Pros:
(0.692 Rating) A course littered with issues. Vacationers are best advised to stay at the beach and toss a Frisbee around.
- ACEABILITY - A handful of short aceable holes. If a skilled player ran 50 rounds here, I'm sure they'd have 1 or 2 aces.
- COURSE MAP ON DGCR - Print the map or download it to your phone (see cons, Navigation)
- RESTROOM - Although not related to disc golf, there are nice restrooms and a drinking fountain on site.
- HOLE 18 - The one decent shot out here. A 200 foot water clear. Circle 3 for me. I hit the bank and watched it trickle into the water slow motion style.
- QUICK PLAY - It took me 45 minutes to complete this one solo. I figure a group of four should have no problem completing a round in under two hours if the other park amenities are not in use.
Cons:
Bay Oaks has scores of major issues.
- SAFETY HAZARDS - The course is full of shots where property and people can come in the path of fire. Hole (4) I seriously considered skipping as I had to throw over a parked van. On holes (9, 10 and 14) a school comes into play. On (7 and 17) the line to the basket literally goes through the center of a playground area. These are just the worst examples as there are many other moderate hazard examples as well. Only hole (1) avoided property and people, although I question why a picnic table was located 40 feet in front of the basket.
- BASKET AND TEE SEPARATION - Numerous tees are located within 30 feet of the prior basket.
- NAVIGATION - With a printed course map in hand, navigation is doable. However, if you show up here without a map, it would be impossible to follow the layout on your first go around. A few baskets are marked and a few are used twice. The tees are unmarked in most instances and there are no directional cues out here. So download the map or print it out, you'll need it.
- LAYOUT FLOW - Epic fail. If there is more than one group out here you'll need to send scouts out to direct flow. 4 baskets are reused. Fairways are reused and cross. Other park amenities are in play. Thankfully, I got an empty course and an empty park for my entire round.
- CHARACTER - Bay Oaks lacks just about all of the amenities and extras that you'd see on an established course. No benches, no signage (except hole 1), no course map posting, no practice basket, no multi tees and no multi baskets. The four reused baskets are (6/17, 8/16, 9/14 and 10/14). Most of the tees are out in the elements. Baskets are rusting, although they still catch well.
- TEES - Horrible. Most are natural. Some of the natural ones have a 4x4 tee line tripping hazard, but other are without any defined line. A few tees utilize existing sidewalks or asphalt paths and roads, which weren't too bad.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - I haven't rated many courses lower than Bay Oaks. Lots of manmade structures in view, including fences, buildings, shelters, sheds and playgrounds. The tree and shrub coverage is minimal on site except along the north boundary.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - Unless there's loads of OB that I'm not aware of, shooting well under should be achievable by most skilled players. Shaping shots is only required on a few holes and the overall shortness will produce numerous birdie opportunities.
- ELEVATION - Like most south Florida courses, this one is flat. No more than a couple feet of change on any one hole. If you are looking for elevation, check out Estero.
- UNIQUENESS - In addition to no elevation, the overall variety is well below average. No tunnel plays, or pocket shots unless you count chain link fences as the boundary element. Most baskets are poorly guarded if at all. All par 3s although the distance variation wasn't too bad, 150 - 450 feet. One dogleg shot on (14) with the tennis court used as a mando. One water clear shot on hole (18) which was a nice way to end this dissatisfying layout.
Other Thoughts:
Not a good disc golf experience and my lowest rated 18 hole disc golf course I've played to date (102, 18-hole courses played) The course should be redesigned to be 9 or 12 holes. There just isn't enough room for 18 here.