Pros:
Catawba College's nine hole course is really a campus tour in disguise. With baskets weaving throughout the grounds, you get to see everything the college has to offer.
- This is a very simple, yet somewhat enjoyable course. My round was a relaxing, two-disc carrying walk through this historical college, taking in the sights and sounds of the school. My enjoyment may have had a lot to do with the fact I was playing on a summer Sunday afternoon, when the college was virtually empty.
- The course has a little variety. In terms of length, your basically playing the same shot as there is very variance in length. Holes range from 155 to 265 feet. The only hole that actually played long, relatively speaking, was #8, which is a slight uphill, 260 foot hole. The sight says hole distances are estimates, and I'd venture to guess this hole is closer to 300 feet. Also, because the distances are estimated, I'll point out that #6 felt much longer than 180 feet, and #9 felt much shorter than 265. I'd say each is closer to 225 feet than the listed estimates on this site.
- Perhaps what is most intriguing about this course is the safari golf/'create your own hole' potential. The holes are spaced far apart, with lots of grassy areas throughout the quad. On a quiet day, you could easily turn this into a challenging and fun 9-hole layout.
- As is, the current layout will yield plenty of birdies. As long as you can control a mid-range disc, you'll be seeing birdie putts. During my round, I birdied or had birdie chances on seven of the nine holes. Only hitting a branch on #7 and having the distance on #8 underestimated (didn't have a disc to throw on this hole) kept me from having birdie chances on every hole.
- This is a good course for beginners and casual players. Once the college players master this course, they can head down 52 to Goose Landing and Fox Chase or head down 85 to Charlotte.
- The scenery did make this course more enjoyable than should be. There's something enjoyable and relaxing, and small town, about a small college campus. As great as the views of the classical buildings and the football stadium were, the coolest visual is the tall smoke stack. I haven't seen that on a college campus before.
Cons:
A couple simple cons about this place.
- It's not challenging, especially for better players. There is a lot of pitch-n-putt to this course. If you don't like playing short courses on small town college campus...not for you.
-There's a lot of walking and it's not the easiest course to navigate. The tee markers are small pavers (maybe 6x6) in the ground and aren't the easiest to find. Even with a printed map, I still had to walk around the general areas trying to find the markers. And with that walking, there is a lot of it between some holes. Hole #1 starts right next to the main road (Innes St) and you end near the back of the campus, near the football field. I ended up spending a lot more time walking, and searching for tee markers, than I did actually playing. For a short 9-hole course, it's not the quickest to play.
- Course may be hard to play during the school year. Between students, parking availability and possible privacy, I don't know how accessible this course is at all times.
Other Thoughts:
This is a simple course. If the exact same course was most to a less appealing locale, I'd probably have enjoyed this round a lot less. Having that long of a walk through a small county park would be a bigger negative in my book than having the same walk here. Or, if I played this course more often, the issues might be more obvious.
- That said, appearances and maintenance do matter. I enjoyed this course a lot more than 18-hole Ellis Park 10 minutes away. That course has so many problems, which you can read in my review for that course, but it's a far better course than this. Due to its failures at Ellis, even though I know that's a better course, I found myself enjoying the round at Catawba more. And yes, I chose to completely ignore Kelsey.
- Nothing at this course that you won't see at just about any other 9-holer. This is another one play if you want to add to your course counter. Or if you're really wanting to knock out the Salisbury trio of courses all at once.