Pros:
- Very beginner friendly.
- Good use of the land, especially on the wooded holes
- Good signage, though a few are missing. Some have been replaced recently.
- Open year round.
- Can play a round quickly.
- Has a practice basket.
- Good course to play night disc golf.
- Many ace and birdie opportunities
Cons:
- Shares its parking lot with a baseball field. On game days it gets very crowded and it's tough to find parking.
- The first five holes. While being great for a beginner and warming up, after playing the course many times, they do get a little boring.
- Ivy, thorny trees and mosquitoes in July.
- Tees are dirt with woodchips. They are fine in the spring, but come late summer many turn into big ditches and in winter they turn into small ice ponds.
- Can be crowded sometimes, especially after school and on Friday nights. The Sports complex down the road is never crowded and I'll often go there during those hours.
- Some areas can be very wet after a rainfall, especially the first four holes and the area around hole 10.
- Garbage cans are overflowing often.
Other Thoughts:
If you're in the area and interested in playing a round, send me a message. Abendschein Park is the park were I cut my teeth into the world of disc golf. While it's not a huge course, I feel it does succeed in what it's meant to be, a beginner course - and still has a few challenging holes for the intermediate player.
Walkthrough:
It was nice to learn to drive on some wide open holes, and you get five of those to start, save some trees on the right of hole two. They vary in distance with the 4th hole being the longest. You go into the woods for holes six through nine, six you have to throw around a tree but it's a birdie hole. Hole seven requires a hyzer and is surrounded by woods. Hole eight requires an anhyzer or throwing it over the trees, I've been tossing a thumber with good success on that one. Nine plays out of the woods with trees on the left and way off on the right. The best part of the course is the back nine. 10 is slightly uphill with woods behind it. 11's basket is protected by trees but there's an opening to right that seemed pretty darn narrow for a beginner. 12 is a longer hole with woods on the left and right and some free standing trees along the way. 13 still gives me fits, it is a straight shot with woods on the right and the basket is tucked between woods and a huge pine tree. If you have a super straight shot, it shouldn't be a problem, but I haven't mastered that art yet. 14 is perhaps the easiest hole as I've carded many birdies on here. A low hanging branch makes it a lot tougher in summer than in winter and fall. There is a river on the right that could eat a disc if it catches a tree as I lost one there early on. 15 is another short hole with a handful of trees to make it a bit trickier. 16 is the longest and probably toughest hole on the course for me. The basket it protected by a wall of trees so you have to have a big hyzer to reach it. There are some shrubs on the right of the hole as well so if you miss right, you could have some trouble. 17 sits atop a hill with woods on your left and a big tree on your right, one of the easier holes on the course, where I got my "almost" ace. 18 plays back down the hill 10 came up and outside of a few trees it's fairly easy.
Overall, it's a great beginner course and I can get a round done in less than an hour. You'll often find a few guys (jpaceman on youtube) filming themselves trying to get aces here, but I tend to choke with the camera on me. This course has been rumored to be taken out sometime soon, hopefully I get another year here because it's the closest to my house and I enjoy playing here.