Cambridge, WI

Ripley Park

Seasonal course
2.935(based on 7 reviews)
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2 0
Stardoggy
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 12.7 years 1003 played 214 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Fun, still a bit rough. 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 12, 2016 Played the course:once

Pros:

9 hole course located in a multi-function park in Cambridge, WI. Park also has a beach, tennis courts, play areas, and is just in general a nice place to hang out.

Kingpin baskets, all in superb shape and mounted well. Some nice pin placements with rollaway potential, with others being well guarded.

Nice use of the available elevation in the park. The park kind of filters down a hill toward the lake, and the course plays around, up, and down that hill for the most part. It's not severe elevation, but it's fun. Nary a totally flat hole to be found here.

The other obstacles in the park are used well, too. Strategically placed large trees offer a lot of the difficulty over the first 5 holes. The last few holes use an old (looks really old...would love to know the history on it) stone/brick wall that you play up and around, offering some unique lines or tricky basket drop-off potential. Very well done.

Basic park signs, but they give you the info you need.

Cons:

The tees are rough. Natural tees, but rutted out. I played off to the side of most of them. Concrete tees, or even level gravel (or anything) would help tremendously here. I had some slipping/footing issues several times.

Navigation isn't crazy tough, but it's not all that intuitive. Not a big deal after you've played it, but it's rough the first time through. I would have been wandering quite a bit had I not hooked up with a local right away.

If you're into big bomber holes, this isn't the place for you. Most of it is relatively short.

$2 p2p. It's a park entrance fee. It is what it is, I suppose.

I don't know how well used this park is, but there could be some safety issues here. A couple baskets are pretty close to the road (hole 1 especially), and a couple others have a tennis court well within their bad shot area.

Other Thoughts:

Overall, it's a well designed course for the land, and a fun spin. Cleaning up the tees would help tremendously, and would up my score.

I wouldn't go out of my way to throw here, but a family could have a damn fun day in this park. You could make a darn fun safari course out here, as well, and this would be a good glow course, as there isn't a ton of brush to contend with.
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4 0
ElementZ
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 14.9 years 212 played 197 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Solid 9! 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:May 9, 2015 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

This course has a very solid 9 holes!

The biggest pro that this course has in my eyes is that it's attractive for both beginners and experts in different ways. For beginners, it's a fantastic introduction to the sport. There was a couple playing and they were both noob hyzering all over the place but having an absolute blast. It's a course where losing a disc is next to impossible. All in all, you really can't ask for a better "intro to disc golf" course.

However, for advanced players, it's a fantastic ace-run or "birdie or die" type of course. It has some interesting lines and makes for a fun round. It's a course where you really feel like hitting the 9 under is totally doable if you're hot.

The baskets were in phenomenal condition and the course signage was adequate.

Having dual pin placements is also a huge plus in my eyes!

Cons:

Only being 9 holes takes a point off the rating automatically.

The other point deduction was due to dirt tees (rather than cement , a public park setting (rather than secluded), a few design issues (where holes and walk between holes could have been improved a little), and lack of a fantastic signature hole.

Other Thoughts:

In general, this is a cute little public park course. The holes are all unique and fun in their own way. It's definitely worth checking out if you're in the area, but I would imagine it fills up when the weather's nice.

I had fun playing here! :)
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1 2
murphy0105
Experience: 13.8 years 10 played 5 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Nice little course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Oct 20, 2013 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Clean park, wide fairways so you don't need to worry about losing discs, lots of other things to do while your there.

Cons:

Natural and sometimes not level tees. Also needs some longer holes.

Other Thoughts:

I love this course because you can go experiment with different throw or discs and not worry. Great course for beginners too!
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2 0
dehaas
Experience: 22.5 years 92 played 10 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Nice use of land, desparately needs long tees. 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:May 20, 2013 Played the course:once

Pros:

Good use of limited park space; lots of uphill, downhill, straight, righty, left holes.

Brand new looking baskets.

Alternate pin placements look like they can add length to the holes quite a bit.

Practice basket.

Cons:

Tee signs are very basic, distances are listed but only a rough idea of where basket is.

I missed hole 5 originally...you have to backtrack up the hill past hole 4's basket. It seems to progress naturally to hole 6, then 7 and then I saw the tee for 5, played it and then went to hole 8. There needs to be a sign pointing to the hole 5 tee from the hole 4 basket.

Not really many garbage cans, but course is short enough to play and not need many cans at tees.

Other Thoughts:

Not a bad little course, but with the $2 entry fee to the park this course really needs a set of long tees. At least having 9 holes from the shorts and another 9 from the longs makes this course worth paying money for. It's not a bad beginner course at all, but it's hard to justify paying money to play the course as it presently stands.
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4 0
innovaking2
Experience: 11.8 years 20 played 2 reviews
3.00 star(s)

a fun little course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jul 8, 2012 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

for the most part it is easy to navigate and flows nicely from hole to hole
not too challenging, but not incredibly easy
can be enjoyed by newer players because of the relative openness and short par 3's

Cons:

natural tees, but this is a new course so maybe they will upgrade eventually
sometimes people walking to the beach will walk right through the fairway on #1

Other Thoughts:

overall this course is very enjoyable to play and a great place for beginners to hone their skills. As mentioned, it is pretty open so losing a disc is unlikely. different elevations along with some wooded area create varied shot options on each hole. This course is not repetitive and keeps you guessing which is why it is such a joy to play.
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5 0
harr0140
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 15.2 years 1508 played 475 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Ripley's Believe It! 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 16, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

1) Bathrooms, concessions, volleyball, a beach, and all sorts of other stuff in this park.
2) Dual pins on this course, some holes are just extensions, but many of them really would change up the holes dramatically. I can always appreciate options!
3) DGA signs with Hole #, Par, Distance, and Sponsors too.
4) Practice basket available near the 1st tee.
5) I think these are Disc King baskets with powder coated blue.
6) 4x4 in the ground to mark the tees.
7) The lannon stone wall on #6 is really interesting. It looks like it was an old ampitheatre or seating wall for activities. I hope it doesn't deteriorate because I love old stone structures like that on disc golf courses.
8) Moderate elevation changes on every single holes. I love it when not a single throw is flat, it makes you alter your technique slightly avoiding repetitiveness.
9) Beginner friendly course because of the shorter distance but also because it would be tough to lose a disc.
10) Excellent basket placement on this course creates some challenging shots.
11) Just enough trees and obstacles to play fair and be fun. You have to execute but you have a little lee-way to throw the right shot.

Cons:

1) Grass tees are always a negative and they will be wore down to dirt soon because this is a pretty darn fun course to play even if there is a $2 charge to get in the park.
2) The two holes that play on the sidehill (#6 and #7 I think) have really thin turf and those areas will definitely lead to erosion.
3) The dumpster in between #6 and #7 is the only garbage I saw on the course.
4) Distance variation could be wider with most holes under the 300' mark.
5) This park looks to be a popular local place, so i could imagine at times people getting int he wa even though the disc golf is far from all other activities.
6) The road is in play on 2 or 3 holes and I would hate to see a vehicle get hit.

Other Thoughts:

What can I say . . . I just cannot find a lot wrong with this course. The shots are fun to throw and challenging, they all have some elevation change and some sort of obstacle to avoid. It is a nice park and it has plenty of options for other activities. They did the best with the property which ended up with a solid course.
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10 0
andyman
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 17.9 years 159 played 16 reviews
2.50 star(s)

First Trip to Ripley Park 2+ years

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

Pros:

There are dual pin placements on each hole. The tee signs show both pin locations and distances to those locations. There was a short section of pvc pipe sticking out of the alternate pin location which was helpful in determining which location the basket was in.

The course makes good use of the elevation in the park. As noted in the 'Hole Info.' tab, more than half of the holes have some sort of elevation change. Holes #8 and #9 are pretty flat but there is a drop off behind the basket on #9.

Obviously with the course being less than a week old, the Kingpin baskets were in great shape. It was nice to see a practice basket near the first tee as well.

The long basket placement for hole #2 is sheltered in a cluster of trees. This makes for a fun approach.

The course was pretty easy to navigate (see more notes in the Other thoughts section). I had printed out a map before I played the course and used that mainly for distance reference.

The grass was mowed nicely. It looks like the park department does a good job tending to the park.

Cons:

The tee signs do a good job of letting you know how far away the basket is, but some of them were placed farther forward than the end of the tee pad. This could limit some of the lines that you might want to take at the basket. I am not a fan of the white tee signs with the green stickers.

The tee pads are natural and have a board in the ground marking the front of the tee pad. The ground was dry when I played so there were no traction issues. They could be very slippery when wet. As the course is played more, the grass will be worn away and the tee pads will be dirt/mud. Hopefully the park department will upgrade this in the future.

The park (not the disc golf course) was very busy when I played and all of the picnic shelters were in use. This caused for a lot of cars to be parked on the service road that cuts through hole #6. I have been told that the shelter at the end of the service road is the one that gets used the least. Hopefully there won't be cars parked there every time people play.

Hole #1 plays along the side of the soccer field. When I played, there was a pick-up game going on. Many of the spectators were sitting under the trees (which happened to close to the fairway). I'm sure most of the people sitting there didn't have any idea where they were sitting. As time goes on and more people play the course, this might not be a problem.

There were no garbage cans on the course. There was a large dumpster next the the tee pad on #7. I picked up 3 beer cans during my first trip around the course.

Other Thoughts:

Even with the cars parked along the service road and in the fairway of hole #6, that was my favorite hole on the course. The stone retaining wall looks like it has been there quite a while and is fun to throw over. The hole only plays ~200' but throwing up to the top of the hill is fun. It was the most memorable hole on the course.

The flow of the course was pretty easy to follow. After you finish playing #1, you have to walk across the park road to hole #2. After you finish hole #4, turn back toward the main gate and walk across the park road to hole #5. It could get a little confusing when you walk from #5 basket to #6 tee. You walk right by the tee pad for #7, so you will have to keep walking a little further and cross the service road. When you finish #9, you are on top of a hill behind one of the picnic shelters. There is a little bit of a walk from there back to the first basket.

There is a swimming beach and concession stand in the park as well. I did not visit the concession stand to see what was all available, but the fact that it is there is pretty cool.

The members of the Madison Area Disc Club and the City of Cambridge did a good job designing the course. They made good use of the elevation in the park and it didn't look like many (if any) mature trees needed to be removed.

the $2 fee per person to get into the park was a minimal fee to consider to play the course. I doubt that the money generated at the gate will go back into the course, but the park department just spent a bunch of money installing the course so I didn't see it as much of an issue.

With all that being said, I plan on playing this course again.
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