Newton Hill

This course plays harder than it first appears Pros - It's free - The holes are fairly open (not too many trees to avoid), but plays very narrow. - The baskets are surrounded by mulch which is real nice. Allows you to lay up a nice mid-range approach shot without worrying too much about the disc skidding or rolling off - The course is clean and seems well maintained. - The course doesn't seem like it gets very crowded and it's real close to Worcester. - Great views from a few holes near ...
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This course plays harder than it first appears

Pros
- It's free
- The holes are fairly open (not too many trees to avoid), but plays very narrow.
- The baskets are surrounded by mulch which is real nice. Allows you to lay up a nice mid-range approach shot without worrying too much about the disc skidding or rolling off
- The course is clean and seems well maintained.
- The course doesn't seem like it gets very crowded and it's real close to Worcester.
- Great views from a few holes near the top of the hill.
- Obvious statement, but this course if very hilly. It’s a really great way to get some exercise while playing, but could definitely get a bit exhausting if you play more than one round.
Cons
- Course plays narrow, so if you don't have a very straight throw, it makes it difficult to really huck your disc without potentially playing your next shot off into the trees.
- A lot of fairly steep uphill holes. It can make a par 3 or 4 seem very long. Rolling discs are an issue. On a few occasions our discs actually rolled back past the tee boxes.
- Some of the baskets which do not have mulch are on steep inclines/declines. This makes an approach shot very difficult. Numerous discs would land a few feet short and would end up rolling as far as 50 feet down the side of the course.
-The course is very hilly, which I mentioned before, but definitely needs a few steps here and there on some of the steeper downhill courses. Since the holes are mostly dirt and pine needles, the ground can seem pretty slippery.

Don't let the cons of the course intimidate you at all. I figured they were worth mentioning, especially if you have any mobility issues. It’s definitely a course worth trying.
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A wooded course which plays up and down a hill in a public park in Worcester. Newton Hill is the "other half" of Elm Park, and until the disc golf course was installed in 2009, few people even knew it existed. The course was designed by Jason Southwick, of Marshall Street Disc Golf and the designer of Pyramids. Fairways are wide for a wooded course. There are several holes with a variety of risk/reward options; hole #6 springs to mind immediately, a right sweeping dogleg which gives you a ...
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A wooded course which plays up and down a hill in a public park in Worcester. Newton Hill is the "other half" of Elm Park, and until the disc golf course was installed in 2009, few people even knew it existed. The course was designed by Jason Southwick, of Marshall Street Disc Golf and the designer of Pyramids.

Fairways are wide for a wooded course. There are several holes with a variety of risk/reward options; hole #6 springs to mind immediately, a right sweeping dogleg which gives you a choice of playing a straight, safe shot for par, or throwing through a very narrow gap straight towards the basket, risking hitting a tree and turning your birdie into a double. Pars are set relatively low; there are three holes (#3, #9, #12) which are set to par 4 here, but would easily be a par 3 at most other courses in the area. Conservative golf pays off here- the rough off to the sides of fairways is quite thick, guaranteeing an extra stroke, if not two, to penalize you for an errant drive.

Tee pads are rubber, although some (#11 and #16 especially) have serious, recurring drainage issues which cause the ground underneath to become lumpy. This course gets *muddy* in the spring- don't play this course on the way back from a job interview, as I did once. There are many pins which are on a slope, forcing you to play your putts carefully.

The biggest con to this course is signage. While there are tee signs, they are simply dreadful and do more to confuse people using them then they do convey information. All are basic- they list par, yardage, and a tee box with an arrow leading from it, indication the direction of the pin, but without any trees or rocks to place the map into context. Even worse, many of the arrows from tee to pin on the map are simply wrong. Steep doglegs are shown as straight shots and vice versa; elevation, which is a huge component of this course, isn't displayed at all. Next tee information is limited to bricks in the ground, which have a tendency to disappear.

Overall the park is very well maintained; you will often see crews of people blowing leaves off of the fairway. There are several trash cans throughout the course, but, sadly, some people can't be bothered to walk to them to drop their beer cans, even if they are located at the next tee. Before the disc golf course came, the hill was a refuge for homeless- if you launch a drive way off of the side of the course, be careful digging in the leaves for it; while infrequent, people have found needles on the ground. Don't let this discourage you from coming to this course- that represents past behavior, and I haven't seen anyone using anything at Newton Hill that you won't see people using at any other disc golf course. But it is something to be aware of beforehand, rather than risking a nasty surprise.

Definitely worth a play through, Newton Hill is a course for players of all skill levels.
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