Slinger, WI

Heritage Trails County Park

3.365(based on 7 reviews)
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5 0
mcbrandt
Experience: 3 played 3 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Beautiful Parcel of Land and Fun Course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 15, 2019 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Mix of open and wooded holes in an absolutely beautiful park! There are essentially no easy birdies here, unless you are playing some of the longer holes as par 4. To me, that is a pro.
Could be a con to others, though. If you like pitch-and-putt courses, this is not for you. Some of the long pins on longer holes warrant par 4, but some of the 4s out there should be 3s, IMO.

Cons:

Some might consider this course as "too open". I think the elevation changes and course features (island green on hole 4, et al.) trump that, though. The prairie can be a major pain when it's fully grown in the summer.

Other Thoughts:

This course is on its way to 4+ rating. Will be expanded to 27 holes in 2020. The beautiful, but problematic tees will be phased out in the near future, and replaced with a couple different styles. Once the slippery tees are replaced, and the next nine holes is in, this is easily a 4.
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7 0
wellsbranch250
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 10.8 years 694 played 680 reviews
3.00 star(s)

A Beautiful Disc Consumer 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 1, 2019 Played the course:once

Pros:

(3.208 Rating) A rolling meadow prairie style course with one fully wooded hole.
- RAW BEAUTY - Rolling meadows, backdrop forests and defined fairways cut though tall prairie grasses. There are lots of wild flowers dotting the landscape and it makes for some gorgeous scenery. I played nineteen different courses on this road trip and I rated this one as the second most beautiful of the bunch.
- HOLE 12 - The one non-prairie grass shot on the entire course and it is spectacular. Please, please, please more of this.
- CHALLENGING - Much of the challenge here is going to be the wind and fear of losing a disc. I could see a gunslinging Advanced player murdering this course, but also a Recreational player being raked over the coals. I enjoyed the challenge as a weak arm Intermediate level player.
- FRONT TEES - This appears to be a recent upgrade. Newly installed large concrete paver pads for the front tees.
- CHAINS - Nice MachVs that were all in good shape.
- COURSE MAP - Excellent course map between the parking area and tees (1) and (10). The tee signs however are too basic, being just wood with a hole number.
- NAVIGATION - I like how the course does two nine hole loops back to the parking area. It gives first time players the opportunity to count and see if they have enough courage and discs left to tackle the back nine.

Cons:

Don't throw in the tall stuff.
- PRAIRIE GRASS - I lost a disc on my first throw. Walking up to tee (1) and staring down fairway, I decided to go back to the bag and grab a throw away... just in case. I could tell from the tee that the grasses and weeds were shoulder tall and thick on the left the whole way. I did not want to risk it. This is why it's always important to bring throw-a-ways on road trips. Anyways, this is not the only hole with prairie grass. It unfortunately is in play on 17 holes. Hole (1) was one of the worst spots thankfully, as many areas are only waist high and thinner. I found the stuff three other times and generally found the disc in 1 or 2 minutes. The fairway cuts through the tall grasses are generally 40 feet wide or more, for most of the course.
- LOST DISC POTENTIAL - Obviously a much higher chance than normal due to the con above.
- NOT BEGINNER FRIENDLY - I brought my family with me, because I read that the course was lightly wooded on the info page. Whoops. They did not like the course and I spent a lot of time in the tall grasses looking for their discs on what I thought were wide cut fairways.
- MISSED OPPORTUNITIES - A fully wooded hole like (12) could have happened a lot more. Yes it takes more work to develop this style of hole, but the pay-off is worth it IMO.
- BACK TEES - The back tee distances typical add 50 to 100 feet to each hole. Great for those that want to bomb shots over the open prairie. Unfortunately, when they recently upgraded the tees, they only did the front set.
- UNIQUENESS - As noted, the common theme is prairie grass. The island green on (4) and the tunnel shot on (12) were the only curve balls.
- TIME PLAY - Not a quick bag. I figure an hour and 15 minutes for quick solo who can keep it in the fairway most of the round.
- PAY TO PLAY - Apparently they take photos of your license plate at the gate of the park entrance, as there was no attendant. I think I paid five dollars a couple days later online. There are instructions on small takable cards at the gate.

Other Thoughts:

I played 3 prairie style courses on this road trip and Heritage Trails was by far my favorite of the 3. Obviously for those that don't like this style, I would advise them to stay clear. However, for those that like to air out shots or for those that like beautiful rolling hill courses, this could be a good course to play.
- STRIP MINE - I researched a report that this park was going to be turned into a strip mine. All indications I found is that the proposal was abandoned.
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6 0
torrettas
Experience: 3 played 3 reviews
3.50 star(s)

For a novice, I like this course, but..... 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 21, 2019 Played the course:once

Pros:

Nice quiet course that wasn't heavily used.
Plenty of parking.
Course layout board right at the beginning of front and back nines.
Wide variety of hole types including an "island" hole.
Good for a novice to intermediate player.
Tees well marked and baskets easy to locate in all but a couple of hilly holes.
Plenty of rough, trees, hills to make it a challenge for novice to intermediate players. Trees tended to be boundaries on holes more so that in the fairways.
Has a variety of hole lengths and challenges.

Cons:

Concrete tees are smaller.
Rough was quite tall especially on the back nine.
If wearing shorts, watch out for stinging nettle plants in the rough!
Could be a difficult or frustrating course for a new player.

Other Thoughts:

Keep your hyzering/anhyzering to a minimum and you will stay out of the rough. Being a novice player, I was in the rough quite often. The stinging nettles were in the back nine around holes 14 through 16. I lost a disc in deep rough to the left on hole 15. In looking for it, my bare legs rubbed against some stinging nettles, unbeknownst to me. My legs felt like there was continuous bee stings from my knees to my ankles for about a day.
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2 2
chris443
Experience: 9.3 years 95 played 2 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Play here 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 17, 2016 Played the course:once

Pros:

I really like this course. The short tees are nice with this soft but grippy tee box. I like the fact I had to judge distance because I didn't have a scorecard or printed off distance. Large fairways and easy to find a disc that made the tall stuff. Great layout with fun holes. Baskets where great. Caught well. Easy to find my way around.

Cons:

Would be nice to have better signs at the box. Instead of hole number add the distances! Also long tees are a dirt pad. Otherwise not many cons!

Other Thoughts:

Try this course. Huge parking lot and seems to be very little traffic. Very close to Milwaukee. I enjoyed this layout and some ace opportunitys!
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9 0
wolfhaley
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 20.5 years 1165 played 745 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Better than expected 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 3, 2015 Played the course:once

Pros:

The course is set in a beautiful multi use park and the area its set up in is exclusively for disc golf. The baskets are DGA's that are in fantastic shape and catch great. There's two tees at each hole except hole 18. There's no signs just wood posts with the hole number on them. These are fine as it's pretty easy to see the pin from each hole anyway. Hole 4 is an "island" hole minus the water. I personally like these on these prairie type courses to add a little more challenge on an otherwise pretty bland hole. It's a unique idea and the only other places I've seen this is token creek and capital springs in Madison. The flow of the course is very easy to follow with the only long walk being from hole 2 to 3, then obviously back up toward the parking lot after the first 9 to get to the back nine. There are numerous next tee arrows throughout anyway though which is always a plus. They have excellent scorecards with very nice maps on them at the kiosk by the parking lot as well. These are some of the best I've seen. The tees are just natural/grass which are ok for now but will become problematic with more wear and tear. Hopefully they plan on getting concrete or at least rubber mats in the future to help with this. The course is free, permanent and there's tons of parking spaces. This would be a good place to play a snow round too. There's a solid mix of distances here. They also use the elevation and the limited woods to the best they could it seemed. There were numerous tees tucked into tree lines to add challenge to some otherwise wide open holes. Also quite a few (not sure exactly how many) holes had multiple pin locations to mix things up.

Cons:

The tee signs are my biggest con. They're a strange height and I kept feeling like and almost did smack my throwing hand on them on my follow through. This annoyed me. The tees aren't a problem yet but with enough use these will be. You can already tell by the worn down grass that this course gets a decent amount of traffic which means these tees are going to be a problem sooner rather than later.

Other Thoughts:

This is not by any means a destination course but is well worth a stop if you're anywhere nearby. I was surprised after playing here at how much fun I had. I normally don't like prairie courses at all but something about this one was different. Give it a shot for sure, just don't expect rollin ridge, just a well maintained fun round or two.
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8 1
Stardoggy
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 13.3 years 1038 played 214 reviews
2.50 star(s)

More prairie golf...oh boy. 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 28, 2015 Played the course:once

Pros:

18 hole course located on the rolling hills in Heritage Trails County Park, just outside Slinger.

New DGA baskets, which caught quite well, and were properly installed. No issues here. Two pin placements per hole, which is always nice.

Navigation was fairly simple, as the course is mostly open, and there are signs a' plenty.

Two tee pads per hole (red and blue), which is nice, and helped with navigation.

The main factor here is elevation, which is used quite well. Most holes had some modicum of up or down used in their design. There is also a decent amount of distance, so big arms will get the chance to open up quite a bit. Decent mix of distances. Also, there was an island hole, which is cool...except that it's about 160' with no obstacles. Wind would definitely be an issue here, as well.

The course was mowed quite well, with pretty generous fairways. Also, there is a kiosk at the beginning of the course with extremely nice scorecards and free pencils. The scorecards have distances, and a map.

Cons:

The tee signs are just a number. No other information besides red or blue. Not a problem if you grab a scorecard, but if they're not available, it's a total guessing game.

This is pretty blah, boring, plain prairie golf. Only two holes could be considered wooded, otherwise everything else is wide open, with elevation being the only hurdle. It feels like a giant waste, with all the wide open holes having forest right next to them.

As of now, the tee pads are natural and grass. With more play, they'll turn into dirt. Half of them are NOT on level ground. No clue if they plan to go concrete or at least level the dirt, but at this point, they're a bummer...especially when there's so many holes where you'll want a good run up to achieve longer distance.

While it was nice to have two tees for each hole, outside a few holes, all they ever did was add distance...which I guess is to be expected from prairie golf.

Other Thoughts:

This course feels like a missed opportunity to me. It's easy to see a lot of work was put into it, but it just feels like it could have been SOOO much more. It's scenic and serene, but man, it could/should have been much more engaging golf. I don't care how much elevation you have in play; throwing the same type of shot over and over is just not fun. We had planned to stay and play this course multiple times, but we ended up just leaving after one round.

It IS a free option in the Milwaukee area, so I guess it has that going for it.

It's not a terrible course, it's just a very average course. Probably worth a spin if you're in the area, but I certainly won't be going out of my way to play it again.
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3 1
knivile1
Experience: 13.5 years 60 played 25 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Solid course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jul 4, 2016 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

-Multiple tee and basket locations. Updated plastic teepads on short tees since I first reviewed this course last year
-Good use of elevation available as well as treeline or pockets of trees on the prairie holes
-Very quiet and unassuming. Very minimal non-DG traffic
-Great aesthetics to the park as a whole and the mowed fairways contrasted against the rough look great.

Cons:

-I like that they have added permanent tees, however the plastic tiles do not instill much confidence in your run-up. Can't count how many times I've slipped on these already. Much prefer concrete and even rubber over this stuff.
-LONG prairie grass will eat up discs in the rough if you don't pay complete attention to your throw

Other Thoughts:

Course continues to break in and add new and better elements. Makes for a fun round of golf.

Accuracy and power required. Keep in the short grass and you will have a great time!
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