Pros:
Remote, private, and scenic beauty.
Great mix of long/short, uphill/downhill/crosshill, and left/right/straight and multiple route holes. Although the course is entirely wooded, there was also a good mix of very tight holes (or shot shaping holes) and more open routes w/o trees midfairway (just lining the edges).
There is a lot of neat and drastic elevation here. Plenty of rolling ridges for fairways, and a steep ravine played on both sides of the creek which is utilized for sharp uphill and downhill, as well as risky greens and light downhill touch shots.
Memorable holes galore. You'll step up to many tees, think wow!, and they scratch your head thinking about how you want to tackle the monster in front of you.
#3 is a picturesque slight downhill over a creek and then a left hand fade back uphill to the pin. Good distance too. This is an excellent layout and picturesque design of a great disc golf hole!
#4 plays along a ridge on the left and has a GREAT risky pin on the edge of the ridge.
#6 has a little OB swampy area right near the green in line with a RHBH tee shot (if you make the tee shot amongst all the midfairway trees!).
#7 allows a long drawn out anny (RHBH) from an elevated tee, over a gulley, and back up a ridge to a pin tucked away at a distance that could be aceable, yet all the midfairway trees are definitely there as knockdown contenders. This is another excellent layout and picturesque design of a disc golf hole.
#11 is a 367' monster hole along a ridge with thick pines on the right and a dropoff along the entire left side.
#12 is uphill along that ridge parallel with #11. Good large trees require shot shaping.
#13 is a picturesque downhill touch shot and over a creek. Nice elevation change and nice and tight for a touch downhill midrange, but it could be opened up a bit more removing one tree on the left.
#14 is an uphill hyzer with a wonderfully sloped green (I shanked a drive and then 4 putted due to 3 rollaways and took a 7!).
#15 is another nice downhill touch shot. 200' long, 50' elevation!
#16 is an amazing looking disc golf hole. It offers multiple routes, uphill to a sloped green. There is a huge pine on the left that frames up a lot of shots. There are scattered midfairway trees all around for various S-curve routes. This is yet another excellent layout and picturesque design of a disc golf hole.
Holes 13-18 offer a great back and forth across a ravine down into the creek valley, alternating between sharp uphill and sharp downhill shots.
Next tee signs are all over the place.
Trash cans are a pro only because I commend the effort of the private owner. But seriously, why can't you pack out your trash, you packed it in! Does a empty can of bud light weight more than the full one you brought in?!
Cons:
AWFUL tees!! I read that other people complained about the tees, and saw what the old style tees must've been like based on the short tees out there. But now the long tees are framed up boxes of pea gravel! And they are 8' long! They are also not at grade (sitting on top of grade), so you can't even start from behind, or overstep on your release. They are just plain awful! Please, please, please, please, please, I beg you to halt your efforts and buy some 12' lumber. I'm so serious about this I'd consider making a donation so that you don't have a private course that no one wants to play. The terrain is so rugged too, that you can't tee off from the sides in most instances. And don't use pea gravel unless you're going to mix in some bags of concrete with them. Get them flush with the round if you're gonna keep them 8', but that's a LOT of work unless you have a skidsteer or tractor, so go with 12' long sides!!! PM me, seriously, 36 twelve foot long 2x4's aren't that much. I'd consider sponsorship and recognition for the donation of the boards. The back 9 tees aren't completed fully, PLEASE HOLD and make them longer!
Just one pin position, but alternates would not add much because the pins here are well protected, risky, and at good mix of distances. I love protected and risky greens that make you be on your game throughout the hole, not just off the tee and then straight, open, and level putting.
The baskets are single layer chain DB5's but I thought they caught just fine.
Cty W seems to be very highly traveled around 4-5pm. Must be a route for local commuters because holes 1-4 and 16-18 were pretty loud with road noise.
Playing mid summer may be brutal. In November the bright colored discs were easy to find.
Other Thoughts:
Seriously the short framed in pea gravel tees are probably much worse than before. I honestly think I could have thrown 9 strokes better. It sounds high, but I jammed my foot against the front board on nearly every other hole. I'm sure the others I just stopped short and then yanked my drive. And on almost all drives, my second step wasn't firm due to the pea gravel (3 step approach). Dig the tees out to be level with grade, cut out roots, and just install some crusher dust (road base). This is my advice to all up and coming courses. The road base is an excellent surface once compacted, and is very cheap! All in all, it's a 100% wooded course, in a remote area, that is quiet, scenic and beautiful. Considering Jack Lake, Treehaven, and Buck Lake are all the same type of courses (solid 3-disc mainly wooded courses), you could make a trip out of these 4 to make it worth your while. IMO this course is awesome! But the tees suck! The terrain, remote setting, great designed holes, risky greens, risky fairways, wooded goodness, and private course dedication make it very fun and introduce a sense of wanting to play. There are so many memorable holes, I think I took notes and wanted to describe almost 75% of them. I WISH I had my camera - but I'll leave it up to the local love to get some good spring and fall pictures. I want to give this course a 4 because it has such amazing and disc golf creative terrain, and the design utilizes it to its fullest with good thought, good required shot shaping, and great balance. It won't get a 4.5 unless it adds more holes to make it worth the trip to play alone and adds a pond or some other element of OB and shot shaping. It won't get a 4.5 with 18 holes because the variety is just not there. It's 100% wooded only, and not really any water hazards or other OB. The tees really take this course down a bunch in my mind. I hate to see the effort (time and money) wasted on what will probably be an even worse tee solution than the previous natural tees!!
There is a cool snowmobile route through the property.
UPDATE: I played in July 2011 and the long tees now have concrete. They were built above grade and the surrounding grade was brought up pretty flush with gravel held in by logs and stones. The pads are still only 8' long, but for a private course, saving 50% on your tee costs by going with 8' instead of 12' is huge. The course played MUCH more fun with decent footing, even though the bugs were bad and foliage made it look and play WAY tighter than last November. The rough in summer is very dense and green, but despite us being off fairway may times, we lost no discs. Upping my rating to a 4.0, which is the maximum I think this course can get in my opinion just because it lacks complete variety with ponds, other water, OB, wide open rippers, par 4/5, and a huge downhill bomber. This is a Fun Factor course to play! Enjoy it with a trip just a bit further to Iron River to play the Tailings (you'll love the beatdown challenge)!