In 2021 the disc golf world was introduced to the most difficult course on the planet.
Northwood Black in Morton, Illinois became a destroyer for even the best players, averaging an incredible 6.01 strokes over par for the MPO field. Three years later, it’s still the most difficult by far.
The players had plenty of practice rounds under their belts at Northwood entering 2024. That, coupled with tremendous amounts of course cleanup targeted at the off-the-fairway rough, should have brought the scoring averages back down to earth.
And they did. But even with better scoring, Northwood Black still remains multiple strokes harder than any other course on tour.
The 2024 Champions Cup, a Professional Disc Golf Association Major, featured the best players from around the world for four rounds. The event was in April and the normal course holes 3, 4, 5 and 18 were removed or changed for the event, but even the best of the best barely averaged better than three strokes over par.
In 2023, across the entirety of the tour, only three courses managed to record an average score of over par for the MPO field during their respective event: Maple Hill (MVP Open), Øverås Diskgolfpark (PCS Open), and Northwood Black (Ledgestone Open).
Maple Hill was barely over par at 0.03 strokes while Øverås held players to a respectable 1.72 strokes over par. With that said, Northwood Black’s 4.25 average more than doubles that of the closest competitor.
This can also be seen in the winning scores at each tour stop during the 2024 season.
Even with four rounds, Andrew Presnell’s Champions Cup victory is the closest score to par to win a Disc Golf Pro Tour or Major this year. He won with a 15 under par, making his score an average of 3.75 under per round. The next closest tour winner this season is Anthony Barela at the Chess.com Invitational to kick off the season. Barela shot 18 under for the event over three rounds for an average of 6 under per round, almost double Presnell’s score at Northwood Black.
Just looking at the overall course average can sometimes paint a generalization as a result of one or two really hard holes skewing the mean. In the case of Northwood Black, there are two particularly difficult holes, but the rest are far from easy. In fact, only three holes (5, 16, and 17) averaged under par during the 2023 Ledgestone Open.
The Morton course does, however, also contain the two hardest holes on tour. During the 2024 Champions Cup, Hole 12 averaged 0.87 strokes over par and Hole 14 averaged 0.8. It is worth mentioning again that these statistics are a result of a four-round Major featuring a limited field of the best players on earth.
The annual Ledgestone Open has a larger sample size over the course of several years and the numbers are even more eye-opening.
Since the infamous par 5 Hole 12 entered the world of disc golf as part of the Northwood Gold layout for the 2019 PDGA Disc Golf World Championships, it has never averaged better than a 6.34 (until the 2024 Champions Cup). With this fact, it’s not surprising that 3 out of every 4 players scores a bogey or worse on this hole. This statistic hit its peak in 2020, when 83% of the field failed to shoot par or better on Hole 12.
In its six years of existence, less than 25 players have recorded a birdie on Hole 12. Only four of those 25 have ever done it twice (Alden Harris, Anthony Barela, Garrett Gurthie and Ricky Wysocki). Barela and Wysocki remain the only two players in the world to have birdied it three times.
Just two holes later at Northwood Black sits the second hardest hole on tour. The par 5 Hole 14 handed 79% of players a bogey or worse in 2021, its inaugural year. Even after large amounts of clean up around the edges of the fairway to widen the throwing lanes and clear rough, the lowest bogey rate at a tournament has been 55% during the 2023 Ledgestone Open.
The FPO field has a shorter tee pad on Hole 14, but it is still a doozy of a hole. Over half the field took a bogey or worse during the 2022 Ledgestone event. As staggering as that is, this is the lowest mark in the hole’s history. The 2021 Ledgestone Open resulted in a 70% bogey rate. Even with a few years of experience and the highly-touted Champions Cup field, Hole 14 still kept the women at bay with a 65% bogey rate in 2024.
The numbers ring even louder outside the professional level. The top amateurs in the Midwest travel to Illinois each year for the Illinois Amateur Disc Golf Championships. In 2024, no one in the entire Mixed Amateur 1 field recorded a birdie on Hole 12 and 83% of them shot a bogey or worse on Hole 14, an absolutely deadly combination.
Another reason Northwood Black is so punishing is the out-of-bounds. There isn’t a lot of it in play because the rough generally serves as a natural OB, but when it’s there, it can wreak havoc.
Hole 8 is a 389-foot, downhill par 3. Players tee from the top of a ridge overlooking a deep ravine. Right off the tee is a tight gap. Any mistake early will send discs OB into the ravine. A creek runs out of the gully along the right side of the hole all the way past the basket, meandering to less than 30 feet from the pin or center of the fairway at certain points.
This was the fifth hole for the 2024 Champions Cup, but it delivered 131 total OB strokes to the MPO field during the event. Yes, there could be the occasional case of multiple OB throws on the same hole, but that rate works out to about 40% of players finding OB on a single hole. That is a massive number.
The rate has actually risen since Hole 8 was designed. In 2022, there was a 29% OB rate and in 2023, 32% of the field took a penalty stroke on the hole.
The Greater Peoria Open will bring in a more regional field of pros to the course in mid-August, but most fans won’t see Northwood Black again until the DGPT returns in 2025 for the Ledgestone Open.
Blog by: Jacob Arvidson
