Pros:
- Located next to a small community college in Matoon, IL, the 9-hole course plays through a park-style piece of land to one side of the main campus buildings. The course mostly avoids heavy-traffic areas and shouldn't have too much interference from other activities. A small, algae-choked pond sits to one side of the property and the course plays around it. Trees dot the more open areas, with a few holes abutting schule-filled woodland that contains a very tiny creek.
- Amenities are reasonable. Concrete tees, decent enough baskets, signage (more on that later). The grass was cut and the park looked clean and well-maintained in general. Some rust on the baskets didn't really affect my round.
- The course is actually kinda pretty for a small park-style 9-er. The pond is a bit scummy and smelly, but looks cool despite not really coming into play. #7's green is protected by trees with a low clearance on the approach due to low branches. It was a nice, peaceful, serene, nature-y green. Likewise, #'s 8 and 9 are beautiful holes.
- Great use of the little elevation change available. Not much in the way of ups and downs, but the little dips and rises were incorporated very well into the design in order to provide something more than flat golf. (#'s 2-6 all are slightly up or downhill).
- Lots of trees used well here. #'s 2, 7, 8 and 9 all excel at making the most of forcing line-shaping to get around either solitary trees, or in the case of #9, slightly wooded areas. #9's pin is guarded by two large choke cherry trees, which make the approach and putting interesting. A great way to end the course!
- A decent mix of hole lengths keeps this from being purely shorter beginner-style holes. #6 and 7 both had reasonable lengths requiring a slightly bigger arm, with #7's tricky green an added bonus.
Cons:
- The signage is plain annoying. The signs don't face in any particular direction so it's not always immediately clear which basket (sometimes multiple baskets are visible) to throw towards. Routing/navigation aren't difficult, but could be better.The sign locations manage to conflict with the teepads. They are way too close, and present a safety hazard (I wonder how many hands have smashed knuckles on a sign with a follow-through).
- Wow does the pond stink!
- The two most dreaded words in disc golf (at least for me): goose poop. It was EVERYWHERE on #8.
- Probably only ever an issue on #2 behind the pin, #8 behind the pin, and #9 (if you shank hard right)...but there is a ton of poison ivy on the edges of the wooded area.
Other Thoughts:
- A cemetery bounds the course on one side (#'s 8 and 9 play past it on the left). A white line was spray-painted onto the ground to demark the two properties, and a lady in a golf cart was patrolling the other side. She buzzed by me no less than three times in two holes, giving me the stink eye each time. Pretty certain it wasn't college security, but might want to exercise caution and stay to the right of the line in case. I always enjoy being scoped by security like a petty criminal...not.
- The local directions on the course page says the first tee starts by a pine...I don't know if that's outdated or just plain wrong. The info re: parking lot was correct though, just park in the southern most corner and #1 is slightly to the right.
- After #6, follow the path around the pond to #7.