My buddies and I played this course first thing in the morning as a warm up to Winthrop but found ourselves really enjoying the challenges that Boyd Hill had to offer. The course started kind of slowly but the shots required, especially on the back 9, were tremendous.

This course is not in a very good area of town. I'm glad we played first thing in the morning before anyone else was awake (we were finished and gone before anyone else was on the course). Broken glass all over the course and clearly this park was not well maintained. It's really too bad considering some of the creativity that went into designing the holes

I wouldn't make a habit of playing this course, but it's worth a visit if you play with some friends for sure. I wouldn't recommend playing it as the sun goes down, but first thing in the morning as a start to a full day of disc golf is great. Get there early, enjoy the challenge, and get out!

What I personally like and how this course stacks up:
1) Holes with good risk/reward -- B+
2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities -- B+
3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography -- B+
4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion -- C
5) Bonus amount for multi-shot holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them -- N/A

It's all about feeding the addiction, so I ranked this course subjectively based on my own "personal addiction factor". The grades above tell how well the course will draw me back to itself again and again and again. Since I have played a decent number of courses (115 18-hole, 50 9-hole as of early 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar addiction tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they choose courses to play and explore.

Over time, I expect to fill some of my reviews in with more descriptive verbiage...if what I can add anything to what has already been written. For now, my list is more important to me than the verbiage of my reviews.

I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me....that's the fun of things here. See my profile for my rating philosophy.

Fun mixture of technical elements. The wooded areas are very tough. Holes aren't very long...an arm saver this close to Winthrop.

Backs up to the projects. Broken glass everywhere.

I concur that this is one to be played in groups and not solo.

-Course has open and wooded shots
-Many different lines
-great course for beginners because most holes are in the 250 ft range but can be challenging for more advanced players.
-The wooded terrain makes for a nice contrast to Winthrop which is only a couple of miles away
-the locals are very friendly and helpful
-new concrete teepads are great and are placed in better locations than the previous dirt pads
-Great use of the creek and mandos to provide some excellent risk/reward oppertunities.

-locals dont reccomend playing the course solo
-broken bottles are fairly common on the course
-A lot of the signs have been broken or vandalized

This is a very underrated course. Possibly due to its close proximity to Winthrop. The last time I played, the course appeared to be cleaned up a lot and I could tell that the local club has put a lot of effort in to making Boyd a great course. If the course was in a better area I would definitly rate it higher

Recently added concrete teepads have been a big improvement to this course. Very createful use of mandos, and nice use of elevation make this a fun course to play.

Would benefit from nice tee signs. Lots of litter on and around course.

Boyd Hill has some potential and the newly added teepads looks promising. If there is continued work done here the course could become quite nice.

Well established park with other amenities. Terrain variety.

Neglected course. Tee signs not up to date/standard. Trash. Broken glass, tetanus shot waiting to happen.

The setting is a nice park with the first holes on maintained lawn. After hole 4, the course plays across a small ravine with a creek in it, into a non-maintained, heavily treed, hilly area. Hole six has the most insane mando ive ever seen. A small opening between two trees right in front of the teepad. I think this is to keep you from going for the basket as the fairway goes back across the same ravine and the mando will force you to lay up to the ravine. You don't want to go into the ravine. After hole six the course has several tight wooded tee shots that are tough but fair. You can work on controlling your midrange drives on those holes. The course then plays back towards the front of the park where it is more open, but still with lots of foliage to deal with. Overall it's a fun course, you don't need to be a big arm thrower to do well here. Accuracy and playing casual rounds with your friends would be best for this course. In other words, its hard to take this course too seriously for the following reasons.
The overall course looks to be neglected for the most part. The tee signs need maintenance. I got lost several times, some tee signs are missing, others have a little arrow below the sign on the post, but even that doesn't help sometimes (hole 12/13). There are HUGE amounts of broken glass, don't wear flip flops. The glass tells me a lot of people play this course, so its pretty popular.
Its also popular with the homeless community, which starts to appear later in the day. Its probably not a good idea to be there later in the evening on your own.
There are a couple of issues with course design, such as trees being too close to the baskets, hole 16? has trees on 2 sides of the basket, two feet away from it.
Crazy mando on hole 6. Crossing fairways, I think, on holes twelve and five. I couldn't find teepad 12 so maybe this isnt the case.
With a little bit of TLC, this course could be better than it is, in its present condition. I enjoyed playing there but compared to what else is offered in the area, it would not be my first choice. i typically give higher ratings for courses that have the minimum - established teepads, teesigns, and real baskets. But the condition of the course keeps it from getting anything higher than a 2.5, if it was cleaned up and maintained this course could get a 3 rating easily.

I've sprinkled in some updates to reflect my round here in January '21. Boyd Hill has come a long way in the past several years.
- I probably hadn't played here in four or five years before my round in January '21. There have been tremendous strides taken to cleaning up the course and opening up some of the lines/fairways.
- If the course can maintain this level of cleanliness and clearing, it will be one of the best mid-range/intermediate level courses in the entire Charlotte area.
- Tremendous variety throughout. Course is based heavily around the creek that runs through the middle and the hills that roll down toward it. Course seemingly flows between open & wooded layouts, flat and terrained layouts, straight lines, doglegs, tight gaps and more generous fairways. The best attribute is the number of holes that seemingly have their own identity.
- Holes as simple as #3 and 4 play so much better when they're in a cleaned up park. #3 is a nice, 266-foot, slight dogleg right around & under several trees. #4 is most likely the most fun, throw a second disc shot on the course. Short, downhill 187-foot shot to a basket in front of the creek. Think Timmons #2 (Greenville) as a comp.
- I love the last six holes. There's a great variety of layouts and interesting hole placements. They're not overly difficult, but each one is uniquely different from the others. Great way to close the round.
- It's challenging for such a short course- 4600 feet total, only 1 hole over 400 ft.
- Lots of risk/reward birdie holes. #13 is a short downhill hole, with basket nestled between trees and drop-off to creek less than 20 feet behind. You can go for the pin and either land close for a birdie, or have shot roll away for a challenging up and down for par.
- Course uses every square inch of the park to squeeze in 18. No long walks between basket to next pin. It's good for getting in a quick round.

It is impressive that a full, enjoyable course was squeezed into this space. The downside is that it's extremely easy to land on another hole. My tee shot on #8 hit a tree and landed next to #9's tee. My tee shot on #11 sailed left and ended on #6's fairway; #14 ended on #3's fairway, and on #17, I ended near #15's basket. Point being, this course may not be as enjoyable when it's packed.
- As part of the crammed-in factor, you have tees right next to each other. You see this with #6 & #12, #8 & 10, and again with #13 & 16. It would be easy to not pay attention, and go directly from #5 to 13, or more likely, from #7 to 10.
- Better signage in places. Arrows pointing players to the next tee would be helpful on the few long and/or awkward transitions. I'm thinking from #2 to 3, from #4 to 5 (this one especially), and #17 to 18.
- Pay extra attention to tee shots on wooded holes, #6 & #8 - 11. Thick underbrush, and some TIGHT fairways present potential risk of losing discs.
- Hole #6 is a love/hate layout with it's double mando between two sets of trees. The first set of trees feels like it's directly off the end of the tee to the point I've cut my run-up short of the end of the tee box each time. You also have another double mando on #18, but that one has a more natural feel.
- Course has had issues with trash, especially in the back portion of the park. I'm leaving that as a con for now simply to point out it's been an issue for years, but hopefully has been addressed. It's also the reason for my review title.

This course has grown on me the more I've played. I didn't like it the first time or two I played it back in the late '00s. With my latest visit in January '21, it's taken a step up in my book in terms of its quality.
- My two favorite holes are both centered around/over/alongside the creek: #5 & 13. #5 is a relatively simple, slightly uphill 312 foot shot that goes over the creek. It's a scenic, enjoyable tee shot where you can just clear the creek while also having a birdie putt. This is essentially a reverse of #18, which has you throwing downhill towards the creek.
- As for #13, it's a nerve-testing, 164-foot downhill throwing to a basket five feet from a slight drop-off to the creek. The basket is placed between two cedar trees. You're most likely throwing a soft tee shot off the tee and begging for your disc to drop almost immediately.
- Highlighted by #13 and 14, the final six holes are really good. In terms of variety, it's an excellent offering of different wooded looks. Plenty of variety in all of them. #18 is a great closing hole. Another good risk/reward hole.
- I wrote this closing comment back in 2008: "Course has potential to be even better. If it was only a little bigger, and much cleaner, it'd be a solid course. Still, it's a great compliment to Winthrop and worth the 5 minute drive for a quick round."
- As of '21, this course has reached that potential. I don't think this course could play any better than it is right now, based upon its current layout. I initially rated it a 2.0, then bumped it up after a couple more visits. I've now bumped it up another half point to a 3.0.
- I think an argument can be made that this is now a more fun, more varied round of disc golf than Winthrop Lakefront. The only way to find out is to play them back-to-back and have a good day of throwing.

Beginning of the course seemed pretty promising. The entire course was pretty challenging.

Short; very dirt with litter and broken bottles. Many of the holes were cramped together and jammed up against thick brush covering a creek bed. One mistake and you'll be looking for your disc for a while.

this course was okay but needs a clean up and would be better if it had a little more space.