(2.210 Rating) A backdrop of beauty, but no fairways.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - Universal Park has got some big issues, but it's blessed with great terrain to work with. The course is mostly set in the woods, but with a few of the shots set in an open rolling field with a big pond. Hole (3) is a striking downhill par 3 with a creek lurking behind the basket. (7) throws along the pond with a stoic 700 feet high hill in the direct backdrop and it has the basket perched on a slope. (8) is a very pretty water clear. The sloping woods terrain for the remainder was pleasing to walk along. Sadly, there was lots of trash present on the ground which took away some of the park's grace.
- BASKETS - Pro 28 DISCatchers. So glad that Prodigy has not infected this area like the north Georgia scene.
- CHALLENGING - The difficulty here is flawed in my opinion. However, players that like escape artist disc golf may dig it. Much of the gameplay is pick a 3-foot gap from the tee and then sitting on pins and needles as the disc likely careens into a nearby tree. The challenge then pivots to conjuring up how to save par. This scenario then often leads to making sure that a bogey is at least salvaged. As an MA2 who does well in the woods, I finished with a 7 over 65.

Ludicrous fairways
- NOT FUN - I should have just left after the first two holes. Two of the tightest fairways I've ever seen. The holes are very short and are very birdie-able on a rare clean run. Missing the center of a clean line by a few inches can result in a lot of pain. I don't think there was even a logical 3-foot gap on either of the first two holes. Moving on. Hole (4) has water along the right the hole way and it has a dissolving clean fairway halfway down. I would imagine that a lot of players end up in the drink when their hyzer shot clips one of the many trees as the disc attempts to cut back towards the basket. (5) is an uphill thread with a terrible tee. Hole (6) has no clean line. It's listed as a par 4, so I guess players should just throw a blind shot in the direction of the basket and then make the approach by whatever tree it happens to hit, hopefully from 150-feet out or so. (6's) basket is also a lame hanging basket roughly at regular height. Hole (9) is a blind 90 degree left hook with no fairway after 100 feet. (11) is a 4-foot line. (12) is a 3-foot line. (13) is one of the worst par 3 wooded holes I've ever encountered. A 90-degree left bending hole that finishes right and it's poke and hope after the first 150 feet. I doubt it's ever been deuced. Then (14) said, hold my beer. Calling (14) a poke and hope shot would be too kind. For those that know Star Trek, it's more like a Kobayashi Maru exercise, which is a no win scenario. The goal on (14) is to not lose one's cool. I lost… (15) is another poke and hope and (17) is an unnecessary gimmick double mando 25-feet from the basket. The fairway designs on this woods course are in my bottom 5 all time. Did an HB Clark doppelganger design this one? I shaved off a half point in my ratings for the course, which I think may have been too generous.
- TEES - In addition to the poor design, the tees are often terrible. It's hard enough to hit 3-foot lines on good tees, thus it made throwing here even more frustrating. Many of the tees offer less than 30 square feet of flat surface area. Some have roots well above the compacted dirt surface. I do applaud those that are attempting to rectify the tee situation. It appears volunteers are bringing in concrete pavers to build tee edge berms, which is helping a bit. Tee (9) had turf overlaid and it was among the nicest surfaces to throw from here. Despite the effort, there is still a long way to go to get the tees to respectable level.
- AMENITIES AND NAVIGATION - Not many amenities beyond the basics. There are a couple benches. There is a practice basket and a course map at the parking area. No alternate tees or alternate basket placements. The tee signs are small and diagrammatic, but work. Navigating around is ok at times, but frustrating at other times. There are some modest gaps several times between holes. There are a bunch of navigational cues to help direct, but either some have fallen down or more arrows are needed. I had to consult my map a handful of times.
- FINISH FROM PARKING - The start of the course is about a 400 foot walk from the parking lot. Basket is (18) is almost a 1000-foot walk back to the parking lot.
- TIME PLAY - The course took way longer than I was expecting. As a solo, it was 75 minutes from out of the car to back in and I had no pauses in play.

Universal sucked the life out of me. A great designer could have easily produced a 3.0 rated course on my scales with the same budget constraints and a similar volunteer effort. Actually, if it weren't for the volunteer effort thus far, I may have scored it a half point even lower. Only players that love plinko gameplay are going to enjoy this one. The only reason I'm scoring it as high as I am, is because I clearly don't penalize poor design enough and that the beauty of the terrain was well up there. Considering that the other course in town is also not that great, I would recommend that players traveling along I40 through Marion, to just keep on driving. Similar courses I've played include Whispering Pines north of Tampa and Sunrise Rotary in central Tennessee.

The space, the land, the water. Its beautiful and peaceful. Its fun. Its a hike for sure. Water comes into play on several holes. Yes its still a work in progress.

There are 5-6 real good holes. Directions are easy to follow. Has a nice flow and mixture to the holes. You don't feel like you are pulling out the same disc on every tee box. Baskets are good.

There are 3-4 really bad holes. I especially did not like how you start out with 1 and 2. There are lots of small stumps sticking out on some fairways. Several places where there is a significant walk between holes.

Not a fan or 1,2, 4 or 16. But you decide for yourself.

Crazy tight Mando on 17 - but I made it with a little lefty forehand Roc3!

Its a fun hike in the mountains with disc golf baskets every so often. And don't hear that as the course is not well thought out - it really is. There appears to be a lot of forethought into the design.

More play and some clean up and pushing the fairways a little wider in spots will make the course super accessible while still quite challenging.

-The property terrain is spectacular and to be fair, it is used quite well on the course. Elevation movement is frequent, with several holes offering pretty significant elevation changes. #3 has the best of it. It is a very fun downhill tee shot in the open with a view of the creek behind the basket. #10 is my favorite hole. Significant uphill 205' that plays close to 300' due to the elevation rise. This is by far the best wooded hole on the course. It's wooded and straight, but the width of the fairway is generous.

-Disc catcher baskets. They always catch well. All in good shape. One of them is a hanging basket.

-Good use of water. #8 is a well designed par three over an inlet of the pond. Fairway turns to the right, and you can't really avoid throwing over the water on this hole due to the woods on the right side, so you'll have to throw a left to right sidearm or turnover. Creek comes into play on some holes.

-Tee signs with hole information and diagrams.

-Still incomplete. The lack of real fairways creates a universal effect at Universal Park. You can't avoid them. So many of the holes don't have real fairways and have far too many trees still. You see it immediately on the first hole. Straight downhill and short, but way too tight. #5, again too many trees and the basket is blinded by a wall of them that you see straight ahead up the hill down the fairway. #9 could be an excellent hole. But instead, it's a 300' par four with no line to the pin. This hole would be much better if the fairway was at least 20' wide the entire way through. You'd be throwing up and over a large hill on a hyzer, but instead you are trying to pitch up the hill and hope you have some sort of logical line for a 150' approach. I hate the concept of throwing two putters on a 300' hole, because I can throw 300' in the woods when there's an actual fairway. #13 is about 300' and has you pitching about 100' straight and turns left after that. You'd have to throw 100' straight and 200' left to reach this down a tight trail. #14 has no line to the pin at all.

-Some overgrowth in many places. #4 is pretty much unplayable. There are tons of weeds on the left side. The right side is where the creek is and there's no safe entrance to the creek if you land in there. It's hard to retrieve discs from there and almost feels that it isn't worth it. In order to reach the green, you have to throw past the weeds and over the creek where the fairway starts to close up due to so many trees blocking the other side of it where the basket sits. Lots of vegetation on #7 and #8. The walk to #18 has you crossing a path with extremely long branches with thorns that extend across the path.

-You have to cross the creek a few times and a couple of the crossing points are dangerous due to there being no stairs or bridges. Just logs. They are harder to walk across when wet.

-Many overhead branches hanging above.

-When courses are on the shorter side, I want there to be a way to get to the hole in one shot. Many of the holes here, that is under 300' don't grant you that opportunity because many of the lines, at least once you get to hole #9 do not make any sense. #10 is a nice hole. #18 is a wide open finisher. But those are the only logical holes after hole #8. #11 is a 188' steep downhill across the creek. Could be an excellent ace run, but there's no real line to the pin. An obvious disappointment.

-Universal Park is not going to be one of the best courses in the area unless it is redesigned and more cleverly thought. It isn't fun, except for a few holes. The land is definitely suitable for a hilly and wooded course. Which it is hilly and wooded, but it isn't fun with its lack of fairways.

-I don't recommend. Short course that's overparred out of overcompensation for the lack of fairways. Just not how disc golf is or should be.