3.4 miles on three different parks.
MLK Park, Bataan Park And Veterans Park
Beautiful river view
Mostly easy straight shots
Not a lot of trees
2 different tee pads
Rec and beginners

Lots of bums
Weekend can see lots of extra people
Vehicles Park where they want/in front of baskets

Great course with good concrete pads and good baskets. Always a fun time.

This is a pretty typical park course, playing over acres of mowed grass with only a few trees in play. There are a few holes that bring a large pond into play, and one with a nice downhill drive.

There are two concrete tees for all but Hole 14, with simple signs giving hole number, par, and distance. In most cases the longer tee is on a similar line and adds modest distance, but a few change the line significantly or bring obstacles into play.

On Hole 4 the short tee takes most of the water out of play, while the long tee requires a 200' water carry.

On Holes 6 and 12 the the long tee box brings a railroad bridge into play. From the long tee you have to drive either under or over the bridge.

Hole 13 is the only hole with any significant elevation, but offers a nice downhill drive.

Hole 14 has a single tee and requires a 175' water carry to a basket located just beyond the water. The ground slopes steeply around the pin adding challenge.

Navigation is very easy. Between the next tee signs on the baskets and the open terrain, you really can't get lost. Be aware that some of the long tees are on the other side of a road, path or bridge.

There is not a lot of variety on the course. Most of the throws are over level ground with few (if any) trees to shape your drives around. Given the area that they had to work with the course is well done, but they didn't have much variety to begin with.

The distances on the tee signs are off by a good bit in some cases. For instance, the two tees for Hole 1 are pretty much next to each other, but the Blue Tee sign shows 305' with the White Tee sign showing 207'. Based on my GPS and Google Earth tracks the distances are 302' and 297' respectively.

The course plays across roads and paths on many of the holes. Holes 6, 7, 11, 15, and 16 all play right along the main walking path. The Hole 17 basket is next to a picnic table. I had a couple of issues with people parked on the line between tee and basket, and also waited on several people that were walking on the paths. I played on a weekday morning and wonder how difficult a weekend might be.

I understand from a local player I met that the Hole 18 basket had been recently moved. My holes distances and course map reflect the location the day I played. I don't know if this is a permanent position or not.

I have updated the hole distances based on a GPS run and confirmed on Google Earth. They don't match the tee signs in many cases.

Nice open shots, few tree hazards, nice grass terrain, few mandos

Small Tee boxes, Kind of congested area and homeless people floating about.

Overall a great course. Took me about an hour to play whole course so its convenient when your short for time. Very birdie friendly course. I played all par 3's and hit 4 Birdies with no bogeys..This is a uplifting course!

This is my home course, I just want to let everyone know we will be expanding the course to 18 on July 1 (building starts). I understand that there will be 2 or 3 Safari holes. Played a tournement Last November with the additional hole temporarily in place, and if the permanent new holes are in same area the difficulty level will be increased. There is a possibility of a Dedication Tournament at completion

If 18 is in the area of November Tournament it is a long walk back to your car.

In response to Valkrie Kids remark about #2 not pointing to basket position, it is because of the mando around the utility pole to the left of tee.

Valkyrie Kid has a point, But, based on the projected placement of the additional 6 baskets it wil more like a front 6, a middle 6, and a back 6.

The Bataan Recreation Area course plays around three seperate areas of the MLK park in Carlsbad. # 1 tee starts near the river. #1,2 and 3 and then # 12 play in this first grassy area. Then # 4 throws across a corner of the river and # 5 plays back along the railroad tracks. Then you walk under the tracks to another part of the park and play #'s 6-11 before returning to the orginal area to finish up on # 12. It's actual quite easy to follow.

The # 1 & 2 tee signs are quite simple. They just state the hole #. Nothing else. The pads are concrete trapazoid, just average size. The baskets are the Innovas with big yellow bands. When you get to the # 3 signs, they suddenly have the par and distance-Thank you.

# 4 doesn't have the distance. It's the one that throws across the corner where the river is not flowing. It's probably only about a 180 foot carry across the river but then you have to cross the park road so add another 50 feet.
Many of the holes in the park area behind the railroad tracks are wide open holes with not much in the way of obstacles. A couple are over 400 feet and another is a 225 foot ACE run.

# 11 might be the toughest hole on the course. It's tight down the fairway with trees on the right and a ballfield on the left. The backstop is in your way and the basket is protected by trees and branches.

While the throw over the water is kinda cool, be careful with park traffic on the street right behind it.

The # 2 teepad is not all pointing to the current basket placement. A couple of the holes on the end of the course are pretty unimaginative. Just long straight throws across wide expanses of grass/brown dirt.

When you get to # 7, there's a official Carlsbad Park Department sign welcoming you to the back 6. So on this course, you have the front six and the back six. This was a first for me! To play a front six and a back six. Earlier today, I played the six hole course in Artesia. I guess I played the front three followed by the back three? COOL!

I'm actually a little disappointed to hear that this course is expanding to 18 come July 2013. Having a regular old front nine and back nine is not nearly as intriguing to me as having a front six and a back six.

Great for all skill levels, has some holes that are difficult and some easier. right by the river so the scenery is beautiful. lots of small elavation changes.

not many obstacles. softball practice during softball season. a couple holes dont have the distance.

Baskets, tees and signs in good condition. Good flow, with two loops if you don't have time for a complete game. Good use of available obstacles. Good balance of hole distances and shots.

Baseball games or other activities may require you to skip a hole or two. No super long hole.

not sure on the pros of this course its pretty shot only took about 20-30mins to play most hole are pretty short all in all its not a drive out of the way course i did have fun playing ther tho

lots of traffic with poeple and cars had to skip a hole cuz a birthday party not much diffaculty to it