I've been wanting to play the Castle for some time now and finally had a chance to last year. I wasn't disappointed, an excellent, well taken care of course that challenges your game many ways.
The baskets are all in good shape, the large concrete tee pads were great and the tee signs were excellent. Especially playing your first time, it was great having the hole layout on the tee sign, since the woods are thick and there are some blind tee shots, its great knowing where you are going.
Has holes going left and right (including the short Hyzer #2 and short Annie #9), and down and up on the front nine. #7 starts with a tunnel drive, then finishes downhill to the basket. #8 starts with an uphill bending drive, then this massive Par 5 finishes slightly downhill.
The back nine places a premium on drive placement, #12 is a 90 degree right turn after your drive, place your drive in the right spot, then follow the narrow fairway to the basket on the right on this Par 5. #17 is a dual fairway Par 4, choose your path to play this hole well.
Very little interference with non-DGers in this park. Most of the way around, you get the feel that you are the only one there.
Benches on most holes and nice restrooms at the start, near the playground.

A new park road has cut into #4, #5 and possibly #6. But these are still very good holes that don't give you a breather.
Additional dual tee pads would probably make this more playable for less skilled players. But with nearby Arrowhead and Joe Eakes, there are other options.

I can see why this is one of the higher rated NC courses. Not a lot of elevation change, but what there is here, is used very effectively. It is a wooded course, but most of the fairways are fair, without being punishing. Plus, you can tell the local club takes good care of this course.
Even though it's long, for a wooded course, at 6500'+ there are some short ace runs on 2,9 and 16.
This course gets enough play that I don't recall a lot of time searching for discs when in the rough. Most are worn in pretty well.
It was a lot of fun to play this in the afternoon after a beach trip with the family. The woods keep the sun off of you. Definitely the must play for any DGer in the Wilmington area.

Located in the middle of an absolutely beautiful park.
Plenty of Parking
Bathrooms located near tee pad for #1.
Great selection of holes throughout the course. Not tons of elevation but there are several semi-open holes and countless wooded holes that provide wicked technical difficulty.
Signage was pretty good and distances and pin positions were very accurate. (Hole 3 was under some construction while I was there however)
Concrete Teepads were in great shape and baskets were accurately marked.

Bring a map the first time you play. Navigating can be a slight challenge the first time.
(I played this twice while on vacation and by the second round I had no issue)

This course was really fun even though it kicked my butt. Not a course I would recommend taking a extremely new player to as it can be discouraging, but for those who have played some other courses this will challenge you and force to you learn your discs a bit better and expand on the throws you use. The length on some of these holes will benefit you if you have a bomb of an arm.

I had a tough time settling on a rating for Castle Hayne. It's a legendary course, and it's easy to see why it's rated as highly as it is: amazing hole designs, beautiful setting, challenging wooded holes, but wide fairways. It also has par 4's and 5's, holes with landing areas and sharp doglegs, blind tee shots. It's got it all.

Unfortunately, it's facing serious growth challenges. Namely, the powers that be pulled a couple holes to accommodate park expansion. I was told by a local that they installed a couple of temp holes to make a full 18, but I missed one of them. The navigation wasn't clear. Also, there are trucks and construction equipment going in and out of the park, lots of mud and muck.

I say all of this to explain why I had a hard time settling on a rating. I played Castle Hayne 4 years ago (didn't rate it then) and think it was deserving of its 4.25 rating. I would have given it a 4.5. Today when I played it, there was standing water and mud EVERYWHERE, plus the construction and navigation issues mentioned above. It probably deserves a 3.5 as of today, but I just couldn't bring myself to rate it lower than a 4.0. Call it a brand name bump.

Castle Hayne is just a classic. Anyone passing through the Wilmington area should play it. It's a little bittersweet--you can tell it's not as great as it once was--but I hope and expect they will figure out the park construction issues and make improvements. Regardless, it's a solid course and players of all skill levels will enjoy it.

Pros:
1. Very challenging
2. Beautiful and well maintained
3. Good facilities
4. Tons of variety
5. True par 4's and 5's
6. Nice big tee pads
7. Good signage for each hole

I mentioned the cons above:

1. Bad drainage issues
2. 3 holes knocked out by construction, 2-3 temp holes added back, but not intuitive to navigate

Castle Hayne is a true North Carolina classic. It's facing development challenges now, but is still a very good course and I expect it will be a truly great course again soon.

Castle Hayne is legendary throughout the southeast for good reason. This is a very well-designed course that offers a great balance of fun and challenge and makes the most of the land given. The amenities are great here with plenty of parking space, a practice basket, local club information, and bathrooms. Plenty of benches and trash cans as well.

For much of the course, scoring well means being able to throw long, accurate lines, dodging many trees in the process. While it plays in the same kind of wooded setting throughout the entire round, you will get to experience many different holes and shots.

There is a great variety of long holes that force you to hit landing zones as well as holes that give you a chance to reach the green from the tee. There are holes that force you to hit a specific lane and many holes where you can to choose from multiple lanes.

The best quality of Castle Hayne is that it forces you to think on every shot and you will use a lot of different discs in your bag in the process. Drives, upshots, and approaches must be carefully calculated in order to hit tight windows. Drop offs on the side of 7 and 12's fairways make staying on the fairway critical.

There are some unique holes here that you won't experience elsewhere. 12 forces you to weave through many trees where you have to land straight in front of the tee to hit the landing zone before you make a 90 degree turn to the right. You then play through a tight alley to a well-protected pin.

There are a lot of little things that make this a special course, extra work that helps the course achieve its maximum potential. Hole 5 was dug 4-5 feet into the ground that really changed the shot and caused you to throw higher than normal. Sadly, that hole is no longer part of the course and I enjoyed being able to play it while it was still around. Mandos offered on some of the shorter holes (2 and 9) also help give the course diversity. Creeks come into play a few times, both running through and alongside the fairway.

Navigation is absurdly easy for the most part. The course conveniently loops back to the parking lot and bathrooms after the front 9, and you're never too far from your car.

Very well taken care of with cleared fairways and limited rough. You can tell a lot of work has been put into the course in order to make it visually appealing, technical, and fair. The tee signs, tees, and baskets are in great shape with the tees being very long and comfortable.

I think the biggest detractor of playing here is that you are throwing on dead flat land for most of the round. Efforts have been made to give some elevation change, but you can only do so much when you are this close to the coast.

Finding hole 10 isn't obvious for first-timers. While there is a sign on the edge of the woods where 10 is, you have to know to walk past the bathrooms and cut through the center of the park to get to the opposite side to find it. Luckily, there should be plenty of people to ask.

This is one of the more crowded courses that I've played, even on a weekday morning. I assume it's usually that crowded and then some due to its popularity. Be prepared to wait on some holes.

Tees for 4 and 6 play very close together, there is a sign telling you to wait until the other group is done.

Personal preference: It would help to have some holes that were in a little different of a setting, maybe a few more that play from open into the woods and vice versa. Still, the design is awesome with the setting that it's in.

Now, this review may be a little bit dated as I played the original 18 before some of the holes were closed due to construction. While this will be a temporary problem, it's great that they will eventually expand the course and shows the vision of the local club. I really enjoyed my round and would love to play here again. This is definitely a course that blends well together, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I'd give it a 4.25 if I could, very close to being a 4.5.

-Signage
-balance of enjoyment/difficulty
-unique holes
-elevation changes
-beauty/atmosphere
-huge tees
-few (if any) similar holes

*Note that all cons listed below are only listed because there is nothing awful about this course, and I'm nitpicking*
-only one set of tees.
-moving between holes can be slightly confusing (maybe 2-3 possible issues)
-tees for 4/6 are so close as to require a sign to let another group finish teeing before your group begins.

No water fountain. That's not really a con since many courses don't have it, but if you're reading the reviews you're probably on vacation, so it's probably hot, which means you should take some high quality H2O to drink.

Great course. This is a high 4 for me. I've still yet to find a course I'll rate a 4.5, but this is probably tied with Beaver Ranch/Conifer Park in the Rockies as the best two courses I've played. I think there is a way to improve this course to make it a 4.5 by making the putting areas more interesting. Add in a man-made sand dune or a hole here and there on each "green", and it would take this course to the next level.

Castle Hayne. The name says it all. The lore of this place precedes it before even stepping foot onto the course. Another Harold Duvall beauty that the NC coast deserved!

Now that that's out of the way, let's dig down into the details. Upon arriving at the park you'll find the beauty of the place inspiring. It's located a stone's throw from the beach but you could be fooled into thinking you're hundreds of miles away.

The park is very well maintained with bathrooms and other park amenities at the park center. Driving past hole one (and seeing hole 10 perched up overlooking the fork in the road) has a way of building you up for the upcoming round.

The course is technically challenging. Most holes are heavily wooded with tight fairways to traverse. There were many right/left/straight shots, however the vast majority were pretty long (standard Duvall affair, not a bad thing in my opinion). So for those looking for a short shot here and there, there aren't many to be had here.(Head up the road to Arrowhead park)

The signs are well made and there aren't any major hiccups with navigation, apart from finding hole 10. The front and the back 9 both come back to the center of the park, allowing you to easily start on the back.

Challenge! This course will require your game to be on its best. Like I stated previously, there aren't many places to air one out, but if you can snap off a long drive that is also very precise, you'll be greatly rewarded! Am's might find the challenging aspect frustrating at times, but it should inspire them to improve their skills. Hole 12 is a unique little devil. Rip a drive, but not too far or you'll go in the creek. Then rip another drive down the fairway, parallel to the creek and hope you don't dive left. Then finish back up to the right (yes, that's a U shape) for a challenging and unique hole. I like to think of it as the moat for the Castle [Hayne]. Luckily I was able to grab a 3 on this hole but others are not so lucky I'm sure.

Despite being heavily wooded, the course doesn't seem to have many trouble spots for losing discs. If you find yourself really far off the fairway it is certainly possible, but probably fairly rare. The water hazard on 12 is sure to have claimed some plastic over the years, but what's a good course without the fear of drowning?!

One unique thing that Castle Hayne has that I had never seen before were fairway distance markers. You'll see these all day long on a ball golf course, colored spikes in the ground in the middle of the fairway to mark the remaining distance to the hole(basket), but this is the first I've seen in the dg world. Not sure what the overall consensus is regarding these but I thought they were pretty neat.

There is virtually zero elevation change, but we are at the beach after all, so you can't really fault the designer for not incorporating any, it simply doesn't exist. Nevertheless, a con compared to courses nationwide.

There is also a lack many open holes. Apart from hole 1, which still has ample amounts of trees to hit, every hole requires a precise wooded shot in some manner. Hole 18 is mostly open, but starts and finishes in a wooded alcove. If you're looking for a good mix of open and wooded, you won't find it here.

The biggest con for me was the time in which I played it. We played after a brief thunderstorm (which is sure to occur often at the beach) and nearly all of the fairways on the back 9 were unplayable. I say unplayable, but we played them. What I should have said was, you won't come out of the woods very dry! The course holds water like you wouldn't believe. Several of the holes had standing pools across a 50-60 ft fairway. I only played once and this may indeed be a rare occurrence, however I'm free to speculate that a course at the beach is bound to get a lot of rain and in the case of Castle Hayne, this doesn't bode well for a dry round...

Pros should (and do) enjoy this course. It requires the utmost precision on most holes in order to post a good round. Amateurs will love it for the challenge as well, but please have this in mind when going to play for the first time.

It's easily the best in the area and conveniently located to Wilmington and the beach. You shouldn't hesitate to play this course, and even drive out of the way to play it if necessary, but I'd advise trying to time it for a dry spell or you'll need to bring some rain boots and maybe a snorkel! (This is a slight hyperbole)

Challenging. Very well kept up course. Great baskets. Fun holes

Tee pads were a little short. Killer spiders everywhere. Very small window in which to drive through.

The woods off the fairways are as thick as i have ever seen. Very tough if you do not drive well. Lots of right turn holes on the back 9.

Huge clear fairways
Distinct gravel tees
Color signs for each hole
Located in a beautiful park
Holes stay away from the populated park areas
Well maintained and cleaned
There is a sign close to the bathrooms. For sure read this before you play for your first time. Has the map so you know where you're going.

Buggy
The woods are not forgiving and it's hard to come back from a bad hole.
The front nine and the back nine are split and can be hard to locate your first time here.

Definitely more of a professional course. I think I do worse every time I play this course. Difficult but possible. Even though I suck at this course, I know that this is a VERY NICE course.

Concrete tee pads
Accurate signage
Well maintained, not much trash, good number of trash cans
Good mix of lefts and rights, tight and open fairways
Most holes are pretty long, good for power players
Tough course, but pretty fair pars
Alternate basket locations switched out every few weeks
Nice locals
Monthly doubles by local club
Baskets in great condition
Front 9 and back 9 end at the parking lot

Can be crowded at times, especially when larger groups play (though course limit is 5 players to a group) and on the weekends
Tough course for players without much range

Overall I love this course and it is by far my most played course.
Difficult course even for experienced players, but doable and rewarding pars
Wish it was closer in to town, but I can only imagine how much more crowded it would be.
A little more elevation change would be great, but you can't ask for much being near the coast.

love the lay out of the course
love the lack of underbrush
love the tee boxes
love the elevated target on 10
well marked trails
not a lot of crossover

moderate walk from 9 to 10
gets hot easy
some holes pose a real challenge if you get into trouble, but thats not necessarily a con
very lefty

the highest rating ive given of a course ive played so far. had an ace run on one and nine on my first time playing. nothing like the courses ive played in ohio. i loved it. the layout is a great challenge for rightys, and you need a strong forehand/anhyzer to make your scores low.

- A true test of all skill levels.
- Par in the mid 60's
- Great mix of holes - all the way from a simple 200 footer to a double dogleg 800 footer
- Great tee signs and tee pads
- Ball golf layout where 9 and 18 finish at the parking lot.
- Great, safe public park
- Very fair course

- One layout really - no junior / shorter tees
- Takes a while to play - no quick rounds here.
- A bit lefty / sidearm friendly.
- A few tweener holes where you don't have a lot of score seperation
- No elevation, which is due to being near the beach
- Course is kinda dirty - it's a sandy part of the state and you can easily get very dirty playing the course
- The course has a few holes that will flood after lots of rain

So many times in disc golf, a course with a par in the mid 60's favor's throwing far. Not even close to the case with this one. Placement is the key here and there are many par 4's where you throw a midrange to a turn and then throw another midrange to the turn. I think this is a VERY women / senior friendly course because it really is about the ability to throw 250 feet to a spot rather than ripping a drive across an open area. If you love tough courses but don't have a big arm, this will be your favorite course.

An absolute must play. And close to the beach. Makes for a great weekend trip.

This is the first course I play and the layout was great. The front 9 is easier then the back. As my skill gets better I enjoy playing the back 9 as much as the front 9. The local clubs keep this course in tip top shape.

If it rains a lot the course does not drain well.

A great place to learn the game and meet new friends.

Very easy to navigate. Nicely groomed. challenging, but easy enough to enjoy it.

Very tight fairway's, sometimes you have a pretty good wait. easy to loose a disc on some holes

Over all the best course ive played yet

course is in a nicely kept park, there was practicaaly no trash to speak of on the course. trashcans and benches were on every hole. nice tee pads, every hole offered a specefic shot to be executed. the par 4 holes were pretty legitimate holes.

if this course had more elevation it would have gotten i higher rating. it was pretty flat. the chainstar baskets were not to my liking. i had more dead center spit outs at castle hayne than any course i can remeber. also from a distance the baskets were hard too spot

i would say this course is rated so high due to the fact that there isnt really anything else around. it averages a 4.5 but i can think of at least 3 courses here in charlotte that offer way more challenge that dont rank as high. i wasnt dissapointed at all, but i expected more from what i had read. also would like to point out that alot of love and care has gone into this course, one of the cleanest and well kept courses ive been to

Starts out pretty nicely but gradualy gets tougher as you go along the course. Many top players around there, such as Jason Land and Dave George

Many shots that you have to watch unless you want to lose a disc

Very Fun to play and if you haven't played it, make plans to come visit this course

Extraordinary course, great scenery open well kept up. Wooded canopy is a plus on a hot summer day. This course will make you utilize every disc and throw in your arsenal. If you every are in the Wilmington area bring your disc you will not be sorry.

The heat in July is very humid, just bring lots of H20 or Gatorade.

All in all this is a great course wide open just becareful of whole 8 it is a disc eater unless you are a ringer. Cheers!

Designed well for the terrain. Amazing what thinking people can do with a flat parcel of swamp! Benches, excellent tee boxes, trash cans....alot of effort from the locals; "Thanks," from us out-of-towners.

Swampiness after the rain. However, play the course anyway and drive home barefoot. The course is worth a pair of soaked shoes.

I broke my first any only disc at this park my second time out. Still love it! Need a couple of more courses in the area to make a great day trip from Jacksonville while the wife shops in town!

Fantastic course that forces you to use every throw and every disc in your bag. Equally challenging for lefties and righties. Uses the elevation available. Navigation is usually simple, but it's best to hook up with a local the first time you play; several tees cannot be seen from the basket. Long course that rewards long, accurate throws. Great upkeep and maintenance.

Water along Hole 8 is deep and eats plastic. Could use more alternate baskets and tees. Navigation is usually simple, but it's best to hook up with a local the first time you play; several tees cannot be seen from the basket.

Hot and sticky in the summer, mosquitoes and insects, without much breeze. Course design is excellent. Park includes bathroom facilities, a large playset area for the kids, and a baseball field that is often used for practice throwing.

Nice course map by hole #1. The holes are marked clearly and flow very well. The fairways are fairly wide and lined with thick groves of trees. There are canals that run parallel to the fairways on couple of the longer holes. If the canals are used for out of bounds, you better be very precise in keeping your disc in the fairway. The wind is usually is a factor and couple of holes have trees you have to deal with right in front of the tee. I am not a very strong player, but I love the challenge that Castle Hayne makes use of about all the discs in my bag. I like courses that I can throw long approach shots. Also some of the baskets are guarded by trees. Par 64 is about right for Castle Hayne.

After a storm, the back nine can have a lot of standing water for a few days after it rains. This would be expected by the close proximity to the ocean and the soil

This is the only course in a 40 mile radius of Wilmington[that I know of] but it is a definite must if you are in the area.

Very Challenging and beautiful setting. Each hole is different from the previous and takes various types of shots to stay safe. This course keeps you thinking if isn't mastered easily.

In the middle of summer, once the foliage is thick, getting a disc caught in the rough is just plain devastating to your score. It can be extremely hard to bounce back.

Awesome course. Easily worth a trip if you are anywhere near the area.