Pros:
(3.196 Rating) A demanding heavily wooded course on a hill side.
- CHALLENGING - One of the more challenging courses I've played with this small of footprint, but not oppressive tough. Plus, for those that want to dial the challenge back a bit, the red tees appear to play 3 or 4 throws less difficult than the White tee layout. I looked at posted scores of those that threw the red and white tees back to back to come up with this conclusion. The White tees read as lower advanced level and the front tees read as recreational level.
- CHARACTER - Just about all the amenities you'd expect from a well established course with a club. To start, effective course map on the way up to tee (1). There is also a mail box at the course map location stuffed with well done scorecards (scorecard has map print) and pencils. If I recall correctly, there was seating at just about every tee.
- TEES - Two nice sized concrete tee pads per hole labeled Red (front tee) and White (back tee).
- NAVIGATION - Even though this course is heavily wooded, it's really easy to get from one hole to the next due to the free scorecard with map.
- UNIQUENESS - About average. For being a course with just 10 holes, I was really surprised by the variety. A few up shots and a few down shots. One shot kind of goes over a swallow valley and a couple are rather flat. I'd label 9 of the 10 shots as fully wooded tunnel shots with hole (3) being a moderately wooded hole with a wide fairway. A decent mix of lengths, from 500 feet to sub 200 depending on the tee and basket combination. The most noticeable missing element is water. There is some indicated on the course map but I never saw any. Perhaps after a heavy rain or an extreme misfire a disc will find the drink. Also, no par 4s or 5s, although the back tee on (3) is definitely long enough to be a recreational par 4.
- QUICK PLAY - I spent 40 minutes on this one, and ten minutes of it was looking for a disc that I lost in the dead leaves. The courses appears to flow really well from one hole to the next. Solos should typically have this one wrapped up in 30 to 35 minutes.
- RAW BEAUTY - I loved the fully wooded fairway lines running up and down the hillside on a January afternoon. This course must look epic sweet in mid April when all the trees are in spring form.
Cons:
There really aren't any flaws with Liberty Park. Below are some preferential and site issues that some may be concerned about.
- FORGIVENESS - Although the red tees are short enough for recreation players, for those that can't hit 10 to 15 foot lanes consistently, this course could become very self-defeating. In addition, regardless of skill level, players will hit trees several times out here. When there's a ricochet in the wrong direction, scrambling for par may become unachievable proposition.
- TERRAIN - If you have bad knees or ankles I'd stay clear of this course. There are lots of rocks and roots to stub a toe or twist an ankle on. Probably not the best course for the disc golf cart, you'd need some big wheels.
- POISON IVY/OAK - Although I didn't see any poisonous plants during my January round, this course looks like an offender and its mentioned by a couple other reviewers. I did however run into several thorny areas and I'm glad I was wearing pants.
- TICKS - Again, although I didn't observe any, several reviewers call it out.
- NOT 18 HOLES - I'd be willing to bet that there are a lot of players that come here and have visions on how to make it a full 18. I checked Google maps and the park boundaries seems to extend another 700 feet up the hill side. Eight more holes of a similar caliber makes Liberty a solid 3.5 course.
Other Thoughts:
I wasn't expecting this course to be this good. If I grouped Liberty Park in with all of the other 9 hole courses I've rated, this course would be among the top five. I really hope to read in the near future that the course has been expended to 18 holes. I will also note that this course appears to have seasonal enjoyability. I'd hate to be out here during summer peak overgrowth. Probably best enjoyed from middle fall thru late spring.