Cliff Stephens Park

This is Ken Climo's home course. This course is a beautiful parkland course now with new Innova Discatcher Pro 28 baskets. Eight holes offer two baskets, eight gold baskets for the newly redesigned ... show more ›

This is Ken Climo's home course. This course is a beautiful parkland course now with new Innova Discatcher Pro 28 baskets. Eight holes offer two baskets, eight gold baskets for the newly redesigned gold course, a par 62, with new gold tee pads as well. Two other tee pads are also offered for all levels of play, and the green baskets are in the original spots. The course is easy to navigate, and has a nice flow through this aesthetically beautiful park with its old live oaks and ponds. The design is well thought out, forcing you to shape shots in and around the many live oaks. Each hole has tee signs, benches, long cement tee pads, and bag racks where you can hang your bag on a hook. Overall, this is an old classic beauty that did show its age before the new baskets were installed and the newly added gold course. A must play destination when in the Clearwater area.

The course is decent enough, but the back 9 or the back 15 depending how you play the west side of the course is overall not very friendly to newer or weaker players (ones who can't throw more than 25 ... show more ›

The course is decent enough, but the back 9 or the back 15 depending how you play the west side of the course is overall not very friendly to newer or weaker players (ones who can't throw more than 250 feet consistently). There's a lot of pedestrians to deal with and several spots on the course where you can easily lose a disc (Holes 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 17 (the new 17), and 24 (or the old 18). There's also not many - if any - technical shots. No dogleg right or dogleg left holes. Almost every hole is a straight shot to the basket from the tee pad. The front 9 though are definitely worth playing though. They're not so technical, but they aren't geared for the monster arms only like most of the back 9 (or 15) are.

Part of rating a course is having to rate the locals and that's where I'm most critical of Cliff Stephens. If you lose a disc at this course, there's a 50% chance you'll never see it again. Squids (those who go into the water to grab discs) who find your disc will either sell it to the local disc golf store for their own profit, sell it somewhere else, or keep it for their own. The Tampa Bay disc golf lost and found page online is littered with posts from people who never get their discs back.

As for other players, not all of them are bad, but too many I've met at the course are obnoxious, crude, smoke, and will cheat (lie about their scores or move their discs) if you play a round with them or take part in one of the tournaments at Cliff Stephens.

Again, the course is decent enough, but all in all the experience you get doesn't rate more than below average. My review is critical, but I think many other reviewers aren't critical enough and choose to just ignore the faults or they've never experienced them (if so, good for them...but I'm reviewing the course on how I experienced it). There are courses in Central Florida that deserve the "A" rating, but Cliff isn't one of them.

I love this Course! I was in Florida for vacation and looked up some close courses near me and found this course and i instantly said lets do it! as i go there i was excited and amazed on how beautifu ... show more ›

I love this Course! I was in Florida for vacation and looked up some close courses near me and found this course and i instantly said lets do it! as i go there i was excited and amazed on how beautiful the course is i am from Wisconsin and this course made me want to move to clearwater just so i can play it every day! love the distances as well

h20 definitely plays a factor on lotta holes. alot of low ceilings (common in fla it seems)...long and short tees always good. signs could be better but local kept me on right path and helped with li ... show more ›

h20 definitely plays a factor on lotta holes. alot of low ceilings (common in fla it seems)...long and short tees always good. signs could be better but local kept me on right path and helped with lines, thanks tim c! alot of pins in tricky places makes ace runs hard but still there. challenging course but still great potential for decent scores... super close to coachman park and clearh20 discgolf, which is a must to check out, makes discgolf depot seem very small, which i thought was impossible...

Well marked and easy to follow. The crossing of walking and biking trails, and the close access to roads on some holes, make it so you really need to be aware of your surroundings. Nothing worse than ... show more ›

Well marked and easy to follow. The crossing of walking and biking trails, and the close access to roads on some holes, make it so you really need to be aware of your surroundings. Nothing worse than setting-up and making your approach, and some is calling 'hold-up, hold-up'. That is the only thing keeping this from being in an 'A' rating in my opinion.

Fun course, great pin placements tucked behind trees, most holes make you think about how to approach the hole. Looks like there are multiple pin placements. River comes into play just enough to make ... show more ›

Fun course, great pin placements tucked behind trees, most holes make you think about how to approach the hole. Looks like there are multiple pin placements. River comes into play just enough to make you think about it and worry about "what if" scenarios. Very cool trees create lots of low tunnels shots, but overall the course is fairly open.

The only bad thing is signage. Many holes have no tee signs. Signs that do exists are broken, made of cheap plastic on PVC poles. New signs would really spruce this course up and help first-time visitors like me.

Unless I played it wrong, a quirky thing is hole 16 and 17. The tee pads are right next to each other shooting at different baskets in the layout I played.

Overall, one of my favorites courses played.