Albemarle, NC

City Lake Park DGC - Old Layout

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1.585(based on 12 reviews)
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City Lake Park DGC - Old Layout reviews

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4 4
mateobueno
Experience: 6 played 6 reviews
0.50 star(s)

Putting Practice 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Feb 1, 2014 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

I live in the county, so I hate to say this, but there aren't many pros. The baskets are nice, and if you want to go out and practice your putting, this will do the trick.

Cons:

You can't really consider this a disc golf course. For anyone who plays the game with any regularity, it's too short, with many ill-advised holes.

Other Thoughts:

If you've never played the game before, this might be the place to start, as you'll have nothing to compare it to.
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7 0
bettsjc
Silver level trusted reviewer
Experience: 15.1 years 39 played 30 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Novice Course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jan 11, 2013 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

City Lake Park DGC is in a beautiful park, overlooking its namesake lake. The park ammenities include a playground, ample fishing areas, restrooms, plenty of walking/biking trails and a pavilion.

The course is equipped with Innova DISCatchers, double layer chains, and very visible. Tee boxes are marked by wood ties and mulch/dirt. The baskets are numbered, which is basically all you have to identify what hole you are on, unless you have a map of the course. For me, the equipment installed for this course is pretty much the only "pro", as these are the reasons why my rating of 2 discs - "Reasonable" is what it is.

For anyone who is better than beginner status, this is pretty much a pitch and putt, maybe the place to go if you wanted to work on your form on approach shots, or use one of the baskets for putting practice. A great place to go if you are planning to play Fox Chase and have a half hour to kill before meeting your buddies.

Basically, this course will help the beginner become addicted to the game. Its layed out generally in the open, with some minor obsticles, and a basket or two barely tucked into a tree line. This is a great place for someone to come out and learn the game without being completely discouraged. Bad shots are not punishing here.

Cons:

Most of the second half of my "pros" section would start me off in the "cons". Its basically a pitch and putt for those who are classified higher than a beginner or novice. If you are looking for some sort of challenge, this is not the place for you. If you are looking to take the kids out to play, or friends that are inexperienced it could be a good time.

There is no variety here. Baskets are VERY visible from the tee boxes, no fairways to stay on, and all at 250' or less(most are less). This takes the need out of needing tee signs for this course, which there are none. Your variety will come with elevation, where it is fairly balanced with uphill, downhill and level shots. Your only other obsticles would be the road(if you are playing it as OB) and the couple baskets which are located just inside a bunch of trees. There is only one hole that forces you to make a decision on your drive.

Other Thoughts:

This course is what it is, and there's no making anything else out of it. To sum it up;
-Beginners course
-15 minute solo round
-No variety
-Pitch and Putt, Practice course.

This course is about 5 or so minutes away from Fox Chase and are currently(at the time of review) the only two public courses in Albemarle. When entering the park, take the road all the way to the back of the park, by then you will have seen pretty much the whole course. 1st tee is by the parking lot on the left side, course ends by the parking lot on the right. Beginning of course marked by a sign/kiosk.
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1 1
Disc Junky
Experience: 12.4 years 91 played 3 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Practice City 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Nov 21, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

Beautiful Park located around this small course.
Very easy to Navigate.
Places to cookout with your family.
Hole 1 and 2 with the water in the backdrop are rather scenic.

Cons:

Very short distances.
Missing Tee Pad on #4

Other Thoughts:

This park is plenty big enough to add 9 more holes in it. It has a great start with the 9 they already have. I will definitely use it as a warm up for Fox Chase which is only 8 mins away.
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3 0
DiscGolfCraig
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 19.8 years 585 played 539 reviews
1.50 star(s)

Good beginner course...but potential for so much more 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 8, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

City Lake is a decent, beginner-friendly nine-hole course. Come for the disc golf, stay for the scenery.
- This is your average, small park nine-hole course. It's clearly aimed for casual players, with no hole longer than 254 feet.
- For the lack of length, there's a decent amount of variety here. #1 has a crazy tree protecting the basket, with players being forced to go over or under large branch. Or you just throw around the tree altogether. It'll appear challenging for newbies, but is an easy two for more experienced players. After that, holes #2 - 4 remain in the woods, 5 - 7 are all open holes, and 8 & 9 are open tee shots to baskets on the edge of the woods.
- Relatively easy course to navigate. Tees are dirt, surrounded by wood frames. The transitions from #3 basket to #4 tee, and #4 basket to #5 tee were the only two that took more than two seconds to locate. An interesting feature of the open holes #5 - 7, is that there is a different type (and color) of grass to indicate the fairways and the transition between holes.
- This is a good place to bring extra discs to practice throwing. There's plenty of room to throw drives in the open field.
- This is a great, small town park overall. The feature of the park is the lake (more like a really large pond) itself. There's also a playground, picnic shelters, walking and biking trails. I was kind of surprised how empty the park was.
- There's a ton of extra, unused land, both wooded and open space. Makes you think something could be used in that area.

Cons:

There are only a couple small problems with the course. It actually does a good job of achieving the goal of being a beginner, family-friendly course.
- #2 seems to have an awfully high 'lost disc' factor for a beginner course. There's a tree in front of the tee, so you're having to go around it. If you go to the right, you're throwing over the edge of water. Even if you go to the left, there are enough trees that a person could easily hit one, and have their disc ricochet into the water. You don't want the casual, one or two disc players losing one on the second hole.
- The layout on #4 is poor, mainly the lack of a true fairway. There are enough options, but none that will get the average player within sniffing distance of the basket.
- The only truly poor hole is #7. It's a short, straight, wide-open hole. It's the only hole on the course with no obstacle or real challenge.
- There aren't any tee signs, just hole numbers at each tee. Not that they are needed, seeing how each hole is visible from the tee.
- It seems this park has a lot of unused land. You drive past a lot of land before getting to the usable part of the park. It makes you wonder if something could be built in the rest of the park.

Other Thoughts:

If a short, beginner course can exceed expectations, City Lake Park did it for me. For a course that was built as part of a high school project, it's a pretty good job.
- This course offers a little bit of everything: wooded & open holes, doglegs, elevation, water and even a raised basket. It should give first timers a good taste of the variety of holes they'll see on other disc golf courses.
- For a wide open hole, #6 is actually decent. It's an uphill, 227 foot shot, so it plays closer to the 275 - 300 foot range. For more advanced players, this is the type of course you'll only need to carry a disc, two or three, instead of your whole bag. That said, because of this hole, you'll need to make sure one of those discs is something you can throw further.
- There are some great scenic views here. After finishing #6, turn around and enjoy the downhill view of the lake, and the trees around it. I bet this is an amazing view in the fall as the leaves are changing colors. It's a poor man's version of the view you get at Walnut Creek in Charlottesville, VA and Lake's Edge in Reidsville. Not as good as those, but still quite impressive nonetheless.
- I've hinted at this in both my pros and cons, so it's time to address it. This could actually be a great place for an 18-hole course. Now, I don't know anything about it, so perhaps a local will correct me, and I'll update my review at that point. There's a ton of open land as you enter the park, and there's a bunch of wooded/hilly land to the right of #5 & 6 and 8 & 9. With all that good, unused land just sitting there, why not build another disc golf course? Keep the beginner nine hole loop, and add another challenging, advanced course to compliment Fox Chase. As I said, this is a great, well-kept local park, but when I played on a Sunday afternoon, it was virtually deserted. Why have all of that space, and all those resources go to waste?
- If you're going to Albemarle to play disc golf, you're going to Fox Chase. This might be a good course to visit as a warm-up or cool-down round. Other than that, if you don't live close by, or aren't planning on going fishing in the lake, there's no need to drive out of your way here.
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3 0
BraveThrower43
Gold level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 14.1 years 729 played 59 reviews
1.00 star(s)

Not missing anything 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 2, 2012 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Short course to complement fox chase as a more beginner friendly course.

You rairly have any traffic so youre not gonna be bothered.

Raised basket on 4 was the only memorable

Cons:

Navigation is terrible. The first few times I went there I could not find tee pads.

No teesigns so you dont have any Idea on distance.

No Benches

No trashcans

The Teepads are railroad ties boxed in on 3 sides with a little fine gravel inside. They are a trip hazard for anyone trying to follow through on there throw.

Hole 4 is a poke and hope shot which I am not a fan of because there is no line.

the course is just boring with the wooded holes being too wooded and the open holes having no obstruction at all.

Other Thoughts:

Like I said I would take a newbie here before I would take them to fox chase however unlike some other short beginner courses I have played this one is just not a fun play.

If you are a courses played junkie and want to ad a quick one while youre at Fox Chase then stop by otherwise you are not missing anything.
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4 1
Stan McDaniel
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 13 played 13 reviews
1.50 star(s)

If only,,, 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 21, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

I think that for a high school senior project this a good piece of work. The course is in a high profile area and will introduce people to the sport, they can't miss it. It will afford beginners and lesser skilled players a good venue to practice without losing plastic.

Cons:

Hole 1's tee is a bit close to a shelter where lots of rug rats are running around. The tee shot takes you over a path near a path intersection and there is a good bit of foot traffic there for people doing the looped walking track and headed to the lake to fish. Hole 2's fairway is very swampy, a bit too close to the marshy end of the lake. 4's tee is difficult to find and plays in conflict with pedestrians. Hole 9 is a repeat of hole 8 to end the round.

Other Thoughts:

I do not know the constraints that the park dept put on the designer. It appears to me that with minimal effort this course could really have been a great beginner to indermediate course. There appears to be a lot of land that could easily have been used. I think that with a bit of guidance from an experienced player or designer this could have been an awesome course. I was there just after mid day on a Saturday and there was nobody playing this course.
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1 0
hobocrocodile
Experience: 14.5 years 23 played 1 reviews
1.50 star(s)

Beginner Course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 14, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Good warmup/midrange/putting practice course
-Clean and beautiful park

Cons:

-No signage
-A few pads are slightly tough to spot without walking around a bit... they look like horseshoe pits and a few are level with the ground.
-First 4 holes are in a very populated area of the park (right beside the lake) and we had to wait for people a few times and threw over a guy sitting on a bench that's right in the throwing lane on 4.
-Next 3 holes are "boring"... 3 wide open, 200' holes.

Other Thoughts:

This course was a senior project... explaining the lack of pads and why they didn't forge out holes in the woods. He just used what was available and made a simple little course.
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1 3
Benttreedg
Experience: 13.6 years 4 played 4 reviews
1.50 star(s)

simple 9 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 1, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

Nice short holes to work on midrange and putting. Overall a really nice park with a lake view.

Cons:

From hole to hole is not marked well at all. Need signs telling you where next tee box is. Spent a lot of time walking around looking for tee box. Would be nice if grass clippings were picked up after mowing.
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6 0
BrotherDave
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 16.7 years 192 played 188 reviews
1.50 star(s)

Short but Bittersweet 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:May 30, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

Very pretty park with nice elevation and a lake. Maintained adequately with trash picked up and grass mowed. The gravel tees are huge and nicely even, all pointing in the right direction so good job there. The baskets are typical Innova Discatchers and numbered.

The first 4 holes meander around a wooded area beside the lake and are very straight forward with the exception of #4. #8 is a cute turnover shot, as is #5.

Cons:

There's lovely land, elevation included, and a big lake. Unfortunately, the course utilizes none of this. It's basically 4 short holes crammed in a wooded section beside the lake (perilously close to anyone fishing nearby, which there were many today) followed by 5 open, field holes that are slightly longer and even more underwhelming.

Hole #4's tee is awkward to locate, it's close to the lake's edge, about 2 o'clock from #3's basket. There's no real fairway unless you play it as a right angle hyzer but that's available b/c of a sidewalk so you can either do that and endanger patrons or lumberjack straight through the sparse but no line containing woods.

The variety is really bad, all holes are in the 100-200' range basically and all more or less straight ahead. All the holes that don't feel like long putts or approaches are all short turnovers or annys. Not much imagination here, the designer is obviously not a bowler.

You even have a tediously long walk from #9 back to #1 or the parking lot.

Other Thoughts:

This is a bittersweet course, not so much b/c it's 9 holes but b/c this park easily has the makings of another Fox Chase or at least a Stumpy Creek, even a Buckhorn if the lake gets utilized. But instead, they put 4 holes crammed in a space frequented by anglers and people using park shelters and 5 holes in the fields flanking the park road, and you're surrounded by beautiful, Fox Chase-esque woods and nature trails that look criminally unused.

You'd be better off playing multiple rounds at Fox Chase unless you've got little ones or complete n00bs tagging along, otherwise you ain't missing anything.

It isn't half a shame, sadly.
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4 2
rjstreet
Experience: 13.8 years 2 played 1 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Short with Some Interest 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 15, 2010 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Some of the best scenery of any course in the Charlotte metro area
-Good mix of challenges
-New equipment
-Well kempt park

Cons:

-Very short (don't think any hole is longer than 250 ft)
-Starts with technical holes and ends with much simpler fare
-3rd and 4th hole are so wooded that they may become significantly more difficult if they aren't maintained thoroughly
-Tees are a bit too short

Other Thoughts:

This is a really nice addition to the already large number of courses in the Charlotte-metro area. It's a quick course that offers some opportunity to work on technique without becoming frustrating. Great as a beginner's course or a warm-up course.
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6 0
chainmonkey
Experience: 15.6 years 43 played 7 reviews
1.00 star(s)

a quick play 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 30, 2010 Played the course:once

Pros:

This appears to be a fairly new park in general. The baskets are new DisCatchers and catch well. There is a playground for the kids walking path, nature trail, rest rooms, area for fishing, picnic tables and shelters a nice facility. You can get in a round of DG for a fix quickly I used my putter for all but 2 throws.

Cons:

The holes were all short no need for a driver here, pitch and putt. The 1st and 4th tees are hard to find. Number 1 is at the first picnic shelter, and #4 is near the lake down from the #3 basket. Hole #4 has not real discernable fairway. There is a need for some foot traffic from tee to baskets, There are little trails leading away from the baskets that mislead you. The tees being railroad cross ties they are generally not hard to spot. They are not very long and the had several inches of pine bark in them so it is hard to get a good footing. On hole #2 there was a good opportunity to use the lake and require some water carry but that was not offered. There was also a good opportunity for a longer down hill run for #9 that would have finished you up closer to the parking lot. Instead the hole finishes up close to the nature trail.

Other Thoughts:

This is a very nice park and could help introduce new players to the game without them getting too frustrated, there were several families using the park and some of them were walking on the course and would walk right in front of you as you were getting ready to tee off maybe the town needs to get some signs warning folks of flying disc
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5 1
jedwards
Experience: 33.8 years 26 played 9 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Nice beginner course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 5, 2010 Played the course:once

Pros:

Baskets: Brand new Discatchers at time of review.
General Course Design: Pretty good use of environment for the first 4 holes. Some technical shots are needed to navigate the trees on Hole 4.

Cons:

Tee Pads: The tee pads are mulch surrounded by railroad ties. They are very short which doesn't matter as much since most holes are under 200 feet but make for some unstable footing.
Tee Signs/Markers: Since the course is new I had a hard time finding a few of the tees. Signs would be nice -- there are none except for stone markers in the ground to indicate hole # only. No posted distances.
Course Design: Holes 5, 6 & 7 are kind of a letdown after the first 4 holes -- all open shots, the only bonus was the elevation change on Hole 6.

Other Thoughts:

Beautiful park/great scenery.

For a brand new 9 hole course this isn't bad. I would definitely play it more if it were closer to home. There seems to be a lot of room for expansion, that could definitely raise my rating, as could some better signage/maps.

Park was kind of hard to find and I couldn't find a good address for my GPS. If you find yourself wanting to play this course and are unfamiliar with the area shoot me a PM and I'll try to help.
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