Pros:
White Birch Park, as stated by many, is the first disc golf course installed in the state of Missouri. The course is on 8 acres of land behind the Hazelwood Community Center, secluded in the woods. This course feels like a blast from the past, and while it feels aged compared to the other courses in the area, it still provides a fun round even today.
The disc golf course is only 5 minutes off of Interstate 270, near the junction of 270 and 70, making is fairly accessible. White Birch is among a collection of courses on the North/Northwest side of St. Louis County, and with this course playing so short, it would be easy to make this course one of a couple to play on a free day. The parking lot closest to the course is somewhat hidden, but if you stay to the right of the community center when entering the park, there's a parking lot that serves both the disc golf course and a skatepark.
The entrance to the course is easy to spot with the signage pointing to the path to hole 1. The start of this pathway also has a bulletin board that provides information on leagues and the local club. As the signs note, there's also a small pro shop that the community center keeps stocked just to the left when going through the main entrance. While there's not a huge selection, they have a small variety of bags and discs. Most of the selection is Innova and Discraft, but they have some newer molds such as Paul McBeth's line. They even had some Kastaplast.
The teepads, signage, and layout of the course feel completely unchanged from 1979. The tee signs on this course give a minimal amount of information outside of distance to the pin, but with how tight the course plays and how it is designed, it's hard to get lost on this course. Each sign provides pin distances and a general layout of the hole. While it is not as much information as tee signs at many other courses, it's enough to know what to throw.
The baskets are old Mach 3s, though there's one or 2 updated baskets on the course. The teepads on the course are concrete as well, providing a solid tee to throw from.
While this course is exceptionally tight and short, it actually provides a lot of opportunities to throw different shot shapes throughout an 18 hole round. Each hole has 1 pin placement and 1 or 2 teepads. There's a great mix of hyzer and anhyzer holes, with plenty of holes that also provide equal opportunity for hyzer/anhyzer or backhand/forehand to get to the pin. While this is a course where any intermediate player and even a lot of beginners will be good to go with a bag of putters and midranges, this variety still makes for a fun round of golf that will require you to think before you throw.
While this is a small plot of land that this course resides on, it has a lot of variety in terrain as well. Some holes are more open and utilize a couple of small fields between the wooded portions. However, I would say that wooded is the way to describe this course, though most of the holes feel fairly open with clear flight lines to the basket. My understanding is that this course used to have more trees than it does now, but the trees that do exist so require you to stick to certain lines. For instance, the mandatory doglegs on holes 2 and 8 both keep you from throwing over other fairways, and also keep you from taking a straight shot to the basket.
In addition to the woods, the course also utilizes hilly terrain and a creek in the middle of the course to make for obstacles to be mindful of off the tee and during putts. An errant throw on 5 or 9 will leave you in a bad place in a creek. In addition, the most memorable hole on this course has to be hole 10, which is only 98 feet from the recreational tee, but involves a throw from the tee that goes up a staircase. 98 feet sounds like an easy 2, but misjudging your anhyzer or sidearm just a little bit can result in a tricky upshot for 3.
While higher level players might be bored throwing at this course, it is very beginner friendly. Even the pro tees are all under 300 feet, so players that are working on adding distance will find this course a good stepping stone. The wooded holes are also forgiving enough to where a new player shouldn't be penalized too much for a bad shot. Overall, this is a great course to learn your technique and work on accuracy as you work up to other nearby courses such as Endicott or Carrolton just down the road. Intermediate players will enjoy this course if they are looking for 18 holes of birdie opportunities, and it provides a nice opportunity to get lower scores; scores under 50 are fairly common on this course and can be achieved with even an average round.
While there may have been a fee in the past to play this course, the folks working in the community center confirmed that the course is currently free to play.
Cons:
Like I previously said, this is a very short course. Intermediate players will likely not need any drivers except for maybe a utility shot from a Firebird or similar disc. If you are looking for longer holes or bomber opportunities, this isn't the course for you.
The baskets and teepads are reminiscent of an earlier age of disc golf, and anyone who has played other local courses will attest that these teepads are very short at only about 6 feet long. While you honestly don't need a big run up for a lot of these holes, a lot of the teepads also stick high above the ground, so starting from off the teepad will likely feel awkward. While there are 1 or 2 updated baskets around the course, the old Mach 3's do show their age, and feel small compared to current baskets on the market.
There are multiple areas of the course where the fairways really start to step on each other. It's honestly impressive they fit 4-5 holes in certain spots of this course. While some holes like 17 and 18 truly have their own fairway, holes 5 through 9 are especially tight and require you to be aware of your surroundings. Even 18's teepad could be in the line of fire for a drive off 17 that hangs left. Be careful when other people are playing, as this course does get some decent traffic.
You can tell erosion has been an issue for a long time on this course, and while you can see some steps have been taken in the past to help, it could use more help to keep this course from going into disrepair in some areas. The wall between 6 and 7 that is jutting out a bit is one area that looked to be of particular concern.
While you can absolutely play this course your first time and not get lost for the most part, it would be nice to see a couple of missing signs be replaced. A couple additional directional signs signs in certain spots would also help a lot. That being said, the layout is mostly intuitive on your first round.
Other Thoughts:
This course is far from perfect, and is representative of when it was designed and installed. That being said, if you take the course for what it is, it makes for a very fun round of birdie and ace hunting. This course could use some improvements for erosion and even the equipment, but I would never want to see this course redesigned. It is very cool to have a local course in St. Louis that shows what disc golf was about in the early days of the sport.
I think the Hazelwood Parks and Rec department also deserve a shoutout for continuing to acknowledge the history of this course, and for keeping a shop and rental discs available for players stopping by. Other than Quail Ridge and Smoking Aces, there aren't many examples around of oportunities to buy discs close to a course in this area. It was also cool to see more current and popular discs available, and not just stock Innova or Discraft beginner discs.
There are better courses around St. Louis if you are here for a short visit - this course is probably not even top 10 for the greater St. Louis area. However, if you want to play a bit of history, White Birch is your course. Come play some old school golf and see how low you can get your score. You will for sure have fun here.