Kevin Hitch

Played both layouts in 2 winters and now 1 time Lost Island in the summer. Kudos to Mr. Vaughn and the rest of the gang really turning this into a destination course. To me it feels like a cross between Punderson and Portage Lakes. Long and very wooded. Good use of slopes and elevation. There's even a few terrain variances that show up for interest. I was surprised how playable it was in the summer - not too overgrown to enjoy, which would be easy to say about several of the good state par ...
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Played both layouts in 2 winters and now 1 time Lost Island in the summer. Kudos to Mr. Vaughn and the rest of the gang really turning this into a destination course. To me it feels like a cross between Punderson and Portage Lakes. Long and very wooded. Good use of slopes and elevation. There's even a few terrain variances that show up for interest. I was surprised how playable it was in the summer - not too overgrown to enjoy, which would be easy to say about several of the good state park courses. It's easy to see how the rainy season would be a bit miserable to play, but as time goes on the course gets a little less rustic and a little more polished.

With the efforts made in the past couple of years, I can easily see this becoming top 5 in Ohio. It's getting right up there in my book with the likes of Punderson, Portage, Alum Creek, and Massillon. Looking forward to playing there more often!
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Pros: Big length, perfect fairways, great tee pads, great baskets, great signage, great parking, bathrooms, beautiful park and layout, great commitment by Summit Metro Parks to a quality course. Cons: Poison Ivy and difficult rough to deal with at times, some pin placements could be more interesting (further into woods, etc.), no picnic tables/shelters This course has just opened. In a short amount of time this could become an A+ course. It is already a destination course in my view. It i ...
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Pros: Big length, perfect fairways, great tee pads, great baskets, great signage, great parking, bathrooms, beautiful park and layout, great commitment by Summit Metro Parks to a quality course.
Cons: Poison Ivy and difficult rough to deal with at times, some pin placements could be more interesting (further into woods, etc.), no picnic tables/shelters

This course has just opened. In a short amount of time this could become an A+ course. It is already a destination course in my view. It is the longest course I have played in Ohio by far, and it is challenging but so great to play. Definitely risk/reward in attempting to go long on some fairways. Holes you should not miss: 4, 11, 16, 17. Give yourself enough time to play due to length and disc searching in spots.

UPDATE: First weekend open, and now there is more signage: public caution signs, next tee signs, and new benches and trash cans at the tees every few holes. Plus, while playing, a park worker came up to our group and asked for feedback, including asking for where additional clearing of rough areas would be beneficial. They also indicated that they have put down some broadleaf control (read: poison ivy control) that should show results in the weeks ahead. Clearly Summit Metro Parks cares and is interested in delivering an optimal experience. So awesome. Note also that I believe this will be much like Portage Lakes in my view in that this will make an optimal cold-season course from November to April, when foliage dies back and while golfers wear more protective clothing.
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Tight fairways, water threats with safety valves on the majority of those, good use of available elevation. Excellent course. Worth the stop. Long tees are often extremely tough, and sometimes much, MUCH longer than the shorts. Short tees make it very playable for novices, but have enough interest and challenge to be still worthwhile to experienced players. Still a little rough around the edges in spots, and I wish the tee pads were a little longer, but all in all a fantastic course. Compar ...
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Tight fairways, water threats with safety valves on the majority of those, good use of available elevation. Excellent course. Worth the stop. Long tees are often extremely tough, and sometimes much, MUCH longer than the shorts. Short tees make it very playable for novices, but have enough interest and challenge to be still worthwhile to experienced players. Still a little rough around the edges in spots, and I wish the tee pads were a little longer, but all in all a fantastic course. Comparable in many ways to Massillon and Parma.

Awesome infrastructure in place. Steps, tee signs, and bulletin board/lost disc drop are all first rate.
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Kinda rustic through the woods in a nice park with a lot to do. The course is very woodsy and tight, lots of elevation changes. I've heard it compared to Massillon. It is similar but much longer and tighter, and the doglegs frequently make for long approaches due to the sharpness of the dogleg angle and how much further you need to go to reach. The first couple and the last few holes are among the easiest. It is in pretty decent shape. Quite a bit of thorny rough in spots, as well as poison ...
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Kinda rustic through the woods in a nice park with a lot to do. The course is very woodsy and tight, lots of elevation changes. I've heard it compared to Massillon. It is similar but much longer and tighter, and the doglegs frequently make for long approaches due to the sharpness of the dogleg angle and how much further you need to go to reach. The first couple and the last few holes are among the easiest. It is in pretty decent shape. Quite a bit of thorny rough in spots, as well as poison ivy, but its mostly not thicker brush. Very few completely unplayable lies. I can also see why it's popular in the winter. There are benches at most (if not all) tees, and they are in good shape.

Overall, an excellent course. Similar to Massillon, without as many ace runs and without the cool ledges, and similar to Alum creek, without the scenic water holes. A must-play for intermediate and better golfers.

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This course has been around for quite some time now, and was always just kinda there to regular disc golfers. However, years of tree plantings and tree growth, coupled with a 2010-11 redesign of several holes (mostly back nine) by the Summit DG club have made this a much improved course. With the future installation of new, reasonably-sized concrete tees, coupled with some additional refinements and new hole cleanups, this will be a course that ascends to the A- class. The front nine is pre ...
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This course has been around for quite some time now, and was always just kinda there to regular disc golfers. However, years of tree plantings and tree growth, coupled with a 2010-11 redesign of several holes (mostly back nine) by the Summit DG club have made this a much improved course. With the future installation of new, reasonably-sized concrete tees, coupled with some additional refinements and new hole cleanups, this will be a course that ascends to the A- class.

The front nine is pretty close to the original, and is suitable for players of all skill levels, though ace runs abound for experienced players (everything but 8 is conceivable). There is one very long hole on the front, and a short ninth hole that is very close to the first hole in typical play has a mandatory dogleg to increase the challenge and hole segregation. It has good use of trees and elevation changes.

The back nine, previously almost entirely straight and open, has evolved considerably. If you played it in 2008 or earlier, you've got the wrong impression, as it now has considerably redesigned 12 thru 18 (with 19 being the old, original 18). They are now abounding in distance and wind thru the woods, with elevation changes, tight fairways, doglegs in varying directions, and considerable promise as it continues to improve. The average-skilled player will only likely find 10, maybe 11, 14, 16, and 19 to have any chance at all to ace, and most of those are tougher shots at it compared to all the opportunities on the front. Warning, though: while I played it at the end of March, I'm guessing the back is a haven for mosquitoes, with the lake, a bog, a creek, and woods in general providing a healthy breeding grounds. So, pack your repellent.

What used to be a time-killer on a DG trip thru the neighborhood is worth making a point to stop and play. While other courses in NE Ohio should still be ahead of this on your list (IMHO, including Massillon, Medina, Canton, Wingfoot, & Ashtabula), it's a course I'd always loved, and now can't wait to find opportunities to play a lot more.
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You MUST play this course. Elevation changes, absolutely PERFECT pin placements, extreme technical variation, playable by beginners, good attendance at events (especially winter doubles), and the fact that the course has little overlap with other park uses makes this a real gem. I have a hard time poking holes in this course. A pro is capable of 10 under or better on a great day, but the technical challenges throughout the course still present issues that make most great scores EARNED. T ...
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You MUST play this course.

Elevation changes, absolutely PERFECT pin placements, extreme technical variation, playable by beginners, good attendance at events (especially winter doubles), and the fact that the course has little overlap with other park uses makes this a real gem.

I have a hard time poking holes in this course. A pro is capable of 10 under or better on a great day, but the technical challenges throughout the course still present issues that make most great scores EARNED. There are so many cool features to the layout of this course that I have to restrain myself from scoring it an A+.
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LATEST UPDATE: This course is now even more playable. Concrete tees are in, and they're fantastic. Holes 2, 3, and 4 are redesigned for more distance, less public interference, and reduced interference between holes. Some of the holes are of a good degree of difficulty, but it's still playable for all skill levels. I'd never have thought this would be a recommended stop, but it's really starting to approach that. Most of my criticisms/suggestions below seem to have been addressed like I ha ...
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LATEST UPDATE:
This course is now even more playable. Concrete tees are in, and they're fantastic. Holes 2, 3, and 4 are redesigned for more distance, less public interference, and reduced interference between holes. Some of the holes are of a good degree of difficulty, but it's still playable for all skill levels. I'd never have thought this would be a recommended stop, but it's really starting to approach that. Most of my criticisms/suggestions below seem to have been addressed like I had a part in it or something, but really it's been people other than myself putting in the efforts and making a difference. (Just to throw in a suggestion: remove the unnecessary second mando on hole 15.) Check it out!

NEW REVIEW:
This course is now 18 holes, with continuing improvements. If you've played here in the last few years, you won't recognize it to some degree. It's absolutely phenomenal what's happening here. I will now be here like all the time since it's close.

I ran the Discraft Ace Race here for 5 years, but never had time to pursue further. The expanded course clearly took some inspiration from my Ace Race layouts, and I am quite happy about that. I was approached apparently months ago about the expansion, but didn't get the message, so even though I have a couple wish list items, I am far from complaining.

Holes 1-7 are almost identical to the original, but seriously improved. The first tee is now concrete, hinting at what the rest will look like. I love it. They plan on mulching wooded fairways where needed. They trenched the drainage channels better and put in gorgeous crossovers. The stairs on 1 are finally finished. On the front 7, hole 5 is lengthened considerably. It sounds like on/over the paved walking path will NOT be OB. The only notable criticisms are the same as before, primarily that 3 tee is way too close to 2 basket, and that 4 basket is blind and near a paved park path that moms walk their babies in strollers and such along...just a bit dangerous. Again, I'm not wanting to complain because this all is fantastic.

From hole 8 on, it's fully redesigned. They use the space very well. It's a very intermediate length (think Wingfoot but mostly tighter), and is plenty challenging, though there are several ace/deuce opportunities. There are plenty of ways it's not too forgiving. Holes 9, 12 (especially), 16, and 17 are either exact or close approximations of holes from ace races and alternate layouts. Only criticisms here: Hole 13, while great, has a similar problem to hole 4 (by the paved path), and when you look at the breakdown:
Straight-ish: 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17
Dogleg Left-ish (favoring RHBH): 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 15, 18
Dogleg Right-is (favoring lefty backhand or righty forehand): 13

So there is only 1 "lefty hole". You could argue a couple straightish are lefty-preferred, but there are more than that that might be argued righty-preferred.

The only real suggestion I could make on that end, though, before concrete tees are in, are to consider changing 8 & 15, almost opposite of each other but to the same baskets, in a way that could easily make them definite "lefty" holes.

Again, this concern is far overshadowed by the REALLY AMAZING work done by those who have put their time and effort into these improvements. Wow. Just wow.

It's not an easy course even for a righty. There are lots of excellent looks in the layout of this course. I've heard there will be a few appropriate mandos added as well, but they won't detract from the course (but they will take away some lefty-preferred lines)

You owe it to yourself to check this course out!

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
It is EXTREMELY important to note that this course is a work in progress. I think this course has a ton of potential. Holes 1,2,3,7 involve TIGHT fairways, high potential to add multiple strokes if you ricochet of a tree. A few holes also have TIGHT greens, especially 3. There are a few groves of poison ivy in areas (esp. 4 & 7. A few holes have public area interference, but most notable is that 4 is right near a walking path and you can't see walkers coming from the one direction on the path. Also, hole 9 ends nowhere near where 1 begins. Short but still challenging...lots of birdie opportunities, but errant throws can be very costly. Pretty course. Holes 1-3 are also Wadsworth's dirty little secret: I've removed a sink, 3 tires, 2 computer monitors, a vacuum cleaner, and 50+ bottles/cans from these holes so far. I think I missed a toilet.
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Enjoyable course. Lots of pins tucked into the brush on the edges, and the brush offers little in the way of recovery from where you might be stuck. Not too much in the way of problem vegetation (briars, poison ivy, etc.) Front nine is a little longer and more inventive than the back. They should try to reduce copycat holes on the back 9, where some are straight & short and obstacle-free, and others are identically short and straight at a tucked-in pin along the brush. Also, a number of back ...
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Enjoyable course. Lots of pins tucked into the brush on the edges, and the brush offers little in the way of recovery from where you might be stuck. Not too much in the way of problem vegetation (briars, poison ivy, etc.) Front nine is a little longer and more inventive than the back. They should try to reduce copycat holes on the back 9, where some are straight & short and obstacle-free, and others are identically short and straight at a tucked-in pin along the brush. Also, a number of back nine holes felt like the distances were noticeably overstated. Overall, worth the trip. It's also great to have a brick-and-mortar disc golf shop 2 minutes down the street.
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Good technical course. Flows fairly well around the park while trying to avoid other public areas. Many technical holes involving elevation changes, pins on slopes, low ceilings, and doglegs in both directions. I have heard grumblings of tee signs too close to tee boxes, and while this is true, my understanding is that they're being moved this week, and they didn't bother me anyway. Also, 6 and 7 involve water. While you have to backtrack on 6 to get to 7, it's not really that bothersome, bec ...
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Good technical course. Flows fairly well around the park while trying to avoid other public areas. Many technical holes involving elevation changes, pins on slopes, low ceilings, and doglegs in both directions. I have heard grumblings of tee signs too close to tee boxes, and while this is true, my understanding is that they're being moved this week, and they didn't bother me anyway. Also, 6 and 7 involve water. While you have to backtrack on 6 to get to 7, it's not really that bothersome, because 6 is such a good hole that it's worth dealing with the issue. This is also a beautiful park with a lot to do.
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