Pros:
This course sits in the woods behind the Cle Elum High School baseball and football fields. It reminds me of one of those Eagle Scout project courses where the scout has to complete a project to finish his Eagle Scout community service. The difference here is this is one pretty nice piece of land for a course. It's big enough for a recreational 18 hole course. It has the required elevation, a nice amount of trees and very little underbrush.
The targets are railroad ties buried on end with a faded hole number painted on them. The teepads are wooden pallets buried flush with the ground. The signs that are left are informative although they measure the distance in yards instead of feet. Also, the listed pars are too easy, like a 310 foot par 5. These couple of things makes me think that this could have been a scout project. But there are many fun or technical throws to be made here.
Cons:
Navigation was a major issue for me. I got through the front nine with little problem. But it all fell apart for me on the back nine. To start with, I never could find the #10 teepad. I did, however, find that pole. After that, I was never able to connect the dots or find both the pad and the pole. The so-called teepads are a terrible idea. Trying to throw off a broken pallet is not a good idea. Many of the signs are either broken or missing.
The poles? I built a pole hole course many years ago. After playing courses with baskets, I just can't give a decent rating to a pole hole course. Like the old saying goes, "Once you go baskets, you never go back"! The poles here are extremely hard to indentify through the trees.
Other Thoughts:
This course greatly frustrated me because with a few simple, inexpensive improvements, it would be a pretty nice little object course in a town with no other courses anywhere close.
1) Rebuild the teepads with some concrete building blocks. That would be a lot easier than building concrete pads.
2) Paint two lines on the poles. The first about 18-24 " off the ground and the second maybe 6" from the top. Make it so you have to hit between the lines. With an pole hole, you always putt at the very bottom of the pole so if you miss, you never sail far past the pole. This would add substantially to the challenge.
3) The poles are so hard to see through the forrest. How about attaching a round, brightly colored piece of metal to the top of each one. Or bolting a small orange traffic cone to the top of each. One of the early poles had a cone atop it and was so much easier to find.
4) Get the missing signs replaced/repaired.
Making these relatively cheap improvements would greatly enhance the course enjoyment llevel. I'd be willing to raise my rating with some minor improvements.