Boy Scout Eagles for their help in renovating the course in 2016.

The baskets have been upgraded to MVP Black Hole baskets, which feature a really narrow bogey banner but seem to do the job.

Good elevation on this course. Hole #1 is mostly downhill, which is a fun way to start a round. Hole #4 is downhill with the basket nearly in a blind spot. Hole #5 runs back up a hill. Hole #6 drops the basket on a slope, while Hole #7 features a small valley.

The Carlyle City Park features a beautiful display of lights and decorations at night during the holiday season, though by day, they provide additional interference on the course.

The teepad areas are poor. Due to the recent precipitation, the natural teepads were muddy then usual when I played, but the areas were also rutted and uneven. On several of the holes, I didn't bother with a run-up as the teepad area was treacherous.

Plenty of potential obstacles exist in the park, from sidewalk walkers to playground patrons. The disc golf course feels crammed into the space, even without the other activities around. Hole #7 has a pavilion on the right side, while Hole #8 includes a small restroom area with a roof that could catch wayward throws in the middle of its fairway.

Navigating the course isn't instinctual, though the course map definitely helped. A couple of the baskets were difficult to see from the teepad. No signs near the teepads, which are marked by a wooden stake with a number.

For most of the holes, there are random trees with plenty of low-hanging branches. The park terrain might not contain the space for more ideal fairways, but the design feels more like a casual round of safari disc golf.

Isolated: This course is probably out of the way, especially since several other regional courses are now considered closed or unplayable. The closest available courses, the Foundation Park complex and Bryan Memorial Park, are 30-plus minutes away and offer much better disc golf.

Carlyle City Park DGC is simply that: a disc golf course in a city park. Unfortunately, the design is mostly unmemorable. The natural teepads are in poor condition, and most of the holes include random obstacles and undefined fairways. This course will appeal to the locals and the course baggers. Outside of that, there isn't much reason to stop.

Nice pins -- they look almost new.

Very smart use of a relatively small park ... and I think pretty much all of the course is in the shade!

Not super challenging, but not a cakewalk for this player at all.

Earthen tees -- but I can live with those -- no big deal.

A very nice, well laid out course. Very smart use of the limited space.

On 8/17/18 I lowered my rating from 3 to 2.5 -- that DOES NOT mean I think any less of the course. In fact, I played it a week or so ago. Play this course! A "decent/typical" course is not a badge of shame.

I noticed several of the older reviews mentioned outdated baskets, I wanted to report that the baskets were all replaced last fall with new MVP Black Hole Portals.

My wife and I are fairly new players just learning the game and this course is perfect for us. Nice layout with some challenge but not crazy difficulty.

There's a couple small creeks through this park and mosquitoes have been bad around them a couple of evenings we played, bring some repellent!

For those with small children, there's a really nice playground right in the middle of this 9 hole course. it's a great place to let the kids play while you disc golf and can still keep an eye on them.

Fun par 3 course in an old park in a nice little town near Carlyle Lake. Great if you live nearby or are camping at the lake. The park has plenty of old trees for shade and to provide a mild amount of obstacles. The park is mildly hilly, so even though it's a small park, it's fun for disc golf.

This course hasn't changed since the previous reviewers with one exception. Hole 6 used to have a line of large bushes that made for an interesting obstacle, but those have been removed. So it's easy to make this hole in two shots now.

All of the baskets are visible from the tees except 1 & 8.

Hole 1 is to the right of the yellow railings over the runoff channel and slightly up hill behind the bushes across the path.

Hole 8 is situated behind the restroom and 30 or so feet down the hill. When teeing off, aim right of the restroom about 20 feet and just over ground level or you'll overshoot the basket.

Old, single chain baskets.

No tee pads and the grass is worn down at the tees so on damp days you have to tee off away from the tees slightly to avoid mud.

No maps indicating fairways, but with the exception of holes 1 & 8 the baskets are visible and intuitive.

Nice rolling hills in an old park. I've always liked the large old trees that shape natural lines on a disc golf course and this park has plenty of that.

Overall this course is just fun to throw. It has the oldschool par 3 feel to it where it's duece or die with your group of buddies.

Lots of room in the park for safari golf or a set of long tees. My buddy showed me the long tees that his group of friends play and there are some long bombs out there.

You can see multiple baskets from some of the tees, and the signs just have distances listed. Luckily I was playing with somebody who knew the course.

Hole 2's tee was overgrown and everybody throws from the sidewalk next to it, same thing with hole 3. A little course maintenance would help, or just denote the sidewalks as the tee.

By far the worst part of this course are the baskets. Single chains aren't ideal, but what's even worse are that the bars in the cage are spaced too far apart. Low putts can actually travel into the basket, and made putts can fall out of the basket. My rating reflects the baskets, and if they were replaced with modern baskets I would probably bump it up to a 3. From the way I understand it the baskets were made by a local welding shop.

This course plays pretty quick and is a good course to go play if you want to play some fun holes and just go have a good time. Nothing super challenging, but if you're in the area and want a challenge go play Foundation Park in Centralia.

- Variable elevation makes for interesting shots
- Beautiful park setting
- Bathrooms and water fountains available
- Nearby pool if you wish to take a dip after a hot and intense game of disc golf
- nice flow to course.

- Signs are 4x4 pieces of wood with hole number and distance, but doesn't really clearly indicate where the basket is.
- Dirt tee pads. #2's pad was DOWNHILL, so tee-ed off on the sidewalk right next to it
- Tees also don't say which side of it to start from.
- Single-chained baskets
- Plays through park area, may be congested if there were any pavilions being used for parties

Not that bad of a course. The holes themselves are fun and my only REAL complaints are the actual baskets and tee pads. The single chains bug the heck out of me as some putt shots go through. If the park were to upgrade above mentioned, my rating for this course would be a 4. Not a course to go out of your way to play until if they were to upgrade it.

Neat little 9-er that makes GREAT use of the space available.

It's not a large park, but the holes were laid out well to make good use of the elevation and obstacles present.

Layout made a good balance of lefty/righty shots, and the couple of fast greens added challenge to and otherwise uninteresting course.

Plenty of parking and bathrooms are always a plus.

4x4s for tee signs with distances painted on them didn't give you any direction to throw, but the holes are short enough and open enough that it didn't really matter; all holes were visible from the tee (except for 8) if not a few steps out.

Single chain baskets, natural pads, un-descriptive (though adequate) teesigns, and an overall lack of length make this a good novice course, but nothing more.

The easy shot for 6 is a big hyzer that plays right over/through a swingset; not the greatest design strategy IMO...

The complication of avoiding christmas decorations/electrical wires that were seemingly laid on top of the teepads with no regard to the golf patrons seems a bit careless, if not reckless. (Should unruly golfers decide to *remove* obstacles in their way, there's nothing to stop them)

Natural pads, single chain baskets, and no real big or tricky holes makes this a good course to travel to to round out a day at Centralia (especially if you're a St. Louis-er heading back west), but certainly not a destination in and of itself.

Watch out for vehicle traffic on 8 (or other park patrons coming in and out of the john), christmas decorations at the appropriate times, and little ones/pedestrians frolicking through those obstacles/on the pedestrian paths that criss-cross the course.

I'd like to get back here in the summer time to see how it plays without all of the christmas obstructions.

-good facilities at course (water spicket on hole 1, 2 by shelter, 7 has fountain and spicket, 8 has water in the bathrooms)
-good use of available landscape in the small (5-7 acre?) park. Landscape includes good elevation changes (1- slight downhill, 3-uphill, 4-down, 5-up, 6-on side of hill, 7-rolling fairway, 8-up then down to blind basket)
-mature trees on all holes, some holes have some saplings that will grow up to be larger and some good bushes.
-Many pavilions to rest at if needed (only takes about 25-30 minutes to play)
-onsite pool (sweet!)
-OB on several holes (3,4,6,8-road and 1 when water is present in the drainage ditch.

-Tee signs are 4x4 posts with hole number and distance
--natural tee pads (7's tee pad is terrible (slightly sloped down and the hole requires you to play a higher shot so in my experience it was hard to shoot high enough to get to the pin) and 2's pad is missing (I found the tee sign but no worn out area near it and it's on the side of a hill. I just threw from behind it on the walking path
-Home made 12 chain smallish baskets-it's nice that they were donated for this memorial dgc, but I had several spit outs or spit throughs, and I even had one go into the basket and fall out of the bottom of the basket. Upon further examination, all the cross bar welds on the baskets weren't uniform and the larger ones allowed discs to pass through if they were tilted just right.
-Course is very short, most holes under 250' and almost all of them you could hyzer a midrange or putter over the main obstacle(s) and be fine if not parked.
-There is some danger of hitting people or cars. There is a swing set right in the main disc flight path on hole 6, no one was there when I was playing, but could be dangerous when park is busy. You also throw over the walking path on 1 and 3 so be careful for pedestrians, on hole 8 you throw out over a road right at a blind curve, I played 3 rounds and each time I played, a car drove past just as my disc was going over a hill.
-no benches or trashcans at any of the tees (trash can at parking lot and pavilion though)

This is a fun, easy little course, good practice for driving with a putter or short mid. Good for beginners and people working on developing a short, accurate tee game. It's quick to play, you can play 18 in under an hour. Really if this course didn't interfere so much with other park users and the baskets were fixed up a bit, I'd give it a 2.5.

Great use of the available land, all couple acres of it. Features rolling hills, plenty of trees and a creek (dry at the time I was there). Well marked. Several holes more of the type you'd fins on a 'real' course.

Dirt tee pads. Have to use caution around kids playing in park. Baskets are homemade and don't catch anything.