Pros:
I played Catawba Meadows after about 2-3 days of constant rain, so course conditions were pretty lousy. I am trying not to let that impact my rating too much. I will list drainage and flooding issues as a con, but don't want that to take too much away from a course that has so many other good qualities. When *I* played the course, it deserved a 2.5. But I could certainly see that on a nice, sunny day, my playing experience would have been at least .5 to a point higher. Therefore, I settled on 3.0, giving it the benefit of the doubt. All in all, a solid course.
1. Beautiful setting, ball golf style course. It's just an immaculate park, very well maintained, with great facilities. There's a walking trail around the course, an amazing playground (literally one of the coolest "adventure-looking" playgrounds I've seen, so bring the kids). They did a fantastic job with this park.
2. This is an open course that is both aesthtically appealing, but challenging for beginners to intermediate-level players. There are also opportunities to really air it out for bigger arms. Nice to have red and blue tees. Something for everybody here.
3. The tee pads could be another couple feet longer, but they were plenty wide and good quality.
4. The tee signs are helpful, but I thought the yardage was off on a few. I think some alt basket locations must have been added. Still, the signs were good and clearly marked the red and blue tees.
5. I like the risk/reward element on hole #2. The basket is RIGHT on the edge of a creek, a steep bank to the creek anyway, so you have to make the decision to go for a birdie and risk going OB or layup for a par.
6. Some reviews have mentioned the mandos as a negative. I thought they were fine. Anyway, they were well marked and didn't take away anything for me. One set of double mandos forces you to drive in between two trees and keeps you away from the walking trail. For safety reasons, I think that was a smart design element.
7. Good elevation on this course. The foothills are truly the best place, i think, to install a disc golf course. (I'm also a huge fan of Rolling Pines and Yadkin County Park). Catawaba Meadows isn't at that level -- not as much elevation and not nearly in the same league in terms of quality -- but still an above average, open course with a decent mix of uphills and downhills.
8. Nice to have some par 4's mixed in.
9. Pick up a scorebard near the bathroom and playground. It helps with navigation. There are no signs pointing you to the next hole, even though it's usually pretty obvious. On a few holes, there are 2 tees close to the basket you finished on, so the map helps you avoid back-tracking if you guess the wrong tee.
Cons:
1. The major con for me was drainage. Again, I played this course on a less than ideal day, but still, the flooding was out of control. There were rivers running through the course that couldn't be avoided. Standing water everywhere and super muddy. I don't know that there's anything that can be done about this, unfortunately, other than play it on a dry day unless you don't care about getting muddy.
2. I thought the course was a bit repetitive. There was some variety of elevation, and there was the risk/reward element on #2, but for the most part, the holes were pretty similar, all open, and the only variance was length. There wasn't really a signature hole, in my opinion.
3. One aspect that disappointed me was the street noise. It's such a beautiful setting in the foothills: you have this big, open meadow with tall, mature trees dotting the hills, you're right next to the Catawba River. It LOOKS like it should be so peaceful. But the busy road on a ridge going around the course spoils it. It almost gives it an urban park feel, even though it's not at all. Most folks reading this probably won't have this course to compare to, but to me, the most similar course in my experience is Zilker Park in Austin, TX. It's also a big, open course with rolling hills and mature trees. But it's in downtown Austin with a major highway beside it. I wasn't expecting that feel in small town Morganton, NC.
Other Thoughts:
All in all, Catawba Meadows is a good course and one that I would definitely play again if given the opportunity. It's close to I-40, so make the stop if you're driving through.