- Most holes have dual artificial turf tee pads
- Multiple pins and tees per most holes
- Benches at every hole
- - Challenging design, nice assortment of sloped fairways
- Great navigational signs between holes
- Numbered tee signs with distances to the pin
- Clearly defined fairways
- Well maintained grounds
- Clean outhouses
- Covered picnic tables on location
- Camping availible

- Hole 18 finishes nowhere near hole 1
- Hole 17 is prone to flooding
- Too many blind tee ahots
- LHBH favorable design
- The rough can be extremely punishing, thorny
- Mandatory pass
- Course flow can be difficult to navigate for players unfamiliar with the course
- Some wooded fairways have unrealistic poke and hope paths to the pin
- Tons of tics in the warmer months, check after every hole

Anderson Pond features a challenging mix of wooded and open holes located within a military recreation area. Each hole has three tee pads: red (beginner), white (intermediate/advanced), and blue (advanced). Additionally each fairway has 2 baskets to shoot at. Silver Mach 3s (shorts) and Innova Pro 28s (longs).

Honesty, there's a bit of everything at Anderson. Most fairways use some type of ascending or descending shot, which is rare for Florida. It also does a nice job shot shaping the open holes. The woods are the only place where Anderson sort of trips over itself. Some wooded holes are either too narrow or the tee orientations reward luck over skill, which is unfortunate. It's nothing that couldn't be fixed in an afternoon with a chainsaw, though. I'd like to eventually see artificial turf tees for red tees, as well. Aside from that, you're looking at one of the most diverse courses in the entire state. Between red/white/blue tees and silver/golf tees there aren't many types of throws you won't attempt by the time you're finished playing Anderson. Great job, Mark Mahaffey and Carol Strouse!

(3.350 Rating) (RE-EVALUATED) A course with a mix of wooded and lightly wooded holes. This course has gotten a lot upgrades in the last 2 years, so I felt the need to update my review.
- DUEL PINS AND MULTIPLE TEES - A Pro 28 and Mach III is planted on each hole. IMO, a two basket and multi tee set-up will make any course better as long as everything is spelled out in the signage. The long placement is a newer Innova basket and an older MachIII is used for the short basket. This setup allows for a lot of options on each hole.
- CHALLENGING - The whole layout was updated in 2017 and is much more challenging than the reviews allude to prior to that date. Nearly 2,000 feet in length has been added to the layout since then. Some holes it's just a little, but other holes have been lengthened by well over a hundred feet. The Blue tees to gold basket combo should appeal to Advanced level players. In addition, there are still a lot of tight lines to hit. Most of them are fair lines, but a few lean too much on luck factor. (see cons forgiveness)
- SHOT SHAPING - I appreciated the amount of thought I had to put into my throws. Some courses you'll play, any disc or angle will do on many holes. Not the case here at Anderson pond.
- UPGRADED TEES - Recently updated to turf tees for the White and Blue layouts. The red tees are natural and marked with a red paver.
- CHARACTER - In addition to the upgraded tees, other course equipment items include seating at every hole, a practice basket, finishing shelter with picnic tables and satisfactory navigational directions. There is also a good amount tee shading.
- ELEVATION FOR FLORIDA - Compared to the 112 Florida courses that I've played as of this review revision, Anderson is roughly in the top 10% in terms of elevation usage for Florida. There are probably 7 or 8 holes that change 20 feet or so, up or down. None of the nearby course have anything close to this. This said however, there are probably a few parts of the country that would still consider this course flat.
- UNIQUENESS - A touch above average. In addition to the elevation, there are tunnel shots, a couple openish shots and baskets pocket both ways. Water can also be in play in the wetter months as well. All this stated, many of the holes have muddled together in my memory as it's mostly technical wooded shots with similar surrounding elements. In addition there are no par 5's and the course lacks a true dogleg placement hole.
- SPACING - Superbly spaced out holes with no chance of running one into another fairway. The walk between holes however is sometimes bothersome. The journey between hole (9) to (10) is about 500 feet.
- RAW BEAUTY - The natural elements here top every nearby course. There are marsh lands, older pines, scenic terrain changes, great fauna and minimal manmade features in view. Until I played here, I had considered Ferry to be the mirco-region's most beautiful course setting.
- LOCATION - less than a 5 mile drive from two other courses (Boggy and Valparaiso) so a good opportunity to extend an afternoon and bag all 3 courses. In addition, only a 15 minute drive from I10.

Anderson is not for everyone's taste. I could see beginning players and momma's boys hating this course.
- FORGIVENESS - Having an off accuracy day here will be quite punishing. Not the tightest course around but when you get off fairway the terrain will start to eat you up. In addition there are a few holes that are boarder-line poke and hope shots. Hole (1) from the white tee is plainly unfair. It's one of those holes that you can clearly read the 6 foot lane but they left one 6" tree in the middle of the already tight lane 150 feet down fairway, on a 300 foot hole. I personally refer to this type of hole as the "Middle Finger"
- OVERGROWTH - I played here in early March before the vegetation re-growth exploded and still found myself searching. If you plan to play this course in the summer near the peak overgrowth period, you may end up leaving a few disks behind as well taking home a few cuts.
- NOT BEGINNER FRIENDLY - Too difficult for newer players. I could also see players that have bombed their way to higher player rating also not liking this course.
- FINDING THE FRONT NINE - Don't take the first left after entering the park. You'll find only the back 9 and promptly get lost trying to find (1). Take the second left after entering the park to find (1). Locals apparently start on (10).
- CHILL AREAS - This is Federal Land. No alcohol and other extracurricular activities, or you might end up in jail. They don't mess around here.
- PAY TO PLAY - You'll need to get a permit to play here. The Cost was $20 for the year and $5 for the day in 2020. I personally thought it was worth the price of admission.

I consider Anderson to be the premier course for the area. If you haven't played here in a while, you'll be surprised by all the upgrades. IMO Anderson is the most well designed and most thought provoking course in the Destin Fort Walton Beach area.
- PERMIT - You can purchase a permit at Jackson Guard (aka Eglin AFB Natural Resources), which is located about 3 miles further south of the course, on FL-85. The process takes about 20 minutes. They are closed Sunday.

Living in Florida there are very few hilly courses, so this course is a great change of pace. The natural Florida wilderness is a sight to behold. There are NO walkers, joggers, workout stations. The tee shot from hole #17 is pretty cool.

Natural tees that are pretty worn. Mowing of the fairways is few and far between. And being a "natural" course bring bug spray. expect bugs.

Good signage to direct from one hole to the next tee. Easy to find discs off the fairways. Good mix of wide and narrow fairways mixed with some straight but also dog legs left and right. Nice use of elevation changes. Good distance for amateurs. Beautiful scenery and not at all crowded on the three days we have been there.

Signs just indicate hole number, not distances. Fairly long walks between some holes and the next tee (seems like that could have added some length to the holes). "Path" from 17th tee needs some work (either add stairs down or clear a path on the left or right side down a less steep slope). Pay to play, make sure you plan ahead to get your pass from Jackson Guard (closed Sat afternoon and all day Sunday).

Once the concrete tees are in (and if they make a clear path from the 17th tee down to the fairway) I would give it a 4. We're so glad to finally have a course on this side of Eglin because it seemed liked every time we made the drive to Ferry Park it was so crowded. We navigated the whole course with a jogging stroller but anything with smaller wheels would not make it since the ground is still so uneven from being recently cleared. We did have to take the long way around on 17 by going to the 18th hole and walking back to the 17th fairway.

Not as hard as it looks. Allows for some variations of shots. You can play a hole different ways. Easy to spot discs that go off paths. Elevation gives it more of a challenge. Signs are very helpful.

Work in progress. Needs tee boxes. Hole 17 could use a sign to show how to get to the fairway after disc is thrown from the tee.

Nice change of pace from playing the other courses in the area. Very fun to play.