Huntsville, TX

Eastham-Thomason Park

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2.295(based on 7 reviews)
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2 1
ivanhenson
Gold level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 12.8 years 664 played 218 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Just ok 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 7, 2017 Played the course:once

Pros:

Short nice little park

Cons:

Hard to follow signs are poor and missing signs on 1 3 6
Missing rubber tee pads on 3 6 so no starting point
also college town so for a really small bad course middle of week it was still really crowded.
flow was odd
several holes play across others.

Other Thoughts:

they actually have a nice size park with 2 or 3 sections.
they could re design this and make a really nice little course 1 with play over the creek and add some distance.
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7 0
dreadlock86
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 16.9 years 382 played 308 reviews
2.00 star(s)

quirky but fun 2+ years

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Mar 10, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

-unique course for a small 9 holer in a public park
-variety of distance and shots, especially for 9 holes
-decent baskets and rubber tee mats
-fun variety of shots
-practice basket
-dedicated parking area
-creek comes into play
-interesting use of OB: walking paths, volleyball court, large area in center of back half of course

Cons:

-many safety issues: pipe crossing over the creek, crossing/adjacent fairways, tee shot for 5 aims at tee 6, pedestrian walkways, volleyball court
-some of the OB is ambiguous, especially on 8 & 9
-tee signs are poorly placed near the front left of each tee, careful of your hands while throwing!
-design makes sense and does the best it can with the space available but this plot is really just too small for 9 holes, too crowded with too many overlaps and safety issues

Other Thoughts:

This course was surprisingly fun for a small 9 hole in a crowded park. The first three holes are great, especially 2 and 3 where the creek comes into play and you're looking at an anhyzer shot over the water (RHBH, both holes). Then you have to cross the creek and the problems start.

There is no good way over or around the creek. Either cross the pipe which could easily be a safety hazard or go far out of the way to go around. Then when you get to the back 6 holes, they are crammed into too small a space.

Some of these holes are fun and have good obstacles while others are filler just to get to 9 holes and back to the front of the park. OB is unclear on 8 & 9, there are supposed to be posts marking OB but there are also other posts as well as tree saplings and rocks. Hole 5 throws on the tee for hole 6, holes 7 & 8 share a fairway and 9 has a volleyball court directly between tee and basket. Also, one of my biggest pet peeves on a course is present here: tee signs are in the way of the tee pads, right at the front left corner. DG courses should be designed and implemented by DG players, this is inexcusable.

The shots are fun and the variety of distances, shot types, obstacles and OB make for a fun round. It's too bad that the land here just isn't really big enough for 9 holes that don't present myriad safety issues. Plus points for fun factor, uniqueness and creativity, minus points for safety issues.

Worth stopping to play if you are passing by Huntsville. Not worth going out of the way.


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7 0
Donovan
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 37 years 300 played 187 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Take the Pipe Hike or Walk Around? 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 15, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

This course has some decent hole size variability, water, trees, wide-open holes, OB, mandos, a couple good basket placements. The creek that is here is a pretty good drop off. I liked the rubber tee pads and the placements of some of the pads were decent. They did a good job of getting these nine holes in this park. The mandos on 2 of the holes are what really makes the par 5's. The tree that are involved with the holes were well planned.

Cons:

No, the title is not referring to a walk in the woods, but rather, questions do you walk over a creek on a large pipe or do you choose to walk around where the road bridge is located to get from Basket #3 to Tee #4. Needless to say, safety can be an issue if you slip. Also, the course works around a playground which is another possible safety issue, although the mandos are in place to help prevent too much throwing in on or over the playground. You will need a map to play here and you will need it to understand the mando's on the course. The signs are poles, with no map. The problem with these are that they are right up against the front left of the tee pad where you could hit for a right-hander throwing right-hand/backhand. This was the most irritating thing to be careful of.

Other Thoughts:

The Fun Factor was fair. The mando's made sense, but they were almost so far off the path with where the trees related to the throw that it kind of took away from the hole (referring to #8). This is still a good 9-hole course with decent sized holes and good tree placements. It is an average course overall. I rated this a little lower for safety reasons.
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9 0
ERicJ
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 16.3 years 286 played 154 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Dangerous 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 10, 2011 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Park is easy to find with a nice "Disc Golf Course" sign at the entrance dedicated for course parking. There's a beautiful course map by the parking lot and practice basket area. The baskets are reasonable quality double-chain baskets, although they are a mix of DGA and Lightning brands. As others have said this is not a pitch-and-putt little park course like you might expect. Several of the holes have interesting and challenging lines (#5 & #6), several others tempt a watery fate with anhyzers over the creek being the preferred line to score well (#2 & #3). The course slightly favors RHBH throwers, but has a couple anhyzer and straight holes to balance out. Navigation is easy (except for #3 to #4 transition) primarily because the next tees are ridiculously close to the previous baskets; and the baskets are numbered as well. I assumed the course played streets & sidewalk and beyond as OB to make a reasonable challenge.

Cons:

The tee posts are right on the left front corner of the tee pads and are tall enough to be a major throwing hazard. The practice basket is in pretty sad shape missing almost half its chains... but if you warm up and make putts on this one then the real baskets should be even easier! Posted distances on the first and last couple holes are off by 25' or more. The rubber tee mats are already showing signs of wear and don't look to be installed in such a way as to stand the test of time. The pipe "bridge" crossing from hole #3 to #4 is a big accident waiting to happen. There are ample benches throughout the park, unfortunately many of them are located on or adjacent to fairways making it a dangerous place to sit.

Other Thoughts:

This course starts out really well, I liked the first three holes a lot. #1 is almost a warm-up hole. Then #2 challenges REC player distance at 370' with left side water, as does #3. The course goes down hill from here: you come to the slightly precarious pipe-bridge crossing to get to hole #4 or you walk a long way back to the street to get across the creek. Hole #4 isn't <span class="italic">too</span> bad other than the benches lining the fairway being dangerous for unsuspecting park-goers, and griplocked throws into a right-side volleyball court. But then you get to hole #5 where there are two tee boxes (#6 and #9) in the fairway. If there are any players on those boxes you really shouldn't throw #5. Upon arriving to #7's tee box you see another volleyball court in the prime hyzer throwing line... and #8's tee box. After holing out on #7 you see #8's tee pad is pointed directly back towards #7: these two holes are designed to throw directly at each other (see the course map). Unfortunately the map-shown flight line for #8 can't be enforced with a mando using the rocks shown as they're far too short to tell if a disc passed on the correct side or not; instead I used the first big tree ~60' in front of the tee box as a mando. On the 9th and last hole you once again challenge a volleyball court this time smack dab in the middle of the fairway. This time it doesn't take a grip-lock or wide hyzer shot to land in the court: it's dead center. If there's anyone on the court this hole is unplayable.

This would be a nice course to have in your own private back yard. If you're the only one out in the park it's not bad either. But as soon as this place gets a few more disc golf players or park patrons it becomes a big safety hazard. Not a destination course, but if you're already all the way out to Huntsville to play Shawshank you might drive the 10 minutes to add this one to your resume of played courses.
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4 0
harr0140
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 15.2 years 1508 played 475 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Huntsville 57 sauce (I have no idea what that means) 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jan 9, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

1) Rubber teepads were a lot better than throwing from dirt, although we played after a pretty good day of rain so they were slick in some spots. Better than turf/dirt, but not as good as concrete raised up a couple inches from grade. The rubber was grippy but also a little lumpy in spots, and some spots had settled slightly. All in all a plus but they could have been better.

2) Practice basket available before the first tee and it is also labelled so as to not confuse it with another hole.

3) Big sign at the entrance mapping out the course. Holes numbered, distance marked, and a pretty good map of the park and all of the holes. Rules and safety are also listed on the sign which is customary with a lot of these nicer disc golf signs.

4) Beginner friendly course for the most part, but the distance on a couple holes will challenge beginners.

5) Posts mark each tee also have the Hole # on them along with Par. That is a helpful tool for navigation for first timers.

6) Water is visible although not really in play unless you really miss your line or get a horrible kick off a tree. You can play as safe as you want to avoid the rushing river. It looks like the banks of the river had been clear cut, perhaps they were overgrown but they have been trimmed down now.

7) Chainstar baskets and I think there were a couple homemade baskets or perhaps they were all homemade but copied after the Chainstar's. Sorry but my memory is bad when I play 42 courses in 17 days. Writing stuff down is crucial to me writing these reviews, but I didn't clearly explain it on m pad of paper.

8) This course has a decent variety from mostly open to some tighter technical shots as well as a few through some small little gaps. All in all it will present a challenge to most players, but top level players should be able to eat this course for dinner.


4)

2)

Cons:

1) Rubber mats as I said are better than turf/dirt but they are lumpy and there are hollow spots that collect water and mud. Since the ground around the tees is beat down and very spotty turf the fine soils settle on top of the tees. That was the problem for us today because it had rained heavily the entire morning before we arrived. There wet muddy puddles all over the rubber mats. Someone needs to come up with a way to mount the mats above grade on some sort of hard surface.

2) All in all the turf on this course is thin, I know it is the dormant time of the year but it sure would be nice if you didn't have to worry about thin muddy spots all over the place. I guess that is just the issue with plaing in the "transition zone" where you have warm season grasses that thrive in summer but the cold season grasses get crowded out. Without overseeding, this will not be resolved until someone comes up with a turf that works in both season. Sorry turf professional speaking here, that probably makes no sense to anyone else.

3) A couple of the basket locations are pretty cool. While #2 is pretty straight open boring hole,t he basket is perched pretty close to the edge of the bank that goes down to the raging river. It makes for an interesting approach. #3 has the basket perched pretty close to the edge also and you really could throw a big anhyzer on that hole where you are over water a good portion of the flight. It is the best angle to come in but the risk is high with stalling out and ending up in the creek. #4 is also a pretty cool basket location because it is tucked into the edge of the woods and it has a downed limb behind it. That can act as a backstop but if you miss and you overshoot the limb you are looking at a pretty good obstacle because it is lying sideways across your putting lane. I like it.

4) There are also a couple of good lanes on the next few holes. Hole #5 has a nice little throw across a path with a pretty small gap to hit. The trees are about halfway up the fairway so if you hit something you are left with a pretty decent distance approach still forcing accuracy to be the most important part of this hole. Hole #6 is a good tight little fairway near the tee that opens up slightly as you get closer to the basket. I really enjoyed that throw. Hole #7 is also a pretty decent little lane because you have the option to throw a high hyzer to try and get it close to the basket. There really isn't much of a low flat throw to the basket you almost need to elevate the shot to get it to dig right intot he small fairway. There are clumps of trees that really guard the basket. All in all pretty creative little holes for this fairly plain park.

5) #8 is kindof a silly hole. I assume that the open field is considered a mando to stay out of there, but it is almost undefinable where the mando actually is. There are a lot of young trees out there so I assume they want us to throw around all of those trees but it is just not obvious.

6) #9 is also a little goofy hole because it comes very close to playing through Hole #4 fairway. I don't like holes that pass so close together especially when they come in at different angles, that is when people get hit without even seeing anything coming.

7) The posts marking the tees are actually in a really bad spot. I never like to see posts at the end of the tee especially on the left side. That is where most people are throwing from that front left corner of the tee and I would be afraid someone might follow through right into the posts.

8) The course is a little segmented because you need to walk all the way around the river after hole #3. Perhaps a bridge could be put it, if you wanted you might be able to shimmy across the watermain pipe that is visible but I do not recommend it.

9) The holes also cross a walkpath once or twice which could be an issue if it is busy.

Other Thoughts:

Not a bad little course here in Huntsville. We had some spare time before the Texas Prison Museum opened and the rain let off just as we arrived so we got in a quick round here. There are some cool redeeming holes out there, but there are also a few maintenance issues and amenities that leave a little to be desired. I would say this is average, but I cannot downgrade it that much because of how many cool unique holes and shots there are. I am giving it a 3 but it really deserves about a 2.75. I just cannot group it in with all the other 2.5's I have rated.
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7 0
sidewinding
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 16.2 years 81 played 67 reviews
2.50 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 28, 2010 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

This course has it's own dedicated parking area.

There is a practice basket!

The teepads were some type of black rubber material that was staked down. They provided good traction and kept ruts from forming in the otherwise dirt teepads.

Each tee has a 4x4 post cut at a 45 degree angle with the hole #, distance, and par etched into the top of it.

Very fun design using trees and a creek to create risk and reward. If you want the birdie on #2 and #3 you basically have to anny out over the water which is a really fun pucker factor type situation.

This is NOT a pitch and putt course as you might think a nine holer in a town with only one course would be. It requires some distance and accuracy to score well.

Cons:

Teesigns are a little tall to be placed right on the front left corner of the teepad. You really have to be careful on your pull through to avoid hitting them.

To get from the #3 basket to the #4 tee you have to walk back to the parking area and cross a bridge that the road goes over. Near the #3 basket there is a large pipe crossing the deep, steep banked creek but the city has put a fence around each end to deter people from using it as a bridge, but I would imagine many of the locals use this to cross.

Hole #8 is kind of silly. The basket is on the other side of a large orchard/garden looking field but the designer meant for you to go around field instead of straight at the basket. This would work if there were a large tree you could use as a mando, but there is not. I chose to throw straight at the basket which makes the hole about 400' instead of 500'.

Hole #9 is aweful. It looks like they have added two sand volleyball courts after the course was already established. They should have moved the #9 basket to the near side of the courts but they did not. They left the basket so the two courts are right in the fairway. You can either go between the two courts, around the end, or over the top. The safest thing would be to just skip this hole if people were using the volleyball courts.

Other Thoughts:

I was pleasantly suprised by this little course. I will stop here again some day when I'm passing through Huntsville.
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1 4
mxr011
Experience: 15.3 years 12 played 1 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Mike's Review 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:May 6, 2010 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Good for a quick round. Huntsville is a small town full of college students who don't have much time. The city owns the park so mostly well kept.

Cons:

Only 9 holes. Brush by hole 2 is out of control. Also hole 8 the tee is set about 45 degrees to the right of where it should be.
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