Coker College DGC is a small nine hole course tucked away on one of the corners of the campus near the other sports complexes. It features DISCatchers baskets and natural tees, with both short and long tee positions. The long tees are marked with standard tee signs, the short tees are marked with numbered posts.

Coker College DGC is a mostly open course, with a few trees sprinkled around to create obstacles. Most holes can be thrown as straight shots off the tee, but the numerous trees could allow regulars to spice things up by introducing Mandos for themselves. Hole 1, however, is already an interesting tee shot over a small retaining pond.

The course is fairly compact, and would make for a quick round for the students who were interested in playing. Its forgiving nature is also perfect for both beginners who don't even have a real set of discs, and intermediate players learning how their discs fly on different angles.

My sister attended Coker College years ago, and actually still lives in the town of Hartsville right next to the campus. So I have gotten out to the course multiple times over the years, and even when the course needs some maintenance, the risk of disc loss is pretty low. Usually the grass doesn't get too tall, especially during sport seasons. The course was easy to navigate, and disc loss wasn't a huge risk as there are very few patches of rough around the whole course. Even the retaining pond has been dry every time I've been here, though I am sure it serves a purpose after the rain.

The course allows opportunities for players of all skill levels to throw a driver if they would like, but also holes that most players would probably want to use a midrange or putter off the tee.

The course will probably feel stale for advanced players, especially after a round or two playing here. Though they could probably add additional challenges for themselves by making up their own Mandos.

The course is really crammed into a small area, so if the course were ever to get busy there could be risk of getting hit by a stray shot. According to my sister, she's rarely seen more than one group on the course at once.

There was zero elevation to utilize in the design of this course. Along with the open nature of the holes, there isn't a hole lot to differentiate between most of the holes. And while a couple of holes break the 300' marker, both are listed as Par 4. I think an elevated basket could have been a good idea in the middle of the course, maybe Hole 5, just to spice things up!

In the past the course would sometimes look pretty rough, though that hasn't seemed like an issue recently. I just bring this up because there is always a chance the maintenance crew falls into the habit of ignoring the course again.

With the land available for use, and the target audience of the course, I think Coker College DGC delivers. There really aren't a lot of other options in the area, but luckily the course never really seems to be backed up with multiple cards. I am a little torn on what score to give Coker College DGC, but because there are two sets of tees I am going to give it a 2.0 rating for now. If one of the baskets were elevated or a couple of the holes had Mandos to require different shots, again just to spice things up and differentiate the holes, I would feel a little more confident in that rating.

While you are in the area, be sure to check out some of the restaurants in downtown Hartsville, some of them are really nice! Downtown Hartsville is surprising vibrant for such a small town, in part thanks to the existence of Sonoco Products.

Favorite Holes: 1 & 7

Coker College has a solid 9-hole layout weaving through a small, back portion of the campus. The course offers a fun round despite its lack of variety and challenge.
- Your round starts off with the course's most creative hole. You throw over a retaining pond for a mid-range tee shot. The pond was dry when I played, so not sure if that's typical or not. It's about 150-feet to clear, and you've got plenty of room past it to land a disc. From there, prepare for 8 holes that seemingly all place the same.
- Next two holes are wide-open. Roads are your only obstacles. After that, there are some trees, occasional underbrush (#4 & 7) and an outfield wall (#9) that offer your most challenge. In short, if you throw a straight 250-foot shot on every tee, at worst, you're getting 9 straight pars. Even from the long tees, smart shot-making will lead to a ho-hum par round.
- Course allows one to be aggressive. Other than #7 where the basket is hidden by growth/small trees, you can be aggressive with your tee shots. Even then, if you don't go right too soon, you've got a look at the basket anywhere on the fairway.
- From the long tees, the course forces you to pull out driver a couple of times. From the longs, the average hole length is 290 feet, with nothing shorter than 216 feet.
- Course seems to be isolated from other campus activities. It's on the back edge of campus, playing behind baseball & softball fields. The parking lot may be fuller at times. I played on Easter Sunday and was the only car in the lot.

There's not much to complain about with the course design. I think the course utilizes the land about as best as possible.
- Grass was tall and thick when I played. As soon as a disc hit the ground, there was no chance for additional distance.
- Course is flat and has minimal obstacles. Again, that's the plot of land and not a fault of the design.
- Biggest issue was the repetitiveness of the layout. Other than #9, every single hole is a straight shot. Going back to #7, even if you throw dead straight, hole high you're 25 feet from the basket. Maybe throw up a mando sign or some OB markers and try to create additional doglegs or obstacles.
- If the course were to be crowded, you would need to pay attention to discs from other holes. It would be easy for shots to sail from one fairway to another.

Coker is a straight ahead, no-frills layout. There's nothing great nor bad about it. 9 straight decent holes.
- It felt like I played the same hole over and over. With holes #4 - 8 offering distances of 240, 306, 279, 231, and 288 feet, I did play the same hole 5 times in a row! I'd go crazy if I had to play an 18-hole version of this layout.
- The biggest negative comment about the course is that it's forgettable. Hole #1 offers an interesting tee shot; #9 offers a fun layout. The other 7.5 holes are interchangeable. If someone were to rearrange the hole order, I doubt I'd notice.
- To change things up, you could play a safari layout.
- This is a perfectly average 9-hole layout. It's a good course to introduce players to the game. - - - Depending on which direction you come from, you'll either get a beautiful drive through campus, or an unfortunate drive by a giant confederate flag.

*Great signage for the Pro tees, and numbered post for the AM.
*All Innova Discatchers in great shape.
*Good mix of trees and distances for a variety of players.
*Great course for younger players with it's forgiving par system.
*Nicely kept greens during sports seasons.(cobra softball and baseball)
*Easy to navigate without a map.

*Course can become too easy for an advanced player due to holes being short distances. Hole #3 and #9 are the 300+ft holes, however they are both par 4's thus making it easy.
*Wildlife and bugs are a major issue during summer.
*Little buffer zones between holes could become a problem during busy hours.

Over the past 2 years, this course has been receiving much better up-keep than years prior. The Coker College staff and crew have done a great job with the greens-keeping. All of the baskets are in good shape and the landscape crew recently place down fresh grass in the dirt areas. I find this course to be a fast and fun 9-hole course. A must play if in the Hartsville/Florence area!

-Nice Double Chain Innova Baskets
-Signs at Each Long Pad with Distance
-Good Mixture of Short and Long Distance Holes

-The Grass is really really really high! I don't think anyone maintains this course.
-No indication of Long Tee Pad for Hole 3, the sign is on the crest of the ditch
-No Signage for Long Hole 4 that I could find
-Hole 7 is a dogleg right turn with no indication on the sign that it's tucked away to the right, it's a guess if you have never played.
-Some Long Tee Pad lines have very low hanging limbs in the flight path

This would be an awesome beginner and even advanced player course for a nice short round. Great combination of short and long holes. I love the 405 feet hole on Number 3.

*All Innova Discatcher Pros.
*All Tees are marked with numbered post.
*Navigation is very easy, with good signage.
*Good layout with the small amount of land used.
*Very Quiet and never busy.
*Very little wildlife and very little chance of losing a disc.

*All natural Tee's
*Grass and Mud combo can get messy
*Very little buffer zones between different holes.

This course was a fun 9 hole located between the college and a governors school. I would recommend this course as a fun quick 9 hole to anyone in the neighborhood.

2 Tee pads for most baskets, new signage gives distance at each tee.
Baskets are all in good shape.
Hole 1 utilizes a dried up water hazard.
Perfect course to introduce people to the sport.

Grass and mud tees. Several holes are straight and open.
Throwing very close to the Softball field is a small danger on hole 9.
The trees on 2 are ridiculously close to the tee (7 feet).
Hole 4 plays close to the road, but it is not a busy road, still if your disc gets away from you on the right it will end up in the train tracks or into the road.
Course can get monotonous, lot of straight shots from similar distances.

12 miles from the famous Darlington Speedway. Just 1.3 miles from Wendy's, McDonalds, KFC, Bojangles, and a Walmart.

Hole by Hole:
1: 216 ft. tee is on sidewalk. It is a straight shot over the dried pond.
2: 180/288ft. straight shot, but you can't play it straight because 2 trees sit 7 feet in front of the tee forcing a sky hyzer or sharp anny.
3: 300/405 very subtle towards the right (do not aim at the basket in front of the tee)
4: 240/342 Straight shot with a line of trees on the left and the road and railroad tracks on the right.
5. Another straight shot 252/306 with some tree obstacles.
6: long tee: 219 slight right
Short tee: 279 dog leg right
7: If this little course had a signature hole this would be it. Toss 231 feet through 2 trees then a dog leg right into a small opening in the brush.
8: Another straight 207/288 shot wih some small trees as obsticles.
9: long tee:360 dog leg right with baseball field on the right side.
short tee: 309 ft. straight shot with softball field presenting a much smaller risk on the right, the dried water hazard from hole 1 is on left.