Pros:
(2.377 Rating) A typical University style course that has well maintained grounds, but not a well maintained set of disc golf basic amenities.
- HOLES (1 - 9) - IMO, the best part of this course. Several tunnel shot, pocket shots and uphill and downhill shots. Hole (8) is gushingly gorgeous with its series in mini hills leading to a tunnel framed basket. Hole (7) is another really cool moving tunnel shot with the basket placed on top of a 10 foot high mound.
- UNIQUENESS - Above average. A really nice hole length separation from sub 200 to beyond 500 feet. Several 20 foot and plus elevation plays, something I was not expecting in Montgomery. The tree coverage mixture is really good as well. Everything from completely open to heavily wooded. The one major missing element is water, although some may say this is a blessing. Also, not sure if there are any par 4s or 5s as I couldn't find anything to say one way or another. Hole (22) may fit the bill as a par 4. The hole is well guarded at the basket and it's over 500 feet and it has OB on the left side. I went ahead and updated the blank DGCR hole data to indicate this hole as a par 4.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - A touch above average. Holes (1-9) are the bread winners out here. There are a lot of blandish open plays from about hole (10) on. However, the fact that the open school grounds are so well kept, mowed and landscaped, it doesn't detract the entire beauty enough to bring the course to below average.
- SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY - This course manages to find the perfect middle ground between too easy and too hard. The skills required should allow a nice challenge for intermediate players and also fair enough for rec players, These two groups make up the largest portion of the disc golf community.
Cons:
This course needs a lot of TLC to shine once more.
- TEES - I have never played on such a wide diversity of teeing surfaces on one course. Concrete, asphalt, carpet, artificial turf, dirt and grass. I think concrete was the most common surface but it was at less than half of the holes. I was unable to locate tee (22) according to the map so I played it at the closest tracked down grassy area. Some of the tees use existing sidewalks and are extremely short. For example, (13) tee is played perpendicular to the sidewalk, so I only had 5 feet to work with.
- NAVIGATION - Not having a printed map or one downloaded to a phone is a bad idea. I was constantly checking my phone to see where to go. Lots of missing signage (see cons signage below) and navigational cues were spotty. Some baskets had arrows but an equal amount did not. The woodsy part of the layout had a few directional signs and intuitive paths and it was the easiest part of the layout to follow IMO.
- SIGNAGE - Tee signs were only present on 9 or 10 holes and they appeared to be several different versions. The first nine holes were the most complete but after that I only saw a few more. A couple signs towards the end of the layout had numbers on them that didn't match the online course map. I did not see a course map posted on site although I may have missed it in my haste and also due to my start on (11).
- CHARACTER - In addition to poor tees and signage, the course doesn't have the extras and comfort items like that seen on established courses. No seating, no practice basket, no shelter, no alternate basket placements and the quality of the baskets will be questioned by many traveling players. There are a few multi- tees in the woods, but the surfaces are natural.
- TIME PLAY - I was running between holes and this one still took me over an hour. First time solo players will need at least 5 to 10 minutes of recon time due to the navigational issues stated above. Figure a four sum out here will take 2 1/2 to 3 hours to finish a round.
- LACK OF ADVANCED LEVEL CHALLENGE - Note, I rated the difficulty of this course as a 22 hole par 67. It reads as upper rec level where an 885 rated player should average course par. There are a few Blue tees located in the woods that offer a couple longer challenging woods plays. On the flipside, there are even more sub 300 foot opens plays. Shot shaping is required on only a handful of throws.
- MULTI USE HAZARDS - Several holes play along and across walking paths. Hole (2) plays along a moderately used road. A few holes bring into play a multi-use soccer field. Hole (11) plays adjacent to a parking lot.
Other Thoughts:
A mixed bag of a course that appears to be top dog in town. (There is only one other course in Montgomery). There were definitely some things I liked about this course, especially holes (4) thru (8), but after that there were way too many plays that were either completely open or with light obstacles requiring little to no thought. A redesign of a substantial portion of the course with more holes using the underutilized wooded area to the left of tee (5) as well as an upgraded amenities package, could easily have me considering a 3 or even 3.5.