Pros:
Northside park is a neighborhood park in the town of Azusa, CA. It's a well-maintained, tidy, and quiet park that features all of your typical Socal park amenities plus a 9-hole disc golf course. Parking was easy to find (I just parked on the southern side of W 12th Street adjacent to the park) and I walked right up to the first tee without any wait.
There were several other groups of disc golfers already on the course. One was just finishing up hole 1 so it gave me someone to follow as I navigated my way around the course. I had a map I printed from dgcoursereview as well, but it's always nice to have a confirmation as well. In the end it didn't really matter anyway, as by the 2nd hole we were all playing together for the rest of the round.
As for the course, it's a great place to bring someone to learn the game. The course is on the shorter side. Most of the holes are between the 200-300 foot range. There are some trees scattered throughout the park offering obstacles for your drives and approaches. Baskets were placed in positions that sometimes required you to decide whether you wanted to go left or right of the tree, but nothing was overly complicated or challenging to work through. The course is relatively flat and over even terrain. Most of it is well maintained grass or sidewalk, so again it's great if you're bringing someone to introduce them to the sport.
Each hole features concrete tee pads, baskets in great condition, and signage. Like most 9 hole courses in the area, I heard there were a number of alternate layouts available for locals who wanted a change of pace. All in all it was an enjoyable round!
Pros:
- Concrete pads
- Nice targets
- Beautiful park and well landscaped
- Accurate maps online
- Variety of hole lengths and types
- Easy parking
- Quick round
- Practice basket
Cons:
Aside from the limitation of 9 holes, the biggest con for me on this course was just the general layout. It wasn't a huge deal breaker for me because I joined a local, but even with a map it's still difficult to know which target you're aiming for. Targets 2 and 9 were the biggest confusion for me. I was aiming for the wrong basket on both of them until a local set me straight.
Secondly, fairways cross each other here in opposite directions. The flow of our round was continuously interrupted because we had traffic coming opposite direction on our fairway. We also heard a few "FORE" calls out there too because it was just too many fairways crossing each other. The park filled up during our round so it was a challenge to stay focused.
My last gripe is actually nothing against the park itself but the parking that lines up along W 12th Street. There were a line of cars parked on the north side of the street near the baskets for 2 and 9. Thankfully I didn't strike any of them, but I'd guess the curb was 20 feet from the basket... well within range of landing for decent players.
Other Thoughts:
Final thoughts... Northside park was fun, but I don't think I'll be playing here again. It's worth a visit if you're like me and just happened to be in the area, but I wouldn't go out of my way to play it. Or if you're just looking to get out and throw some discs, go for it. Park on the SOUTH side of W 12th Street, walk past the playground to find the pad for hole 1, and enjoy! Watch out for other players tho!