Chester, SC

Chester State Park - Rec.

Permanent course
2.35(based on 5 reviews)
Filter course reviews

Filter reviews

Filter reviews

Chester State Park - Rec. reviews

Filter
10 0
Shadrach3
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 5.5 years 318 played 306 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Fine but Frustrating

Reviewed: Played on:May 18, 2022 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

A short little course with a mix of fun ace runs and questionable wooded fairways.

-Amenities: Concrete tees, signs with maps for both tees, DISCatchers, course kiosk, next tee signs on baskets, paths between holes.

-Dual Pads: Two pads per hole offering the ultra-short and merely short variety. Works well to play the course twice in a row, once with shorts and once with longs.

-Ace Race/Distance Friendly: The course here isn't worth playing unless you're either (1) a newer player or (2) hunting for aces. For either of those two conditions, it's a good candidate. With only one hole on either layout stretching to 300', it shouldn't present distance challenges at all.

-Second Course: A major, major draw here will be the phenomenal wooded course on site. The two provide good counterbalances of difficulty.

-Shot Shaping/Gameplay: An ace race with a decent variety. There are a couple of straight tunnels, but also plenty of tightly wooded fairways that bend either direction with down- or up-slopes. The final holes stretch out the length as they go to the open, but are still all aceable with basic driving shapes. The course is notable in that, despite its short length, misses can be difficult to recover from due to thick vegetation. This is rather frustrating for the type of course, but ultimately quite fair. Aces are very achievable, but should also feel rewarding due to the wooded constraints of the holes.

Cons:

-Rough: There are some places from which a short scramble will be totally impossible. It's annoying to miss your line by a few inches and end up with no approach to the basket at all.

-Squirrely Lines: I marked (2), (3), (5), and (6) as all suspect lines from the longer tees. That's almost half the course, and it definitely affected my round to feel like I had an unusually tiny gap to hit or fairway shape that precluded the ace run I wanted to attempt.

-Pace: I felt like I was finally settling into my groove about the 8th hole of the course. With no long drives, it's hard to get your body warmed up in time to play at your best.

-Pay to Play: Or, rather, pay to enter. I believe the fee was a measly $3.00. I've paid more for a load of laundry, and this is much more fun.

Other Thoughts:

The short course here at Chester SP is a solid addition, but nothing special. It's easy to breeze through and go for buckets on every shot. It also provides a nice warmup or cooldown course for the longer one on site, which is a nice touch. Overall, it gets a solid Typical.

~Similar Courses: Fewell Park (Rock Hill, SC); a slightly shorter Patriot's Park (Evans, GA); Chamblee Church (Dunwoody, GA); longer parts of Bluebird Putting Course (Conifer, CO).
Was this review helpful? Yes No
6 0
Bennybennybenny
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 13.1 years 305 played 287 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Your upshots improve here 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Dec 26, 2019 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

-It's been nearly four years since I've played the final nine holes at Chester. They have some similarities to the first 18. Tighter fairways, and a similar appearance. The main differences are the hole lengths. Course is pretty short even from the blue pads. The longest hole is longer than a few of the holes on the first 18, but none of them are very long. The short pads are great for beginners.

-Chester's 18 hole course requires a lot of accuracy and a moderate amount of distance to secure a solid score. Chester Rec requires even more accuracy, but not much distance. The short pads require a good amount of accuracy but distance is not important. I think the main object of this niner is to work on different shots. The fairways are weird, but the distances are short enough to hit the lines well enough and be left with an easy putt.

-For instance, hole two long. Only 198' from that long pad, but very challenging. The fairway is TIGHT; it curves strongly to the left side and downhill. It's a very difficult line to clear, but if you clear most of it, you'll have a look for birdie. Hole three is also heavily to the left, even more actually. The short pad is only 87' and straight, very aceable. The long pad is perpendicular to the short, making it a dogleg left. It's only 177' so it's obtainable, but pretty much a roller or die hole. A soft skip shot won't do the trick here. Legit roller hole, but a fair distance for it. Good hole.

-Ends in a more open area. Still plenty of trees but less to worry about. Hole eight is about 250' and through a pretty tight gap, but very fair. Brilliantly designed hole from the long. This would be a fun ace run on a pro course, as it is a bit harder than the shorter holes (#1, #7, and #16) on the Chester pro 18 course. Hole nine is the longest and pretty challenging as well. Most open hole, but still demanding. You have to avoid the right side to have a look at birdie, but the left side has a couple of trees that make the line a bit more difficult. I threw a stable mid range and it dodged the trees, but hooked a bit left.

-The field past hole nine's basket is useful for some practice drives. I worked on my sidearms in that field.

-Tee signs are very nice and pretty. Tee pads are well polished, and the baskets are in great shape.

Cons:

-Nothing too significant here. The fairways are unique, but the rest of this nine holer is pretty predictable. If you want more of a roller coaster of a course, then you should play this course first and then play the 18 holer. This course will warm you up for it, as it is good practice.

-With that being said......... you might not enjoy the odd fairways. The lines aren't normal. However, if you were to play the longs here frequently, it would very high likely benefit you. So if you play here and don't enjoy it, I think you should try it another time.

Other Thoughts:

-I review courses right after I play them. Well about 98% of the time, and I update the review depending on whether the course improved or worsened. I'm glad I didn't review this course the first time I played it. I didn't enjoy it the first time, but now I appreciate it and do enjoy it. Many nine holers are there for just practice or casual play. This nine holer offers more than just that. Hole three is a real roller hole. I hated it the first time I played it, but now I like it. Same with hole six. I thought it was goofy and made no sense. Now I don't think that. It's daunting, but serves a purpose. I threw a soft flick with an overstable driver and parked this hole! I played the tournament here in 2016, and we played all 27 the final round. I was very happy with a par on this hole and now I can birdie it. It felt really good.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
9 0
DiscGolfCraig
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 19.8 years 585 played 539 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Time to catch your breath 2+ years

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jan 24, 2018 Played the course:once

Pros:

Ok, if you're like me, you're playing Chester's Rec course as a cool down to your round at the Pro course. No matter how bad you played, no matter how frustrated you are, no matter how many discs you lost, time for an ego boost.
- This is a fun, short, wooded 9-hole layout. Even the closing two holes do have trees that come into play. If you throw smart and straight, you're seeing birdie putts or ace runs.
- The long layout averages 217 feet, with one hole at 315 (#9), and everything else shorter than 250. The short layout averages only 132 feet, with the longest hole at 195 feet (#8), and two shorter than 100.
- For such a short course, I thought there were some smart, enjoyable layouts. #2 is a tight, dogleg left. By skill or luck, if your tee shot hits the bend right, you're ending up close to the basket.
- #5 is a tight, straight ahead shot. I was able to squeeze my tee shot to the right of a tall pine and have the disc fade back to within 3 feet of the basket.
- That leads to the fun, challenging, and/or flat-out dumb luck of this course. With such a heavy tree cover, you're playing Plinko once you're off the fairways. You may squeeze through the trees, you may get a great bounce back towards the basket, or you may get an unfortunate bounce further into the woods. Be prepared to be annoyed that you're only 20 feet off the fairway on a 150 - 200-foot hole, and you're struggling to find a way to get back onto the fairway.
- The short layout is a birdie-fest. I had 6 birdies and it was still a sub-900 round. The short layout would be a fun ace-race course.
- Same excellent tee signs that you see on the pro course. Same solid tee arrows on the baskets. That said, a few more arrows between holes are going to help the casual, new players who are playing this layout instead of the pro course.

Cons:

It's a weird long walk from #9 back to the parking lot. You're right along the fairway for #18 Pro, so you can hop onto the course, or take a longer walk back past the 8 holes you just played.
- Signage could be better. This course is meant at casuals, beginners, kids & families. The rec-level players aren't always the best at navigating between holes or finding proper tee pads. Put it this way. I got lost between holes because there weren't well defined paths. A championship-level course shouldn't be easier to navigate than a 9-hole sub-2000-foot course. Put up a handful of arrows. That's all.
- #6 is a poorly designed hole. It's a sharp dogleg right. There's not a real putting zone. I feel like someone changed their mind about cutting down some trees. It seems a tomahawk or high sweep shot is the only real shot here. My disc turned over to put me 15-20 feet from the basket. Just so happened there were a bunch of trees so no chance at putting.

Other Thoughts:

This is a fun course because it's here. Put this in any small-town park, and it's not being thought of so highly.
- There's a ton of room to spread the course out. Expand the fairway for #6. Have # 9 play in the woods heading back towards #1 instead of being a filler at the end of the line.
- All told, I enjoyed it here. I suspect everyone likes finally having some easy holes after playing the pro layout.
- It's an average 9-holer. There's nothing new or different that makes this rise above the pack. It's the lettuce on the Big Mac. No one is asking for it, but they appreciate how it soaks in the special sauce.
- It's worth an extra 15-20 minutes to play the course. Is that a recommendation? If it is, then I recommend the course.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
4 0
DiscChainBasket18
Silver level trusted reviewer
Experience: 19.8 years 98 played 60 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Baby brother has it's own bite! 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 5, 2014 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Short technical course compliments the other longer course very nicely. Mostly wooded but some open holes at the end. Reading the other reviews before playing this course led me to believe that it was going to be nothing more than a super-short 'beginner only' course. This could be true for most of the short tee pads (ace runs!) but otherwise this course has some tricky pin placements that make it very fun to play! Two large concrete tee pads on every hole make this another 18 holes to play when you come to Chester Starte Park DGC! Descripteve tee signs! Clean quiet area to throw a disc!

Cons:

Need a few benches over here too! Could use a directional sign to get to this course from the main parking area.

Other Thoughts:

I recommend playing this course first as it will be a good warm-up for the other larger course on the property.
Was this review helpful? Yes No
11 0
reposado
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 12.7 years 278 played 273 reviews
2.00 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Mar 2, 2014 Played the course:once

Pros:

I've played several courses that featured beginner-level courses on site, alongside a standard eighteen. I've never played one of those beginner nines that felt so clearly like a mini-version of the big boy as this one does. The rec course at Chetser is the advanced course writ small. It looks the same, and aside from the hole lengths, it plays the same. The fairways, for the most part, aren't any wider or easier to throw down. It's a clever idea and it makes for a great place for new players to learn the game. Players that start here won't be reaching for drivers anytime soon because these holes are short. Real short. Pitch-and-putt would be an inaccurate description because there is no pitch on most of these holes.

There are two holes that open up a bit towards the end, but other than that, most of these holes are closer to 100 feet than 200 from the short pads. There are some nice shapes, but none too tough, and there is even some elevation change. Seriously, picture a nice, wooded, blue-level course. Bring the same amenities that are present on that course. Then shrink it. Bring in the same high-quality tee signs, baskets and pads and what you have is a course that should give the new player a very good idea of what the game is about without overtaxing their siklls.

All of that mostly applies to the short pads. There are two sets of pads here and the shorts are ones that beginners should be using. The long pads typically add a sharp curve before reaching the fairway that the short pad uses. Forced layups on most of those pads. I assume this is not to make a course suited for experienced players but to make a course for veterans playing alongside new players. A quick corner that keeps most of these holes from being par-twos and allows a round with players of varied skill-levels to play fairly evenly. If that's the intention, it's a very clever way to go about it.

Cons:

For what the course is, it's really hard to find a con. It's not challenging, but it's not supposed to be. There are no signature holes. How could there be? It probably won't be much fun for advanced players. But players of that caliber shouldn't be expecting that from the name alone.

But for as well designed as the short pads are for beginning players, the far pads offer weird lines a lot, and it's not the kind of easy course that a veteran can play a quick round in a short a mount of time and get a few real throws in. Too many sharp turns and forced layups for it to be worth their time.

Other Thoughts:

If you have non-playing family members who often join you on the course, this is the place to take them. They'll love playing this one, and then you have the advanced course to satisfy your own cravings.
Was this review helpful? Yes No

Latest posts

Top