Here you can about one of the world's best disc golf courses, Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course in Greenbrier, Arkansas. Built on a defunct traditional golf course, Persimmon Ridge sees constant maintenance and improvements from its owners who live on site and love welcoming visitors to their "home" course.
Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course is ranked #12 in the most recent World's Best Disc Golf Courses top 100 released annually by us here at UDisc. The rankings are based on millions of player ratings of over 16,000 disc golf courses worldwide on UDisc Courses, which is the most complete and regularly updated disc golf course directory in existence.
Read the whole post to get a full picture of Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course or jump to a section that interests you most in the navigation below.
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- Basics: Times in top 100, year established, designers, cost to play, & availability
- History of Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course
- How hard is it?
- What's it like to play?
- Three real five-star reviews
Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course Disc Golf Course: Basic Info
- When did Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course open?
2018 - How many times has Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course made the annual World's Best Disc Golf Courses top 100 since the rankings were first released in 2020?
Year 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Top 100? - Who designed Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course?
Matt Loyd (gold, blue layouts), Steve Jones (Chillow, red) - Is Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course free or pay-to-play?
Pay-to-play. See its UDisc Courses entry for pricing. - When is Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course available for public play?
Year-round, Wednesday-Sunday starting at 9 a.m. Closed on Monday-Tuesday as well as Easter, Christmas Eve and Day, Mother's Day, and Thanksgiving. If other holidays fall on a Monday or Tuesday, they will likely be open.
History of Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course
When Steve and Kim Jones became grandparents for the first time, Steve wanted nothing more than to create idyllic memories for their grandson. The original plan was to find a plot of land with around 10 acres/4 hectares where it would be possible to fish and explore to any little heart's content. That's what Kim believed she was signing up for when she agreed to put their house in town on the market and look for a new home in the countryside.
After a few disappointing viewings, a unique listing caught Steve's attention: the roughly 90-acre/36-hectare Persimmon Ridge Golf Course. The proud new grandfather didn't want to run a traditional golf course, but he loved the space and landscape the property offered. However, at first, the thought of buying the land that ticked all of Steve's boxes simply ticked Kim off. You can hear them retelling their initial exchange about purchasing Persimmon Ridge in the clip below:
Undeterred, Steve covertly continued to investigate the Persimmon Ridge property and learned its buyer wouldn't be required to run it as a golf course. He eventually convinced Kim to take a look, and the beauty of the land and its potential for other enterprises won her over. They made an offer that was accepted and, as their house had sold quickly, moved into an apartment in the former clubhouse as they built a new residence.
The couple's initial goal was to turn Persimmon Ridge into a facility for big gatherings, primarily weddings. They made the clubhouse into an event space, built structures for outdoor ceremonies, and started booking events. At the same time, Steve was trying to come up with ways to encourage his kids to visit the new property more. He'd thrown out the idea of them working together to build a disc golf course, but nothing had come of it.
Something did happen when Steve mentioned his interest in bringing disc golf to Persimmon Ridge to his friend Chris Curtis, the person who'd introduced Steve to the sport. Curtis immediately suggested they call Matt Loyd, owner of the Northwest Arkansas Store for Dynamic Discs and the state's Professional Disc Golf Association coordinator. Shortly into the call, Loyd scanned the property via Google Earth and, clearly excited, suggested they meet up at Persimmon Ridge to discuss possibilities. Steve agreed, but, according to Kim, never told her about the planned meeting.
So, a few days later, it surprised to Kim to see her husband and two other men driving around the property on a large, expensive golf cart intended for use at weddings. Once the group returned to the former clubhouse, she got to hear about the thoughts that had been going around Steve's head and also learn about disc golf from Curtis and Loyd. Skeptical at first, Kim came around to the idea of hosting a disc golf tournament on a temporary layout at Persimmon Ridge for which Loyd could provide all the baskets.
The event took place just a few weeks after the meeting, and the Joneses were stunned to see around 100 players participate. Being used to picking up after wedding parties, they were even more taken aback when they discovered that disc golfers hadn't left trash behind and had actually removed litter left by bygone ball golfers.
The experience sold Steve and Kim on disc golf, and they purchased 18 baskets to make Loyd's temporary course design permanent. That original design avoided many of the most eye-catching areas of the property as they were prime spots for wedding ceremonies.
That changed in 2020 once quite a few high profile professional disc golfers came to Persimmon Ridge as the course hosted one of the first sanctioned disc golf events after strict COVID restrictions became the norm across most of the world. The tournament was organized in late May by professional disc golfer Luke Humphries, who also used the occasion to start a now-popular YouTube series that's become a staple on the professional circuit: Skins Matches produced by media company Go Throw (formerly GK Pro).
"We didn't know that much about disc golf, so we thought skins is just what everybody did," Kim recalled. "But it was actually the maiden voyage for something that was sponsored by OTB Discs later that year and is now a regular part of the pro tour and all that. The very first one was here!"
With that exposure putting them on longtime disc golfers' radar and the general COVID boom disc golf experienced, Steve and Kim decided that, in Kim's words, "disc golfers are way more cool than brides." They dropped weddings entirely and dedicated their property to disc golf. They called Loyd back, and he revamped the course to include the choicest areas of the property that had previously been off-limits. The goal now was to become a bucket list course for serious disc golfers.
"Years ago we understood that we didn't have a population base to pull from locally and we needed to understand our consumer as someone that's treating us as a destination," Steve said.
At first, the Joneses felt like "destination" and "difficult" likely went hand in hand, but that view evolved over time.
"We kept hearing that there were folks thinking our course would be a bit much for them – they were apprehensive about showing up," Steve said. "If they'd only been playing disc golf two weeks, people would say, 'Oh, you can't go over there.' Even seasoned disc golfers, excited as they were, I saw some of them with their hearts just broken when they shot 25-over par."
As they became more aware of how frequent these experiences were, Steve started mentally designing shorter, beginner-friendly holes that would offer a more relaxed experience than the very challenging gold and blue layouts Loyd had designed. First came the red championship layout that offers shorter tees to the championship course's baskets than blue or gold, and then they built a nine-hole course completely separate from the other 18 dubbed Chillow (a portmanteau of "chill" and "yellow").
"I like to say Steve created it for me," Kim said. "I don't play our big course because it's too big for me, but he created this little Chillow nine-hole course and started teaching me how to play, and I enjoy it. We tell people all the time it's a great warm-up course but an even better redemption round if the big course beats you up."
Due to the popularity of the shorter course, they created the 18-hole Fun Chillow in the fall of 2023.
"Now there might be a family – grandma and three or four kids – that comes out, we give them a little lesson on how to play and throw, and they go out and just have the best time," Steve said. "We're seeing people brand new to the game enjoying themselves, and that just wasn't a possibility before."
Along with adding more accessible layouts and creating alternate pin positions for some championship holes, the Joneses have attracted people to their course by getting its location indicated on nearby highway signs and offering varied and frequently-updated stock in their pro shop.
But the biggest factors behind Persimmon Ridge's glowing reputation are Steve and Kim themselves. Many reviews mention the couple's welcoming attitude and clear interest in giving every visitor the best possible experience, which includes detailed descriptions of what to expect out on the course, a color-coded system for storing lost discs, and even small treats for the ride home.
"This is our home, so we're going to treat you like you're a guest at our house," Steve said. "It's just easy for us that way – there isn't another way."
How Hard Is Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course & What's Par on It Rated?
Persimmon Ridge offers a variety of 18-hole layouts. Its gold, blue, and red layouts are best suited to experienced, skilled players. Its Fun Chillow course, however, is designed for beginners and offers an accessible 18-hole experience for them as well as an encouraging, quick warm-up or cool down round for experienced disc golfers.
This is how Persimmon Ridge's most challenging Gold Layout and its easiest Fun Chillow layout stack up in terms of difficulty, distance, and more.
| Layout Name | Distance |
Technicality | Overall Difficulty | Par Rating* | Scoring Average* |
| Fun Chillow | Short | Not Technical | Easy | 166 | E |
| Persimmon Ridge Gold | Very Long | Technical | Very Challenging | 226 | +15 |
Examine more layouts that fall between these two in difficulty on Persimmon Ridge's UDisc Courses page.
Learn more about what the categories for distance, technicality, overall difficulty, and par rating mean in these posts:
What's It Like to Play at Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course?
Though its two original designs appealed primarily to skilled, experienced disc golfers, Persimmon Ridge now offers layouts suited to players at all levels, from never-ever beginners to professional world champions.
The gold, blue, and red championship layouts (to list them from most to least difficult) share baskets, but they aren't just extended and abbreviated versions of the same experience.
"You can't just say our blue course is shorter than our gold course," Steve explained. "We really are on a ridge that drops down into a valley, so when we pushed tees out to the corners of the property, we added elevation and some pretty epic tee boxes, probably about a half dozen or so."
One of those epic tees is for gold's hole 1, which offers an expansive view of the property and – despite the many thousands the Joneses spent to assure that it is, indeed, very safe – may spark a bit of vertigo as you line up your first drive of the round.
Despite their differences, some traits are shared by all the championship layouts. Given that Persimmon Ridge was formerly a traditional golf course, there is plenty of open fairway to work with. However, Steve emphasized that, unlike many golf course layouts, they try to tread lightly with out-of-bounds and instead use transitions in and out of wooded areas to create difficulty, requiring players to hit a gap off the tee or navigate copses of trees surrounding baskets. The Joneses have even carved out a few tightly wooded holes where former ball golfers never would have ventured (on purpose, at least).
When playing gold, blue, or red, players will end their rounds with a water carry over the property's large pond on hole 18.
To get the most out of the two hardest layouts, know that you'll need a solid distance game. Steve said that if players with under 300 feet/91 meters of power attempt the gold tees, they'll be throwing max power on most shots and likely have a monotonous round. However, those who throw 400 feet/122 meters or more will find themselves re-calibrating for wind, amount of fade, and release angles on every hole, getting the nuanced playing experience the blue and gold tees were designed to create.
Those looking for a more relaxed experience or to recover from their battle with a harder layout can tackle an 18 or nine-hole version of the Chillow course. The 18-hole Fun Chillow is the easiest layout at Persimmon Ridge according to UDisc's course difficulty ratings, which are based on hole length and the typical scores disc golfers with UDisc record on it.
No matter what sort of disc golf experience you're after, expect a warm reception at the pro shop and, if you want them, plenty of tips to make your time at Persimmon Ridge as good as possible.
"It's really important for us that you have a unique, exceptional experience while you're here," Kim said. "We greet everyone as they walk in the door, and if it's your first time here, we always try to take the time to step out and show you the way around the course. It's important to us that people know that we value them, and we treat them just like family."
Three Real Five Star Reviews of Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course
Three real reviews of Persimmon Ridge Disc Golf Course from disc golfers on UDisc:
Note that the publication date of this post reflects the last time we made minor updates to it. Some information has not changed since it was first published in 2024.
