The Center Chains course in Waterbury Center features 18 holes with two sets of pads, the longer Blues and the shorter Whites. The course plays in both wooded areas and some open grassy areas. The tee pads are some rubber mats/some natural on the Blues and the baskets are Discatchers with the yellow bands. The signage was fairly poor. Without a helpful local leading me through, navigation would have been difficult.

Playing from the longer Blues, the course was challenging but fair. It featured a nice variety of distances, although nothing too long. The trees and a little elevation added to the difficulty.

# 6 was a pretty little hole throwing over a valley. # 7 was a sweet little downhill ACE run. I thought # 10 was a pretty cool hole. The basket is almost not visible from the tee as it sits behind a large boulder just about 150' from the tee.

Two cons keep being brought to our attention here!

The grass can be quite long making losing your disc a real possibility. Spotters are highly recommended.

And this course gets very wet through much of the year. Small bridges and walkways are build in various places to help get you over some of these wetland areas. Boots or at least, hiking boots, are the footwear of choice.

The signage could really use an upgrade.

Some of the natural pads are in pretty poor condition.

As I played this course in mid-August during the driest time of the year, and it had recently been mowed and I was luckily enough to play with someone who's familiar with the course, I seem to have avoided the worst of the pratfalls which seem to besiege this course. All I was left with was the course, it's charms, it's lovely scenery and it's challenging and most often, creative design.

I liked the course but I doubt if I would've have enjoyed it quite as much had I endeavored to play it alone.

scenery etc

Tall grass which makes finding your disc challenging. I can understand when I threw a bad shot. However, I through some very nice discs right in the middle of the fairways (if that is the right word to use) and had to spend several minutes looking

If you want to spend more time looking for discs than actually throwing, play this course. Definitely need a spotter or two.

How anyone can seriously rate this course a 4 or better is smoking some good stuff.

Good location - scenic background, Ben and Jerry's not far afield.

2-3 tee locations per hole.

If the sports fields aren't in use, the open space between the parking lot and tee-1 can be used to throw some practice drives.

Closed from mid-March to May 1st due to mud, which offers a big hint that this course stays damp after some precipitation, and it does. In mid-October, after some earlier, moderate rain, many places on the course were water-logged, and others held standing water. Boards have been placed to assist in crossing the wettest of these areas.

Course plays in the grassy open space and up/down/into/out-from/within the hardwoods located on a hillock/slope, which separates a multi-purpose park from a large stream (small river?) No holes are very long - all under 300' from the whites, and under 400' from the blues. There is good variety in the elevation changes (flat, up-n-over, cross-valley), openness (quite to fairly tight, and even blend of primarily open, primarily tight, and mixed, i.e. starting in one environment, ending/crossing another), and shape-of-shot (staying straight and true is most prevalent, but some rights and lefts will be needed from the teepad, especially the blues).

Separate blue tee locations on every hole, except number-8, where it shares with white. About half the blue tee locations are rubber or astroturf, the other half natural. All white tee locations are natural. About half the holes have a third (red) natural tee location. All the natural locations are not so great.

Tee locations are marked by in-ground blue/white/red markers, except blue/white number-8. Its tee location is fairly obvious, to the right of basket-7, near the edge of a steep, wooded slope, and the only opening with a look at the grassy space containing basket-8.

Playing from the blues will often be quite different than from the whites, as, in addition to adding length, they often will add a turn to the initial part of the hole. From the whites, the basket is typically straight ahead, or has less turn/obstacles than from the blues. From the reds that exist, the basket is not far away and pretty much a straight shot, with minimal trees to avoid.

Solid course, on the short side, with decent variety. Try to play when dry, be prepared for wet!