Dandridge, TN

Dandridge Elementary School DGC

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2.675(based on 6 reviews)
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wellsbranch250
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 10.8 years 694 played 680 reviews
2.00 star(s)

A Mildly Challenging Elementary School Course. 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 1, 2022 Played the course:once

Pros:

(1.782 Rating) A park style 9 basket course with 18 tees.
- BLACK BERRIES - I must be off my rocker to start off a review this silly way. For the first time in my disc golf travels, I picked berries along the side of the fairway and ate them. I was routinely told as a young child to never eat wild berries in a forest. Well, I am still alive to write this. Seems like a pro to me. Man they tasted good!
- SIGNATURE HOLE - If this were a 8 hole course and hole (6) didn't exist, I think I would have scored this one more than a quarter point lower. Hole (6) is the longest hole on the course and it's the lone par 4. It requires a well placed monster bomb for anyone trying to deuce it. Rec players will need two good shots to secure a birdie. It doesn't really fit in with this course, but it is a fantastic hole none-the-less. I liked hole (2) as well, which required a slight RHBH turn-over and then having it fade back to the left a touch.
- CHALLENGING - This is without question the most challenging course I've ever played on elementary school property. It felt like a solid Rec level course or around average difficultly among all the courses I've played as of this review. There are a couple gimme birdies to skilled players, but there are also five holes over 300 feet when playing both sets of tees.
- CHAINS - DISCatchers

Cons:

Playgrounds near baskets.
- SAFETY HAZARDS AND SPACING - The ultimate reason I scored this one a 1.75 over a mid to high 2.0 was due to the safety hazards. Hole (3's) and (12's) basket have a playground inside the circle. On the next two holes, (4/13) and (5/14), playground hazards are present again. That's a full 3rd of the course with major spacing issues. A few other times the required gameplay puts other tees and baskets in play from an adjacent hole. Park access roads are also in play several times.
- NOT 18 - This is one of those courses that uses 18 tees with 9 baskets to claim to be an 18 hole course. Yes, the tee signs and the community board indicate 18 holes, but there are only 9 fairways. When a course has at least 18 baskets, I can see more of an argument to claim 18 holes. When it's 18 tees and 9 baskets, it almost never feels like an 18 holer to me. At Dandridge, the extra tee sometimes offer a different look, but there are just as many times it felt nearly the same, compared to its single digit numbered counterpart. It is what it is.
- AMENITIES AND EXTRAS - The pure basics are good and bad. As noted, the Chains are DISCatcher baskets, my favorite. The tees however are terrible. Just a tee sign to indicate the approximate location to tee off from. There is no defined line from what I was able to observe. On top of this, many of the supposed locations to tee, had no level surface to launch from. Beyond these noted basics, there are no other course related amenities or extras.
- NAVIGATION AND SIGNAGE - I thought the navigation was decent. One tee sign was missing, so I had to rely on my nav app to tell me where the supposed sign was. The transitions are generally short, so I think most first time players will sort-of figure it out without any aid. The signage was sub-par in my opinion. The tee signs are just a number and distance. I had to run down the fairway a bit to figure out holes (2) and (8).
- NOT BEGINNER FRIENDLY - One would naturally think this is a beginners course with the word elementary in the course name. Nope, they'd be wrong. I'm sure beginners have been brought here before, but there are just too many areas to get into to trouble in my opinion for this to be an ideal course for new players. Holes (2), (5), (6), (7) and (8) all have sun bleached edge thicket along at least one fairway edge. Please note, I don't take off rating points when a course is not beginner friendly.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - As noted, I thought (6) was a neat hole. Holes (2) and (9) have some nice appeal as well. The remaining holes look no better than average, and often much worse. A fairway with playground equipment flanking a side is not a way to add course charm. The maintenance of the park was also suspect when I showed up in early July. Overall, I scored this aspect 25 percentile.

Other Thoughts:

Dandridge felt like a 1.75 ratings tweener to me. It's definitely got some intriguing gameplay elements, but it's also got a hoard a layout issues impacting the experience. For those in Dandridge itself, it'll work as a nearby disc golf addiction fix, but I would surmise that the addicts are routinely leaving the area to find better courses. For those traveling along I40 and I81, I would say skip it, unless the player is looking to add to their bagger totals like I was. I haven't played too many courses in the wider region, but I have played nearby courses Kiwanis and Panther Creek. Out of town players looking for something more destination worthy should consider one of these two courses instead of here. Kiwanis I'd recommend to Rec players who like technical woods courses and I'd recommend Panther Creek to those at the Advanced level.
- TIME PLAY - The time play here is a bit longer than the average 9 holer as this one has some decent length to it. It took this quick solo player 25 minutes to throw early in the morning in an empty park setting.
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10 0
DiscGolfCraig
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 20.4 years 622 played 569 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Fun But Too Risky 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 8, 2018 Played the course:once

Pros:

Dandridge Elementary is an excellent school course. For what it is - a 9-hole course played through twice - it's one of the better nine-holers I've played.
- Course has some hits and misses. There are several really-good holes. For sake of simplicity, I'm not referring to the back 9 counterpart hole.
- #2 is a fun, dogleg right s-curved layout over a corner of the parking lot into a gap between the trees, back to the basket. I threw two good tee shots here and still wasn't had longer runs at the basket.
- #6 is the course's best hole, and it's not even close. It's a 440-foot, downhiller through a semi-wide gap. Best shot here is the low, tight rope. After two questionably designed holes prior, this layout washes out that bad taste.
- Excellent variety in layouts - hole lengths, elevation, number of obstacles, straight vs short. For a tight, confined space, you get a lot of different looks.
- Course is easy to navigate. Once I found the first hole, it was easy. The hardest hole to find was #7 simply because vines were overtaking the tee sign.
- With dual tees, you're mainly looking at the same shot the second time through, with only a couple of exceptions. What was rare for this type of layout is that they didn't just make each layout longer for the back 9. #6 is much better than its counterpart, #15. #2 was a tougher angle than #11.
- Being at a school, there's a nice playground if you're here with the family. I also enjoyed the spray-painted baseball diamond on the parking lot. Don't expect to see many slides into second though.

Cons:

Holes #3 - 5 are nearly unplayable if anyone is on the playground. #3's basket is next to the parking lot. There was a car parked less than 50 feet from the basket when I played. It was gone when I came through for #12, so got to throw both layouts at once.
- #4 just needs to be pulled. You're throwing over the playground. Even if there wasn't anyone close by, I wouldn't want to throw if there were kids on the playground. I can just picture the angry parents giving disc golfers angry stares after throwing and then walking through the playground. I was playing at 8:30 on a Friday night and there was only one family on the playground. Even then I had to double and triple check to make sure they weren't anywhere close when I threw.
- #5 is a cakewalk compared to 4, but there's still risk. Instead of throwing 100% over, you're just throwing along a good portion of the playground. That said, this is a beginner friendly course. All it takes is for a beginner to throw a disc that sails sharply right, and you bring the playground into play.
- I'd pull #4 immediately and relocate #5's tee. Add a hole between #6 & 7 - there's a big hill right there - or squeeze one in around #8 & 9. Why risk the ill-will that would come with a kid accidentally being hit? Safety first and foremost.
- #2/11 tee off near the dumpsters. Just saying that in case you're playing, and they haven't been emptied in a while.
- Make the first tee more obvious to spot. I spotted 7 other baskets before #1. Just saying.
- I'm rating it a 2.0, but don't feel good about it. The risks make the rating lower than that - in the 1.5 range. When playing the full 18, it's a 2.5. Split the difference, roll the die, and see how many holes you can play.

Other Thoughts:

Dandridge Elementary is a fun, semi-challenging course. I like that it appeals to multiple skill levels. That said, on a couple longer holes, they should put in more kid-friendly tee locales.
- 9 baskets. 18 tee pads. Call it what you want. I didn't mind playing through twice as I was just passing through. If I played it more often, I'd feel stronger about the 9 vs 18 debate here.
- If people are in the shelter, be aware when throwing on #9/18.
- I'm thinking this course isn't getting much traction. How often are disc golfers going to be here when people aren't using the playground?
- If you must skip 3 holes, why would you come just to play the other 6? That's my biggest takeaway about this course. 1/3 of the layout offers potential risks to others. That's way too much for a kid/family-friendly place. Unfortunately, you're not going to know what's playable until showing up.
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8 2
Baysinger
Silver level trusted reviewer
Experience: 15.4 years 98 played 55 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Dandridge Elementary School DGC 2+ years

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Mar 30, 2014 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Great for a quick practice round! If you dont want to spend too much time out on a course but need to get your disc golf fix, this is a good place to do it. Good use of the space they were able to use. Has a great playground for your kids to play at while you are throwing around the scool yard. Some good ace oppurtunities for players of any skill level. Hole 1 is just 200 feet so anybody can feel confident going into this course.

Cons:

No tee pads just signs showing where to throw from. Signs show the distance of the holes but doesn't show actual flight path. Course is 9 baskets with 18 tee locations... the back 9 follow the same path and are very similar to the front 9. I know there was a lack of space but I believe the 1/10, 3/12 and a few others could have been spread out a bit better.

Other Thoughts:

Dandridge Elementary School has a 9 Hole Disc Golf course on its school grounds. Obviously, you can't play this course during school hours, but during the summer and weekends, it's a fun little course to play. The course only has 9 baskets in the ground but there are two tee locations for each basket. So you finish up with Hole 9 and go back to around the same area where Hole 1's tee pad is (but a little further back) and start there as "Hole 10" using the same basket you used for the same hole. After that you just follow the same layout but with slightly altered tee areas. This is not much of a challenging course, however you will have fun here. You could really make for an interesting round if you were to play an "all concrete is OB" round because several of the holes are completely across concrete until you get to the grass landing area. If you are looking for a challenge but don't have time to hit a longer course, play this course that way. But if you aren't down with short pitch and putt courses, you probably won't like this one. There are a couple of holes where you can really rip on a disc but the opportunities for that are few and far between. Absolutely a fun little course that is great if you are in the area, but don't drive too far out of your way for this one. If you want to see this course on video, check out my crew playing this course in the video below...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysqSgtuYIlA
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2 2
RDBO
Experience: 17.8 years 318 played 1 reviews
2.00 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jan 17, 2013 Played the course:once

Pros:

Great for beginners
Baskets
Signs with distances

Cons:

Not for the serious,unless you just feel like an easy and quick round.

Other Thoughts:

9 basket course with dual tee pads.
Don't gout of your way to play this course
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2 2
HumDogMillionare
Experience: 6 played 1 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Dandridege elementary 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Mar 16, 2013 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

It is forgiving
Quick play
Great first course
Can try out many different shots from backhands to rollers and anything else

Cons:

Short course
Mainly pitch and putt
During nice weather chance to hit people walking by.

Other Thoughts:

Nice baskets, only one is tagged the rest are clean which makes it looker nicer.
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1 4
odimus prime
Experience: 15.4 years 14 played 3 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Great for beginners 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Nov 8, 2012 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

-Very forgiving pars
-Short course, great for quick rounds

Cons:

-Parking lots are a near-constant danger
-Pars are sometimes too forgiving
-Course layout not clearly marked

Other Thoughts:

Arrows pointing to the next tee would be very helpful. While the course is fun, it is very short. It is also a little strange that the only hole that is actually a legitimate par 3 is actually a par 4.
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