Older DISCatchers most are in good shape but a few were leaning.
Most of the holes are in grassy areas between buildings on this pretty campus.
You do get to see most of the campus during your round.
Not too many chances to lose a disc.

No tee signs, markers or tee pads that I could consistently find. I used UDISC and guessed at the tee spot.
#3, 4 and 5 baskets are all in the same area, with some criss crossing fairways. If several are playing at the same time, it could get tricky.
#9 plays across the front of a building, parking lot on the left and you have to cross the main sidewalk halfway down the fairway.
The holes are in clusters of two (and one with three) spread across the campus. They all are on grassy areas, but at least 4 of the holes are in areas where I could see students crossing on a regular basis.
#9 does not finish anywhere close to #1, even though there is a similar "front lawn", like #1, on the other side of the main drive. This is the downside to seeing "most of the campus", half of that is on the way back to your vehicle.

Nice little campus course to provide some recreation and exercise for the students. Hopefully, that exercise does not involve jumping out of the way of discs. It looks like #3 has been moved (judging from the map on this site) and looking at the area were it formerly was, that looks like a good idea.
#1 is a fun opening hole, flat, mostly open, right at the front entrance to campus. #2 was a short downhiller, through large, old growth trees, those two were not bad. Most of the other holes did have safety issues. #9 is a long finishing hole, and I caught it at the perfect time, during summer break.
The grass had been mowed and the campus looks nice, but it doesn't look like much has been done to this course (except for moving #3) since it was put in. It would really help the playability if several of the holes could be relocated - to break up 3,4 and 5 - #8 now has a B-ball court in the fairway - finish closer to the the front of campus. But, there is another Niner and an 18 hole course also in this town of 35,000, and it is only about 30 minutes from Charlotte, so I can see why not a lot of time is spent on this course.

9 DISCatcher baskets that are numbered and in good shape.
Fun to play, brings elevation and foliage into play on most holes..
Would be a quick fun round if you knew where the markers were (see below).
Friendly students willing to help with navigation.

Navigation - a map is necessary; baskets are in groups isolated from each other, and there are no directional signs to get you from one place to the next. Wrapped or painted spokes pointing to the next tee would be quite helpful, although there are long walks between the groups of baskets.
Many of the small tee markers are almost entirely buried under grass, and have only number and par on them.
#5's fairway crosses #4's fairway, then you have to walk back past the tee to get to #6.
#6 throws over a road by a stadium entrance, so possible safety issues there.
Parking is somewhat limited, especially on the side streets when school is in session.

I was able to eventually find all of the tees with help from several students, but spent twice as much time looking for tees as playing the course. I did try to kick the grass away somewhat from the small tee marker stones to make them more visible.
Painting over "Par #" with hole distance, and next tee arrows would be quite helpful.
The course was really jammed into the areas between the buildings, but that is about all they could have done with the available land.
I enjoyed the course as another one to check off of the list, but certainly not a destination course.
I commend the designers/installers for exposing college students to disc golf and managing to get a course in here.
I would rate it higher if the navigation issues were addressed.

Catawba College has a quaint college campus that is a pretty nice place to walk around. Classic red brick architecture and well manicured small fields make the scenery here a definite plus.

The disc golf course is a series of well kept baskets scattered across the small campus. Taking a walking tour by DG of the campus was fairly interesting. Many college courses tend to be located distant from the main part of campus but that is certainly not the case here.

There is not a whole lot of difficulty to the course as it is currently laid out, and I can definitely see this as a great place to introduce new players to the game. My guess is that is by design. Nestled in the middle of campus, this is clearly a course that could be played in-between classes with very little difficulty and from that perspective would definitely be nice for the target audience - the student body.

The layout of the campus here makes creation of a solid DG course very difficult. The resulting course has a few issues.

Navigation is really difficult. I was unable to find may of the tees as they are only single blue brick markers on the ground. Even using the course map I had a terribly difficult time finding many of the tees and gave up on a few.

Many of the holes have opportunity for interference. Holes play in between buildings, near walkways where students are passing by, and 6 seems to play across a paved roadway. In cramped quarters like this, it is imperative that golfers keep a keen eye to avoid accidents with pedestrian, building, and vehicle.

Most of the holes seemed to be very short "pitch-and-putts" and the lack of distance and obstacle prevents the course from being terribly enjoyable.

Navigation is also a bit of trouble from a layout perspective because many of the holes require significant backtracking to get from basket to the next tee, or alternatively involve very long walks forward without any signage or guidance. It seems the ground covered between holes is at times longer than the holes themselves. Given the available terrain, I am not sure there is any way around this. It is imperative to bring the map to have any chance of successful navigation.

I am not really sure how to rate this course. It was difficult to navigate and a bit cumbersome to play. After some initial frustration, I stopped searching for the tees as much when they were not obvious and simply chose to enjoy the surroundings to make the best of things. With some visible tee markers/signs and some navigation clues, this course could be at least salvageable for a practice loop, but as it stands now it is quite confusing.

As I was walking around campus, I did realize that it doesn't seem that this course, even given its location right in the middle of the buildings, gets much play at all. It seems that people probably pass these baskets by on a daily basis while hardly noticing their presence.

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.

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.

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.