A great mix of long and short holes.
Elevation changes galore!
Water hazards and tight trees too!
Multiple baskets and tee boxes.
Lots of natural terrain and wildlife.
Beautiful mountain top views!

Hard to navigate without signage.
Could use some more volunteers for upkeep.
Old donated baskets however uniquely painted and cool, could use some love.
Use good footwear, at times there is water on the course Iin spring and fall.

The Dam, both front and back are amazing courses in their own right. However smaller (yardage) the "Back" may be, it makes up for it by what I said above in 'pros'.

Francis E. Walter Dam - Top is one of two adjacent courses in a PA State Park. This 20 hole layout, dating back to 2006, followed the original 18 created in 1995. This must have been a mecca 15 years ago: 38 holes with two layouts apart from everything else in this vast rustic park. But unlike the nearby course in Hickory Run State Park, it doesn't appear that FEW benefits from upkeep. It's ridiculously overgrown. Some "fairways" are knee deep grass, many have trees that have grown in over the years to obstruct the original lines.


There's plenty of distance (most holes are 300' - 400') with deep woods, a few open prairies, and natural changes in elevation. The tees are natural - they're only dirt, but they're often surrounded with stones. There are old benches at many tees, and some of the baskets have aging flags on tall poles to help your aim. But there's no signage whatsoever, the baskets are a mix of graffiti-covered MVP Lites and Pros, and the number stickers on the baskets don't often correspond with the course map.


I'm sure this was a really well thought out course before it started declining. Hole #9 is a downhill beauty with a basket protected by a small pond, but the pond is so geen that it's indistinguishable from the marshy landscape around it. #10 is a cliffside throw down to a meadow stretching out with the basket visible 550' away, but that "meadow" is very deep grass ready to swallow up discs.


The most frequent issues (and it's common to both Frances E. Walter Dam courses) are the weedy trees, bushes and pines that have grown on many fairways over time. You find yourself facing 20' - 30' barriers that need to be thrown over, which completely changes the designed lines. You'll find yourself leaning on sky hyzers, thumbers and grenades - and you may be throwing over a wall of trees just to land in another grove of them farther down the fairway.


This might sound like a eulogy for a dead course, but I saw indications of somebody trying to care for it, like small piles of cut branches here and there, and a newish footbridge near the pond on #9. So giving this course a one or below may seem unnecessarily harsh. But it's not a stretch to consider the current play experience to be "poor", "bad", or "abysmal" regardless of whether somebody's out there trying to work on it.


The bottom line for me is that the course is so overgrown that many holes can't be played as designed. It's not a poorly-designed course; it's a well-designed course that's fallen into deep disrepair. That said, It's only for the most resolute of baggers.

Drier than the original course.
Very unique landscape for Pennsylvania.

Almost complete lack of signage.
Very rocky discs will take a lot of wear.

Still undergoing expansion.
Hunting is permitted wear orange.