Deer Lakes Disc Golf Course

Deer Lakes plays long: par 66 over 18 holes, which is a dozen strokes above the usual par-54 municipal round. J. Gary Dropcho, Tom Moeller and Dan Sauers designed it for the Pittsburgh Flying Disc Society, with DGA sponsorship, and it opened in 2006 inside the 1,180-acre Deer Lakes Park in Frazer and West Deer townships, roughly 15 miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh. The 18 are arranged as a front and back nine that each loop from the Blue Gill parking lot. Every hole has three concrete tee pads — PFDS rates them for 850, 925 and 975-rated players — and a DGA Mach X basket with three pin positions, so the round changes considerably depending on which layout is set.

PFDS describes gullies, water hazards and long, thin wooded fairways broken up by open, hilly stretches, which is what the terrain around the park's three spring-fed lakes looks like from above. It is free to play, and the park itself is well equipped: practice baskets, restrooms, playgrounds, a spray park, trails and pavilions, plus the Wagman Observatory. Park at the upper end of the Blue Gill lot to start closest to the first tee.