Pros:
Bicentennial Park is a short, wooded 18-hole course that uses much of the wooded land in the park. Don't let the 4,156 feet of total distance fool you, as this course will test your accuracy and punish you if you forget it at home.
Location of Bicentennial is convenient if you need gas, food, or are trying to make a full day out of slinging plastic. This park is fairly close to downtown Belleville as well as multiple highway routes, making it relatively easy to find. Make sure you use the entrance on Belleville Crossing, as the entrance that's located in the adjacent neighborhood will put you further from the disc golf course. If you want to make a day out of disc golf in the St. Louis area, Belleville and Swansea is one of the easier areas to do so, with Citizens, Clinton Hills, and B.I.G all being close together. My friend and I started at Citizens at 8:30am, and were done with all 4 courses by 3-3:30. Van Man Discs and Play It Again are also not too far away for your disc golf shopping needs, with Van Man's customer service and selection being top notch.
Park Amenities are straightforward at Bicentennial. In addition to disc golf, fishing, a playground and nature trails are the main attractions here. The playground looked to be in great shape for those who have kids or families with them, and there are also bathrooms and a water fountain by the parking lot.
Course Equipment is all in pretty good shape at Bicentennial. All of the tee pads are concrete and in great shape. Each tee has a sign complete with distance, par, and a graphic of the hole layout. The baskets are Dynamic Veterans, complete with handy next tee arrows in the baskets. There's also a course sign in front of the entrance/exit to the back 9 that has rules info and an overall course layout. There's also a practice basket closer to the bathrooms and back 9 entrance. Overall, the equipment on site is all in great shape.
Course Design at Bicentennial revolves around short and wooded holes that require you to hit tight lines to make birdies and pars. The distance is almost deceiving though, as the amount of elevation variance from hole to hole can make each individual hole feel either much longer or much shorter than it actually is. The layout is divided into two 9-hole areas that use different sections of woods within the park, making it easy to pick which 9 you want to play first, or to just play a quick 9 if you are short on time. Overall, many players will find this course to be a good test of accuracy, with mids and putters being the smart choice for a large percentage of the holes on site.
Variety is present in multiple ways at Bicentennial. As previously mentioned, the elevation changes add to the depth of what this course offers, ranging from touchy downhill shots to trick uphill fairways that will leave you wondering whether discing up is the right move. This course is also limited in straight shots, as many holes have turns in their fairways that you need to navigate. As a predominantly RHBH player, there were several holes that left me grabbing for my Blade or Zone to flick. Having many shot shapes is required to shoot well at this course, as just about every combination of uphill/flat/downhill/left/right/straight is accounted for here.
Course Difficulty. despite the short overall distance, feels like it fits intermediate to advanced players more than newer folks. The fairways are consistently hard to hit on this course, and newer players should be ready to be significantly challenged here. If you aren't able to hit smaller gaps, a round here will feel like a real slog.
Cons:
Course Difficulty at Bicentennial makes it kind of a niche course compared to others in the area. The distances theoretically are welcoming to newer players, but the difficulty of the fairways are incredibly challenging. Three Putt described this course well: it feels like a course for Masters Tournaments, and not so much like a fun rec course. Three Putt brings up the idea of additional pins and tees increase the accessibility of this course, and I think such an addition would be very welcomed here, as the fairways are unforgiving to errant throws.
Rough is everywhere for those who do find themselves off the fairway, and will leave a round at Bicentennial feeling more about survival than fun by hole 18. Much of the rough surrounding the fairways have brush, honeysuckle, thorns, poison ivy, retention ponds, and just about everything else that's unpleasant to have next on a disc golf course. The retention ponds don't call attention to themselves, but could eat a disc that gets a bad or even slight kick off the fairway on holes like 1 or 16. Hole 4 also has a tough mando that feels unnecessary, and also makes it very easy to throw down a hill that goes from being steep to almost impossible to traverse if your disc goes too straight off the tee. Hole 8 is a hole I remember for negative reasons as well. There is virtually no fairway for the first 75% of the hole, leaving any shot that doesn't hit the tight fairway in a rough spot for you. Then, the basket had a tall vine of poison ivy right under and next to the basket, which is an immediate red flag as a person who is hilariously susceptible to getting rashes from all of the ivys and oaks and sumacs (oh my!).
Variety on this course is nice in other ways, but with distance and difficulty, this course is one dimensional. Pretty much all of the holes are short, save for a couple like hole 3, and pretty much all of them are challenging tight lines. There's no break on this course, leaving you no opportunities to catch your breath mentally or to just air a driver out. Not all courses need to have easy holes on them, but one on a course like this one would be nice.
Other Thoughts:
Short wooded courses are typically among my favorite disc golf courses to play, which makes Bicentennial an anomaly for me. A lot of the shots are creative and good disc golf shots, but despite the variety on this course, it started to feel repetitive after a while with all of the touchy downhill and steep curving uphill shots. The unforgiving nature of this course kept it from being more fun for me, and will likely keep it from being one I return to very often at all when there are other options nearby that are challenging with more forgiving fairways. The amount of thorns and poisonous plants in the park, combined with the amount of opportunities to go off course, make for a combination that is not desirable, and this is a factor on the majority of the course.
If you have your mids and throwing putters dialed and like a challenge, come try out Bicentennial. Newer players nearby might want to start off at B.I.G. or Citizens before attempting Bicentennial. My friend and I played all 4 courses in Belleville and Swansea, including the long pins at Clinton Hills, and I found Bicentennial to be the most demanding course of the four be a fair margin.
If you like tight challenging woods courses, stop by Bicentennial. If you're wanting a chill round of golf, I recommend looking elsewhere.