Pros:
Casper's DGC is tucked away behind the bike path that meanders along the North Platte River. The river itself never comes into play, but the natural vegetation forms a fun maze of cottonwoods, shallow ponds and high-country cactus. As a big fan of courses not set in a city park, I appreciate this slice of Wyoming rolling prairie and river setting. Numbers seven through nine in my opinion are the crown jewel of the course, they utilize the northern hill, bringing elevation and therefore vistas into play.
All of the teeboxes are paved except for numbers eight and nine, probably because of the difficulty of getting a cement truck up there. It is hard enough to drag your own butt up there, making the fact that they laid garden stones for the number nine tee-box an impressive feat. Every hole has four pin locations and signage that shows the location and distance for the locations. There are arrows on most baskets that direct you to the next box. The alternate pin locations are key here because every hole can either be a short birdie or a long, "count yourself lucky if you make par" hole. If the locations are changed often than this course would take a long time to get old.
The view from nine is great, you see the city and the mountains. Other stand-out holes include; number five which plays over a shallow pond with noisy frogs, and number thirteen that played alongside the base of a hill that had antelope on my visit. The pin locations were all near some interesting obstacle.
Cons:
Outside of seven through nine, the course felt like a dizzying maze of the same big arm and around a tree shot. I think though, with all the different directions you face it can make for a decent wind course as well.
You have to be up for the climbs on seven, and eight if you miss, as well as the steep climb down nine, but the downhill tee shot on nine is worth it. A player would be wise to have water. It was muddy on the day I played. The signs were missing on numbers three and fourteen. The arrow on the basket number two lead me in the wrong direction and it took a little work to get back on course. Many of the basket arrows seemed misplaced, but the tee signs also display the location of the next box so it doesn't take much work to figure out. The place could use more sitting places, either logs or benches. It is long and I got tired in a few spots. It would have been super cool to kick back on number nine.
Other Thoughts:
It was a little bit hard to find but have no fear, the directions are solid, its just the park roads are so narrow and somewhat confusing. The park which is really just thirty yards from number one, has bathrooms. I'm very glad I made the trip. Even though I know I'm allergic, I wish I could have been in Casper on a day that the trees are in bloom.