The wooded holes are short but fun. Hole 2 involves a bit of luck but overall they're tight and technical. The ones out in the field are obviously wide open and there's room for a relatively long drive on a couple of them. (Well, long for me anyway.) Having both wooded and open is nice. Good for beginners.

The tees are not marked at all! I used to play it frequently so I was able to go on memory, but someone new would be hopelessly lost. The numbers on the baskets are wrong so there's no way you could possibly figure it out. Even the map on discithaca.com is out of date. (2 and 3 go around the opposite side of the big gray thing.) Doesn't anyone play here anymore? It deserves to be marked when the college kids return.

This course has sentimental value for me because it's the one I cut my teeth on several years ago. It's great for beginners and short enough that you can play a whole round without sinking a lot of time into it. It's within walking distance of the Hoy Road entrance to Cornell. My home used to be Rhodes Hall/Upson Hall so I would walk to the course all the time. The course is in desperate need of tee markers and correct hole numbers on the baskets.

This course is great for practicing a variety of shots. If you ignore the standard tee boxes, you can artificially lengthen the holes and create more of challenge for the shots in your arsenal.

It's also on school property, so the area is well kept. Families will enjoy the length of the course (9 holes) and the setting, while better players will appreciate the opportunity to work on a few shots absent the crowding and pressures of a full course.

Not a lot of room to work with. That, and the fact that the course was designed for school students makes Belle Sherman fairly limited in scope. Holes are very short, and there's only 9 to work with rather than the full 18.

Veterans won't likely enjoy Belle Sherman for anything other than the occasional warm-up or practice round.

Chances are, you're coming here to practice, not to play. For that purpose, the variety of holes is fairly ideal, although a most are a bit short for bigger and better players. This is easily remedied if you're willing to move around a bit and get creative.

Because I don't really view this as a "course" per se, the rating is low. It's not likely you'll want to make a trip here from out of town, but if your living in Ithaca it's a convenient place to work on your game.