- McAllister Park is home to two epic, gold-level, 18-hole courses: Wabash Woods and Wabash Washout. The two courses are opposite sides of the same coin: while the differences between the two stand out at first, after a few play-throughs, the similarities in design begin to stand out. Wabash Woods, as the name suggests, is a heavily wooded affair. Wabash Washout, located on the site of an old municipal ball golf course, and is more open (though still with its fair share of deep rough and trees to avoid) and lengthier, with rolling elevation. Both courses force successful shot-shaping to landing zones, often a couple of times per hole, in order to score well. These courses are about managing the length, navigating the hazards, finding the landing zones, and executing a wide variety of shots.
- Elevation is much more of a factor on Washout than on Woods. The rolling golf-style moguls provide tons of spills and thrills from long downhill bombs (#1 gold) to short, uphill, blind ace runs. Nothing mountainous, but for an old municipal ball golf course, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of elevation here, as well as its successful incorporation into the overall design.
- Tees and signage are all top-notch. Each hole has three sets of tees (most are beautiful concrete affairs, although a few tee locations look to be still in the process of being installed). Each tee has a beautiful accurate, detailed sign showing distance, OBs, and bunkers. Many holes have specific information printed regarding what to do with each hazard: bunkers are typically a non-stroke, put your disc where you entered the bunker dealio; OBs are stroke penalties and put your disc where you entered OB. Variations on this are explicitly spelled out on signage, leaving nothing to doubt. The OB marked on the signage is very clearly marked with orange flags around mostly old water hazards (now dry). I'm not certain if they are dry year round, or if it was a drought, or what the deal is...if water indeed fills these hazards, this course would become even more brutal...love it.
- Each hole has gold, blue, and red level tees. Red tees are fun and challenging but lops off a *ton* of the length and difficulty here. Blue tees up the ante and require a lot more distance off the tee in order to hit landing zones for successful second or approach shots. The Gold tees are a bully that pushes you down, skins your knees up, steals your lunch money, calls you 'Sally', and punches you in the mouth for good measure. But Gold's the cool kid in town so you take your lumps, suck it up, and head back next weekend for more because, well, this course kicks ass. That's just what it does. The different tees often radically change the way the hole plays, and doesn't just add increased hole lengths, but completely different angles off the tee, hazards to avoid, etc.
- Risk vs. reward is rampant here. You'll constantly find yourself asking, "Can I make it over that bunker? What will that do if I don't? Can I make it over that OB?" The OB ex- water hazards are numerous and MUST be managed successfully to score anything close to a reasonable score. Sometimes aggressively attacking a landing zone brings into play trees or heavy, thick, nasty rough that could be easily avoided if laying up. Trying for the extra distance in other instances risks OB. It's a fine balance to strike, and should prove highly rewarding especially for experienced, advanced, and pro players. Recreational or beginner golfers should stick to the Reds and still expect a thumping.
- Standout holes include #'s 1, 3, 4, 12, and 15.
- Right next to the parking lot is the old golf course's driving range, which now serves as a disc golf driving range. Neat.