The Duck Pond is the disc golf course at Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, Texas, just outside Cleburne south of Fort Worth, and it's a genuinely charming layout for a small campus course. It plays around a small lake and across the rolling hills of Callicott Park, winding along a jogging trail and crisscrossing a small creek, which gives it far more character and variety than a flat campus green would suggest.

The water and the terrain are what make it interesting. The pond and the creek both come into play on several holes, and there are sidewalk out-of-bounds lines to contend with, which forces thoughtful shot selection rather than letting you just rip a driver and hope. Combined with the rolling ground, it adds up to a course that punishes carelessness while remaining welcoming to newer players.

The university does something genuinely nice here: the facility offers disc checkout as well as clinics for people discovering the sport, which means you can turn up without any gear at all and still play a round. For anyone curious about disc golf but unwilling to buy a bag of discs to find out, that's about as low a barrier to entry as exists anywhere.

One thing to know before you go: the course sits on the land of a conservative Christian institution, and the university maintains a policy prohibiting alcohol, tobacco, illegal substances and profanity on its property. That's the school's rule rather than a course quirk, and respecting it is simply the price of playing on their land, which they've generously opened to the public.

Getting there from Fort Worth is straightforward: take I-35W south, exit 30, turn right onto 917 and go about six miles; the course is on the right near the lake and the University welcome sign. It's free to play. As a campus course it shares space with students, joggers and walkers, so looking downrange before throwing matters more than usual here.

North Texas weather sets the season, with spring and fall ideal and summer bringing serious heat and humidity that makes early mornings and evenings far more pleasant. Bring water, sun protection, and bug spray for the creek holes. For a free, pretty, water-featured campus round with discs available to borrow, the Duck Pond is a lovely little course.