Walnut Ridge opens 18-hole disc golf course at Stewart Park

Walnut Ridge turned Stewart Park’s unused acreage into a permanent disc golf asset, opening an 18-hole course that stretches 6,121 feet across a park known for both ball fields and heavy tree cover. The layout gives the city a new public recreation draw, but it also says something bigger about where local disc golf is headed: this was built as a real course, not just a handful of baskets dropped into open grass.

Mayor Charles Snapp said the park covers about 80 acres, with roughly 40 acres of heavy canopy tree cover, a setting that gives the course its character and its challenge. That kind of wooded land changes the equation for Walnut Ridge. Instead of a wide-open beginner loop, Stewart Park DGC asks players to work lines, control speed, and manage the woods while still staying inside a municipal park that already serves multiple uses.

The city’s course description leans into that balance. Stewart Park DGC is listed as a wooded, cart-friendly, park-style course designed to be fair at all skill levels and to reward an intermediate game. The layout is cyclical, so players end close to where they start, a detail that makes it easier to run repeated rounds and organize regular play. The City of Walnut Ridge also said it used previously unused acreage in Stewart Park to fund the permanent course, a sign the project was treated as an investment in the park’s long-term use rather than a temporary amenity.

That ambition shows in the course profile. A 6,121-foot, 18-hole layout is substantial enough to support league nights and small tournaments, while the wooded setting should keep it interesting for players who want more than a short recreational round. The course does not read like a pure beginner build; it looks closer to a venue where newer players can learn, but intermediate arms should get the most out of it.

UDisc lists Stewart Park DGC at 36.07170042736942, -90.94371060954228, with an estimated length of 2.2 miles and a 4.2-star community rating from 14 ratings. The site also notes the course is still under construction, with remaining culverts and walkways still to be finished, which suggests Walnut Ridge is opening the park in phases rather than waiting for a perfect finish. For now, the course is open every day from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., giving the city a new disc golf home that already looks built for steady use and future growth.