Tulsa has been a disc golf mega for the last 10 or so years. Courses have been popping up left and right, all different types and styles, and it’s hard to live here without noticing those strange metal objects that seem to be randomly placed in various parks. Most of the courses in the 918 area are fairly short (average hole of about 250ft). Here are my top 5 disc golf courses in Tulsa!!!
5. Haikey Creek Disc Golf Course
Haikey Creek is located in south Tulsa on the edge of Broken Arrow and Bixby. This is one of the longest courses in Tulsa. It should be noted that here in Oklahoma we play every course as a par 54 with the exception of a couple. I can’t confirm why that is, but hey, it forces you to never want to take a 4 on a hole ever again even if it’s a par 4. This course seems to always be in great shape as long as it doesn’t rain more than 0.5 inches. Even though the first 3 holes of this course flood with just a couple teaspoons of rain that just means the grass is constantly green and lush.
Haikey is 6535ft long (average hole length 363 ft) so if you can’t throw over 300 this isn’t the course for you. For me, I max out my drives around the 400-foot mark which makes it a lot fun. There are plenty of holes that are just barely out of my range that makes for special birdies and a couple that are completely out of my range that makes for challenging pars.
This beautiful park has some big, mature trees that can play a factor in the difficulty of the course. It’s not a “wooded” course per say but if you’re having one of those rounds where the disc just isn’t going in the direction you want, it’s going to be hard to put up a solid score.
Every time I see there’s going to be a sanctioned event out there, I sign up immediately. Luckily, there’s hardly any foot traffic so you don’t have to worry about yelling FORE after an errant shot. Nothing worse than watching your disc head straight for a family of four who’s just trying to have a nice picnic at the park.
My PDGA Rating as of October 8th, 2019: 955
My Average Score at Haikey Creek: 51
My Personal Best at Haikey Creek: 47
My Course Rating 0-10: 7.8
4. Redhawk Disc Golf Course
Redhawk is located in North Tulsa at Mohawk Park. This is probably the most popular park in Tulsa since it’s the home of the amazing Tulsa Zoo. This property is massive and has 3 LEGIT disc golf courses (Redhawk, Whitehawk, Blackhawk). Blackhawk and Whitehawk are both wooded and located on the same course. Blackhawk is the long tees and Whitehawk is the short tees. Redhawk for the most part is an open course. It requires a big arm with every type of shot in the arsenal. If you ever play in the morning, there’s a good chance you see multiple deer on a couple of the fairways which is one of my favorite features.
Redhawk is the longest course in Tulsa with the length of 6,975ft (average hole length of 388ft). Don’t let this scare you, hole 13 and 14 have a combined distance of 1,688ft which means the rest of the course isn’t too long. Right? Wrong! Still a very long course. Backhand rollers can be your best friend out there.
To me, Redhawk is a course that I just try not to bogey. The first 9 holes are where you need to get your birdies since the back 9 is much tougher. If you aren’t good at shaping long shots then this course could cause some problems.
My Average Score at Redhawk: 56
My Personal Best at Redhawk: 51
My Course Rating 0-10: 8.1
3. McClure Disc Golf Course
I have a love hate relationship with McClure. My cursed course! It’s one of those courses that feels like I could crush but RARELY ever do. It’s located right in the middle of Tulsa. What makes this it so difficult is that all the holes vary and it’s hard to get in a rhythm. There seems to be a risk somewhere on each hole whether it’s OB sidewalks or water. Here’s what I throw on holes 1-9 at McClure to explain the variety of shots. Hole 1, backhand skip hyzer pushing water by basket. Hole 2, backhand hyzer over the water. Hole 3, low backhand dead straight with fairway driver. Hole 4, backhand straight shot with a midrange. Hole 5, huge backhand anhyzer or forehand over OB baseball field. Hole 6, backhand hyzer with midrange onto Island green. Hole 7, high straight backhand stall midrange shot that needs to fade pretty hard left at the end. Hole 8, 400 foot straight to slight turnover backhand over OB creek.
Hole 9, uphill straight backhand shot dodging multiple trees in fairway. As you can see, it’s not the easiest course on the planet. I step onto every tee pad at McClure thinking I can definitely birdy this. It’s just hard executing your shots consistently when you’re throwing something different every hole but that’s what I look for in a good disc golf course. Fair and Difficult.
My Average Score at McClure: 53
My Personal Best at McClure: 46
My Course Rating 0-10: 8.5
2. Hunter Park Disc Golf Course
Hunter Park will always have a special place in my heart since it’s my home course. It’s a course that I would get so frustrated playing at the beginning of my disc golf career because it would just whoop my butt.
It’s a Par 54 and the first four holes are heavily wooded and very challenging. The challenging fairways and dangerous greens are what makes this course so awesome. To put up a good score you have to get as many birdies as you possibly can because you’re bound to get some bogeys and unfortunately, those bogeys come right at the beginning. If you can come out of the woods better than +2 after the first 4 holes than you’re a happy camper. A lot of the baskets are either on small hills or near drop-offs making it hard to stick the green. When I first started playing disc golf, I would consistently shoot from +12 to +18. Not good.
I used to play this course every day in the summer time, sometimes twice a day. This neighborhood course is beautiful, convenient, and challenging. It taught me so much about my game and what I needed to work on over the years. I’ve probably player Hunter roughly 400,562 times. Maybe not quite that much but it’s a lot.
My Average Score at Hunter: 54
My Personal Best at Hunter: 45
My Course Rating 0-10: 9.1
1. Blackhawk Disc Golf Course
Located at Mohawk Park, this is my favorite disc golf course in all of Oklahoma. It’s the real deal. Extremely difficult but attackable at the same time. Blackhawk is a long wooded course where you HAVE to stay in the fairway all round. Blackhawk was installed and designed by Kevin McCoy and Dave Zucconi back in 2005. This course is 7,309 feet long with tight fairways surrounded by brutal rough. The kind of rough that’s a guaranteed added stroke. I’ve always been a fan of courses with natural OB’s and this is one of the few in Tulsa.
If you’re an intermediate or lower rated player then you might not love this course but that’s ok because they have a shorter layout (Whitehawk) like I mentioned earlier.
Blackhawk attracts one of the biggest sanctioned tournaments in Oklahoma (Oklahoma Open) where some of the top pros in the World duke it out with extremely high quality play that I can only dream of. The 2018 World Champion Gregg Barsby came to the tournament to fall just 3 strokes short of Eagle McMahon. Gregg shot a 47 (1058 rated round) and Eagle 48 (1049 rated round) on Blackhawk which is pretty nuts. It’s even crazier to think that Eagle missed the 3 easiest holes and bogeyed one of them.
My Average Score at Blackhawk: 56
My Personal Best at Blackhawk: 51
My Course Rating 0-10: 9.5
So if you’re in the Tulsa area head to one of these courses and GO THROW!!!!!
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