Steele Creek Park

Steele Creek Park DGC in Bristol, TN is a tale of two nine's. I will start my review by talking about the front. So the F9 at Steele creek is an incredibly fun course. There are two tees per hole on the F9. Most courses I have played that offer 2 tee pads or 2 baskets per hole are simply a short and long version of the same exact hole. While that is the same for a few of the holes on this F9, it is not true for all of them. Some of the Blue tee pads actually offer a different line shape to the b ...
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Steele Creek Park DGC in Bristol, TN is a tale of two nine's. I will start my review by talking about the front. So the F9 at Steele creek is an incredibly fun course. There are two tees per hole on the F9. Most courses I have played that offer 2 tee pads or 2 baskets per hole are simply a short and long version of the same exact hole. While that is the same for a few of the holes on this F9, it is not true for all of them. Some of the Blue tee pads actually offer a different line shape to the basket which plays differently than the White tee. This is an interesting and more enjoyable format to me as it creates more diversity for the course. With this being said, all of the Blue tees are definitely longer, but not all of them are just straight back behind the White tee simply making the same hole but longer. I really hate throwing over the top of shorter tees or baskets and of course I would never do it if somebody was playing the shorter hole so these offset Blue tees are a nice touch. As for the play of the F9 itself, there are some shorter holes as well as some longer holes. The course is mostly open with a few gaps you have to hit but for the most part your touch game doesn't exactly have to be dialed for this F9. The hole distances range from the shortest White hole being 231' to the longest Blue hole being 555'. The Whites distances average between 250' - 300' while the Blues have no hole shorter than 300'. If you would like to see this F9 on video, please consider checking out the video below showcasing the F9 White (short) Tees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NxhtS_uBfQ

Now... Lets talk about the B9 which is actually located in a different location from the F9. Unless you want to walk 2,100 feet from Hole 9's basket to Hole 10's tee, I suggest getting in your car and driving closer to the other location. That is not an estimate... that is a (fairly accurate) google maps measurement between the two holes. Not only is this course in a completely different location in the park, it is a completely different style course. The longest hole on the back 9 is 186'. Yes, you read that correctly. All of the back 9 holes are shorter than 200' and are insanely wooded. I would be highly surprised if the F9 and B9 were designed by the same person unless said designer absolutely wanted two completely different 9's. If that was the case... they succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. When I say these holes are wooded, I don't think you understand what I mean. Go to your favorite wooded course, stand on a tee pad, and look to the left or right. That is what these holes look like. The greens on this back 9 are more wooded than being off the fairway on some of the other courses I have played. Basically, this course is a scramble course. Every single hole on this B9 is aceable which I could see being super fun for a beginner (or any player for that matter) but at the same time, I could see the extremely small lines deterring newer players from playing this B9. In my opinion, this B9 would be much more enjoyable if there were 1 or 2 trees removed from five or six of the holes. I love being forced to hit lines on courses, however this is a bit much. The land the course is on is absolutely beautiful and is overall an outstanding park to visit for disc golf or just as a family park visit with walking trails, a nature center, a lake, a creek flowing through the park and much more. I would give the F9 a four star rating but the B9 a two star rating so I personally think that this B9 does a disservice to this course as a whole. This is why I think that the two 9's at Steele Creek Park DGC should be separated as two different courses with 1-9 (with two tees) up on the main property and a 1-9 down in the woods with the possible extension of 9 more wooded holes making a possible 36 holes to play on two very different courses. I am not exactly local to this area so I don't know how they do leagues/doubles at this course but if I were to host any sort of event up there I would do one loop of F9 Whites and one loop of F9 Blues for an 18 hole round. If players really wanted to involve the B9 in some capacity, every other week I would do B9 looped twice to get a mix of both sections but I would never have players play the full 18 hole loop as the holes are numbered. If you would like to see this B9 on video, please consider watching the video below showcasing the wooded 9 holes at Steele Creek Park DGC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efUJXh-TuPA
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