* McChord Field DGC is a recreational course located at the base dog park just minutes from the main gate (exit 125). Designed in 2010, this course being located in Tacoma is just minutes away from Steilacoom and Ambient DGC's and offers those learning the game an appropriate introduction.
* The terrain at McChord is mostly flat and lightly wooded, with nine holes playing over grass almost the entire time (holes # 5 & #7 throw across road from the tee). Heavy rough can occasionally be found on the edges of the park but can easily be avoided. The course is very well manicured however, making it easy to locate discs and take advantage of fast skips toward the pin.
*Baskets are powdered blue DGA baskets that catch very well. Numbers were installed on the top to help with course navigation. (Note: Hole #1 is a dogleg left and is not visible from the tee pad, that basket is for hole #9 and is not apparent till putting with 30')

Favorite hole/s: #7- inccorporates the only elevation. tees off over the road under a tree canopy creating a low ceiling. only left to right hole w/ some risk/reward. uses natural obstacles well.

*Par for the course is 23 which means that there are five Par 3's and four Par 2's. Expecting throwers to ace or par a hole just seems ridiculous to me and makes me question the validity of the hole. If a hole is that open and short then perhaps it needs to be either lengthened or pulled. There was plenty of room behind hole #7 where the designer could have incorporated more length and natural obstacles. Currently, all holes range from 160'-300', totaling 2,105 feet. Intermediate players on up will be having all sorts of ace runs.
*Tee signs although informative were facing the wrong direction. Without the review from the Valk Kid this might have been an issue. They were informative however, including distance, par, and pin placement.

Worst hole/s: #1-#3, #8-#9 - all short and wide open

*I was sponsored on by my brother in law (Army) and had to stop at the main entrance at McChord. Once there, we had to give them our driver's license along with my car insurance since I was driving. They had us wait for about 10 minutes while they did backgrounds checks on us. The whole process took about 30 minutes before I was throwing a disc so don't expect to rush. I felt as if I were trying to cross the Canadian border!

The course here is located off of the main roads next to a building and a not so busy street and plays mostly on short green grass. The grass is so short that your disc will skip like you are hitting dirt, this is something you have to get used to as most of us are used to hitting grass and getting little or no skip. The course plays mostly in the open with only a couple of trees coming into play on holes four through seven. Hole seven is a strange but fun hole with a very low ceiling requiring you to throw a roller or a very low skip shot off of the grass or the road, this hole's fairway involves the road, this would be dangerous but the road is not too busy. The baskets are easy to see and it's pretty easy to tell which hole you are throwing to as well. I played with JR Stengele and we didn't have too hard of a time navigating. The tip from The Valkyrie Kid about the tee signs being backwards was especially helpful and we knew exactly where to throw right away.

Besides the holes mentioned (four through seven) the course was WIDE open and short. Even the couple of holes with trees were fairly easy and just about anyone who has played before is going to be achieving threes here. There just isn't enough of a challenge here to entertain anyone but servicemen and women looking for a quick walk with a disc.

The listed pars here are a ridiculous. Yes these holes are wide open and short but in order to have a par two you must be putting, so within 70 or 80 feet and holes this short should really never even be put into existence so I don't believe much in par twos. The majority of the people playing here will be beginners with less skill and putting par twos for these players is ridiculous and for advanced players making a par two doesn't make the hole harder so I find it pointless. End rant.

Getting into the base is a bit of pain in the behind. We had a sponsorship from a current military member and we still had to provide insurance, ID and our social security numbers for a background check. Then we got our car pass and we got through the line and we still had to show the guard our pass and our ID again after we just spent 10 minutes inside and 5 minutes in line. It took as long to get in and out of the base as it took us to play the course so even with sponsorship it isn't easy and base security is tight.

McChord Field Disc Golf Course is Washington's newest (69th) course. The beginner/Rec type course plays mostly clockwise around a large, grassy field which is also used as a dog park. I only saw one dog and no other disc golfers. It's flat with a few scattered trees. The baskets are brand new blue DGA ones with the number on the top. That number is important to your intial navigation of this course. See navigation in the Cons. Anyway the baskets are beautiful! There are nice metal signs which give the hole #, par and distance. They're mounted about a foot off the ground. There are wooden blocks with blue painted tops marking off the grass tee areas. So far, only one of these blocks has disappeared. The holes range from 160' to 300' with five playing as par threes and four listed as par twos. Shooting under par will be a challenge for the average airman with these listed pars.

As the course plays clockwise around the area, a RHBH thrower will certainly enjoy an advantage over a lefty or forehanded thrower. I think four of the tee signs are facing the wrong direction, including # 1. Took me awhile to figure out that the # 1 basket was in the opposite direction. # 8 is just a 215' throw across an open grass, field. Pretty boring.

There is plenty of room in the nearby wooded area to include some of that land into this course and change things up a big. # 2 and # 3 both could have play into this wooded area. # 5 basket could easily be moved back 30-50' into the woods and make that hole into a legimate par 3. # 6 tee pad could easily be moved back into the woods some thus lengthening that hole into something more legit and making it a par 3.

Maybe there is a reason, the designer stayed out of wooded area. If so, I apologize. If not, utilize that area and enhance this course considerably. After writing over 250 of these reviews, I am just recently borrowing a philosophy from Radsnowsurfer. That is; If I give a course a .5 or a 1 rating, that means I have no interest in ever playing it again, it's a basket case. But if I give a course a 1.5 or 2, that means I can enjoy it as a rec/beginner course occasionally or it's closeby and an easy throw or if I were stuck on an island like Vashon, I'd play it out of neccesity. Or in the case of this course, I think it's got the potential to be a little better and if I were a airman stationed here at McChord, I'd play it all the time!