Longview Park Disc Golf Course – Rock Island, IL

The main reason I wanted to write this review is because I got to play with my old dog Asmodeus, Inciter of Lechery (full name). We call him Moe, for brevity. He’s one of the coolest dogs ever and is still a retarded moose, which is why I love him. It’s been too long since I’d seen him, and it was exactly what I needed this weekend. Thanks for bringing my old pal back out to play, Belcher. It means a lot.

I grew up playing this disc golf course, so I’m a tad biased. It also means I won’t go into as much detail because a lot of it I take for granted. It’s a pretty challenging course due to the elevation and wind, but you’ll have a great view of the Mississippi River Valley and get to play in some awesome mature oak trees (the hundred footers, not the pansy shrubs that Texans call oak trees).

Despite the below freezing temperature and blowing snow (yeah, in October), we played. Belcher had serious gloves and hat action, and I had a sweatshirt and those hand warmer thingies - I'm really glad I brought them). The grass was wet from the snow so the added combination of wet and cold would have killed my game (dang, I should have used that as an excuse for my performance, huh?).

This course has some of the most insane elevation of any disc golf course I’ve played. Your legs will burn after this course. Yes, some of it is down hill, but somehow the majority of it is uphill. There’s been a lot of “work” on this course, and much of it not good. There’s a new blacktopped parking lot down the middle of hole #6, along with three giant trees missing. Hole 7 is missing all of its trees. Hole 17 is missing both of its massive trees and is wide open. And hole 18, one of the hardest holes in disc golf, is now missing one of its massive trees, but it doesn’t make the hole any easier.

This course used to be a 12-hole course and was pretty spread out. Now that it’s 18 holes, it seems a little cramped in spots (but only if you have many groups playing at the same time), but the redesign added some fun holes. There are some flow issues, especially if you remember the easy flow of the original 12, but it’s still a challenging course.

My legs burned after I finished the 18th hole uphill hike, but all in all, this is one of the best rounds I’ve had in a while. I haven’t played with Belcher in years, so I’m guessing she thinks I play like this all the time (I don’t). So I’m glad to have had an audience. She can still putt like a machine though, so despite her thinking she played poorly, we still probably ended up pretty even. She IS a professional disc golfer, after all (yes, seriously).

No top 5 – just play this course. I think it’s very under-rated, and pansy disc golfer complain about their legs hurting, which is why it might have a bad rap (and maybe the sketchy neighborhood as well – haha)