Hillcrest Knoll Disc Golf Course

Hillcrest Knoll Park is a 7-acre block on Saint Paul's East Side with an unusual backstory: a 1997 flash flood left the surrounding homes uninhabitable, and the land was converted into a city park that still doubles as a stormwater holding pond during heavy rain. For two decades it sat mostly empty — people walked dogs and flew kites on an open, occasionally soggy field — until neighbors Tony and Amanda Kutzke led a grassroots effort to bring disc golf to an area of the city that didn't have a course. Working with St. Paul Parks and Recreation, they hired local course designer Cale Leiviska to route nine holes across the park's undulating ground, threading the layout around a buried sewer line and water storage tank. The course cost about $8,300 to build, more than half of it covered by the Kutzke family along with support from East Side businesses, and it officially opened in August 2022.

Saint Paul's course page lists it at par 27 across 1,748 feet, free to play with no permit. It's a short, entry-level round overall, but the site's flood-plain terrain gives it real elevation change for a 9-hole course — Tony Kutzke has called Hole 3 the best view on the property, while Amanda points to Hole 8, built around a stand of trees and a retaining wall, as the toughest look. As of a 2023 report, the Kutzkes had applied for an additional $15,000 in city Neighborhood STAR Grant funding to add tee pads, signage and stairs on the Hole 3 hillside.